"Wonderful!" Flora exclaimed as she and the Winx looked around at the room full of floating cogs that they had arrived in.
"Hey... what is this place?" Stella asked in confusion.
"I think we're... i-in the gears of the music box." Tecna replied.
'Ah, yes, because gears always just float in midair.' Sophia thought sarcastically. It wasn't that she thought Tecna was wrong, but more that she could scarcely believe just how bizarre the inside of a magical object could be.
"Huh?" Bloom looked down to see a familiar orb bouncing amidst the gears. "There's the Compass!" She exclaimed as she flew forward to retrieve the item, only for it to get shot off by a bolt of purple lightning.
"Missed by an inch!" Stormy exclaimed.
"No, looks to me like that was a bullseye... If Stormy was trying to knock the Compass further away from her, that is." Sophia remarked dryly. "I'm guessing basic telekinetic magic doesn't work on that thing, but electricity doesn't exactly seem like the best form of magic for grabbing things."
Valtor quirked a brow in amusement. "I'm guessing magical objects weren't the only thing you learned about from your Earth Fairy neighbor."
"I said I wanted to learn what living in a world with magic meant, even if I can't use it myself. That includes understanding the basic attributes of the different kinds of magic that are out there." She replied before turning to look back at the image before her, her expression turning sour. Valtor could tell that he had touched a nerve, but he wasn't quite sure why.
'Perhaps she wishes that she could use magic... but given her defiance earlier, I don't think offering to give her power again will be of any use. A girl who would sooner die than place others in danger isn't likely to give in to an indulgent wish for power.'
"Stormy, Darcy, keep them busy." Icy told her teammates, "I'll take care of the Compass." Her companions flew at the Winx as Icy chased after the thing they were all after.
Stormy grunted as she threw another bolt of lightning at the Winx, but Stella blocked it by creating star-shaped energy shield in front of herself. "Showtime, girls!" The Sun and Moon Fairy exclaimed as the Winx scattered to use their numbers to their advantage.
Icy laughed as she flew toward where the Compass had stopped, but just as she was about to reach it, a panel beneath the orb sprung up and shot the Compass in a different direction. "Huh? Aah! Unh!" Icy grunted as she landed on her side. She looked up and watched as the Compass bounced across a couple of gears before stopping in the center of one. Tecna and Flora scrambled to retrieve it, only for the pin in the center of the cog to suddenly shoot up and send the Compass flying away.
"Ah!" Both fairies exclaimed. Darcy and Stormy laughed as they flew after the runaway sphere, only for it to hit another pin, just as it sprung out and sent the Compass shooting straight for them, forcing them to dodge it. Stormy then chased after it, though she apparently failed to see Musa coming from the opposite direction. As another panel sprang up and sent the Star Compass careening elsewhere, the witch and the fairy crashed into each other, landing in a tangled heap on the gear beneath them. Sophia face-palmed.
"This is ridiculous..." She muttered. 'Not to mention embarrassing.' She thought to herself, 'The Winx outnumber the Trix two-to-one and still can't get the better of them. Not to mention that none of them seemed to have listened to a single thing that the Star Case... or rather the Wishing Star, said. The Star Case contains the Wishing Star's essence, her will. Has it not occurred to them that she can control everything that happens in there?' For the sake of not letting Valtor get too... optimistic, she was keeping most of her criticisms to herself, but she had been referring to both the Winx and the Trix with her last comment, and Valtor had little choice but to agree as he watched what was beginning to look more like a slapstick comedy act than a battle of any sort.
The Compass landed in the grooves of one of the gears, so as it neared the top of the now turning gear, Icy froze the gear in place with her magic. "End of the line." She said with a grin as she flew forward to retrieve the Compass while Darcy and Stormy laughed.
"Huh?" Stormy said as she and Darcy noticed the Winx gathering behind them. Both witches grunted as they unleashed their powers against the group of fairies. Tecna shielded the group from the attack with shield similar to Stella's, albeit, not star-shaped.
"Ha... hm." Icy said as she reached for the Compass. "Huh?" She hesitated as she noticed the gear shaking and the sound of metal grinding, then screamed as the ice around the gear suddenly exploded. Darcy and Stormy were forced to dodge the falling crystals while Bloom and Flora had to make way as the Compass shot past them again.
"We'll never catch it this way." Bloom remarked, and Sophia snorted, "It's super-fast... but my fire dragon is even faster!" The princess of Domino continued as she created a Chinese Dragon made of fire and sent it chasing after the Compass.
