Chapter 72: Twinning with the Witches

A few minutes Earlier…

The Winx had only finished their recent class with professor Zarathustra's dark arts class, needless to say Mirta was on to her little scheme, thus ended up 'failing' while everyone passed. Mal was only absent since she took the exam before them and was on a look out for the Trix.

Mirta was accompanied by Bloom and Flora, no doubt to cheer her up after the incident.

"It seems unfair that you had to be the only one to fail." Flora thought it was unfair for the professor to do that.

"Yeah, I still can't believe she tried to trick us." Bloom agrees with her.

Mirta didn't seem bothered as she knew what it was like being in Cloud Tower. "No, it's fine, I guess I forgot that Cloud Tower can be rough." Brushing it off, not wanting to be seen as helpless as she knew why joining Alfea was a better option to being a fairy.

"Any word from Mal?" Bloom didn't see her in class at the moment.

"No doubt looking around for the heart or the Trix." Mirta could guess. "But what about the others? Taren and Ben?

"Ben's back in Auradon to do some of his royal duties, while Taren was called back for something." Bloom had no idea what it was, maybe another mission to another world perhaps. If only the girls weren't sent to Cloud Tower at the time, could use some bit of break but she knew they had to come to help the witches protect the codex fragment from being taken.

"You think he is alright?" Mirta asked them.

Flora nods with confidence in her boyfriend's skills. "Without a doubt. Remind me to try to call him to see how things are going."

"You know, I'm amazed how you two appear okay sharing him. I would have expected one of you to be jealous or something." Mirta brought up the subject of their relationship with Taren. "Not that I'm saying its wrong, I can see how he treats you both well and not gloat about it."

Flora could understand what she meant and spoke. "I get what you mean, I was to admit being jealous of Bloom at first, I just didn't want to cause trouble between us over a boy."

Bloom gave Flora a soft smile and didn't know at the time, she didn't have any experience like this before and didn't want to lose a friend like Flora. "Yeah, I never had a situation liek this before. Stella did leave some hints but never got what she meant." Even how she kept trying to push Bloom to open up to him. Her smile turned to a sad look. "But after what happened to Taren and the others in their battle with Tezzeret, I thought something terrible might happen to him and overheard Flora's confession in her sleep."

Mirta remembered what happened, when she heard about it when she was only turned into a pumpkin and was worried for them while unable to do anything when she was a vegetable at the time.

"So after we decided on our long talk, we thought of trying it out. Even Taren had similar talks about having a harem by Sky, but didn't want to bring it up as he thought we'd be angry at him." Bloom found out about Sky's idea, and no doubt now she was in fact a royal princess would perhaps be okay. She thought it was insane, but slowly came to accept it and both supported him.

Mirta was surprised to find out, but found it heartwarming of how they wanted to go through with the idea if he wanted it or not. Part of her wanted to ask about the harem thing and other personal matters, but was too shy and embarrassed to ask. Not even sure her father would approve or if Taren likes her back. She never had a chance to speak when they found Lucy running in the halls, appearing to be in a state of panic. Mirta had never seen Lucy in such a state before, feeling worried and asked her.

"What's wrong?" Not able to answer her, Lucy fell unconscious when she was overwhelmed with fear. The girls gasped and rushed over to help her up as Mirta held her by the shoulders for support.

"T-The… the Trix!" Lucy struggled to say the words. "They're here!"

"What?!" Mirta gasped.

Flora didn't like the news at all. "No!"

"They're after me." Lucy proclaimed as the rest of the Winx showed up to find them. "Lucy? What's wrong?"

Musa was not sure what happened and asked them. "Hey, what's going on?"

Bloom tells them. "The Trix are already in the tower."

Seeing as it was about to happen sooner or later, Layla was ready for them as the others. "Let's get 'em!"

"Mirta, I really think you should stay with Lucy." While knowing she can be a big help, she felt Lucy could use some support and protection if the Trix found her. Mirta didn't seem to object

and nodded to accept. "Everyone else, let's go and find those Trix."

