'Hello?' Naomi couldn't remember how she'd got here. Where even was here? She was in darkness, darkness, everywhere. The last thing she remembered was stalking back into her dorm and getting into bed without even glancing at Roxy's side of the room. How had she-
She was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a pained scream, and she whipped around trying to find the source.
'Hello?' Her ears pinpointed the direction of the scream, and she pelted towards it, the sound tugging at her heart. It sounded so familiar…
'Hello? Where are you?' She stopped short and squinted into the darkness; her sensitive eyes made out the shape of a person on their knees, their arms wrapped around themselves as they moaned in pain. She ran forwards and dropped to her knees in front of them, desperate to help.
'How do I help you?' she asked desperately. 'What's wrong?' The person didn't answer, continuing to moan with pain. Unable to see their face in the thick, choking darkness, she summoned a ball of light to her hands and held it up, illuminating the person's face.
She gasped with shock and horror.
'Duman?' She was staring at Duman, his face contorted with agony. Her heart felt like it was being ripped apart as she heard the pain in his groans and whimpers. 'Duman!' She put her hand on his arm. 'Duman, it's me!' Duman didn't respond, and he screamed in pain again. 'Duman!' Tears started to fall from her eyes. 'How do I help? What do I do? Duman, how do I help you?'
Duman opened his eyes, and gold met gold for just a moment, his gaze pained and pleading, before he clutched his head and screamed again, bright light starting to spill from his body.
'Duman!' No, no, no… This couldn't be happening. 'Duman!' Naomi screamed desperately. Before her horrified eyes, Duman was disintegrating. 'Duman, no!' She clutched desperately at him. 'No, no, no…Duman, please…Don't go…Just hold on, I'll help you!' Despite her desperate pleading, Duman uttered a final scream and vanished, leaving Naomi on her knees clutching at nothing, distraught and sobbing. 'No…'
She heard a sound behind her, and her head snapped up, her vision blurred with tears. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Ogron, Gantlos and Anagan standing behind her. Sobbing, she scrambled to her feet and flung herself towards them, throwing her arms around Gantlos and crying brokenly into his shoulder.
'Duman…He's gone.' Gantlos didn't move, and Naomi pulled away in confusion, looking up to see him staring at something she couldn't see, his expression twisted with horror and fear. '…Gantlos?' She reached up a hand to touch his face, and gasped as she felt he was covered in ice. 'Gantlos!' He didn't respond, frozen in place. She looked to Ogron and Anagan and saw they were the same. 'No! Gantlos, wake up! Ogron, Anagan! Wake up! Come back to me, please…' They didn't answer, trapped in ice, and Naomi flung her arms back around Gantlos and sobbed. 'No…'
She stayed that way, crying distraught tears into Gantlos's frozen body, until, suddenly, she felt something wrap around her leg.
'What-?' She looked down to see some kind of thick metal cable wrapping around her leg, and she leapt back, trying to shake it off. 'Get off!' It barely moved, and she snarled furiously. 'I said get off!' She blasted it with all the magic she could summon, and it sparked and dropped off her leg. She stared at it in confusion, before gasping as another wrapped itself around her arm. 'No!' She blasted this one too, but it was replaced by more, snaking their way out of the darkness towards her. 'Let me go!' She glowed pink, trying to shape-shift, but the cables crackled with energy and she cried out, dropping to the floor as electricity coursed through her body. 'Let me go…' She struggled pointlessly as the cables wrapped around her, her heart beating wildly with panic. There was a bright flash of light, and she screwed her eyes shut, blinking furiously to try and regain sight.
She squinted and managed to make out a menacing silhouette standing a little way away. She didn't know who it was, but her stomach instinctively twisted with fear, and she struggled harder with panic. In response, the cables tightened around her until she could barely breathe. They lit up with power again, and her entire body seized as the electricity snarled through her. Everything faded to black, and she screamed.
Roxy stirred, hearing muffled whimpers and sobs from across the room.
'Mm…Naomi?' She sat up, rubbing her eyes in sleepy confusion, looking over at her roommate's bed. Naomi had come back to the dorm just before curfew that evening, stalked over to her bed, very pointedly ignoring Roxy, and Roxy hadn't pushed things.
Her eyes widened in surprise as she heard Naomi cry out in her sleep.
'Naomi?'
'Let me go…' Naomi muttered, sounding desperate and pleading.
