Volume Two: The Beckoning of Shadows

by gins-potter

The battle is over, they've won, and Bloom Peters knows she should feel on top of the world right now. But she just doesn't. Haunted by the memories of last year, Bloom returns to Alfea with a darkness growing within her that scares and taunts her. Part two of my Winx Club retelling for teenage audiences.

17. Dangers in the Shadows

Heyo, if you read the chapter in the first 12 hours or so, there would have been a small chunk of one scene missing but I've fixed it now. I didn't totally escape the technical difficulties apparently.

---

Losing her sight terrified Bloom in a way that no other monster or enemy she'd come up against had. She felt vulnerable in a completely new way, and while she hated the way she clung to Stella and Flora as they led her back to their temporary dorm, she couldn't bring herself to let go. Not until they passed the threshold and Flora gently told her that they'd brought her to her bed and she could sit now.

She did so, lowering herself awkwardly until she met the softness of the mattress and relied on touch and memory to situate herself against the headboard, bringing her knees to her chest. It might have been her imagination, or instinct, but she swore she could feel the weight of each of her friend's eyes as they watched and catalogued her every movement.

"Don't stare, guys," she sighed, wrapping her arms around herself.

"How did you-" Musa's voice came so suddenly from beside her, and closer than Bloom had been expecting, that the redhead couldn't contain her jump of surprise, blindly turning her face in the direction of her friend's voice.

Tecna didn't seem to notice her discomfort because she spoke up from Bloom's other side, causing her head to whirl around. "It's a noted phenomenon that losing a sense tends to not only heighten the others but also give the individual preternatural instincts."

Bloom shrunk in on herself, not particularly interested in that moment in gaining any magical instincts beyond the ones she already possessed; she just wanted her sight back.

The ring of her phone interrupted the conversation and Bloom eased it from her pocket, looking at it automatically before realising what a useless action it was. Only inky darkness was waiting for her.

The quiet exhale of someone's breath before they spoke was the only warning Bloom got that someone had leaned in to look at her phone screen, and the only reason that she didn't jump once again when Stella said, "It's Sky. Do you want us to-"

Sky.

How was she going to explain what had happened to him? She didn't know if she could say anything, let alone force out the words, 'I'm blind'.

"I- I don't- I don't know what to-"

Panic clawed at her throat, choking off both her words and her breath and she looked desperately, blindly around at her friends, losing track of where each of them had been sitting in her panic. Blind. Alone. So alone.

Someone plucked the phone from her grasp without asking, and somewhere nearby someone else, Flora maybe, made a disapproving sound in their throat.

But it was Sky's voice she suddenly heard, realising that whoever had taken her phone had answered his call, putting him on speaker phone.

"Hey babe, you there?"

Bloom felt her mouth open but nothing emerged. How was she supposed to- how could she-

"Hey Sky, Bloom's here. You've got all of us actually. You're on speaker phone."

It was Stella who spoke, who Bloom would bet had answered the call.

"Okay…" Sky said slowly, and there was a distant clunk as though he'd put something down and was turning his full attention to the phone call.

It wasn't uncommon for them to talk while he was doing routine maintenance on his bike or one of the Red Fountain air crafts or sharpening his blades, Sky claiming that her voice was the only way he could get through the mundane tasks. There was a pause and when Sky spoke again his voice was sharper, like he could pick up on the tension in the silence from their end of the line.

"Everything okay?"

Bloom buried her face into her hands, and could hear Stella swallow roughly before she spoke again.

"Well, no. Not really."

---

Sky didn't think his heart had ever dropped so fast than it did when Stella told him what had happened between Bloom and the Trix. He also didn't think he'd ever broken so many driving offences as he did while frantically riding his leva-bike to Cloud Tower.

Brandon only tried to get him to slow down once, trying to reason with him through their linked helmets, that he couldn't help Bloom if he wrapped himself and his leva-bike around a tree. Sky hadn't answered and had only urged his bike faster, and Brandon hadn't tried again. Riven, Timmy, and Helia hadn't said anything at all, silently following on their own bikes.

His friends had caught him as he'd gone sprinting out of the dorm following Stella's call, and had insisted on accompanying him. Sky honestly couldn't have cared less, he wasn't going to stop to argue, he just wanted to get to Bloom.

They pulled up outside the school, clouds swirling ominously over their heads, and his bike had barely stopped before Sky jumped off, haphazardly kicking out the stand and striding for the front doors which had been cracked to reveal Musa waiting for them.

"How is she?" he said without any preamble as he stepped inside and Musa led him to the nearest staircase.

"That bitch blinded her and she has no idea if she'll ever see again; how do you think she's doing?"

Riven let out a quiet snort at Musa's snark and Sky nearly turned around to bite his head off before pulling up as he registered what Musa had said.

"Wait, doesn't know if she'll ever see again." The ground swooped under Sky's feet as he swayed on the stairs, gripping the railing until the cold metal bit into his palm. "You can't- there's no-"

Realising that he'd stopped, Musa paused as well, glancing back at him as she bit her lip. "Griffin is pretty confident that there's a potion that will restore her sight but… I don't know… Bloom- she's- I think she's trying to prepare herself for the possibility that it won't work."

Sky's stomach twisted and he resumed his climb, taking the stairs two at a time now while the others scrambled to keep up. Whether the potion was going to work or not, he hated the thought that Bloom was all alone with her worry. He just wanted to get to her and take her in his arms and assure her that he'd be by her side no matter what happened.

They reached the dorm and Sky pushed his way into the room, sidestepping Tecna who was hovering on the outskirts of the group and his eyes finally settled on Bloom. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, fingers digging into the blankets beneath her, shoulders hunched like she was trying to disappear into herself. Sky's stomach twisted painfully at the sight presented and he wasted no time crossing the room and sinking into a crouch before her.

Even though every instinct roared at him to hold her and comfort her, he forced himself to pause at the sight of her dark, sightless eyes, to settle his hands on the bed on either side of her to give her some semblance of warning. Her head picked up slightly at the change in pressure, her other senses no doubt working overtime to identify what was happening around her.

Hesitantly she raised one hand, slowly stretching it out until she found his shoulder, spreading her fingers over the material of his uniform.

"Sky?" she breathed, hand tracing up his neck and over his jaw, as if she could identify him by touch alone.

"Yeah." His voice was a whisper against her fingertips as they grazed over his lips. "Yeah, I'm here, Bloom."

A shuddering sigh loosed itself from her throat and moisture beaded at her eyelids. It was enough for Sky to sense her next movement even before she made it so he was ready for it when she threw herself into his waiting arms, more sobs breaking free as she buried her face into the curve of his throat.

"Hey," he murmured into her hair, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Hey, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

He stood, holding her firmly against him so he could twist and sit on the bed himself, Bloom curled up and crying in his lap, while he smoothed a hand up and down her back and rocked them slightly.

Brandon coughed and said something quietly about giving them some space but Sky barely registered it, or the quiet shuffling of their friends as they left. His focus was on Bloom.

He didn't promise her that it would all be alright; he didn't know if it would be. He didn't promise her that they'd find a way to heal her; he didn't know if they would. But he did promise her that he wasn't going anywhere because it was the truth. Lord Darkar himself could walk through that door and Sky didn't think he'd have the power to rip them apart.

Eventually Bloom's crying eased and Sky leaned back against the headboard of the bed, twining his hand in Bloom's red hair where she was resting her head against his chest. Her breathing was deep and even, the crying clearly having taken any energy she had left.

"What if Griffin's potion doesn't work? What if I can never see again?"

Sky was quiet for a moment, trying to imagine what that future looked like. It would be hard for sure, he wouldn't pretend it wouldn't be.

"It would be hard but you'd adapt," he told her honestly, already able to picture the tenacity with which his girlfriend would approach life even with the added obstacle. "I've never seen anything keep you down for long, Bloom. And this would be no different. It's why I… it's one of the things I admire about you most."

His hand moved slightly so he could cup her jaw and angle her head so he could look into those dark eyes. Already his heart ached to see their familiar blue hue but he brushed aside the feeling.

"You're strong enough to overcome whatever happens next, Bloom. Whether you get your sight back or not. And if you don't feel like you are, if you think you're gonna fall, just remember that we're all gonna be there by your side. Me, your friends, the guys, we're not going anywhere, and we'll get through this."

Despite the tears drying on her face, Bloom's lips twitched up into one of the smallest smiles Sky had ever seen, but his heart soared like it was Bloom's biggest beam.

"How are you so good at that?" she sighed, pressing a brief kiss to his heart through his uniform before laying her head back down.

"What?"

"Saying all the right things? Always making me smile even when I'm convinced I can't?"

Sky stilled slightly in surprise. He honestly hadn't thought that's what he'd been doing. He'd just been speaking from the heart, which growing up had usually gotten him into more trouble, he hadn't thought that it could actually be comfort to Bloom.

"I guess you just bring it out in me."

And despite the fear lingering in both of them for what the morning would bring, despite being in the clutches of Cloud Tower, lying together with their arms around one another, taking comfort in the mere presence of each other, neither of them wanted that moment to end.

But it did and as the schools' curfew approached their friends cautiously returned to the dorm. Musa made a lewd joke as she entered, asking if they were interrupting anything, that had both Bloom and Sky blushing and pushing away from each other.

"No," Bloom said, scowling just to the left of her friend. "We were just talking."

"If that's what the kids are calling it these days," Musa said with a shrug, just glad to see her friend looking something other than upset.

Sky touched the side of Bloom's face to draw her attention back to him and kissed her briefly. "I'll call you in the morning, okay? Whatever happens, we'll work it out."

Bloom nodded and squeezed his hand, wanting to cling to it but eventually she relinquished him, waving vaguely in the direction of him and the other guys as they departed.

As light's out drew nearer, Stella and Flora helped Bloom get ready for bed, holding her steady while she changed into pyjamas and climbed under the covers of her bed. Her friends checked in a few times, asking if she needed anything, but Bloom declined, curling up on her side and closing her eyes so that she might pretend that her vision wasn't gone. The others chatted for a while, but their voices were unusually subdued and soon enough the noise eased off altogether and one by one the other girls drifted off.

Bloom had been expecting nights at Cloud Tower to be nerve-wracking, especially the first one, but nothing she'd imagined could compare to the reality. Add in the loss of her sight and the experience was truly harrowing.

The building showed its age with the constant groaning and rumbling as it shifted and settled for the night, giving the horrible impression that it was seconds away from crumbling at any moment. Every time Bloom felt herself just starting to drift off, the building would give off another moan and she'd jerk awake again with an exasperated sigh.