Sophia snorted again. "Yeah, you're not gonna catch it that way either, Bloom." 'I'm now amazed they survived against the Sphinx, because these guys really stink at riddles. Like, majorly.' She watched with increasing frustration as the fire dragon fruitlessly chased after the Compass, up until Stormy directed an attack at Bloom.
"Huh?" Bloom said as she noticed the incoming attack. The fire dragon abandoned its pursuit of the Compass in order to shield the Winx's leader. Bloom screamed as she was thrown by the magical impact, but was fortunately caught by Aisha, who had formed a giant catcher's mitt with her Morphix magic. The redhead smiled and gave her friend a thumbs up.
Meanwhile, the Trix peered inside of a shaft that the Compass had been shot into by yet another gimmick device on the gears. "Huh?" Icy asked as they gathered at the entrance to the shaft. "Where did it go off to now?" Suddenly, her eyes caught sight of the Compass careening back towards them. "Duck!" She screamed, moving out of the way just in time to avoid getting struck again, and all three of them grunted as they fell backwards onto the cog below them.
"Ha." Sophia chuckled with dry amusement, "Well at least she learned her lesson from the last time." The teenager watched with Valtor as the Compass bounced around in a convoluted pattern between the gears before Tecna was forced to dodge by doing the splits. It was then struck by another couple of gimmicks and sent flying back toward the Trix.
"Huh?" Stormy said as she watched the orb's trajectory. She quickly ducked her head to dodge, only for Darcy to get hit in the face by it instead.
"Aah!" The Witch of Darkness cried.
Sophia raised her brows, "However, apparently, Darcy did not."
Aisha grunted as she sent forth a Morphix bubble to catch the sphere, only for it to get shot off by another gimmick, causing Musa to get caught by the bubble instead. Icy and Stella both flew toward the shaft that the Compass had been flung into, only to crash into one another simultaneous grunts.
"Hey! Icy! I was here first!" The Sun Fairy exclaimed.
Sophia snorted again, "As if Icy cares about that. This is a battle, not a shopping spree at the mall." 'To think that my fate rests in the hands of girls with the maturity of fifth-graders and intelligence levels that don't seem to be much better. At this rate, the universe is doomed.'
"Are you kidding me?" Icy said with amusement before flying up into the shaft.
'It's a miracle the universe has survived this long...' Sophia thought wryly as Stella pursued Icy. Darcy and Stormy were the next to go through, hurrying to join with their teammate.
"Let's follow them!" Bloom said to the others, and Sophia rolled her eyes because, what else were they going to do at this point?
When they caught up to Stella, they found themselves in yet another room, the primary feature of which was a looping track that the Compass was rolling along on quite quickly.
Flora sighed in exhaustion and wiped her brow. "Where are we now?" She asked, clearly no longer enthralled by the inner workings of the Star Case.
"The Case sure didn't look this big from the outside." Musa joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Remember girls, we used our Enchantix power to enter a new dimension. The laws of space and time work differently here." Tecna pointed out.
Sophia snorted in amusement again, "That's an understatement. From what I can tell, the laws of space and time are nonexistent in there. The way the Compass was bouncing around earlier completely defies the laws of physics. Everything in there seems to function according to the Star Case's will. Logic is nonexistent. Then again, logic went out the window when they somehow entered a different dimension that is somehow contained inside this thing." At that, she gestured at the Star Case, which was sitting in her lap.
The Trix groaned in confusion as they watched the Compass moving along on the track, trying to determine where it was headed. Bloom and Flora flew alongside of it and had almost reached it, but suddenly, the orb rolled across a set of arrows, causing it to pick up speed.
"It's like a roller coaster..." Flora complained, "It's fast!"
"And when it hits those arrows, it becomes impossible to catch." Bloom agreed.
"It's like something out of a video game..." Sophia muttered under her breath, idly wondering if Bloom regularly made a habit of pointing out the obvious.
The Trix also chased after the Compass, only for it to escape their grasp. "I'm running out of patience!" Icy said irritably.
'She's running out of patience?' Sophia thought with annoyance, 'I'm the one who's stuck sitting with an evil wizard, watching these guys fail tremendously at a riddle I found the answer to ten minutes ago.' The irritated teen watched as Aisha landed on the track and crouched down, preparing to catch the Compass when it came her way. Stormy gasped and quickly launched a bolt of lightning in the Fairy of Waves' direction.