The Winx Club wasted no time running with Zing following after them to pursue the Trix.

"Good idea Bloom, 'let's go and find those Trix'(!) How are we supposed to do that?" Stella asked sarcastically with no absolute idea of where to start looking.

Bloom thought as much, but was open to what the others who might have an idea. "I'm open to suggestions."

"I know. Based on the past evidence, we can't beat the Trix at their own game." Tecna suggested with a plan thought up in her mind.

"Nice way of saying we already lost." Bloom giggles softly, but let her continue.

"If we wait for them at their destination, we'll get the jump on them."

"But they're after the codex!" Flora stated.

"And we don't know where it is!" Layla added as they have been looking for the fragment with no success.

Tecna may have something in mind that could help them. "I'll calculate it's most probable location and we'll wait there."

Stella however, did not seem too eager with the idea. "I'm not relying on your dorky computer."

While Bloom may agree, she had other reasons to not go with that plan. "That's too dangerous, we could lead them straight to the codex."

"We're not getting anywhere." Musa tells them. "I bet you the witches are hiding the Trix. We can't trust 'em!"

"Way to go, tough girl. Go beat up some witches 'til they tell you where the Trix are." Stella pointed out while thinking Musa's prejudice towards witches was getting the better of her judgment.

"Lay off, Stella! It's not as if you've got any better ideas!" Layla didn't want the two to argue with each other and focus on what's more important.

"Fine. Think you can find them without my help, go right ahead!" Stella decided to go off on her own, taking the different hallway to the side.

"Stella!" Bloom tries to stop her but it is too late as she appears to have made up her mind. "Well, I'm gonna look where Lucy last saw them. Come if you want." Making her leave to where Lucy took to perhaps find the Trix. Flora went with her to be sure she needed back up.

For Musa, she was still annoyed they didn't go with what they planned, even for her's. "She didn't even consider my idea." Takes another direction and Layla follows her.

Tecna was by herself, except with Zing and ultimately went with her own idea despite the girls telling her it was a bad idea, she wanted to find a way to locate the fragment using her own skills and technology. "My idea has the highest chance of success. I'll try to find the codex."

Meanwhile, Taren and the Villains Kids, along with their chosen creatures followed the trail left by the creature they were pursuing, so far Carlos was still trying to learn to control his creature who seemed to not follow his command.

"Wait! Slow down!" Carlos pursued the water creature as it ran off to a garden center, jumping into a hole in the fence. He was already worn out after running and breathing heavily. "Man, I did not have this trouble with Dude."

Jay found it hilarious. "Buddy, he must have the lamest luck to be partnered with that thing." As he laughed at Carlos' misfortune, his own creature spewed steamed water in his face. "Hey!"

Evie grins at his reaction. "Look who's talking."

"Guys, come on." Taren follows Carlos through to maybe help him out. "Hey, Carlos, are you okay?"

Carlos doesn't answer and tries to find the Cyber Lord. "Gargle? Where are-oh, uh, found them." The teen spotted him, and what appeared to be a short rounded creature in dirty rags, but could see a reddish brown patch of hair on top as it appeared to be… eating.

"Funny, I always thought of them being… big." The redhead assumed, maybe it wouldn't be so hard with one creature.

Carlos spotted his creature as he was sneaking up on it, not knowing what it could be capable of. "Wait, Gargle, don't." Gargle paid no attention to the humans as he snuck up on the fire creature, happily enjoying eating the plants, extending its fingers as if to analyze it. "Don't just examine it, fight it!"

Too late as the Burn Belly scurried away until Taren and Carlos ran up to Gargle. "Guess we now know what that thing looks like." Taren speculated after finding it. Pulls out his phone to call them. "Jay, Evie? We found him, you guys try to sneak up on him while Carlos and I try to surround the little muncher.

"Got it." Evie's phone responded to his call.