"Seriously," she grumbled, turning over and burying her face in her pillow. "A bunch of witches couldn't make a structurally sound building?"

Eventually she forced herself to tune out the noises of the building and she slipped into a proper sleep. But if she thought it was going to be a restful sleep, she was sorely mistaken, because she slipped right into a nightmare.

In the dream she stood in a long, dark hallway. It stretched so far and was so dim that it seemed to stretch on forever, marked by featureless walls, floorboards, and the occasional spiderweb here and there. Any excitement that she might have felt about the return of her sight was diminished by her depressing surroundings.

Bloom squinted into the distance, trying to pick out any landmark or detail but there was none and when she turned to look back it was identical, nothing to mark where she'd come from.

She faced back to the front just in time to catch a glimpse of someone disappearing into the gloom. They moved so fast that the only part of them Bloom could identify before they disappeared completely was their long, red hair.

Heart suddenly thudding in her chest, Bloom broke into a fast walk after them, moving quickly until the darkness parted around her and the person came back into view. Something in Bloom urged her to slow down, to put distance between her and the person, while another part of her screamed at her to keep after them and not let them get away.

A corner in the hallway suddenly loomed and the person turned, affording Bloom a quick glimpse of their feminine face, mouth turned up in a cold, amused smile.

The stranger disappeared around the corner and Bloom jogged the last few steps and followed them around, only to stop short, heart thudding horribly in her chest, when she found the hallway completely empty, not even a glimpse of the person in the distance.

Bloom spun around, wondering if the person somehow slipped behind her, only to come face to face with the familiar face of the phantom; those features, so like her own, those terrible, golden eyes, and that hard mouth, lips parted in a feral grin, teeth red with blood

Bloom woke with a strangled gasp and darkness pressed in on her, suffocating her. She shrunk back into the mattress, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the night, her heavy breaths loud in her own ears.

But her sight never cleared and it was only then that she remembered the events of a few hours earlier.

Blind and heart still racing Bloom tried to calm down, but every shuffle, every sigh had her head whipping from side to side, senses in overdrive trying to work out what was friend and what was potential foe.

A shuffle beside her bed had her rocketing into a seated position, drawing her knees to her chest. Words burned at her lips and she only just stopped herself from shouting, not wanting to wake her friends.

"Who- who's there?" she forced herself to whisper, sure there was someone besides her sleeping friends in the room.

A fact that was confirmed by the giggle that suddenly sounded in her ear. A strangled whimper escaped her and Bloom was about to say damn it all to not waking her friends, when another voice suddenly spoke.

"Bloom? Are you okay?"

"Layla?"

"Yeah."

Bloom turned her sightless gaze in the vague direction she remembered Layla's bed, and a small noise of relief emerged when she heard the sound of Layla getting up and quietly padding over. The mattress dipped under Layla's weight as her friend climbed onto the bed beside her, then a cool hand touched the back of her own.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah- I-" Bloom glanced back in the direction of the shuffle and the giggle even though it was useless.

"Bad dream?"

Wordlessly, Bloom nodded.

"I've been having them too," Layla confided.

"I woke up and couldn't see anything. But I thought I heard… it's stupid…"

Layla was quiet for a moment. Then. "There's no one here, Bloom."

Maybe it was because Layla had confessed to having bad dreams too. Maybe it was because she couldn't see her friend's face. But Bloom allowed herself to ask, voice small, "Are you sure?"

Layla's hand slipped into hers and squeezed comfortingly. "I'm sure. Just us."

"Okay," Bloom breathed. Then again. "Okay. Sorry, I'm keeping you up. You can go back to bed if you want."

Layla was quiet for a moment, and Bloom desperately wished for her sight back so she could see her friend's face. "Actually… well, I was thinking maybe I could stay here for a little longer."

Bloom's breath gusted out of her. She didn't know if Layla was suggesting it for her benefit, or if her friend needed this just as much as she did, but she wasn't going to argue.

"Yeah, of course."

They slipped further down the bed so they could lie down, hands still entwined. Tentatively, Bloom squeezed. "Thanks," she said quietly.

"No problem," Layla said easily. And then, sounding more unsure, "That's what friends are for. Right?"

Bloom smiled. "Right?"

Despite the comfort of Layla's presence, the rest of Bloom's sleep was just as unsettled and she woke up tired and irritable the next day. Not helped when she opened her eyes to find darkness yet again waiting for her.

Luckily she didn't have to live with it much longer for they had just gotten dressed and were ready to head to the dining hall for breakfast when there was a knock at the door. Reflectively, Bloom's head turned in the direction of the sound but it wasn't until one of her friends went to answer it and their visitor stepped over the threshold that she worked out who it was.

"Good morning, girls. Bloom."

"Professor Griffin?"

"Yes. How are you feeling?"

"Blind," Bloom said shortly, and someone nudged her in the ribs.

But Griffin seemed amused by her response, if her low chuckle was any indication, and she pressed a heavy tumbler into Bloom's hands.

"Here. I brewed this overnight. I believe it should restore your sight."

"What is it?" Bloom asked suspiciously, bringing the tumbler up so she could sniff its contents. It didn't smell unpleasant but there was still something unsettling about drinking something she couldn't identify.

"The draught of sensus restitutio. Slightly more complex than a simple healing potion, as you might be able to tell from the name, this potion restores the senses when they've been damaged or stolen."

"So, it should work then," Flora said, sounding anxious.

"Yes," Griffin said slowly. "It should."

Bloom didn't like the uncertainty in the witches voice but she was willing to try anything to get her sight back.

"Close your eyes before you drink," Griffin instructed. "It can be a shock if your sight comes back too quickly."

Obediently Bloom closed her eyes before drinking the entire glass in one, long, pull. Like the smell, the taste wasn't exactly unpleasant, slightly bland if nothing else with the slightest tang of something Bloom couldn't place. Someone took the glass from her when she was done and Bloom stood there with her eyes still closed, waiting to feel its effects.

"I don't feel anything different," she finally said, frustration leaking into her words.

"That's normal," Griffin said. "Open your eyes slowly."

Sucking in a deep breath, Bloom slowly opened her eyes. Her breath left her in a rush when she blinked at the blurry sight of her friends peering at her anxiously. She blinked a few more times and her vision cleared completely, returning to normal.

"Well?" Musa asked, her voice gruff gruff in an attempt to cover up her worry.

Bloom's shoulders dipped in relief as she said weakly, "You guys have never looked so good."

Her friends let out simultaneous cries of relief and they descended upon her, wrapping their arms around each other in one big group hug. Looking put off by their display of affection, Griffin quickly excused herself, reminding them sternly not to be late for class.

"How do you feel?" Flora asked Bloom when they finally drew away.

"Better. But everything's so bright," she admitted, rubbing her eyes, a steady throbbing starting up just behind them. "I think it's giving me a headache."

"That's what you get for trying to face those witches alone," Stella sniffed, her concern clearly abating now that Bloom was alright.

"Seriously, Stella?" Layla snapped. "You're one to talk, you went off by yourself as well."

Bloom ignored them both and just rubbed at her eyes again. "I feel so out of control of my powers lately," she said quietly, almost to herself.

"It's this place," Musa said darkly over the sound of Stella and Layla's bickering. Bloom pulled her hands away from her face in time to see Musa casting an angry look around the dorm.

"Enough, you two," Tecna said, finally breaking up Stella and Layla's argument. "What's important is we stop arguing amongst ourselves and actually work together."

"That's what I just said," Stella said, throwing her hands up in the air.

"No, it isn't," Musa snapped while Layla nodded furiously. "Heaping blame on one person isn't working together."

"That's not what I was trying to do-"

"Well, that's not how it came across-"

"Oh, would you all shut the fuck up?" Bloom snapped, stunning the others into silence at venom in her voice.

The throbbing behind her eyes had worsened during their bickering until it felt like her entire head was splitting open. She snatched her bag off the end of her bed and headed for the door, ignoring the looks she knew had to be being exchanged behind her back.

She caught sight of herself in the mirror on the wall as she went, heart dropping in surprise at the ugly scowl and dark shadows that marred her expression. A glint of gold caught her eye and Bloom stumbled to a stop, looking closer, but when she blinked it was blue eyes that blinked back at her.

"Bloom?" Flora asked and she quickly averted her eyes from the mirror.

"We're going to miss breakfast if we stand around here and bicker," she said, hearing herself as if from a great distance.

"She's right," Flora sighed. "Come on."

---

Hiding in an abandoned hallway of Cloud Tower, the Trix still weren't over being foiled the night before.

"That stupid Tecna tricked us!" Stormy bellowed, her voice muffled by the anti-detection spell Darcy had cast around them.

Icy scoffed. "As if! I wouldn't give that loser that much credit."

Darcy crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, an eyebrow arched in disbelief. "You don't think it was a trap? You think the fairies really have no idea where the next piece of the codex is?"

"I'm certain they don't know, but Griffin does." Icy's eyes glittered with malice. "I can't believe she's still on their side."

Darcy sniffed. "Every day this place slips further into disrepute."

"Darkar shouldn't have called us back last night," Stormy growled. "We could have taken the old bitch."

Icy fingered the necklace around her throat, resisting the urge to rip it off. Privately she agreed with her coven-sister, but still harbouring the suspicion that Darkar could hear every word they spoke, she didn't comment.

"So what's our next move?" is all she asked.

Darcy shifted restlessly. "What if we keep sending out energy into the school anyway?"

"But we know the codex isn't in the heart?"

"But it's here somewhere. If we keep sending our power into the heart, we can take control, and force Cloud Tower to reveal its secrets."

Icy's lip turned up in a cold smile. "I like it. And, if we take control of the tower we get the added bonus of forcing it to give up those annoying fairies. We can pick them off one by one."

Delighted by the idea, the coven-sisters shared a laugh and got to work.

---

Unlike the day before, the girls got through their second day at Cloud Tower without incident. Either they'd won their fellow classmates and teachers over by racing to defend the heart of the school the night before, or they'd simply grown bored of messing with them because the day was unusually ordinary.

Still, something about the school put the girls on edge and they found themselves getting increasingly tired and irritable the longer they spent within its gloomy walls. Tecna had explained that it was the sheer amount of witch magic in the place that was so at odds with their own. Mirta, she'd gone on to say, had likely felt just as unsettled when she'd started at Alfea. It was an adjustment.

The long winded explanation had of course prompted Stella to call her a know-it-all and yet another argument had broken out.