"You're not escaping this time." Aisha said as she cupped her hands to catch the Compass, only to gasp as it was knocked away by Stormy's attack and fell onto a different part of the track below.
'You've gotta keep your eyes on more than just the ball in this game, Aisha.' Sophia thought idly, wishing desperately that somebody would just figure things out so she could stop watching this comedy of errors.
"Bad news, Aisha." Stormy told the fairy, "The Compass is mine!"
'At this rate, it's not going to be anybody's.' Though she was keeping her more negative comments to herself, Sophia had never wished so badly to be a fairy as she did right now.
"You spoke too soon, Stormy." Tecna said as she followed the Compass down a corkscrew loop and used a barrier to trap the Witch of Storms.
"Go ahead, Tecna!" Darcy said as she cast a spell of her own. "Let's see if you can guess the right sphere!"
Tecna had only looked away for a moment when she heard Darcy's voice, and when she looked back at the track, she found that there were now three orbs rolling along it.
"Your mind games won't work on me, Darcy." Tecna said confidently as she reached down and picked up the middle orb. "That's the Compass!" She exclaimed, only to gasp as the orb in her hand vanished.
"Ha, ha!" Darcy said as she shoved Tecna aside while flying past her, "Perfect little Tecna makes mistakes too!"
"'Perfect little Tecna' made a huge mistake when this whole thing started." Sophia commented dryly, not bothering to hide her annoyance this time. After all, Valtor already knew that she had found the answer to the riddle nearly instantly. "Ah, well, not her fault I guess. Those who rely almost entirely on logic tend to stink at riddles."
"Oh, and why is that?" Valtor asked, partially because he was also bored.
Sophia narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked back at him, "Because riddles, evidently, are tricky things that require both the ability to read between the lines and a certain talent for logical analysis that, apparently, not a lot of people have. From what I know, most people possess one or the other, but not both."
"Not as many as you, Darcy!" Musa retorted to the Witch of Illusions, "Sonic Shake!" Darcy groaned in pain and covered her ears as Musa's attack caused the track to wave in the air and toss the sphere to yet another section. Icy saw where it landed and quickly created a path of ice ahead of the Compass on the same track that would cause it to roll right into her hands. However, Aisha foiled her plan by creating a Morphix tunnel that latched onto the end of Icy's path and brought the sphere toward her, only for it to shoot past her at the end and go through a revolving door. The nine combatants quickly followed it to find themselves hovering above a gigantic maze.
"Wow!" Flora exclaimed.
The Trix glared at the Winx as Stella looked down at the maze in exasperation. "Another crazy, complicated room." She complained, "Is there a single normal thing in this place?!"
Sophia snorted once again, "'Normal'. Is there even a definition for that word anymore?" She asked somewhat cynically.
"What do you mean?" Valtor asked, and his captive looked at him again.
"When I was a kid, 'normal' was a pretty solid concept. The world made sense and worked according to certain rules. Then magic came back to Earth and all of that basically disappeared into thin air, rendering the idea of 'normal' as nothing more than an illusion or maybe a pipe dream." She turned and looked back at the image before them, "I mean, sure, you could claim that as a human with no magical abilities, I'm 'normal', but then, if I were normal, that is, if there wasn't anything I could do that the Winx and the Trix can't do, I wouldn't be here in the first place!"
Valtor smirked at her statement. "Hm, indeed." There was no denying that Sophia was far from ordinary.
"We can't lose it again!" Flora exclaimed, flying forward as she spotted the Compass bouncing around within the maze. She landed on one of the walls of the maze, only to feel the entire thing start tilting as the Compass rolled toward a hole in the ground.
"Oh no!" Bloom exclaimed, "No, no, no, no, no!" She grunted as she landed on another wall, offsetting Flora's weight and causing the maze to tilt in a different direction, shifting the orb away from the hole.
Tecna landed on another spot to help steer the contraption, "This is just a matter of balance." She remarked.
"Yeah, but it's a lot harder when multiple people are involved." Sophia remarked, "I mean, I'm assuming that the nine of them don't all weigh the exact same thing. Then again, weight is just the effect of gravitational pull on one's mass, so I'm guessing that since the Wishing Star controls the laws of physics in there, she can adjust all of their weights however she wants. Never mind the fact that they can fly." Now Valtor understood what Sophia meant about needing both logic and the ability to read between the lines to solve riddles. It was quite obvious that, for all of the studying she had done of magic, the girl hadn't by any means slouched on her studies of other subjects.