'Naomi?' Roxy got out of bed and rushed to her roommate's side worriedly. Naomi was thrashing and struggling against phantom bonds, her expression twisted with fear and anguish.
'No, no, no!' Naomi struggled harder, her breath coming in shallow, raking gasps. Roxy put a hand on her shoulder.
'Naomi, wake up! It's just a dream!' Naomi didn't respond, continuing to fight furiously against something only she could see. Suddenly, her entire body seized and jerked, then she let out an ear-piercing scream and bolted upright, shaking and gasping.
'Naomi!' Roxy grabbed her shoulders. 'Naomi, it's okay! It was just a dream!' Naomi took a deep breath that turned into a sob, and Roxy saw tears streaming down her cheeks. 'Naomi. Naomi, just breathe.' Naomi took another deep breath and her tearful golden eyes turned to look at Roxy, widening as they saw her.
'…Roxy?' Her eyes narrowed. 'What are you doing? What's happening?' Roxy quickly removed her hands from Naomi's shoulders, sensing that she'd rather not be touched.
'You had a nightmare; you were screaming and struggling against something.' Naomi's eyes widened, before narrowing into a frown.
'You saw me have one of my - have a nightmare?'
'Yeah. Look, are you okay? What happened? It looked really-' Naomi held up a hand.
'I thought I told you to leave me alone, Roxy!' Roxy recoiled.
'I'm sorry, but-'
'No buts. Leave me alone means leave me alone. So now I'm gonna say it again, and maybe this time it'll sink in. Leave me alone!' Naomi scrambled out of bed and bolted for the door.
'Wait!' Roxy cried, leaping up from Naomi's bed. 'It's nighttime; students aren't allowed to be out of their rooms! If Grizelda catches you-'
'I don't care!' Naomi bit back, running from the room and leaving Roxy standing alone.
Great Dragon… Roxy had seen her have one of her nightmares. Roxy. Dammit, dammit, dammit!
Naomi walked through the halls of Alfea in a daze, taking deep, shuddering breaths. She'd had nightmares as long as she could remember, but that one…that one had hit harder than usual, thanks to the disaster that had been last night.
She made a muffled whimpering noise and struggled to fight back tears as she remembered watching Duman disintegrate before her eyes, the memory tearing her already-shattered heart to pieces. And the ending… She shivered, not knowing where that had come from, but being absolutely terrified nonetheless. She'd been suffocating, trapped and alone…
No! She shook her head. She wasn't at home, with her family there to help her put herself back together; she was at Alfea, with absolutely nobody. She couldn't fall to pieces. She'd just have to keep it together. She could do that. Right?
'Roxy! Roxy! Hello! Magix to Roxy!' Roxy snapped back into focus, pulling her gaze away from where Naomi was sitting across the lecture hall and turning to see Stella waving a sketchbook at her.
'Hm? Sorry, Stella, what did you say?' Stella folded her arms.
'I was asking if you could tell me what you thought of my new designs.'
'Stella!' Flora admonished quietly. 'Wizgiz is still teaching! Roxy's trying to pay attention!' Roxy nodded distractedly, even though Flora was wrong; she hadn't heard a word of their teacher's lecture about age-changer spells, too focused on her roommate. Naomi hadn't been in the dorm when she'd woken up, but, judging by the clothes she'd changed into, she'd come back at some point. She hadn't been at breakfast either, and Roxy had come into class to find her already sitting in the most secluded spot in the lecture theatre. She'd wanted to go over, but, thinking back to her last conversation with Naomi, she'd thought better of it and gone to sit with Flora, Musa and Stella, who were also taking Wizgiz's enchanted objects course. Though she was rather starting to regret that decision as Stella huffed and went back to ignoring Wizgiz in favour of drawing in her sketchbook.
'Like we're ever going to need to know this,' the Solarian Princess muttered.
'If you didn't want to learn this stuff, why'd you sign up for the course?' Musa hissed, and Stella rolled her eyes.
'Because it was this or add even more Grizelda to my day. Don't pretend you guys didn't sign up for this because you wanted to avoid her Advanced Runic History class.'
'I want to learn this,' Flora murmured. 'So shh!' Stella groaned, but stopped talking.
Flora and Musa returned their attention to Wizgiz, but Roxy couldn't focus on the lesson, her gaze drifting back to Naomi.
Her roommate looked exhausted, with deep bags under her eyes, and, much to her surprise, she was surreptitiously looking on her phone. That was weird; Naomi was an exemplary student. She didn't seem the type to look on her phone during class.