Gargle noticed something from Taren's belt, a device that intrigued his growing curiosity, but also wished to collect more data from Carlos' phone, once again without his permission to download, much to the annoyance of the teen. "Hey, cut it out!" He tries to pull it from the small creature's grasp as it plugged one of its tendrils into the device.

Jay and Evie arrived and found the Nom Nom just as they were told. Jay took the first move. "Go Steam Star!"

The Steam Star shoots water vapor directly on the Blaze Belcher, causing it to shreak at the touch of water and stopped its eating.

"Nice on, Jay." Evie smiled and had her turn. "Your turn, Blowfish!" The Blowfish swells like a balloon before firing a psychic blast at the Blaze Belcher, but was too fast and scurried about. Making an attempt to escape its attacks. Evie tries once more using her glove, but once more missed, only to hit Jay instead.

"Ah! Brain freeze!" Jay felt a major headache and rubbed his forehead before narrowing a glare at her. "Watch where you point that thing, Eve!"

Feeling sheepish and blushed, she smiles nervously at him. "Sorry. I'm still learning."

Taren saw it and groaned, they really need to work on their game. Noticing the creature fled and needing to capture it, no doubt hiding in the shelter. "Guys, I know this is new to you, but we got a creature to catch. It went into the greenhouse."

The trio and their creatures went in to pursue it, leaving behind Carlos to fight with Gargle over his phone. "Look, you can download anything else, but this is my phone… now… give back!" Successfully yanked it out of the Reef prince's grip, his eyes turned red and began to speak.

"C…arlos?"

Unexpected to hear it talk. "C-arlos? Carlos, that's my name-Wait, you can talk? Did you just hack into my phone?"

"Used your data, ABC-Carlos DeVille."

Almost sounded impressed that it could do that. "Never knew you could do that." But realized his friends were inside the greenhouse while the two were left behind. "Look, no time to waste, that pyro maniac is running loose in there."

"Pyromania. Fire starter. Very very small." Gargle races off, Carlos had no idea what it was thinking, he sighed and decided to follow it. "Burn baby, burn!

The rest were surprised to hear the water creature speak. Evie asked a question on everyone's mind. "Since when could the little guy talk?"

"He hacked into my phone and did some updates, I couldn't stop him." Carlos tells her.

They found the Blaze Belcher eating a whole bag of soil, Taren shushed the others and summoned his keyblade to make a move while the rest followed to surround the fire creature while it was busy eating. And let out a burp, resulting in it coughing fire, burning all the bags of soil that were flammable as it makes a run for it, doing the same to burn the plants as well.

"That thing's getting away!" Jay said.

"Forget the Burn Belly for now, we gotta put that fire out before it gets worse!" Evie told him.

"She's right, come on." Taren tells them as they brought their water creatures to put the water out, Taren uses his magic to extinguish the flames just as he remembered seeing Bloom do it.

Carlos tries again with his creature. "Gargle, I need you to help extinguish the fire! Quick!" Gargle spoke gibberish and went in the opposite direction. "Not that way! The fire's here!" He didn't understand why the creature wouldn't obey him.

"Man, Carlos is having a hard time." Jay felt a little bad for him.

"Give him time, he'll come around." Taren knew for sure Carlos had potential, he just had to trust himself.

"I just hope Mal is having a better time than we are." Evie thought of her best friend. "Wish she was here right now."

"Yeah, but right now she's needed in Cloud Tower to stop the Trix. I'm sure she's doing okay." Taren assured her, and also thought of the girls. Hoping they were doing alright.

While the teens were working with their little problem, they were not aware of someone else in the area who was watching from afar, hiding from the rooftop of a building. "The creature is in the greenhouse, and I just spotted three teens and one that appears to be the keyblader." The unknown pursuer spoke in a female voice.

"Which one?"

"The kid with the red hair, and seems like they have creatures of their own." Draws out what appears to be a dark red double-bladed weapon with a gun attached to both ends, making it appear as to be a large bow. "I got them in my site and-"

"Negative, Crimson! Do not engage, it's too soon." The contact stopped her. "They must not know of your presence. Use the mutagen on the target creature."