Tecna whimpered as she struggled to prevent the sphere from falling into a hole. Suddenly, Icy grunted as she landed on one of the walls and smirked as she used the current tilt of the maze and her own added weight to steer the orb toward her. "Ooh! Sounds fun, Winx!" She remarked as Musa and Aisha landed nearby to regain control of the device. The orb rolled past Icy, and Musa and Aisha smiled as it came their way, but a moment later, Darcy and Stormy landed near their sister.
"Sure, Icy." Darcy agreed. "Now that we know the rules... Ah, ah, ah..." She taunted the two fairies as the ball changed course again.
Stella smirked as she landed as well to stabilize things. "It's all yours, Flora!" Bloom called as she rose up so that the Compass would roll toward Flora, who immediately flew forward to grab hold of it. She then screamed as a strong headwind suddenly blew against her, sending her flying backwards and crashing into a wall.
"Not so fast!" Stormy told the Fairy of Nature.
"Let's tilt the situation to our advantage!" Icy exclaimed, creating a massive ball of ice and lowering it onto the maze so that their side had more weight than the Winx's. "Don't let it escape, Stormy!" She demanded, and Stormy quickly jumped down to retrieve the sphere. As she landed, however, Musa launched an attack of her own and knocked Stormy back in the same way that she had Flora.
"Oops. Sorry about that." Musa said sarcastically. Unfortunately, her attack had caused the Compass to go bouncing around before it fell into one of the holes.
"Oh no!" Bloom gasped.
"You useless fairy! Look what you've done!" Icy exclaimed angrily as the orb began popping out of one hole and immediately falling into another in a seemingly random manner.
Aisha gasped as she caught sight of it rolling towards another hole. "There it is!"
"This game isn't over yet!" Darcy exclaimed with excitement. Aisha grunted as she dove for the orb, then groaned as she slid along the floor after missing it.
"Huh?" Icy said in confusion as the orb flew out of another hole and landed directly on her head. "Aah!" She screamed as it bounced off of her and into another hole.
Sophia couldn't take it anymore. She burst out laughing. "This marks the third time that one of them has been in hit in the head by that thing!" She snickered before gaining control of her amusement, "Although in Icy's defense, she couldn't really see that one coming."
"Huh?" Flora said as she looked around for the orb, barely managing to dodge it as it shot past her. Aisha used her Morphix to create a flipper like the ones seen in pinball machines to cover the next hole and send the orb her way instead.
"Huh?" Icy said as she saw what Aisha had done, grunting as she released a burst of ice to snag the sphere. To her delight, the Compass became completely entrapped in the ball of ice and dropped like a stone in front of her. "Ha, ha! Got it!" She exclaimed as Darcy and Stormy landed beside her. The Winx, however, all flew and landed together on a wall opposite of the Trix, causing the ball of ice with the Compass in it to roll their direction.
Stormy grunted and flew forward, landing on top of the ice ball to try and grab it, only to find she was unable to control it. "Whoa! Make it stop! Aah!" She exclaimed as it spun her around before she was thrown off. The ball crashed into a hidden panel and the ice shattered as the Star Compass was caught by another revolving door. "Ugh!" Stormy cried as she landed butt-first in one of the holes, effectively trapped since only her limbs and head were sticking out as Icy and Darcy landed in front of her.
"Ugh. That's a tricky position to be in." Sophia grimaced with sympathy, "It's such a pain trying to pull yourself out when you end up like that."
"You speak from experience?" Valtor asked with a raised brow.
"Long story." Sophia replied, "And probably not one you'd be interested in."
"Oh no! It did again!" Musa exclaimed as she and the other Winx landed in front of the revolving door.
"That's it! I can't take anymore!" Stella exclaimed in frustration.
"Hey! A little help here?!" Stormy said to her sisters, who were just staring at her like she was an idiot. Icy grunted as she created a pillar of ice beneath Stormy, sending the other witch flying out of the hole as she and Darcy walked off without even waiting for her. Stormy screamed as she landed right next to where she had been, this time on her front-side, and Sophia raised a brow.
"She can fly. Why didn't she just stop herself in mid-air once she was free?" She asked aloud before cringing at the sound of the offset melody as the Winx found themselves back in the place they had started. "How can Musa even stand that?!"
"We're back where we started." Aisha said, stating the obvious. The six of them watched as the Compass bounced past them.
"We gotta do it all over?!" Stella exclaimed, "Oh no...!" She groaned.
"We can do it, Stella." Bloom said, "We know how everything works now. We won't make the same mistakes again!"