'Miss Hunter!' Naomi's head snapped up as Wizgiz looked at her questioningly. 'Does your phone have something more interesting to say than I do? Because, if so, please do not let my attempts to educate you interfere with it.' Naomi shook her head.
'No, Professor Wizgiz.' She sounded miserable and exhausted, and Wizgiz's expression softened slightly.
'Pay more attention in future.' He folded his arms. 'The same goes for you, Miss Allbright.' Stella looked up with surprise. 'Yes, I am quite aware that you are not taking notes. Put the sketchbook away.' Stella pouted and made a big show of putting her sketchbook in her bag, and Musa stifled a laugh.
Wizgiz nodded.
'Now, let's discuss the most frequently-enchanted objects when it comes to age-changer spells. You will usually find age-changer spells cast on inorganic objects: i.e. not on wood or cloth, but rather on stone, gems or metal. Can anyone tell me why? Miss Allbright?' Stella opened and closed her mouth a few times and went pink. 'Hm. Thought not. Miss Hunter?' He turned to look at Naomi, and Stella rolled her eyes.
'She's a freshman; what's she going to know about age-changer spells?' Her mouth quickly dropped open as Naomi rubbed her eyes and answered.
'Age-changer spells are infrequently cast on organic material because all organic materials are affected by age, and would risk being affected by the spell. For instance, casting an age-changer spell on a wooden object would risk the object either decomposing or even sprouting leaves and branches again, depending on the direction of the age-changer spell.
'Stone, gems and metal aren't affected in the same way, but, in the case of metals, it's important to cast anti-rust or anti-tarnish spells on them, or else they could still show effects of the spell and thus be damaged far before they would be naturally. Gold is the preferred metal for age-changer-enchanted objects, because it is highly unreactive, and so naturally remains unchanged virtually forever, meaning that, even with an age-changer spell cast on it, it would show no change and therefore doesn't require any protective magic to be cast on it.' Wizgiz clapped.
'Very impressive, Miss Hunter. Kudos to whoever taught you before me; they clearly did an outstanding job.' Naomi smiled weakly. 'Alright, let's finish there for today; I'll see you all tomorrow.' Wizgiz hopped off the desk and walked out of class, and Stella immediately grabbed her sketchbook again.
'Finally! Girls, check these out! My new designs! What do you think?'
'Stella, not right-' Roxy was cut off as Stella shoved her sketchbook in front of her and she found herself staring down at a very impractical dress.
'I like them,' Flora remarked, and Stella grabbed the sketchbook away from Roxy, clambered over Musa's legs and thrust the designs at Flora.
'Really? Tell me everything you like about them!'
'Well…' Flora's phone started to ring and she got it out of her bag, smiling apologetically. 'Sorry!' She answered the call. 'Helia!' She gasped as Stella grabbed the phone from her hand. 'Stella! Give me back my phone!'
'But we were in the middle of something!'
'Stella!' Musa exclaimed, helping Flora wrestle the phone away from Stella. 'You're acting like a three-year-old!' Roxy rolled her eyes as Stella huffed.
'Fine. But I know someone that will listen to me. Sirenix Box! Guardian of Sirenix, please help!' Roxy raised her eyes to Heaven and got up, leaving Stella to her massive abuse of power. She had more important things to do than talk about dresses (if Stella's designs could all be classed as dresses; she was pretty sure one of them was made of croissants).
Naomi watched Stella with mild curiosity. She'd probably be amused normally - she'd definitely have a sarcastic comment or twenty - but right now all she could summon was mild interest. How was this girl a hero of the dimension? she wondered as Stella thrust her designs in Roxy's face, before subsequently stealing her friend's phone and asking her magical guardian of an ancient power for fashion advice. If Ogron was here, he'd be facepalming.
Her mood dropped another few notches at the thought of Ogron. Today sucked. She hadn't wanted to come to class but, for now, she was at Alfea, and it just wasn't in her to cut class to wallow in a bad mood.
Speaking of my bad mood…
'Hey…' She looked up to see Roxy standing awkwardly a few seats away. 'Can I talk to you?' Naomi rolled her eyes.
'Do you posses vocal chords and the ability to use them to create words?'
'Huh? …Yes?'
'Then you can talk to me. Whether or not I want you to is another matter entirely, but I assume you're just gonna barge ahead and do whatever you want anyway, so screw my personal opinion.' Roxy winced and sat down next to her.
'Look, I'm sorry about last night...'