The shooter let out a groan in dismay. "Oh, but I always wanted to shoot a keybearer. Fine, I'll get that little rodent thing and watch it do some carnage." She spotted it digging out from the trash as it emerged from its eating. "Damn, that thing sure can eat." Loads her gun with the special dart filled with chemicals and aims it at the Blaze Belcher. "Eat this."

Takes the shot and the dart struck the wailing creature in the back, reacting to the serum entering its systems and thrashed about until it let out a large fireball after jumping out of the trash can. This flame took the form of another copy of itself. They sprinted to a car and took a bit of the tires and ran off. Her mission was a success and reported back. "Target took the shot and just made another one."

"Interesting, follow and observe. And perhaps the others as well, I want to know more about these children as well." Putting away her gun and leaves

The fires were spreading so fast, the teens were having a hard time keeping them down, Carlos was with Gargle who was gathering so many tools and throwing them in the wheel bowel for no idea why. "Gargle, stop! We need to put out the fire, what is this gonna do?"

"Fire. Fighter!" Gargle proclaimed as it threw the hose in as well, giving Carlos the idea of what it was trying to do.

"Oh, I get it now! But whatever it is you have better work" Decided to go along with it's plan and bring the stuff back to the greenhouse. They were in such a rush, it collided with the pots and near his friends who were focused on putting the fires out.

"Carlos, bud, can't you do something with your creature?!" Jay tells him.

"Look, I'm trying but I think he's got something in mind." Hopefully that will work as gargle began communicating wth the other two water creatures as they stopped what they were doing and approached them.

"Hey, you can't tell them what to do." Jay was annoyed. "Who does he think he is?"

"Reef prince!" Gargle announced his title to the teens, not knowing it was a rhetorical question. He immediately went to work, using the items he collected and creating a bright light for a moment and combining them into a high tech machinery, it hovered like a hover drone and sprayed the water across the greenhouse to extinguish the fires and prevent a disaster.

Taren was impressed. "He built that? That's awesome!"

"Yeah, I mean, guess he really is." Carlos would have taken the credit but still wished to have had some control. "Okay, I admit that was cool."

"Okay, the fire is out and all the burning poop going away. No where that little muncher ran off? I still wanna win that contest." Evie was eager to prove herself to the keyblade masters, using her gauntlet to command her creature.

"Not if I catch it first." Jay countered.

"Probably ran off while we were dealing with the mess." Taren decided to try and find it. "Let's just have a look around to find any trail it left and follow it before it cause more trouble."

Jay turned to his buddy. "Carlos, you coming?"

"Yeah, just trying to get this Reef prince to work with me." While Carlos was impressed by Gargle's abilities, he still needed to get the creature to listen to him. "Alright, now that might have helped us, but you still need to follow. I give orders, you follow. Got it?"

"Got it. Good." Gargle nodded.

Carlos thought of something else in mind. "And if you do good… I'll… let you look into the net or the library with lots of info. Deal?" Thinking of a way to get the creature to cooperate with him, and to his surprise, Gargle looked intrigued.

"LIbrary. Information. Data." Immediately sprinted off to track down the Blaze Belcher

"Hey, wait up!" Carlos runs after him. The group searched the area for any signs of it. Wondering where it could be.

Taren looked around, still no sign of the creature, it was going to be a real pain to find it and so far the Villains Kids appear to be adjusting… slightly, but still have a lot to learn. 'I hope they learn fast, we're gonna need more help in the future if facing powerful enemies.'

"Car-los, 4-1-1!"

Hearing the small cyber lord talk about something, confused of what it meant. "What? What did it say?"

"No idea, seems to found something." Carlos didn't know either, feeling it tugging his pants, which told them it wanted them to follow.

"Maybe he knows where it is." Evie suggested.