Bloom wasn't looking forward to being cooped up in the dorm with the others once class ended and was just considering slipping away to the library to find a quiet corner to herself when Zarathustra stopped them in the corridor.

"Headmistress Griffin has requested to see you in her office," the teacher said, somehow managing to look down her nose at them despite being significantly shorter. "Right away," she added when they didn't move.

"Why?" Musa asked but Zarathustra just blinked, turned on her heel, and walked away in the direction of the office.

"Witches have such lovely manners, don't they?" Layla said in an undertone to Musa, making her laugh.

"Come on," Bloom sighed, visions of a solitary afternoon vanishing. "We'd better go find out what she wants." As she moved to follow Zarathustra the headache that hadn't eased all day gave a warning throb.

When they arrived it was to find Griffin, Mirta, Lucy, and Zing - who had taken to following Lucy around at all times - already waiting for them.

"Please, take a seat," Griffin said, gesturing to the row of unoccupied chairs that she'd summoned for them. "Unsurprisingly, Icy, Darcy, and Stormy have not given up after their retreat last night. Early this morning, they launched a renewed attack on the school."

The girls exchanged glances. "We didn't notice anything," Bloom said. "No. It seems they've finally learnt something because they've gone with a much subtler approach this time. They're sending their magic through its veins in an attempt to take control. I don't think I need to tell you that we can't let that happen."

"They could force the castle to reveal the location of the codex," Flora said, looking troubled by the thought.

Griffin nodded gravely. "Not only that, but Cloud Tower itself would become our enemy. The more power they send into the school the more they'll be able to manipulate its walls until there would be no place to hide."

"And there's no way we'd survive that," Lucy said gravely.

Mirta rubbed her girlfriend's shoulder comfortingly. "We won't let it get that far."

"No, we won't. But for that, I'll need your help." Griffin reached into her desk drawer and withdrew a handful of small gemstones that were coloured a dull red. "I've prepared these stones; they have powerful tracking abilities and I've keyed them to the magical signatures of Icy, Darcy, and Stormy. They'll light up whenever they detect those signatures nearby."

"There are four," Tecna noted.

"Yes. You'll need to split up to cover as much ground as possible, but it would be inadvisable to wander Cloud Tower alone. Particularly when it's not completely in my control. I've already confined all the other students to their dorms and just have to hope that will keep them safe."

"Should we split up at all?" Flora fretted. They'd just agreed that morning to work together, splitting up felt counterproductive.

"You'll never be able to search the entire school in one group. But I can teach you a simple spell that will allow you to communicate. Merely put your hand on the wall and the incantation 'exclaimo' and the name of who you want to communicate with and a passage will appear, allowing you to talk."

"What about you?" Bloom asked bluntly. "What exactly will you be doing while we're risking our safety trying to track down the Trix?"

Standing in the corner, Zarathustra made an angry sound low in her throat, but Griffin merely blinked calmly. "I'll be pouring my own magic into the castle and trying to wrestle control back of course. Now, do you all agree to help?"

In the end it wasn't really a question. If there was something they could do to stop the Trix and Darkar getting their hands on another piece of the codex and being one step closer to the Ultimate Power, they were going to do it of course. There was only the matter of deciding who the pairs would be.

But as they nodded and glanced at one another to work out who would pair up with who, Griffin spoke again. "Excellent. Tecna and Bloom, your stone." She reached over her desk and dropped one of the red gemstones into Tecna's hand. "Musa and Stella. Flora and Layla. Lucy and Mirta." With each pair, she handed out another of the red gemstones until they were all gone.

The girls looked uncertainly at one another. The six fairies considered each of the others as their best friends and they certainly tried to not have smaller cliques within the group. Yet as Griffin abruptly split them up, they were faced with the slightly awkward reality these were likely not the pairs they would have chosen, given the choice.

None of them would ever admit that out loud however, so they forced smiles on their faces and nodded, getting to their feet and heading for the door.

"Remember," Griffin said, watching them go. "Help is merely a spell away."

"Yes Headmistress," they chorused and left the office.

"Well," Bloom said once they were on the other side of the hall. "Guess there's no sense putting this off." Despite her words, the red headed fairy hesitated, scuffing the toe of her sneaker against the threadbare carpet.

"We'll take the east wing," Layla said finally.

"We'll go west," Tecna offered.

"We'll head into the basement," Lucy said, arms folded and expression guarded.

"Guess that leaves us with the towers," Musa said to Stella.

Even though they'd decided on their directions, they all hung around for another few moments, not really saying anything but hoping that their silence would speak volumes.

"Please be careful, you guys," Flora said, looking at them all worriedly.

"We'll be fine, right, Stell?" Musa said, nudging the blonde in the ribs before heading for the nearest staircase.

Stella huffed a laugh and followed her.

"See you guys later," Mirta said, slipping her arm through Lucy's and heading off.

Bloom and Tecna turned to go as well but the redhead hesitated when she noticed Flora still looking at her.

"What?" she asked, her voice coming out a touch sharper than she'd intended.

"Nothing," Flora said quietly. "Just please be careful."

Bloom opened her mouth to respond but found she didn't have anything to say. So she just offered a short nod instead and followed Tecna down the hall.

Flora watched them go, a troubled expression playing on her face, until Layla touched her arm gently. "Come on, Flora. Let's go."

---

Hidden in an empty classroom several floors up, the Trix used their growing control over the tower to watch the fairies.

"Aww," Stormy crooned, watching them separate. "How sweet. They're so worried about one another."

"They should be," Darcy put in. "Splitting up will just make it easier for us to pick them off."

"Perfect," Icy purred. "We'll need something to amuse us while we wait to have complete control over the tower."

---

"I don't know how the witches study in a place like this," Flora said as she and Layla walked, trying to make conversation. Much like the night before, the tower was full of sounds as it shifted and settled.

"Study? I don't know how they sleep," Layla replied, thinking of her own restless night.

Flora cast her a sidelong look. "You didn't sleep well either?"

Layla glanced at her friend in surprise, not having noticed any of the others awake through the night.

"I had several very strange dreams," Flora clarified. "You?"

"Yeah, weird dreams and I kept waking up. So did Bloom," Layla added without thinking.

Flora paused nearly imperceptibly, before she kept walking. Voice a little too casual, she asked, "Do you think she's okay? Bloom?"

Layla was quiet, remembering the sight of Bloom's tense face through the gloom of the night, thinking of the shadows that lingered in her eyes even after her sight was returned, of the sharpness in her voice that was there more often than not these days.

"I don't know," she said finally.

Flora sighed unhappily. "I'm worried-"

"What's wrong with Bloom?" Zing asked, popping up behind Flora's shoulder, the fairy nearly jumping out of her skin in surprise.

"Oh, nothing, Zing," she said, not wanting the pixie to worry. "I think this place is just getting to her a bit."

Zing frowned as she zoomed in circles around the fairies. "I don't know why. This place is great!"

Layla laughed. "You always were one of a kind, Zing."

Zing did a few somersaults through the air at that, as if to further prove Layla's point before announcing she was going to go find Lucy and Mirta.

"Have fun," Layla chuckled, watching as the pixie disappeared down the gloomy hallway. The smile slid from her face however when the gem in Flora's hand suddenly flared with a bright red light.

"The Trix," Flora said, voice dropping to a whisper. "They must be nearby."

Layla and Flora instantly turned around, putting their backs together so they could scan both directions of the hallway for the witches. The hallway was long and straight with few possible hiding places, but the light of the gem didn't lie.

They were so concerned by what might be creeping up the hallway towards them, that neither noticed the doorway forming in the ancient stone, until a figure had stepped out from it, and clicked the door shut behind them.

Flora gave a little shriek at the noise while Layla whirled around, heart beating hard, in time to see the doorway fading back into the stonework.

Griffin's mouth curled up into an amused smirk. "Bit jumpy, are we?"

"Professor Griffin," Flora sighed, tension easing from her shoulders slightly. "I think this just put us on edge a little." She gestured to the gem which was still glowing a steady, bright red.

"Ah," Griffin said, eyeing the gem. She didn't seem surprised or worried to see it emitting the light, nor did she glance either right or left to look for the Trix.

Layla's brow creased. "I thought you were staying in your office to take back control of the school?"

Griffin waved idly to the wall behind her. "I have been, I was just testing how much control the Trix have managed to wrest from me. Clearly, Cloud Tower still acknowledges my authority to some degree."

"Right," Layla said, and they all pretended not to hear the suspicion in her voice.

Griffin didn't comment on it, and merely said, "Stay vigilant, girls," before taking her leave, this time through an archway that disappeared as soon as Griffin stepped through it.

Layla stared at the place she'd disappeared for a long moment, as if making sure she was really gone, before her eyes flicked to the gem still clutched in Flora's hand. The red light continued to shine as they set off down the hallway once more but there was no sign of either the Trix or Griffin.

---

Upstairs, Stella and Musa's gemstone hadn't so much as flashed once while they searched the upper floors of the Cloud Tower so they'd resorted to arguing about music to pass the time.

"You're out of your mind," Musa cried, having nearly forgotten all about the gem that Stella had shoved into the pocket of her skirt. "'Excessive Baggage' is a much hotter album than 'Anger Management'."

"That's not a high bar," Stella shot back. "'Anger Management' was a total flop."

Musa rolled her eyes. "I can't even talk to you when you're being like this."

Despite the lack of light from their gem she shoved open a nearby door anyway, figuring it was better to be safe than sorry. Her mouth dropped open in surprise at the state of the classroom beyond and Stella came closer to peek in over her shoulder.

"Woah," Stella said. "Speaking of anger management…"

The classroom seemed to have once been a potions lab but had long been sitting unused if the thick layer of dust was any indication. Abandonment, however, didn't explain the sorry state it had been left in. There was hardly a vial or jar that hadn't been smashed, most of the lab benches had been overturned, and the teacher's desk had been totally reduced to splinters.

Stella and Musa hesitantly stepped further into the room, glass crunching beneath their feet.

"Think it's safe to say that our friend, Stormy, blew through here," Stella remarked, eyes tracing over the wreckage.

"Yeah. She's not still around, is she?"

Stella dug the gem out of her pocket, but it was dull and lifeless, not even a glimmer of light. She showed it to Musa, shrugged, and stuffed it back into her pocket.

"Okay," Musa said, blowing out a breath. "Let's keep looking."

---

As Bloom and Tecna walked the western hallways of the school, Bloom was so distracted by the memory of her dream the night before that it took her a while to notice that her partner was being equally quiet. Tecna, who's chatter levels tended to depend on how much caffeine she'd consumed that day, had been completely silent the entire time, seemingly as lost in thought as Bloom had been.