'Roxy, I'm gonna stop you there. There is absolutely no part of me that wants to talk to you about this, or anything else. Not the party, not our fight, not my dream, not the ridiculous impromptu fashion show your annoying friend is putting on down there.' Roxy looked down at Wizgiz's desk, and her eyes widened as she took in a rather ridiculous scene of Stella magically dressing freshmen in ridiculous outfits, one of which seemed to be temporarily blinding the people that looked at it. Another one seemed to have stilts for shoes. Naomi wondered how this girl had ever managed to beat her family. She kinda assumed she just rode on the coattails of the Winx's competent members.
'That's not going to end well…' Roxy muttered, being proven right a few seconds later as the stilt-model fell off the desk and the crowd walked away, leaving Stella to throw what could only really be described as a temper-tantrum.
'Nope.' Roxy turned back to Naomi.
'Naomi, I'm sorry. What I said-'
'Roxy, you seem to have real trouble with listening. I tell you to leave me alone, I wake up to find you on my bed. I tell you again, you come over here and start talking. I tell you to stop, you press blindly ahead. So let me just make this super clear: I don't want to talk to you. There is nothing you can do or say that will change that, so just give it up. And now, since I assume you're still going to keep talking despite me very clearly telling you not to, I'm gonna leave.' She grabbed her bag and hurried out of the classroom, leaving Roxy sitting, mouth-open, on the seats.
She's not gonna listen to that, but that doesn't matter. She's not gonna get any more chances to talk at me. She pulled her phone out of her bag and clicked back into the website she'd been looking at in class. Shuttle Tickets to Isola. She took a deep breath and clicked book.
Could that have gone worse? Probably not. Roxy sighed; she'd hoped she and Naomi could make up, but Naomi was very obviously not on board with the idea.
How had she managed to screw this up so badly? She had really hurt Naomi, and it was obvious that Naomi wasn't going to accept her apology; could she blame her? Naomi had been right; she'd lost everything, and now she was in another dimension surrounded by strangers and Roxy, the one person she'd actually seemed to have been warming up to, had hurt her. Roxy facepalmed and got up, walking down to her friends. To her surprise, Stella was storming off.
'What happened? she asked, and Musa shrugged.
'Not everyone was a fan of her designs, and Brandon wasn't thrilled about being called and told there was an emergency, then having dresses thrust at him.' Roxy blinked.
'Really?' Musa nodded, and Roxy facepalmed. 'Oh, Stella.'
'We're going to go after her,' Flora told her. 'You want to come?' Roxy nodded.
'Yeah, I'll come.' The three girls walked after Stella, Roxy still thinking about Naomi.
'How are things with Naomi?' Flora asked, as though reading her mind. Roxy sighed deeply.
'I think I really screwed up. Last night I came back to our room to find her crying; I tried to comfort her and somehow ended up calling her family power-crazed lunatics.' Musa and Flora blinked with surprise.
'…That's not good.' Roxy shook her head at Musa.
'No, it's not. I really hurt her, and now she doesn't want to talk to me.'
'Give her time.' Flora smiled reassuringly. 'She'll come around. You didn't mean to hurt her.'
'I didn't even mean what I said!' Roxy burst out frustratedly. 'I want to take it back, but she won't listen to me long enough to let me!'
'Speaking of not listening…' Musa muttered as they walked into a room full of formal gowns to see Stella climbing on a mannequin, reaching for a pin.
'Is she supposed to be doing that?' Roxy asked worriedly.
'No.'
'Stella!' Flora exclaimed, running forwards. 'You can't take that!' Stella rolled her eyes.
'It's just for inspiration, Flora. I'll put it back.' She reached for the pin, and Roxy felt her stomach drop. Something told her this was going to go horribly wrong.
Stella's hand closed around the pin, and there was a bright flash of light. When the spots cleared from her vision, Roxy's jaw dropped open; clinging to the mannequin's shoulder was…a three-year-old Stella. Yep, I was right. This has gone horribly wrong.
'Stella!' Flora exclaimed as Stella's little hands started to lose their grip and she began to fall. 'No!' Flora dove forwards and caught the spelled Winx just before she could hit the floor. 'Oh my Dragon!'
'The pin must have an age-changer spell in it!' Musa gasped, and Roxy raised an eyebrow. That's coincidental.
The pin in question fell from Stella's small hands and rolled away, and Stella squirmed to be put down.