"Guess we might as well follow." Carlos said, but he noticed something inside a factory building, orange lights flaring. "And guessing that's where our little pyromaniac is hiding."

Wasting no time as they head inside, the group found the Blaze Belcher munching on paper and trash.

"You know if it wasn't so destructive, it could come in handy to get rid of the possible homework." Jay thought.

"No, but it might give me an idea." Evie pulled out a book from her bag, something she won't mind using as bait. "This one was an old copy anyway." Blew a whistle sound to attract it's attention.

The Blaze Belcher heard her and saw the book in her hand that it considered a delicious meal to consume, and ran straight towards her to get its hands on it. She threw it towards the creature as it started tearing it up and eating it. Little did it realise that it fell into their trap when Carlos slammed a trash can to trap it.

"Gotcha!" Carlos smiles in victory with the creature. He looked over his shoulder with a proud grin on his face. "I win! Hey, all that training really paid off, Jay."

The teens gasped in shock, much to Carlos' confusion.

"What? What's the matter?" Carlos had no idea what was wrong, until he turned around and gasped. "Woah!"

Everywhere were Blaze Belchers, numerous creatures gorging on the materials they can find. And when they belch out fire after eating. More of them were created and doing the same thing.

"Uh… think we could maybe alert the masters?" Evie suggested.

Taren slammed the door shut, making sure it was the only way for them to escape to be sealed off. "We can handle it. No one gets out. We round up all the Burn Bellies, we banish them all at once. Together." Decided to help them by bringing out his keyblade to his hand, knowing if these escaped and multiple so fast, the city will be in ruins. "Trust me, it'll be fine. Cause I'm helping out."

With his words reached their ears, the teens prepared themselves to take on the creatures with confidence.

"I need to warn the others, they gotta know what I found." Mal knew she had to find the Winx and tell them what Griffin told her, unable to believe it herself but didn't question the headmistress. Flying through the hallways to save her the trouble of running in such dire time when she hears a female voice.

"Mal? Can you hear me?"

Recognising that voice from Tecna, surprised the purple haired teen and answered her phone. "Tecna? That you? Where are you guys?"

"I'm in the library trying to find something about this building by finding the source of the magic, and I was right, magic power flows through the entire structure of Cloud Tower. Like blood through the veins of a living being."

While seemingly impressed, yet worried something would go wrong as she was speaking out loud, Mal tries to warn her. "Wait, Tec, whatever it is you found don't say it, wait til we found someplace to share it."

Her words did not seem to reach Tecna as she revealed what she found. "it originates here: the heart of Cloud Tower."

"No, Tecna don't! The Trix could be lis-

It was too late as she heard the sound of a loud bang and new voices that could only belong to the Trix and exchanged a few words.

"So you've found the Codex."

"Now tell us where it is."

"Not in a million years! Techno-"

"Glacial Sleep!

Mal could hear no more as it was nothing but static, causing her to worry more. "Tecna? Tecna!" Hoping she will be alright, Mal calls Bloom. "Bloom! I just got a call from Tecna, something happened, I think Trix found her."

"Is she alright?" Bloom asked out of concern.

"I dunno, but think something bad might happen. You go and find her, while I follow the Trix." Having a bad feeling she knows where they are going and only hopes to make it in time.

The Trix were on their way to the center of the tower, thanks Tecna unwittingly revealed its location and now about to claim their prize, following the holographic projection the fairy made, the Trix found the door. No doubt Tecna refused to tell them, but didn't mean they found other means without her after Icy put her on ice. Now they were close to the central room, only to be locked. Darcy tries to open it with her Gloomix enhanced magic, but to her frustration the wall isn't making a dent no matter how much she tries.

"What's wrong? Can't you reach that central room?" Icy was not sure why Darcy was having trouble breaking in.

Darcy ceased her efforts for now. "No, Griffin has total control over that area of the tower." Darcy realized her mistake when forgetting the headmistress' power over the tower at her will.

"What a pain." Stormy grunted.