Grimacing, and forcing herself to put the dream aside for now, Bloom spoke up, thinking she had an idea what was bothering her friend. "It was a good idea, you know?"

Tecna startled and glanced at her.

"Guessing the codex was in Cloud Tower's heart," Bloom clarified. Tecna sighed. "It was a ridiculously illogical leap in reason." "It made sense."

"Something making sense isn't the same as it being statistically likely." She cast Bloom a small smile. "But thanks for trying to make me feel better. I was just- I guess I was trying- never mind."

Bloom hesitated. Tecna wasn't like her other friends; if Musa and Layla were guarded about their emotions, then Tecna was a downright vault and Bloom had long suspected it would take a patient hand to crack into Tecna's heart. Part of it, she knew, was that Zenith didn't hold much time or patience for matters of emotion and Tecna just wasn't in the practice of sharing them. Pushing her too far was just as likely to make her shut down as it was to get her to actually share something.

So, Bloom almost let the subject drop.

But then a quiet voice at the back of her head whispered, Ask. Push her. Just a little.

Bloom cocked her head. "Is this about Timmy?" she asked gently.

Tecna stiffened, blood rushing to her cheeks. "I've just been trying to be more spontaneous lately. Being too logical can make you predictable."

Tecna hadn't acknowledged Timmy and hardly aware she was doing it, Bloom filed that information away for later.

"Do you think he'll like you more if you're spontaneous?"

Bloom wasn't sure what made her say the words but distant amusement flashed through her at Tecna's imperceptible wince.

"Timmy and I are just friends," Tecna said briskly. "And that's the way it's going to stay."

There was a barely noticeable twinge of regret to her words and Bloom filed yet another sliver of information away.

"Now, I've been thinking," she continued, and Bloom let her change the subject. "There's a technical charm I read about the other day that might be able to enhance the stone's power."

They ducked into a nearby classroom and sat at one of the desks, Tecna placing the gem on the table between them where it lay quiet and lifeless.

"I just have to scan it," she explained, producing her hand-held. "Then the charm will multiply its power against itself and it will cover a much bigger area."

"If charms like this exist, why don't magical users just constantly use them on themselves to increase their power?"

"It only works on stable magic."

"Our magic's unstable?" Bloom wasn't sure she liked the sound of that.

"Unstable isn't the right word. But it is in a constant state of flux, it depletes when we're tired and can grow stronger with our emotions. The constant change makes this charm ineffective."

"Hmmm," Bloom hummed thoughtfully.

"Alright, this may take a minute or two."

A green laser emerged from the hand-held, scanning the gem's dimensions and reading its magical output. A stream of numbers started to appear on the screen which captured Tecna's attention while Bloom felt her own mind wander back to the figure from her dream.

Whenever she'd expressed her worries about her increasingly intense dreams with Avalon during their private sessions he'd always assured her that it was normal, that they could even hold a hidden meaning. Bloom didn't think it was a coincidence that she was frequently dreaming of a figure that looked nearly identical to herself. She felt like she was right on the edge of something, of that next level of power that Avalon was always assuring her she was so close to, she was just waiting for it all to click into place.

So close.

She was so close. Avalon had told her that over and over. She'd studied her family tree, read every scrap of information she could find on her family, and had even done her best to come to terms with everything she'd been through the year before. Genealogy was all about understanding the past in order to get stronger. She had to be close.

So very close.

"Bloom?"

"Hmmm?"

Bloom blinked away the sudden pressure behind her eyes and was startled to find she'd gotten up and wandered to the door without even realising it. She blinked a few more times before twisting to find Tecna watching her with a bemused smile.

"I know it's a bit boring to wait but I'd rather not spend another afternoon encased in ice, if you don't mind staying with me."

Bloom forced a chuckle and returned to the desk, sliding into the chair and gripping it with white knuckles. "Of course. Sorry, I guess my mind was just wandering and it took me with it. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

Tecna's smile turned grateful, before her attention was captured by the hand-held once again and she gestured excitedly to the screen. "Oh, look, it's almost done."

---

Seated at her desk, Griffin was so absorbed in her thoughts that she'd almost forgotten that Zarathustra still stood, patient and silent, in the corner. Coming to a decision, Griffin rose and went to the bookshelves tucked away in an alcove of her office. The books shelved there were dusty and had long sat unread, part of the private library that was only to be accessed by the Headmistress.

Running a careful finger along their spines that left a streak of grey dust on her maroon gloves, Griffin carefully selected an ancient looking text.

"Headmistress Griffin," Zarathustra said, making Griffin pause. "Where are you taking the tome of the founding coven?"

Griffin's hands tightened on the text. As the spell book put together by the three witches who had first built Cloud Tower, Griffin was the only person permitted to read its contents, but the entire staff of Cloud Tower knew how to identify the text from its cover.

"To the heart of the school," she finally said, gathering a few more supplies from her desk. "The Trix were right to have gone there, it's the most direct way to funnel power into the entire school. If we have any hope of wrestling control back, that is where I must go."

"You don't think the witches will have gone back there?" Zarathustra queried. A gleam of understanding flickered in her dark eyes. "That's why you have sent the fairies on the wild goose chase, to draw them out."

Griffin's lips curled in a faint smile. "Icy, Darcy, and Stormy are young, they still allow themselves to be consumed by petty revenge rather than seeing the bigger picture. If they are distracted by the need to pick them off, it will be to their downfall and our gain."

"How wicked," Zarathustra purred, delighted by the plan. "I love live bait."

Some of the amusement faded from Griffin's expression as she cut her deputy an indecipherable look. "Do not fall into the same ignorance that befalls the Trix, Zarathustra," she warned her colleague. "The fairies are strong enough to be a threat even while divided."

Forgetting herself for a moment, Zarathustra snorted in derision. "Do not think I didn't notice that you put the fairies in their weakest pairs."

"I did," Griffin admitted. "But that was for their benefit not to aid the Trix. If the fairies can strengthen the weakest bonds among them, they will truly be unstoppable."

"Why-"

Griffin fingered the crystal ball on her desk, a troubled expression crossing her face. "I sense we are going to need the fairies at their best very soon. If they aren't, if there is a single crack in their resolve…"

"Lord Darkar is a threat to be sure but-"

"Not Darkar." Griffin grimaced. "The Shadow Phoenix is a formidable threat and one that will take all of us to overcome… but more stirs on the horizon. I can only hope the things I have foreseen do not come to pass, and that we are ready if they do."

And with those haunting words, Griffin swept from her office and strode for the heart.

---

Mirta eyed the doorway leading down into the dungeons beneath the school, knowing that her girlfriend likely wouldn't like what she was about to suggest.

"Do you think we should check down there?" she asked, nodding at the door in question.

Lucy, who had been keeping a careful eye on the gem in her hand to make sure it hadn't lit up, dragged her eyes away. She shuddered when she saw what Mirta meant, the sight dredging up memories of being imprisoned down there the year before by the Trix. She would never admit it aloud, but Lucy avoided this part of the school as much as possible.

"I know," Mirta said sympathetically, reading the trepidation on her face. "But it would be a good place to hide out. No one ever really goes down there."

"For good reason," Lucy muttered, remembering how damp and dingy it had been.

"Hey," Mirta said softly, coming over to touch her hand. "You don't have to be scared. I'll be with you."

Lucy forced out a false sounding laugh. "I'm not scared."

Mirta didn't respond, just watched her with a patient expression and finally Lucy sighed.

"It's just…"

"What?"

"I hate how much power the Trix have over me. I always tell myself I'm not going to let them walk all over me, that this time I'm going to fight back and actually win, but I can never do it."

Mirta's heart broke at the misery on Lucy's face and she found herself rising on tiptoe to slip her arms around her girlfriend's shoulders, pulling her in for a tight hug.

"Hey," she murmured again into her ear. "The Trix are strong and they don't play fair. There's no shame in going down fighting when it's three on one. What matters is you always get up and try again. And that this time I'm going to be right by your side and not let the Trix do anything to hurt you. Okay?"

Lucy heaved in a deep shuddering breath that made Mirta think she was fighting back tears, but nodded her head against Mirta's chest. "Okay."

"Well. Wasn't that sweet?"

The two girls drew apart in surprise at the voice, Lucy surreptitiously wiping her face, and they turned to find Griffin striding down the hallway towards them. They were so startled by her sudden appearance that neither of them noticed the soft glow that the gem had started giving off, its light getting stronger the closer Griffin got.

"Headmistress," Lucy said in surprise, trying to regain some of her composure. "We were just-"

She broke off as she finally noticed the light of the gem, her expression growing horrified. Mirta looked over and her own mouth parted in shock as she too noticed the gem. In unison they whirled back just in time to see Griffin smile and wink at them before changing into Darcy with a flash of bright light.

"Surprise," she cooed and neither Lucy nor Mirta had time to do anything as a wave of purple magic came flying at them.

---

Bloom propped her chin in her hand and studied the projection of the school that Tecna's hand-held had created.

"So, how does this work exactly?"

"Now that I've charmed the gem to increase it's range, it's ability to track Icy, Darcy, and Stormy has expanded to cover the entire school. I've pulled up a physical rendering of the school so that we'll have a visual aid. Once they sync up we'll be able to see exactly where the Trix are on the map."

"Why do I feel like there's a catch?" Bloom asked suspiciously, thinking it all sounded too good to be true.

Tecna grimaced. "Well, I think it's highly likely the gem won't work at all while it's syncing, which could take a few minutes."

"So, we'll have no warning system."

"Correct."

Bloom sighed but pushed the gem closer to Tecna. Surely they could take care of themselves for a couple of minutes.

"Go ahead," she said, and found herself hoping she hadn't just jinxed them.

---

"I hate this place," Layla muttered to Flora as they traversed the hallways of the school. It looked nothing like her castle back home and yet the narrow corridors and constant gloominess reminded her of childhood years spent locked inside.

Flora sighed a little. "There's enough negative emotions messing with our magic right now," she chided gently. "We shouldn't add hatred to them."

"Fine," Layla said, trying not to sound petulant. "I strongly, strongly dislike this place then."

Flora opened her mouth to respond but broke off, whirling around to stare behind them.

"What is it?" Layla asked, her irritation melting away.

"I thought I heard something… probably this place just getting to me a little."

Despite her words they both continued to peer down the hall until there was the sudden motion of something flying right at them. They stumbled back a few steps, both trying to hold their ground while they spared a glance at the gem, quiet and dull in Flora's hand.

Then the thing flying at them started screaming.