Sophia couldn't contain her criticism this time. "You will if you just keep chasing it..."
"There it is!" Darcy said as she spotted the Compass upon entering the room with her sisters, "Its ours!" The Compass bounced forward, heading straight for the door it had passed through the first time. "Ha, ha!" Darcy exclaimed as Icy and Stormy flew through the door, "Bye-bye Winx!" She laughed as she flew through the door.
"Huh. It follows the same eventual path even if it's not interfered with..." Sophia murmured with vague interest.
"What are we waiting for?!" Aisha asked, "Let's go after them!"
Perhaps Bloom had noticed the same thing that Sophia had on the other side, because something seemed to click in the Fire Fairy's brain. "No Aisha!" She called after her friend, causing Aisha and the other four—who'd been following her—to stop.
"'No'?!" Aisha demanded, "You wanna let them win, Bloom?!"
"Of course not." Bloom assured her friend, "But we can't win this way. This isn't a race against the Trix. Remember what the voice from the Star Case told us?"
"'Only the one who can listen will get the Compass.'" Musa quoted.
"Right, Musa." Tecna recalled, "This is not a test of speed or power. The solution must be something else."
"And it must be here!" Musa realized, "This is the only place where we have something we can listen to! Can you hear it?"
The six of them stayed quiet as they listened carefully before turning to the music scroll. "The melody from the music box!" Bloom realized.
"A melody... out of tune!" Musa exclaimed.
"Ugh, more like out-of-tune and off-key!" Sophia said with a grimace, "I don't know what that thing is supposed to sound like, but I'm pretty sure it's not that!"
Musa flew past Bloom and over to the music box, examining it carefully. "This music box needs some adjustment." The Fairy of Music said, "There's an off-key note... This one!" And with that, she used her powers to correct the problem within the gears, causing the entire melody to shift and turn into a beautiful song.
Sophia sighed with relief and lowered her hands from her ears. "It took them long enough! My gosh, how was Musa the only one who noticed that that melody didn't sound right? I'm not even that good at music and I could tell right away!" She didn't seem to notice Valtor's displeasure until he suddenly stood up and took the Star Case in his hands, pulling Sophia to her feet at the same time by manipulating his mark on the back of her hand.
"Do me a favor and go stand back there for a little while." He told the teenager, waving his hand as Sophia was yanked as if by an invisible string behind his throne before her own hand was clamped over her mouth against her will.
The Winx gasped in delight and giggled as they joined Musa. Now that the tune had been corrected, the ballerina began to spin as a beautiful melody chimed out.
"There's magic in the air!" Flora exclaimed with delight.
"Oh, great job, Musa!" Bloom told her friend.
"So, what happens now?" Stella asked. The ballerina that the top of the music box began to glow.
Meanwhile, the Trix were chasing after the Star Compass in the room with the roller coaster-like tracks. They split up and Icy landed ahead of it on the track. "We've got it now, girls! It's trapped!" She told her sisters. However, as it rolled toward her, the sphere suddenly began to glow and crackle with green energy. "Huh?" Icy said with mild alarm.
"What's it doing...?" Darcy asked nervously.
"Who cares? Grab it!" Stormy said impulsively. Both she and Darcy landed in front of Icy and grabbed the sphere as it came to a stop, only for it to explode in a burst of green smoke.
Icy screamed and grunted as she was thrown back, landing on the track a few feet away. "Huh?" She watched as Darcy and Stormy floated up, both looking thoroughly disgruntled as they groaned with annoyance in unison. "But... but what does it mean?!" Icy asked in confusion, "Where did it go?!"
Back with the Winx, the turning of the figurine revealed that the Star Compass was now sitting placidly in the dancer's hand. The dancer came to a stop and the orb around the Compass disappeared.
"The Compass!" Bloom exclaimed.
"The Compass is yours." Came the voice of the Wishing Star. "Congratulations, Winx. You've earned it. You showed courage and determination, but more than that, you proved you can listen. Good luck." With those words, the Compass floated out of the ballerina's hands and into Bloom's own.
"Mission accomplished, girls! Let's go!" Bloom said.
"What about the Trix?" Flora asked with an amused smile, gesturing to where the Trix has gotten themselves stuck in the trap door by trying to come through it all at once. All three witches groaned as they struggled to get free.
"Come back!" Darcy demanded.
"Stop!" Stormy added, just before Icy attempted you use her head as leverage to get free.