"Of course she has the strongest shields over the codex." Icy said, knowing they won't have much time as by then the Winx will be on to them for sure.

"We get near it, we lose our power." Darcy reminded her to be cautious when to approach it.

"Then we'll steal it the old fashion way." Icy had an idea for the solution.

"With brute force!" Stormy grins.

During the situation in Cloud Tower, Mal wasn't sure how far they are to reach it, she had to pick up the pace and be ready to face them. She found Musa and Layla inside a room. Entering a large room full of statues of witches and filled with several of the girls, both witches along with Musa and Layla appear to be having a fight. "What's going on here?"

"We were told that Trix already know about the codex's location and decided to split up." Layla explained to her. "We thought the witches might know if they run into the,

One of the witches didn't seem to agree. "They're accusing us of not telling them anything about where the Trix are!"

"You don't trust us, do you?" Another argued.

"Of course not. You're a witch!" Musa made it very obvious for her hate towards them, not believing their word for it, which caught Mal's attention and annoyance that she was letting her prejudice cloud her judgment. This reminded her a lot back on Auradon.

"Are you serious, Mal? Right now? When we're in the middle of finding the Trix in case you forgot." Mal reminded her of something more important. "The Trix know where-" Mal was too late to tell them when a loud explosion echoed through the room.

"Hey, do you girls hear that?" Layla heard it as did Musa.

"What's going on?"

"Something bad." Layla could only guess.

Mal agreed with her. "Get ready." Summoning her keyblade, the Shadow Within and summoned Palmon.

Burst through the doors were Icy, Darcy and Stormy. "Ooh, a welcoming committee." Icy noted

Stormy: Hm, a bunch of witches, a couple of Winx and a key brat with a walking weed. That's a nice warm up." Stormy glares at them, receiving a few hateful and sterned looks from the girls.

"Ha! Found them first!" Musa proclaimed

"Actually, they found us." Layla corrected her.
"Just get into your winx form and less chatting!" Mal reminded them.

Layla knew she was right and did not want to start an argument of who was first. Summoning her partner, Gomamon to join the fight. "Right Magic Winx!" Transforming into their Winx form.

"Palmon, digivolve to… Togamon!"

"Gomamon, digivolve to… Ikkakumon!"

Mal decided to step in on their sake, at least to give them something to hear. "Alright, if you wanna have some payback on the Trix, now be a chance to defend this school."

"Oh, we're more than happy to do that!" The witches prepare to use their magic to take on the Trix.

"Harpoon Torpedo!"

"Prickly Bang Bang!"

The Digimon used their attacks on the Trix first, forcing Icy to put up a defensive barrier made up of ice until it was shattered by the missiles. Darcy and Stormy flew in different directions and fired off their magic against the students. Layla and Musa took to the air and blasted Stormy.

Stormy growls at the Winx. "Little brats." Flies into them for the strike, only to find a pinch net to appear right in front of her. She was too fast to get out of the way and was caught in it, losing control of her direction and fell to the ground.

"Got her!" Layla thought that trick would work.

Growing frustrated, Icy was getting annoyed by the Winx. "You're gonna pay for that." She shoots icicles at them, but Mal and Musa predicted her move when they both used retaliated Wind and Sonic Vibe to knock the icicles aside. Icy and Darcy conjure a shield to block the attacks.

It was starting to make Icy even more angry, despite their powers, they still lacked the numbers and needed to get the Codex as soon as possible. "This is turning into a complete waste of time!"

Darcy tried to think of a plan to take care of their problem, looking at the statues across the room gave her an idea. "Icy, those gargoyles are part of Cloud Tower, right?" Icy noticed them when they were focused on the battle, she started to catch on to her fellow Trix's idea.

Stormy finally broke free of the net, just in time for Icy to conjure a spell. "Cloud Tower, protect us!" The Trix use their magic to animate the statues. Moving as they come to live and separate from the walls, causing the room to tremor violently and debris to fall.

Musa noticed the situation was dire. "Oh no!"