"They're coming out of the walls! They're coming out of the walls! Look out!"

Losing her head completely, Layla transformed with a bright flash of light, and summoned two orbs of water to her hands.

The gloom of the hallway finally parted enough to show that it was Zing who was flying at them, dressed in an astronaut's white suit, complete with hard helmet. But Layla only relaxed fractionally at the sight of her.

"What is it?!"

Zing skidded to a stop in midair and cracked a massive grin. "Oh nothing, that's just from one of Bloom's Earth DVDs about the scary space aliens."

Layla inhaled sharply through her nose and told herself that Zing wouldn't appreciate the dousing of water that she really wanted to hit her with. Flora chuckled weakly.

"No more of Bloom's horror movies for you."

"Zing," Layla said tightly, still trying to convince herself to dismiss the churning orbs of water in her hands. She squeezed her fists and the magic vanished. "I thought you were going to find Lucy and Mirta."

Zing frowned, cocking her head. "I tried, but I couldn't find them anywhere." She shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "Lucy's so cool. Don't you just think she's so-"

"Wait," Flora said, her forced amusement fading. "They weren't downstairs."

"Not that I could see."

Layla looked at Flora and found an expression of concern there that mirrored her own worry.

"Oh, screw this pairs bullshit. I'm contacting them and seeing if they want to meet up." She placed her hand on the wall and tried to recall the incantation that Griffin had taught them. "Exclaimo Mirta!"

The bricks by her hand immediately shifted, opening an ear-shaped passage that disappeared into darkness. At any other time, the sight might have made Layla smile, but she was too on edge.

Leaning into the passage and hoping she'd invoked the spell correctly, she called, "Mirta? Lucy? It's Layla, can you hear me?"

Zing flew over and settled on the lip of the passage. Pretending to speak into a radio in her suit she called, "Houston to Mirta, over."

"Why wouldn't they answer?" Flora asked anxiously, twisting the bracelet on her wrist. "They would if they could, right?"

"Yeah," Layla sighed, leaning away from the passage as the bricks slowly shifted to close it back up again. Her gaze connected with Flora's, worry growing between them. "Something's not right."

---

"How can you say 'Drop It' is the single of the year?!" Stella demanded as she and Musa burst into the dining hall to search it.

It was strange to see the large space so deserted; from what they'd seen in their time at Cloud Tower so far there was nearly always at least a few people snacking at strange times of the day or else utilising the ample table space to study or work on projects. But the hall was as deserted as the rest of the school.

Stella barely noticed as she continued to rant. "That low-fi, inter-realm, sample heavy crunk is so last decade."

Musa rolled her eyes. "Literally none of that made sense. Do you even know what any of those phrases mean, Stella?"

She lifted her nose. "I don't need to to know a bad song when I hear one."

Musa scoffed, her expression turning to amazement when Stella marched to the nearest table and plopped herself down at it, folding her arms across her chest resolutely.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not going anywhere until you admit I'm right."

"Have you finally lost your last two brain cells," Musa shot back.

"We're trying to stop the Trix from getting the next piece of the codex and you want to sit around arguing top fives?"

Stella lifted a delicate shoulder in a half-shrug. "I resent that you always think your musical opinion is superior to everyone else's just because you're from the Harmonic Nebula. Besides," she continued loudly when Musa opened her mouth furiously. "I was also thinking that if the Trix are on the move, we might miss them if we're on the move too. If we stay in one place they're bound to find us eventually."

That drew Musa up short, but the fairy recovered smoothly. "We don't even know if they are on the move. They could be holed up somewhere channelling their magic into the school while we're sitting around waiting for them to find us. Plus, why would they come here of all places?"

"For a coffee? A snack? The evil bitches need to eat too, you know?" That got a smile out of Musa. Still she wavered. "I don't know…"

"If we stay here, we'll be ready for when they come, and we can be on the attack right away."

"Yeah, right," Musa scoffed but she came over and sat with Stella at the table. "You'll be too busy arguing that you probably won't even notice when they get here."

Musa didn't know how true her words were, for below the table, out of sight in Stella's pocket, the ruby gemstone had begun to glow.

---

Syncing the gem's power to the map seemed to take forever to Bloom. It was not helped by Tecna coming up with the idea halfway through to alter the gem's magic slightly so they would also pick up the three other gems and show them on the map, adding minutes to the process.

Bloom paced the classroom, not sure how Tecna could sit there so calmly waiting for it to finish.

Too long. Too long. It was taking too long.

"Tecna-!" Bloom began furiously, right as Tecna sat up straighter in her chair.

"Alright, we're online." She casted Bloom a curious look. "What were you going to say?"

Bloom rubbed her forehead and headed over to have a look at the map. "Nothing," she muttered. "How are we looking?"

Tecna's eyes scanned rapidly over the schematic, multiple blinking dots making more sense to her than they did to Bloom. "There's us," she said, pointing to one bright red dot. "The Trix are together," she added, pointing to a cluster of blue, purple, and darker red dots.

Bloom frowned at the map. "That's the dining hall?"

"Yeah- oh."

Bloom's head snapped up. "'Oh' what?"

Tecna looked worried and pointed to another bright red dot just off to the side of the Trix. "There's a gem there."

Bloom's stomach dropped. "That should be Stella and Musa, right?" She was already rushing to the wall where, not waiting for an answer, she pressed her palm to the wall and cried, "Exclaimo, Stella! Guys!" she yelled when the passage opened. "It's Bloom! Guys, can you hear me?!"

But there was no answer.

Tecna hurried over and pressed her ear to the passage. "Wait, what's that noise?"

Not even daring to draw breath in case it muffled the noise, Bloom and Tecna both listened intently at the passage. A grunt. A cry of pain. The sound of a body colliding with something hard. Bloom and Tecna looked at one another in horror when they realised what they were hearing.

"Stella!" Bloom cried, slamming her fist into the brick, barely noticing the blackened hand print she left in her wake.

"Musa!" Tecna yelled.

"We have to get to them!" Bloom said and they sprinted from the room.

---

"I really think I had a future in interior design," Darcy said thoughtfully, stroking her chin as she considered the wall where she had Stella and Musa pinned. They glared back at her resentfully.

"But would you ever give up the chance to do all this?" Icy asked with a smirk.

Darcy cackled. "Never."

The fight had been swift, but brutal, and unfortunately Stella and Musa hadn't seen it coming. Not to mention they'd underestimated just how much influence the Trix had gained over the castle. It had been hard to fight when the ground kept tipping underneath them and the walls had warped to snatch at them.

As it was, their undoing had been the walls themselves reaching out to swallow them, and they'd only just managed to keep their heads and sections of their torsos free. The rest of their limbs were stuck fast.

"So," Stormy crooned, sauntering towards them, smile widening when they struggled to free themselves. "What to do with you now." She reached out to take a hold of Musa's chin, a manic delight in her eyes, but snatched her hand back when the fairy snapped her teeth at her, coming dangerously close to her fingers.

Icy strode forward to join her coven-sister. "We've already picked off two of you, you know?" she spat, smirking when some of the ferocity melted from Musa's face and Stella went pale.

"Who?" Stella croaked, hating the waver in her voice.

"Oh, I think I'll leave you to find that out. If we decide to let you live that is. I can't say we afforded the same pleasure to your little friends."

"They're dead?"

"Not yet, maybe. But they will be soon."

"You fucking-" Musa started, her words pure venom, but she was cut off by Darcy.

"Something's fighting us," the witch said, amusement gone from her words as a frown creased her forehead. "Someone's trying to take control back."

Icy and Stormy turned away from their captured prey.

"Griffin," Icy spat. She turned cold eyes on the fairies. "You pixies got lucky. When we end you once and for all it's going to be slow, and it's going to be painful. But we have to deal with a little annoyance."

"Don't go anywhere," Stormy simpered mockingly, and the trio strode from the dining hall.

Stella and Musa were deathly silent as they watched them go.

"Not that I have a finger to point right now," Stella began, clearly trying to rally herself to find some humour in the situation.

Musa turned her head as much as she could. "You're blaming me?! Are you fucking kidding me? You had the gem and weren't even looking at it."

The pair lapsed into a furious silence.

Eventually, reluctantly, Musa asked, "Who do you think-?"

"No," Stella snapped. "I can't do it. I can't think about that when I can't do anything to help them."

"Ignoring the situation won't stop it from happening. But that's your M.O., isn't it, Stella? Ignore it or deflect with humour so you don't have to face anything real."

"You think you're so different, Musa?" Stella shot back, voice savage. "What about your feelings for Riven? Talk about ignoring something real. So go fuck yourself. Seriously, just go fuck yourself."

And glaring in opposite directions, the pair fell, once more, into a tense silence.

---

Bloom and Tecna were flying so fast that they nearly missed the ear-shaped hole as it opened on the wall beside them.

"Bloom!" Tecna gasped, skidding to a stop and backtracking.

Bloom reluctantly slowed and then hurried back to her friend when she realised why Tecna had stopped. Heart in her throat, she was hoping to hear Stella or Musa's voice and was marginally disappointed when it was Layla's disembodied voice that drifted from the passage.

"Bloom? Tecna? Are you guys there?"

"We're here," Tecna said hurriedly. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're fine, but we think something's happened to Lucy and Mirta. We can't get a hold of them and when Zing went looking for them, she couldn't find them."

Bloom and Tecna exchanged worried looks.

"We're worried about Stella and Musa as well," Bloom said. She quickly explained how Tecna had enhanced the gem's power. "And we saw the witches cornering someone in the dining hall."

Layla let out a groan of combined frustration and worry, while Flora murmured anxiously in the background.

"Splitting up was stupid!" Layla exclaimed. "We need to meet up and help the others. Where are you?"

Bloom and Tecna pulled away from the passage and tried to identify the hallway they were in but it looked frustratingly identical to the rest of the school. Tecna looked at her hand-held which was still projecting a map of the campus, but she just shook her head.

"This place is like a maze."

"Meet us at the dining hall," Bloom told Layla decisively. "We know Stella and Musa should be there and then we can find Lucy and Mirta."

"Okay, see you there." There was a beat of silence, then, "And be careful, guys."

"You too."

The passage closed and Bloom regretfully stepped away, hating to lose that connection with her friends. With four of her friends injured or worse, she wished Layla and Flora were with them right then.

"Come on," Tecna said. "The sooner we get to the dining hall the sooner we'll see the others."

"Yeah," Bloom muttered, but she was distracted by the map the hand-held was still projecting.

"What is it?" Tecna asked when Bloom hesitated.