"They'll be fine, Flora." Bloom said with a chuckle, "I'm sure they know their way back home. Meanwhile, let's hope that the Star Compass will help us make it to where the Star Case is."
"And hopefully there, we'll find Sophia." Aisha agreed.
A moment later, the six fairies appeared within a flash of light in Valtor's throne room. The evil wizard was sitting on his throne with the Star Case on the armrest, but to the Winx's surprise, the Case floated up and then flew over to them, and Bloom took it into her hands.
"Valtor!" The Fire fairy exclaimed as she glared at the wizard, "So it was you who freed the Trix from their prison in limbo! Where is Sophia, the girl that they kidnapped from Earth when they took the Star Case?"
"Hm." Valtor grinned evilly before he stood up and waved his hand, causing Sophia to be yanked out from behind his throne before she was set down in front of him.
"Whoa!" Sophia yelped in surprise. She didn't even have a moment to get her bearings before Valtor wrapped an arm around her waist and pinned her against him.
"Release her, Valtor!" Bloom demanded.
"Why certainly, Bloom." Valtor began with feigned politeness. "Give me the Star Case and the Compass, and I'll give you the girl."
"Don't you dare, Winx!" Sophia exclaimed as she struggled in Valtor's grasp, "It was painful enough watching you take forever to solve that riddle, but don't you dare give this creep the Star Compass, because he'll never keep his word!"
"We know, Sophia." Bloom assured her.
"But we're still going to save you!" Stella added.
"How?" Sophia asked blatantly. "How am I supposed to trust you? You can barely solve a simple riddle, and being good at riddles is what got me in this mess in the first place..."
"We're the Winx Club. Saving people is what we do." Aisha replied. Before she could remark on that, Sophia felt Valtor tighten his grip around her and winced, obviously frightened. "Aah!" She cried slightly in pain.
"Give me the Compass and the Star Case or I will gladly put an end to this girl right now." The Wizard threatened.
Sophia's eyes snapped open in response to Valtor's words before narrowing a moment later. She turned her head and glared up at him as best as she could. "No, you won't." She said firmly, "Because if the Winx agree to give you that Compass, I'll put an end to myself!" She declared, causing Valtor's eyes to widen in surprise, "My life is not worth the entire universe." The resolve in the girl's eyes was clear as day. Her silver irises seemed to glow like the stars themselves.
"Sophia..." Flora gasped softly with concern, and Sophia turned her determined gaze to the Winx.
"Go! Get out of here!" She insisted, "Don't worry about saving me! Just go!"
The Winx glanced at each other before turning to leave.
"All right, Sophia, we'll go." Musa said sadly.
"We'll be back, Valtor." Tecna added before the six of them flew off.
Sophia sighed quietly when the Winx had left and then screamed as Valtor threw her to the floor. He walked down the stairs and stood over her as she looked up at him fearfully without trying to get up.
"Foolish girl. Do you think you're in a position to do whatever you want?" He asked while lifting Sophia into the air using the mark on her hand, dangling her so that her face was level with his own. He managed to conceal his surprise at the resolved glare she gave upon meeting his gaze.
"Which would you rather have? The Star Case that gives riddles, or the girl who can solve those riddles?" She asked, causing Valtor's eyes to widen in surprise before she continued, "You can spy on the Winx easily enough, so you don't really have to worry about them having the Case and the Compass, but I can solve those riddles faster than them."
"And how do I know that you won't just mislead us to help them?" Valtor asked.
"Because that wouldn't be to my advantage." Sophia told him, "The deal was that I help you and in exchange, you don't attack Earth, remember? I knew the Winx would prioritize my life above all else, so I gave them no choice but to leave. I'll give you the answers to the riddles to the best of my abilities, but whether or not the Trix can pass the trials is up to them."
"I see." Valtor said while lowering Sophia to the floor, "So even though the Winx have the Star Case, we still have the advantage because you can solve riddles much more quickly than them. Hmph. You should consider yourself lucky that you're more valuable to me than the Star Case is."
"Luck has nothing to do with it. I was already aware of that fact when I told the Winx to give up on me."
Valtor sat back on his throne and leaned his chin on his fist with interest, "You really are a smart girl."
望むの星
Meanwhile, on Lumenia, Queen Dorana, King Argen, and Twinkly were all waiting on the throne for the Winx, looking as though they were about to fall asleep when the six fairies suddenly appeared in the center of the throne room in a flash of light.
"Bloom! Girls!" Twinkly shrieked happily as she flew over to them. "You're back! You're back! You're back~!"