"Look out!" Layla cried out, trying to avoid being caught by one of the moving statues. She was saved by Ikakkumon using his Body Blow attack, forcing the statue to stumble backwards.

Mal blasted another statue using her keyblade, throwing it against its chest and leaving a large chunk of it to shatter and Togamon clubbing it with her boxing gloved fists, saving the students below to escape with their lives. "Everyone out of here, now!"

While Darcy was annoyed to see some of the statues destroyed, but seeing the students run in fear was enough to make her smile. "Now that's entertainment."

Icy would agree, but didn't want to stay and watch when they had priorities. "Yeah, well, no time for games. Let's get out of here." MAking a run for it while they still have a chance. To reach the heart of the tower.

After finding out the Trix had frozen Tecna, Bloom knew they had little time to spare and left Flora to get Stella to free their friend. Knowing what was at stake, she decided to confront the Trix to defend the codex. Using the directions from the projection Tecna left to where the Heart Chamber should be. If only she could call Taren and tell him what's happening, but she left her phone back in the dorm, otherwise she would have told the Winx where she was right now. The red haired princess could only hope to make it in time.

And to her surprise, she found what looked like some sort of heart-shaped structure in the center of the room with green vein-like structures connected between the 'heart' and the entire room. "I'm the first one here. They must've been sidetracked." Which meant she might still have a chance. But she knew it was only a matter of time until they found it. "They're coming. I can do this. Magic Winx!" Bloom rises in the air with red flames surrounding her and transforms into her Winx form to be ready, she will need her Titan to fight alongside her as well. Pulling out her medallion to summon Sorceral. "Join us, Sorceral!"

Sorceral manifested alongside her upon her command, ready to fight alongside her summoner in battle.

Back in the Statue Room, the stoned witches were destroyed, but the Trix had vanished. No doubt on their way to get the Codex. Ikkakumon and Togemon revert back to their Rookie levels. Musa, Layla, Mal and the Cloud Tower witches stood around in the aftermath of the battle.

"Good going, we destroyed the gargoyles but the Trix got away." One of the witches proclaimed.

"And who's fault is that?" Musa argued, not wanting to be blamed when the students did little as her friends did most of the work.

"Your magic just bounced right off them." Layla countered.

One of the students spoke out. "At least we tried, you guys didn't even attack."

"My net did more damage than anything you tried." Layla said.

"Hey, maybe you let them get away on purpose." Musa accuses them.

"How dare y-"

"Oh for the love of… ENOUGH!!" The only person who didn't join in was Mal and the Dark Fairy was starting to lose her patience listening to two sides argue with each other. Shot out her hands and caused everyone to use magic to freeze everyone before things started to get out of hand. The baffled teens all looked at the very annoyed Mal with her eyebrow twitching. "Maybe if you all hadn't noticed, but the Trix are making their way to the Codex which unless any of you forgot and are not too busy finding an excuse to start a fight?"

Gaining their attention as she made her argument very clear to them, they realized she was right and completely forgot about it for a brief moment. "And if any of you start to question who I'm siding with, I'm not! You're all acting like a bunch of brats!"

"Mal is right." Entering the room were Flora, Stella and Tecna who was now unfrozen thanks to Stella. "Please everyone, don't fight!" Flora was relieved that Mal, who usually starts some trouble at times, was more level headed and stopped them before it got worse. Something about this room was making them all crazy and started to turn on each other. "It's this place, it's making you crazy."

"You know, I started to wonder why it felt off here." Mal started to notice it, but was surprised that it didn't affect her, maybe it was due to the keyblade or perhaps her mixed heritage. Dispersing the spell to free them, allowing them to touch the ground after everyone calmed down.

Musa felt embarrassed and ashamed to let her emotions get the better of her, she apologies

to everyone. "Yeah, sorry."

"Alright, macho girls, like Mal said, the Trix are about to get the codex." Stella reminded them.

"And Bloom's fighting alone." Flora said and worried for her.