"The Trix," she muttered. "They're leaving."

Bloom's brain went into overdrive. Stella and Musa's gem hadn't moved from the dining hall and yet something was making the Trix leave. The gem gave no indication about the welfare of her friends but Bloom had to think that the Trix would have loved tormenting them for longer.

"We should go after the Trix," she said.

Tecna stared at her aghast. "We just told Layla and Flora we'd meet up with them! Stella, Musa, Lucy, and Mirta could all be in trouble!"

Bloom bristled at Tecna's tone. "I know that but Layla and Flora are already on their way there, they'll help them, and then find Lucy and Mirta. We can't let the Trix get the codex."

Seeing the resolute look on Bloom's face, Tecna was faced with the realisation that there was no way she'd change her friend's mind. She looked desperately at the map. "Look," she said quickly, indicating the direction the Trix were moving. "Based on how the Trix are moving and where we are, even if we continue to the dining hall we should intercept them. Let's just keep going and then we'll decide if they change course."

Bloom's mind worked furiously, as she watched the Trix on the map slowly move towards them. "Alright," she said finally. "But as soon as they change course, we follow them."

"Okay," Tecna agreed and together they took a few steps before launching back into the air.

They flew fast and silently, Tecna speaking only to direct them, both their thoughts consumed by the welfare of their friends and the location of the Trix. They only broke the silence when they took a corner that should have opened into a large student lounge but nearly collided with a solid wall instead.

"What the hell, Tec?!"

"What?" Tecna said in surprise, scanning her map. "This shouldn't be here."

Bloom flew right up to the wall and banged it angrily with a fist. "Well, it is. You must have read the map wrong."

Tecna looked up, eyes flashing. "I didn't. This shouldn't be here."

"Well it is!" Bloom exploded, pounding on the wall a few more times, exhaustion and worry finally catching up with her. "You did this on purpose!"

Tecna scoffed. "Don't be so paranoid, I want to find the Trix as much as you do."

"No!" Bloom burst out. "You wanted us to go to the dining hall first."

"But I agreed to follow the Trix," Tecna argued icily. "Who, can I just point out would have been on track to run right into us if this wall hadn't been here. It was probably the Trix taking control of the school. They're messing with us."

"Come on," Bloom muttered, flying away from the wall and past Tecna without looking at her. "Let's just go."

"Whatever."

---

In the centre of Cloud Tower, Griffin stood with her hands pressed up against the heart, sweat beading at her temples as she poured her magic into it and tried to take back control of her school. The unearthly light of the heart seemed to pulse in time with her own racing heartbeats as she clawed back inch by inch, but it didn't matter, the Trix were too strong. Despite being older and having had many more years to consolidate her power, Griffin was going up against three young witches who's powers had been enhanced by Darkar's mysterious jewels.

She hissed out a breath as a drop of sweat worked its way down her face and finally pulled her hands away. It was working but not fast enough to stop the Trix from ripping apart the school in their search for the codex. So Griffin went to the tome she'd set aside earlier to see if there was anything else she could do to stop them.

---

The silence between Bloom and Tecna had grown tense and awkward but neither of them broke it as they raced along hallways and down corridors. They barely even looked at each other, Bloom only watching her friend out of the corner of her eye to see where Tecna was directing them. They only looked at one another properly when they heard a horrified scream coming from one of the dorms they were passing.

Huffing an irritated sigh at yet another interruption, Bloom stopped and yanked open the door from behind which the scream had come, and nearly dropped out of the air in surprise of what she beheld inside.

Besides the one rogue wall that had blocked the dining hall from them, Bloom and Tecna hadn't seen any other indications that the Trix had control of the tower. But clearly that was because they were focusing their attention elsewhere.

For even though the hallway outside the dorm room was calm, inside was a completely different story; the entire room was shaking back and forth, tossing the witches inside against the rippling walls, and a large fissure had appeared in the floor, where one witch was desperately clinging to the ledge to avoid falling in.

"What happened?" Bloom cried.

"We don't know," one of the witches grunted, trying to battle across the trembling ground to her friend. "The castle just started freaking out."

Bloom and Tecna looked at one another.

"The Trix," Bloom said, Tecna nodding.

"They're going to rip the school apart looking for the next piece of the codex. And the more people they take out as they do…"

"…the less people to fight while they steal it," Bloom said grimly.

Tecna hesitated. "I know you want to get to the Trix but we have to help-"

"Of course we do," Bloom snapped, irritation returning.

Without speaking to one another they zoomed into the room, Bloom diving to catch the girl in the fissure just as her fingers gave out and she started to fall into the eternal darkness. She deposited the trembling witch in the safety of the hallway before going back for her friend, while Tecna rescued their two other dorm-mates.

"Go find somewhere that isn't being affected and hide there," Bloom told them and zoomed off without waiting for a reply.

"We should have helped them find somewhere safe," Tecna said, racing after her. "Or let them come with us."

"There's no time," Bloom shot back. "We wasted so much of it waiting for your spell to work and now the Trix have more control than ever."

"You said it was a good idea!" Tecna said hotly.

Bloom ignored her. "Isn't there any way to use the gem to find the codex before the witches do?"

"The gems are specifically spelled to track the Trix's magic, all I was doing before was enhancing that ability. Technically I could change it to track the codex but without it's magical signature, if it even has one, to use as an example it's accuracy would be imprecise at best. Not to mention it would take a while to set up and that would waste too much time," she spat, her voice poisonous.

"You could have just said you can't do it!"

"I can do it!"

"Trouble in paradise?" a voice crooned from the shadows up ahead.

They'd been so preoccupied arguing with one another that they'd totally missed seeing the Trix coming right at them on Tecna's map. And now here they were, melting right out of the walls and coming to stand in front of them, blocking their way.

"Four down," Darcy said from Icy's right.

"Four to go," Stormy finished from the left, mouth curled up in a cruel smile.

"Our friends better be alright," Bloom spat, fire burning in her eyes.

"Or else what?" Icy simpered. "You fairies are too goodie-goodie to actually do anything to us."

Rage flashed hot and fast through Bloom, and without stopping to consider it she summoned a massive wave of fire, flinging it at the Trix so fast that Icy barely had time to summon her own shield of ice. The flames burned through the ice in a moment, reducing it to steaming water and sending the witches rearing backwards.

Stormy snarled in warning, Darcy eyed her warily, but Icy broke into a wide smile.

"Well, well, well," she murmured. "Looks like someone's finally stepped up to the big leagues."

"Bloom," Tecna whispered, having never seen the level of anger on her friend's face, but Bloom didn't give any indication that she'd heard her.

"We were on our way to deal with Griffin, but maybe we've found a worthy competitor here."

"Cloud Tower getting to you a little bit, Bloom?" Darcy queried, some amusement returning to her face.

"Assist attack," Bloom directed to Tecna out of the corner of her mouth.

Tecna opened her mouth to argue but seemed to think better of it, nodding and muttering back, "You start off, and I'll boost your magic with a multiplication spell."

Once again moving quicker than the Trix could expect, Bloom shot three fireballs at the witches. Tecna's magic intercepted them in midair, multiplying both their size but also their speed so they practically blurred as they flew through the air.

Despite the incredible speed, Icy managed to duck behind yet another ice shield, grunting as the fireball collided with it, while Darcy dissolved into darkness, reappearing behind the girls. Stormy was the only one who didn't move fast enough to avoid the attack, the fireball catching her in the stomach and throwing her to the ground.

She gave a shriek of pain at the hit but managed to pat out the residual embers that were burning holes in her top. Her face bore a grimace of pain but she still gathered her strength enough to roll to one knee and send a retaliatory strike of lightning back at the fairies.

Tecna shielded herself with a wall of green magic but gritting her teeth, Bloom met the attack with her own strike of fire. The resulting explosion blew them all backwards off their feet.

"Are you crazy?"

Tecna stared at Bloom with wide eyes, rubbing absently at her ribs where she'd collided painfully with a stray side table adorning the hallway, but Bloom didn't answer. Instead she grimly pushed herself to her feet, stalking forward to stand over the Trix, fire gathering once more at her palms.

Tecna scrambled to her feet and grabbed her friend's arm, leaping into the air and giving Bloom no choice but to follow. "Come on."

"What are you doing?" Bloom yelled, trying to free her arm and turn back to where the Trix were groaning and struggling to their feet. "We have to-"

"You could have killed us, Bloom," Tecna hissed, stomach rolling as she calculated how much worse the blast could have been.

"I didn't."

"You need to calm down before we face the Trix again-" Tecna broke off and glanced over her shoulder, paling at what she beheld. "They're following us."

"Good." Bloom's face was livid as she still struggled to free herself of Tecna's grip and confront the Trix.

"Bloom, stop!" Tecna's voice was nearing a scream and she dug her fingers into Bloom's arm so hard she'd be surprised if there weren't bruises. "Please, can we just go and meet up with the others."

The fear in Tecna's voice finally broke through Bloom's anger and her body seemed to deflate a little.

"Okay. Okay," she said again. "Let's go."

She finally stopped struggling and flew with Tecna instead of against her making the entire endeavour fractionally easier.

"What if they catch up with us?"

"They won't. We just need to give her enough time," Bloom said, voice so low she almost seemed to be talking more to herself than Tecna.

"Give who enough time?"

An arc of lightning flashed past them and the fairies swerved, Tecna letting out a little yelp while Bloom just set her mouth and flew faster. Ice daggers were next, one catching Bloom on the arm, while a tendril of darkness snaked around Tecna's foot, trying to slow her down. Bloom yanked the dagger free and clapped a hand to the bleeding wound, flying still faster, back straining, while Tecna slowed down, desperately trying to blast the darkness back.

"Bloom!"

Noticing her friend's predicament, Bloom finally glanced back, eyes dark with anger as she unleashed a wave of fire behind her. Tecna winced as it surged over her, but felt only an intense heat rather than the burning flames. It did the trick and the dark magic retreated, leaving her to race towards Bloom waiting at the far end of the corridor.

"Hurry!" Bloom urged.

Tecna had no idea what Bloom was planning, but she didn't have to wait long to find out, because as soon as she reached where Bloom was hovering in midair, a wall slammed up behind them, cutting off the witches. They heard the sound of bodies slamming into the wall, the witches obviously moving too fast to be able to stop in time, followed by screams of rage.

"Griffin," Tecna realised, panting a bit from the ordeal.

Bloom nodded. "She's got control back of the school." The school trembled around them with the Trix's anger. "Well," she reconsidered. "Partial control, anyway."