"You did it!" Durana exclaimed happily as Bloom presented the Compass with Stella holding the Star Case.
"Yes, but..." Bloom began.
"We couldn't save Sophia..." Flora lamented.
"I can't believe she put herself on the line like that." Tecna commented.
"She's a brave girl." Aisha said.
"Even though she doesn't have powers, she's still trying to protect the Magical Universe in her own way." Musa agreed.
"It was just like you guys thought." Stella informed the royals, "Valtor was the one who freed the Trix, and he's holding Sophia prisoner. We wanted to help her, but she forced us to leave her behind..."
"At least you managed to recover the Compass." Durana told them as Bloom handed her the Compass and Stella brought forward the Star Case. "Now we'll be able to discover what happened to the Wishing Star." She added as she placed the Compass in its slot, causing the Case to shine brightly.
"While under attack, I was forced to split into the seven Prime Stars." Came the Wishing Star's voice. "Only the one who finds all of them will be able to call me back and make their ultimate wish come true."
"The Star Compass will guide you to the seven Prime Stars, one after the other." Argan told the Winx.
"Did you hear that Winx?" Bloom asked her friends, "A new adventure! We can't let Valtor get his hands on the seven Stars!"
望むの星
"Who's gonna tell Valtor?" Darcy asked as she, Icy, and Stormy flew through a portal and back into Valtor's Palace.
"We doing 'rock, paper, scissors'?" Stormy asked, causing Darcy to smile.
"You tell him, Icy." Darcy decided as Stormy smiled innocently, "You're the boss, aren't you?"
Icy sighed in resignation and walked on ahead of them, causing Darcy and Stormy to chuckle. "I'm the boss only when it's convenient, huh?" The ice witch muttered, knowing the other two had totally planned to push this on her from the beginning. With some degree of trepidation, she approached where Valtor was watching a replay of the events from the Star Case. Sophia was standing nearby due to having no other option.
"Now, now. Don't fight girls." Valtor told the Trix as he heard them walk up, "You tried. But the Winx got the better of you." Sophia wanted to laugh at the uncomfortable expressions that crossed the faces of the three witches, but she managed not to.
"Mm..." Icy murmured nervously. "They got lucky." She insisted.
"No matter!" Valtor declared, causing the Trix to whimper slightly and back away, "There are seven Stars to recover. You have plenty of opportunities to make up for it!" At this, the Trix chuckled nervously.
"And I will reward you by giving you your freedom..." Valtor said as he walked up to his throne, "And immense dark power, of course. But remember..." He continued as he sat down, "I could also give the entire reward to just one of you... If you bring me what I want." His mark on the Trix's hands glowed, causing all three of them to whimper in despair.
'Oh yeah. That's it Valtor. Pit them against each other. That's going to work out well.' Sophia thought sarcastically, 'Well, I suppose it will work out well for the Winx and I.'
As if he could hear her thoughts, Valtor turned his attention to the teenaged girl. "The same goes for you, Sophia. Do your job well and not only will you save your beloved Earth and gain your freedom, I'll even give you powers of your own." Sophia wanted to say for the second time that she had no desire for such powers as she stared up at him with indifference, but she kept her mouth shut. "You've already proven your worth today. Not only did you solve that riddle faster than any of the Winx, you also figured out exactly what happened to the Wishing Star just by seeing the Star Case and hearing about the battle. Your keen intuition will give the Trix the edge they need. From now on, you will advise the Trix on each of the Star Case's riddles, helping them to gain each of the Prime Stars before the Winx." Sophia simply sighed in response, so Valtor opened a portal in front of her. "For the time being, you will spend your time in my library, studying the books I choose for you to increase your knowledge of the Magic Dimension. I'm sure the information will come in handy. I will also open a dark hologram for you to watch the Winx through, so that you can know when they receive a hint about a Prime Star."
望むの星
"...So that's what happened..." Bloom said as she finished explaining the previous events to Sophia's parents, along with Morgana, Roxy, and Faragonda. "We're really sorry that we couldn't get Sophia back."
"But your daughter is really brave." Aisha said in attempt to console the girl's parents.
"Even though she has no powers of her own, she's doing what she can to protect everyone." Tecna added.
The two parents glanced at each other before smiling wryly at that thought.
"We've always known Sophia was special..." Her father began.
"But you try getting a teenaged girl to see things from her parents' point-of-view." Her mother finished with a sad smile, "When magic came back to Earth, a lot of girls her own age suddenly gained powers and became fairies, and Sophia was left feeling like the world didn't need her because she was 'normal'."