"I know where they're going, follow me." Tecna tells them and shows them the way to hopefully reach the chamber fast.

The Trix found the chamber, and to their surprise and utter annoyance was Bloom, normally they would have been surprised by this, but obviously she must have figured out where the heart Chamber was. Preparing to defend, the trio conjured a purple barrier before Bloom and Sorceral noticed them.

"Blast Ball!" Using her magic against the barrier, it did not appear to have an effect to weaken it.

Stormy did not expect to find only one and no sign of the rest. "Hey, there's only one of them."

Even Darcy noticed. "What's wrong, your friend couldn't come out to play?"

Their barrier collapsed by another attack, Icy decided to do this on her own. "She's all yours."

Bloom stayed focused on them, she found Icy flying away from them, but Stormy and Darcy made certain to keep her focus on them, attacking Bloom from the front, while Icy flew behind her. Icy prepared to take her out from behind, but out of nowhere came Bloom's bonded Titan flying from above and blasted her from her hiding spot.

"What the-" Icy had not seen this coming, she shoots out shards of ice at her new foe, exchanging blows between one another.

"She must have been ready for us." Stormy thought and not like the look of it.

Darcy didn't seem concerned. "Then let's even the score." Pulling out her Dueling gauntlet to summon her creature. "Razerkinder Puppet!" Summoning the darkness puppet creature from the Kaiju Realm to fight for them. Controlling it with her gauntlet to move swiftly and launch itself at Bloom from the back.

Bloom heard a demonic cackle and found the familiar creature from Auradon, having no choice but to switch to defense and blast it, the puppet Kaiju was too small and fast for her to keep track, providing Darcy the opening she needed.

"Optical Darkness!" Casting her spell to blind Bloom.

"My eyes!" Bloom found herself helpless, unable to see anything but darkness and no idea where the Trix were. In the midst of combat, Sorceral sensed her summoner in danger and tried to help her, only for Icy to take this opportunity with Stormy came to help her, both struck the Titan from both sides and caused her to vanish after defeat.

"That takes care of that." Stormy brushes her hands and snickers. The Trix land on the ground, surrounding Bloom with Darcy's creature's cackle.

"Poor darling, can't see a thing." Darcy taunted the helpless Bloom.

With Bloom surrounded and no one to help her, not even her beloved keyblader was around to come to her rescue. It was all so easy for them. "Ready, girls?"

Despite her situation, Bloom refused to give in and was determined to face them off. "No, I've got to keep fighting somehow."

"Now!" Icy proclaimed, the Trix then sent Bloom flying against a wall with such force, causing the redhead to cry out in pain and collapse. "Let's pick up our prize."

Everyone was running as fast as they can, they would have used flying but needed to preserve their power for the fight. They had little time to spare and only hope to find Bloom in time.

Tecna remembered exactly where the chamber was after studying the map before she got frozen, it had to be where Bloom should be. "It's right there, come on!" Leading them to the chamber and halted their advance to be confronted by the Trix. They were too late, the Trix have now begun to open the heart.

"We're too late." Mal growls.

Flora gasped and found Bloom lying on the floor. "Bloom!"

"It's up to us to stop them." Layla was ready to face them.

"It's too late, fairies. The heart of Cloud Tower is opening." Icy announced, as if they were the victors. "The codex is ours." Instead of seeing the faces of dismay and defeat, the fairies, and the witch students all looked shocked and confused. Puzzled of what was going on, they turned around to see what was going on and noticed something coming out of the Heart.

None other than the Headmistress Griffin herself.

Gonna stop there with another cliffhanger, things are starting to get tense. The Trix almost thought they found the codex, but instead found the headmistress. and with Taren and the VK thought they had it in the bag... they discovered to have a bigger problem and need a bigger net. Will be working on the final cloud tower chapter arc and the how the VKs will handle using their duelling skills against a Blaze Belcher they will realise has been mutated by an unknown sniper. There's a little hint of who she is if you find out that little Easter egg.