Taking a beat to get her breath back, Tecna pulled out her hand-held and brought up the map of the school again.

"Good news is the witches chased us straight towards the dining hall, we're almost there."

For a moment Bloom stared back in the direction they'd come where the sounds of the Trix's rage could still be held, a dark sort of longing in her expression.

"Bloom?"

She startled and nodded, turning away without a word and flying in the direction of the dining hall.

To take her mind off the strangeness of the last few minutes, Tecna forced herself to say, "Hopefully, Layla and Flora are almost there."

Her unspoken words hung in the air between them: and hopefully Musa and Stella are alright.

As it happened, Bloom and Tecna flew into the quiet dining hall nearly at the exact same time Layla and Flora emerged from an entrance on the other side of the cavernous space.

"Girls," Flora cried in relief, as she and Layla quickly made her way over to them. She threw her arms around first Tecna, then Bloom. The redhead didn't react for a moment before she slowly returned the hug, burying her face in Flora's shoulder.

Layla, who hadn't embraced them, but had been carefully checking them both over for injuries, spied the blood on Bloom's arm.

"Are you alright?"

Bloom and Flora released each other, and the former glanced down at her arm, having seemed to have forgotten all about her wound.

"We had a run in with the Trix," Tecna said shortly after a brief glance at Bloom.

Layla, with those discerning pale eyes, didn't miss any of it.

"But where are Musa and Stella?" Flora asked, gazing around. "There!" Layla said, pointing to a level two floors up.

"Are they in the wall?" Tecna asked, squinting as they quickly flew into the air.

"Yes," Stella said shortly, as they got closer. "We are in the wall."

They touched down on the platform to find Musa and Stella staring furiously in opposite directions to one another, a tense silence filling the space.

"Well," Layla said, awkwardly breaking the quiet. "Anyone have any ideas about how to get them out?"

As if hearing her words, the wall containing Musa and Stella seemed to sigh, before they abruptly slid free. Stella managed to get her feet under her and quickly stepped away, while Musa tumbled to the ground and scrambled backwards.

"Finally," Musa grouched, accepting Flora's proffered hand up.

"Griffin," Bloom said in explanation. "She's taking back control of parts of the school."

"Good," Flora sighed, gazing around at them all. "Is everyone alright?" "Perfectly," Stella said, voice clipped.

"Fine," Musa grunted.

Tecna and Layla nodded while Bloom said nothing, avoiding her gaze.

Musa's frown deepened. "Icy said something about picking off two of us already. But if you guys are all okay…"

"Mirta and Lucy," Flora gasped.

Musa nodded grimly. "Must be-"

"No," she said. She was looking down at the bottom floor of the dining hall. "Lucy and Mirta, there."

And indeed, emerging from one of the doors leading to the basement, were the two witches, Lucy practically carrying Mirta. Without a word, the fairies shot into the air and fluttered down to the ground, Musa and Layla hurrying forward to help take Mirta's weight. She was bleeding from a head wound but groaned and mumbled something as they eased her into a chair.

"Darcy disguised herself as Griffin," Lucy explained. "She didn't fight us herself, the coward," she added bitterly. "But summoned clones of herself and the other two. They were insane, they didn't stop, no matter what we threw at them. They chased us right through the fucking dungeons, it was so dark down there I couldn't see shit. Then Mirta went down and it was all I could do to keep them from killing her."

"How did you get away?" Flora said around the hand pressed to her mouth.

"I didn't. They just disappeared. Out of nowhere." Lucy shook her head, worried eyes only for her girlfriend. "I couldn't stop them."

The fairies exchanged glances. The Trix wouldn't have let Lucy and Mirta live out of the goodness of their hearts. Darcy's magic disappearing meant it was being redirected elsewhere. This fight wasn't over and they all knew it.

---

"How did this happen?" Stormy screeched, firing lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the walls that trapped them in a section of the hallway. They rebounded off the walls narrowly missing Darcy and Icy. The latter cut her coven-sister a vicious glare that promised pain if any of the lightning strikes hit her.

"How did she get control back so fast?" Darcy wanted to know, mindlessly feeling along the walls for a seam of magic that she could prise open.

"It doesn't matter," Icy snapped.

"You're right, we just need to get control back."

"Forget control! Let's just wipe them all off the face of this planet!" At

Stormy's screeched words an electrical storm burst from her, raining down on the walls, while her sisters reflectively shielded themselves from the magic.

A grumble of anger and impatience flared from their gifted jewellery and they each winced, Stormy's bursts of magic finally fading. Icy's fist closed around her necklace on instinct as she fought against the warring emotions within; her own battling against what Lord Darkar wanted.

"Enough," she said, voice low but firm. "We've wasted too much time and allowed ourselves to be distracted by those fairies. We need to do what we can here to do and get back to Shadowhaunt."

Stormy stared at her aghast, while Darcy's own gaze was guarded. Icy let her eyes flick briefly down to each of her coven-sister's braceleted wrists before meeting their eyes purposefully. The rage finally faded from Stormy as she snarled softly but nodded, Darcy echoing the movement.

Slowing their breathing, the witches turned their magic inwards towards that thread of Cloud Tower's magic that ran through everything around them. They could feel Griffin's vice-tight grip on it in places, but even the headmistress couldn't be everywhere, so they slowly searched until they found a place she'd missed. That would be their way in.

"There," Darcy breathed, the other two nodding blindly.

And using that crevice in Griffin's control, they flooded the school with their magic and started wrestling control back.

---

The fairies sent Mirta off to the infirmary with Lucy's help so she could get checked out, and had a brief discussion about what to do next.

"Where are the witches?" Bloom wanted to know as soon as they disappeared out of sight.

Tecna bit her lip, hesitating momentarily, before bringing up her map. "Right where we left them." She gestured to the three clustered dots not too far from where they stood.

"So they're trapped?" Flora said hopefully.

Tecna nodded. "For now."

"I think we should go get Griffin then," Stella said. "She'll know-"

"No," Bloom cut in. "We can't give them time to get away. We need to deal with them now."

The others exchanged glances.

"I don't think-" Musa started, sounding uncharacteristically uncertain.

But Bloom didn't seem to care what she thought because she'd already set off for the exit closest to the Trix, leading the others to scramble after her.

"Bloom!" Stella yelled. "You can't just-"

"How exactly do you propose we deal with them?" Layla asked, cutting across Stella, eyeing Bloom carefully.

Bloom didn't answer. Mostly because she didn't exactly know. All she knew was there was a fiery rage building in her and she needed to unleash it somehow. On someone.

"Don't interrupt me," Stella spat at Layla as they hurried after Bloom.

"Oh, shove it, Stella," Musa retorted, prompting Stella to tell her exactly where she could shove it.

"Guys, please don't talk to one another like that," Flora said, sounding at her wit's end with their constant bickering.

"Yeah, can we stop arguing for five seconds? We have bigger things to worry about."

Had Bloom been paying more attention to what was going on behind her, she might have paused at what Tecna had said, might have wondered if she was the thing for her friends to worry about. But their voices had become white noise and all she could hear was a little voice in her ear.

Go. Go. Make them regret coming. Make them hurt. Unleash that pain, that anger, make them pay.

Her footsteps seemed to pound against the hallway in synchronisation with the heartbeat pulsing at her temples. She was sure she was almost to where she'd left the Trix when a closed door loomed out of the gloom. She eagerly stretched out a hand to grasp the doorknob and pull it open when it abruptly vanished. But it wasn't just the doorknob that vanished; it was the doorknob, the door, everything.

All of a sudden they were at a dead end and had no way of going forward. The noise of her friends died away as they realised their predicament.

"Did that door just disappear?" Stella asked, coming up beside her to inspect the blank wall.

Bloom's body went suddenly hot and she clenched her fists at the flames of irritation that licked at her. Stella cast her a worried look but she barely noticed.

Layla appeared on her other side and swallowed roughly. "You mean that door?"

She pointed directly above their heads and they all obediently looked up. Sure enough, high on the wall and now upside down, the door had reappeared. Even as they watched it, it seemed to flicker for a moment before vanishing only to appear on the wall to their right. Musa lunged for the handle but her hand passed right through it and the door disappeared once more. They saw it reappear on the opposite wall further back down the hallway, but none of them made a move towards it.

"I don't think we'd want to go wherever that door leads," Stella commented.

"Definitely not," Tecna agreed.

"The tower's going fucking nuts," Musa stated plainly. She was gazing around the hallway where new doors and windows were periodically appearing and disappearing.

The anger in Bloom hit a sudden crescendo and with a growl of irritation she slammed her palm into the wall blocking her way. It was hot under her palm but she didn't wait to see what that meant as she snatched her hand back and turned on her heel to stomp back down the hallway.

Stella didn't move however, staring at the place where Bloom had struck. The place where there was now a dark scorch mark.

"Umm, Bloom?"

"What?" she snapped, turning back.

But before either of them could say anything else, the ground beneath them gave a sudden tremble and split in two. After finding one another, they'd all transformed back into their regular forms in order to preserve energy, a decision they suddenly regretted as the floor completely gave way and they fell into the darkness.

They fell so fast and so suddenly that none of them had the wherewithal to transform midair to save themselves. As it was, the only reason they survived the fall was because of Flora's quick thinking.

Keeping her head even as they plunged all the way to the basement, Flora managed to draw on enough power to summon vines to cover the area beneath them. It wasn't the most comfortable landing as they slammed into it, but it was infinitely better than the hard, stone alternative.

Winded, they all just laid there for a moment, blinking in the complete darkness that surrounded them.

"What the fuck?" Musa gasped, more for something to say than for want of an answer.

"It's the Trix," Layla groaned, shifting a vine that was poking her. "Gotta be."

"Where are we?" Stella said, trying to get up but flopping back down.

"Give me a sec," Tecna said. The blue light of her hand-held appeared out of the black, and she quickly brought up the map. "We fell right into the dungeons. Luckily Flora thought to conjure the vines or best case scenario, we'd all have multiple broken bones right now."

There was a general grumble of appreciation for Flora's quick thinking, followed by a wheezing breath that might have been "no worries".

"Oh no," Tecna said quietly.

"What?" Bloom snapped, trying to force herself upright. Her entire body ached, her head was pounding, and still that horrible anger consumed her.

"The Trix. They're out of Griffin's trap. They've gone outside the castle."

"Are they leaving?" Musa asked sharply.

"They're still in the range of the gem's tracking ability so I don't think so."

"The codex," Bloom said, voice hard. "They've got to be after the codex. Come on, we have to stop them."