'Down! Down!' Flora, too shocked at the turn events had taken to argue, put Stella down, and the fairy promptly started to chase the pin, giggling. 'My pretty pin!'
Roxy stared agape, her Naomi concerns taking a backseat to the fact that her friend had de-aged by seventeen years and was now running around after a magical pin.
'She's…she's three!' she exclaimed. Musa nodded, eyes wide.
'Uh-huh.'
'What do we do?!' Musa shook her head in dumbfounded bewilderment.
'I have no idea.'
'We need to take her to Wizgiz,' Flora said firmly, and both girls turned to look at her. 'He'll be able to reverse the spell.' Musa nodded, still looking dumbstruck.
'Yeah…' She turned back to Stella. 'Slight problem.' Roxy looked back to where Stella was - or, rather, where Stella had been! 'We lost her!' All three girls hurtled for the door, bursting into the hallway and looking around for Stella.
'There! Flora cried, spotting Stella running around a corner clutching the pin.
'Come on!' Musa took off after her, Roxy and Flora hot on her heels.
They rounded the corner and Roxy glanced around in panic, before seeing Stella jumping at a banister. What in the-?
'There!' She ran towards her, but just as she was about to grab Stella, she found out the point of her jumping; she made it up onto the banister and slid down it, evading Roxy's grasp and leaving her staring.
'No time for standing around, Roxy!' Musa cried, pelting down the stairs after Stella. 'Let's go!'
'She's heading outside!' Roxy yelled as they ran through the main foyer, Roxy and Musa pushing past students, Flora stopping to apologise to everyone they bumped into.
'Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Excuse us! Winx crisis, coming through!'
'Flora!' Musa called back. 'We can apologise later! Just run!' Flora called out one last apology, before bursting outside after Musa and Roxy.
'How is she this fast?' Roxy gasped out. 'She's three!'
'Stella's a law unto herself!' Musa gasped back. 'We've stopped questioning it!' Stella was headed for the Alfea gates. 'No, no, no, no, no! Stella! Come back!' Stella, being both a three-year-old and herself, ignored Musa, instead opting to chase a butterfly that had oh-so-helpfully decided to come into their lives.
'Flutterfly!' The toddler took off into Gloomywood Forest, and Roxy groaned. This had gone so wrong.
'Stella!' Flora yelled. 'Come back!'
'No! Flutterfly!'
'Damn butterfly,' Musa muttered furiously, picking up the pace after the freakishly-fast toddler. 'She couldn't have chased something going this way?'
'Wait a minute, that's it!' Roxy cried. She slowed her pace and focused, creating a mental link with the butterfly. Come here! The butterfly turned around and flew towards the trio, Stella chasing behind it.
It landed on Roxy's outstretched finger, and Flora reached down and scooped Stella into her arms, breathing hard.
'Finally,' she gasped. 'We caught her.'
'Flutterfly!' Stella laughed, reaching out for the butterfly, and Roxy held out her hand. Stella watched the butterfly flap its wings, entranced, and the group made their way back to Alfea.
'Professor Wizgiz?' Roxy knocked nervously on the professor's office door. 'Professor? We have a bit of a situation…' The door swung open, and Roxy saw Wizgiz sitting at his desk, looking at them with concern.
'Winx? What's wrong?' Roxy stepped aside to reveal Stella, clutched firmly in Flora's arms, and Wizgiz's mouth dropped open.
'Oh, my. That…is unexpected.'
'Tell me you can fix her, Professor,' Musa begged, leaning exhaustedly against the doorframe. Wizgiz nodded.
'Oh, yes, yes. Of course I can. How on Magix did this happen?' Musa rolled her eyes.
'Somebody doesn't understand what 'Do Not Touch' signs mean.' She pointed to the pin still clutched in Stella's chubby little hands, and Wizgiz's eyes narrowed.
'I see. We will have to put better protective measures around our artefacts in future.' He patted the couch across from his desk. 'Put her down here; I'll have this fixed in a jiffy.'
'No! No!' Stella protested as Wizgiz levitated the pin away from her. 'My pin!' Wizgiz snapped his fingers twice, and the pin started to glow.
'Tempus liverta comestas,' he muttered, and a bright beam of sparkling light shone on Stella, who giggled, the pin forgotten in favour of delightedly trying to grab the sparkles falling around her.
There was a flash, and a very confused-looking adult Stella was sitting on the couch, staring around in bewilderment.
'What happened…? Why am I in Wizgiz's office?' She looked down and saw Wizgiz levitating the pin, arms folded, with a very displeased expression on his face.