"After Roxy started at Alfea, I began holding classes to help the new fairies in Gardenia learn the basics and understand what was happening to them." Morgana added, "Sophia came to me and asked to be taught as well. She told me that even though she didn't have powers, she felt it was important to understand the changing world around her. Her favorite saying is 'knowledge is power.' She told me, 'I can't use magic like a lot of my friends can now, so I'll make knowledge my power instead.' It soon became clear that she really loved learning, so I kept teaching her even after the fairies started going to colleges like Alfea."
"Well, her knowledge is definitely a power in its own way..." Stella said awkwardly.
望むの星
The next day, Sophia found herself essentially sitting in on the Winx's classes from a distance, though she considered this an opportunity to learn in a way that differed from reading the books Valtor had chosen. At the moment, she was waiting on their next class to start while reading a book. She only looked up when she heard Tecna say, "No sign of him. Professor Wizgiz is usually so punctual."
"And when we have a Metamorphosymbiosis test, he's never late." Flora agreed from where she was sitting on her desk. "Something's going on here."
Sophia tilted her head. "Hm... Mr. Wizgiz certainly can be a trickster, but... he's also kind of eccentric and sometimes is a little scatterbrained..." She smiled nostalgically. The Winx, of course, had no way of knowing that Wizgiz was an acquaintance of hers.
"Ah, what if he's... already here?" Stella asked.
"Good thinking, Stella." Aisha said as Bloom and Musa both looked thoughtful. "This could be the test."
"Maybe... Wizgiz is here, and we have to spot him." Musa suggested.
"You know, you could be right girls." Said a dark-skinned girl with black hair.
"Professor Wizgiz's tests are usually pretty... unique." The purple-haired fairy next to her agreed.
Sophia snorted, "In all the time I've known him, he's never given me that kind of test."
"Yes, but..." Bloom began hesitantly, "Who could be him?"
"Oh, look!" Stella exclaimed, pointing at one of their classmates who was biting into a snack. "Wizgiz loves rainbow muffins!"
"Show yourself, Professor!" Bloom exclaimed, her hands glowing as she picked up the muffin with her magic and pulled it away from the girl.
The girl gasped in surprise and then huffed, "Bloom, what are you doing? That was my snack!"
A blonde fairy shrieked as the muffin accidentally splattered on her. "And that was my dress!"
"He may have even taken the form of an inanimate object." Musa suggested.
"Like a trash can!" Stella said decisively, "Got you, Professor!" She grabbed the nearby waste bin with her powers. The other students gasped as Stella hurled the trash can across the room and into the back wall, where it clattered to the floor.
Musa gasped. "The chair moved! It's him!" She exclaimed, grabbing somebody's chair from the back of the room. Sophia face-palmed as the student fled from her chair, and then cradled her head as Tecna began moving all of the furniture upside down with her powers, making a total mess of the classroom.
"Sorry girls!" Bloom apologized. The other students looked at each other and the next thing Sophia knew, they were all using their powers on random objects and turning the classroom upside down. The teenager massaged her temples.
"Where is he?" Flora asked.
"There's only one way to find out." Aisha said decisively. "Remember? Wizgiz hates the smell of broccoli."
Flora smiled and used her powers to fill the whole room with the smell of broccoli. The other students screamed and ran out of the room.
"Uh... if he's here, he's hiding really well." Tecna remarked, just as Wizgiz came through the door carrying a large stack of books that completely obscured his vision.
The leprechaun grunted as he balanced the stack, "Sorry for the delay. Headmistress Faragonda kept me busy, and... What happened?!" He was right to ask. His classroom looked like it had been hit by a tornado and there was still a green cloud that smelled like broccoli floating around the ceiling.
"We... we were just waiting for you, Professor." Bloom said innocently.
Wizgiz plopped the books on the ground, "Oh! Oh... what is that stink?! Ugh! Ugh!" He gagged in disgust, "Broccoli!" He covered his nose and mouth and ran out of the room. The Winx looked among themselves for a moment and then burst into laughter. Sophia sighed and shook her head out of pity for Professor Wizgiz.
Whew! Finally finished this chapter! I promise that this is the only battle that Sophia will be giving commentary on the side from. Or at least, the only one where that's all she does. It would be kind of boring if this entire story was just basically Sophia giving dry, sarcastic commentary on what happens in the original Season 8, right?