The last thing the other fairies wanted to do was get up at that moment, their bodies still complaining after the fall, but something in Bloom's voice brooked no arguments. Not to mention she was already on her feet and struggling over to the nearest staircase that would lead her back to the ground floor of the school. She was going, with or without them.

---

The cool night air kissed the faces of the Trix as they exited the school and stood out on one of the outside walkways. Their magic lifted them into the air and they floated out far enough that they could turn around and look at the school in its entirety.

"Come on," Icy muttered to herself, hand still clenched around her necklace. "Think. Where would they hide the codex?"

"While we're waiting," Stormy said casually, hand on her hip. "Can I just destroy the school a little more?"

"No!"

Darcy ignored them both. Her eyes were tracing over the four spires of Cloud Tower. "You know," she said, almost conversationally. "It's generally accepted that eye level is the worst place to hide something; that's the first place someone would look after all. Which leaves high or low. I don't think they'd put something as important as a piece of the codex in the dungeons. Which just leaves…" Her eyes traced over the spires again.

"The towers are just full of classrooms," Stormy reminded her, rolling her eyes.

"No," Darcy corrected. "Three of the spires have classrooms." Her eyes locked on the topmost spire, its pointed tip digging into the clouds overhead.

Icy blinked in surprise, casting her mind over her four years at Cloud Tower. "There's not even a stairwell leading to the fourth spire," she realised.

Darcy looked over at her and grinned. "Almost as if they don't want us to see what's up there."

Stormy cackled in delight and lightning exploded from her fingers. "Come on," she screeched as she directed her magic to carry her higher.

Shaking their heads, Icy and Darcy followed.

Far below, on the ground, the fairies stumbled out of the castle. As they'd found out, getting out of the darkness of the dungeons had only been half the problem. Finding an exit when walls kept appearing and disappearing, the floor constantly shifted beneath them, and doors vanished on a whim proved nearly impossible until they made it through the front doors of the school completely by accident.

"Thank god, we're out of there," Stella gasped, slamming the door shut behind them.

"But where are the witches?"

Bloom wasn't sure what compelled her to look up, but some instinct called her to do so, squinting to see the Trix flying high into the air.

"There!" she called, pointing. She transformed in a flash of light and shot into the air, the others scrambling to follow her.

But it didn't matter how fast the fairies flew, with their head start the witches were always going to reach the fourth spire first. They landed on the narrow ledge encircling it, wind whipping at their clothing. The bad weather that always plagued Cloud Tower was even worse up here but the witches barely noticed it as they eyed the tower greedily.

They circled it once, twice, but the outside stone work was perfectly preserved, not a single indication where they might be able to get inside.

"How do you suggest we get in?" Darcy asked.

Stormy shot her a feral grin. "We knock politely, of course." Never losing her smile, she hurled a handful of lightning at the stone and it split neatly in two.

Perhaps thinking of the Veritas chamber of Red Fountain, the witches were expecting another chamber dripping with jewels and other precious artefacts.

The inside of the spire paled in comparison to their expectations.

A simple carved out space, the inside of the tower was bare except for the metal box tucked inside. Even if they hadn't known what was inside the box, the surge of excitement that emanated from their jewellery would have informed them. Feeling a little disappointed regardless, the witches glanced at one another and shrugged before Icy reached out a hand to snatch the box.

Her fingers had just brushed the cool metal when a jolt of intense heat hit her square in the back. Jerking her hand back and whirling around, she came face to face with six fairies.

"Try to stick me in a wall?" Stella snarled, her sceptre still raised from the recent attack. "No one makes me a wall ornament!"

"Enough," Bloom said firmly. That rage simmering just below the surface was rapidly approaching boiling point. "We need to attack together."

"I'm getting there," Stella said airily. "But first-"

"No!" Tecna said quickly. "We need to shield the codex first." "Stop interrupting-"

"The codex will be fine, we need to attack-"

"Attack to harm, or attack to capture?"

"Harm!"

"Capture!"

"We just have to do something!"

Frustration ate at Bloom at their indecision and she caught sight of Icy and Darcy smirking at one another, Stormy outright cackling at their bickering. Shaking her head dismissively, Icy turned back on them, reaching for the codex once more.

And that voice whispered in her ear once more: are you just going to let her dismiss us like that? Like we're nothing? We are not nothing!

"Enough!" Bloom cried desperately. "Just do something now!"

The power in her words shocked her friends into action simultaneously, but no thought went into their magic, no planning, all six of them just reacted instinctively to the thought of losing another piece of the codex. And that proved to be their undoing.

Layla and Bloom threw out simultaneous waves of water and fire, the two elements colliding in midair and reducing one another to hissing steam. Musa's sound wave attack bounced off Tecna's electrical attack, sending them both veering horribly off course. Flora conjured vines, but Stella's blast of pure sunlight proved too much for them, vaporising them instantly.

Darcy held up a hand to shade her eyes from the bright sunlight while Stormy stepped neatly out of the path of the heated water vapours, but neither were harmed. Icy picked up the codex and tucked it neatly under her arm.

She glanced back at them and laughed outright at their stunned faces. "Pathetic."

And then before the fairies could even consider what to do next, the Trix vanished in a flash of light, taking the next piece of the codex with them.

---

Bloom sat on the edge of her bed with her head buried in her hands. Behind them, behind her eyes, her head was pounding with the same headache she'd woken up with that morning.

They hadn't just failed to protect the codex, they'd failed spectacularly. They'd failed because they'd been too busy arguing over what to do.

Bloom pressed harder on her face as her head gave a particularly painful throb. Flora had brewed her a cup of tea to help ease the ache but it was sitting untouched and slowly cooling on the bedside table.

It was their fault, the voice hissed. They distracted us. If they hadn't been there we would have stopped them.

Bloom sighed. The thoughts weren't helpful or productive. Even if she couldn't help but remember the way the power had thrummed under her fingertips, the way she'd finally felt powerful in the way Avalon had promised she would. She'd been ready and able to stop the Trix, but still they'd gotten away.

Bloom took her hands away from her face and finally reached for the tea.

Her friends were waiting for her out in the hall, her having promised that she'd be out in a moment, but Bloom couldn't bring herself to move. When they'd contacted Faragonda the night before to inform her of the codex's loss, they'd also requested to come home. Their headmistress' curt response had informed them unequivocally that they were to stay and see out the rest of the week of their exchange. None of them had been thrilled about it.

Griffin hadn't outwardly blamed them when she'd found them, stunned, and the spire, empty, the night before but her deputies sure had, hissing at their incompetency. Bloom was sure the rest of the Cloud Tower staff was going to share their sentiments, and even if the details weren't clear, whispers were going to spread across the student body about their monumental fuck up. Bloom wasn't looking forward to it.

A shuffle and a whisper from outside finally made Bloom stir. She glanced at the door and idly wondered if they were talking about her. She gulped down the rest of her cold tea and forced herself to her feet.

Gathering up her bag, Bloom headed for the door but stopped when something in the mirror caught her attention. Her stomach sank.

That flash of gold she'd thought she saw the day before was no mere glimmer any more, but had grown to cover her entire iris, swallowing the blue entirely. Morbidly captivated, Bloom tilted her head first to the right, then the left, marvelling at the way the gold caught the light. She leaned in closer and her reflection copied her, putting them nose to nose.

"Bloom?!"

Bloom jumped at the sudden voice and she turned to find Stella waiting in the now open doorway, an expression caught somewhere between exasperation and worry. She thought that her friend must have been calling her name for a while.

"Are you ready to go? We're going to miss breakfast if we don't go now."

Bloom just stared at her, waiting for Stella to notice her eyes and say something, but her friend just stood there. Slowly, she turned back to the mirror to find that sure enough the gold was still there.

"What are you looking at?" Stella said, something of a chuckle escaping her. She wandered over to stand just behind Bloom's shoulder, their heads nearly side by side in the reflection. "I think this place is making me break out," she sighed, scrutinising the state of her skin and not seeming to notice the intensity with which Bloom was staring at her own reflection.

"I don't look odd to you?"

Stella's tawny eyes met Bloom's own gold ones in the mirror, and for a second Bloom was expecting her friend to see it, to rear back in shock at the gold hue of her eyes. But Stella just smiled reassuringly at her.

"You look great, as usual. Now can we go?"

Bloom shook her head a little, feeling herself relax into a smile at how normal Stella was acting. Of course her eyes weren't really gold, of course she was just tired and seeing things, of course

She caught sight of her own smiling face and wondered when her smile had turned into more of a sneer. Then, even as Bloom watched, not moving an inch, she saw her reflection turn slightly and look at Stella, baring her teeth at her friend threateningly.

"Bloom," Stella said, impatience creeping back into her voice. "Everyone's waiting."

"Right," Bloom said numbly, sick feeling growing in her stomach. Her reflection was still glaring at Stella and continued to do so even as Bloom took a hold of her arm and tugged her away. "Let's go."

Bloom forced herself not to look back as they left, which was why she didn't see as her reflection remained in the mirror, expression slowly morphing into a self-satisfied smirk. And she definitely didn't see, as she closed the door firmly behind her, her reflection lift her hand to press it against the inside of the mirror, and tap a single, soot-stained finger against the glass.

---

Not gonna lie friends, we're a little lucky to be getting this chapter because my doc crashed *multiple* times while trying to do final edits because guess what? THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER OF THE WHOLE SERIES!

Call it an apology for not posting for four months but but this chapter is 17.2k words officially making it the longest chapter I've written for this series. Which is crazy to me because I always thought the first and last chapters of each volume would be the longest. I don't even know why this ended up so long, I just had a lot to say apparently. Anyway, I hope the added length makes up for my absence.

Not gonna lie, friends, the end of 2022 was **rough**. I was just not in a very good headspace, I was insanely busy with work, and I just put myself under a lot of unnecessary pressure, and it honestly felt like I didn't catch my breath until the end of Jan. I was hoping to get this chapter out last month but it just didn't happen. But I feel like I'm doing well and this chapter has made me so excited to keep writing for this series because I honestly just love it so much.

I loved the original scenes I included at the start and end so much, so I hope hope hope you guys liked them too! I also just fucking love writing the slow development of Dark Bloom as she slowly takes control. I love that slow descent into evil. It's all ramping up to the back end of the volume now guys. There was even a few hints to stuff for next volume :D

Anyway, I really hope you like this chapter, and that you guys have come back to read it after my unexpected hiatus. I love you all so much, and appreciate every single one of you, and yeah. Love you guys, pls leave me reviews telling me what you thought and updating me on what you've been up to since the last time I posted xxxxx