'Miss Allbright, if I may ask, when you see a sign saying 'Do Not Touch', what is it you think it is telling you to do?' Stella shifted awkwardly.
'Um…'
'Do you think it is telling you to randomly grab whatever takes your fancy?'
'…No.' Stella hung her head. 'Sorry, Professor Wizgiz.'
'You should be very glad your friends caught up to you and brought you to me; unexpected age-changer spells can have disastrous consequences! And I would like you to write me a six-page essay about those consequences, to be on my desk tomorrow.' Stella groaned.
'Seriously?' Wizgiz raised an eyebrow.
'Would you prefer it to be eight?' Stella quickly shook her head, and Roxy stifled a laugh.
'No, Professor. I'll go get on that right away!' Stella quickly got up from the couch and pelted out of the office, Musa and Flora following her. Roxy went to go too, but Professor Wizgiz called out to her.
'Miss Wilde, if you could please stay back a moment.' Roxy turned in confusion. Was she in trouble? She hadn't helped Stella steal (or, in her words 'borrow') that pin…
Wizgiz sat down at his desk.
'Your roommate, Naomi. Is she alright?' Oh. Roxy sighed.
'It's…complicated, Professor.' Wizgiz frowned.
'Hm. Roxy, you understand the position this girl is in. She has lost her family, and now she is here, surrounded by people that, as I'm sure you are aware, are far more interested in her than is perhaps pleasant for her. You two seemed to be getting along rather well, so I'm sure I can count on you to be there for her, and ensure she gets through this difficult time.' Roxy bit her lip and nodded, feeling crushingly guilty over what she'd said last night.
'Yes, Professor Wizgiz.' Wizgiz's face brightened into a smile.
'Excellent! Now, I have some tests to mark, so I'll see you in class tomorrow.' Roxy smiled weakly and walked out of the office, wondering how on Earth she was going to fix things with Naomi.
'…Hey.' Roxy raised a hand in greeting as she walked into her and Naomi's room that night. Naomi, already under her duvet, remained an unresponsive lump. 'Naomi…' The lump growled, and Roxy backed up a little. Maybe she should let them both sleep on this; Naomi was clearly not in a chatting mood, and she'd already ignored every time she'd asked her to leave her alone today.
'I'm just gonna get ready for bed then.'
'Don't need the play-by-play, Roxy.' Roxy could practically taste the snark coming from under the duvet, and she hurried into the bathroom.
'That went well,' she muttered to herself, quickly brushing her teeth, before yanking a brush through her hair like her pink locks were the cause of her and Naomi's problems.
Walking over to her bed, she tried one last time.
'Goodnight.' She waited for a response, but none came. Sighing, she turned over and pulled the covers over herself, dropping off into a fitful sleep.
At some point during the night, something must have woken Roxy up, because she rolled over and suddenly found her eyes open.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes, blearily checking the time on her phone. Two am. She rolled her eyes. Fantastic. She rolled over onto her back and closed her eyes, trying to fall back asleep, sinking into the peaceful silence of the dorms. Hold on a minute… She blinked in confusion. Naomi snored; the dorm was never silent. She always heard Naomi's quiet snuffling, like a hibernating bear cub.
She sat up and looked across at Naomi's side of the room, squinting into the darkness. Naomi's bedding looked worryingly flat…
'Naomi?' she murmured, reaching across to flick on the light. 'Naomi?' The lamp came on, light illuminating the distinct lack of Naomi on her bed. Roxy's heart beat faster, and she scrambled out of bed. 'Naomi?' She rushed over, as though Naomi was under the bed and would pop up and irately ask why Roxy was going around flicking on lights and waking people up. Of course, that didn't happen. Naomi was gone. And, looking around the room, Roxy realised…so were her things.
Dun dun dunnnn! Looks like Naomi's finally decided to take matters into her own hands. Isola's not plot-significant, I just made it up as a random location. And the three-year-old Stella thing...I just couldn't resist, plus, it's nice to see Roxy is still close with the Winx, since in the show she basically just ceases to exist.
Next chapter, things finally really get going, and we're soon to find out a bit more about Naomi's past (and see the wizards in a flashback, which is important information if you're like me, in which case you're probably thinking 'It's chapter nine, where are the Wizards of the Black Circle?') If you like this story, please review it! Also, I was thinking about doing a series of one-shots about Naomi growing up with the wizards; please let me know if you like the idea. Until next time!