"You can't be serious!"
"Trust me dear none of us wants to make this decision. If I had any say-"
Stella, clearly furious, cuts the older woman off, barely stopping herself from slamming her hand down on the table: "If you had any say?! Really? This is Bloom we are talking about!". She looks at the other girls for help but all of them stay quiet, almost as if they agree. Totally unwilling to put up a fight.
"I know she means a lot to you, but right now your friend is a threat. She has to be dealt with, there is nothing anyone can do," Faragonda replies calmly. But the Winx can tell she isn't really fond of this. After all, it was always her that had tried to defend her students and that had always stood up for them. Bloom especially, given her past and background. When it came to it, the old fairy was always the one to help, to solve the problems. Stella knew all that, but right now it seemed like she was just giving up.
"And how many times has she saved all of us huh?! Even this, she did it to save the dimension! And what do you do? You want to-" Stella stops, not able to finish the sentence. It was all too much and way too sudden. Hell, she only heard about this a day ago. Her mind couldn't grasp the insane choice that they decided to make. She was not going to let them do that, not to her best friend.
"Her magic is too unpredictable... if she slips, it can cause a destruction of all the realms. You saw what happened during the Shadow Hunt, the Council can't take that risk."
"Can't or won't?" Musa abruptly interfered. Stella gave her a thankful look even though her skin did crawl when Darkar's lair was mentioned. And not only her, everyone seemed to tense up a little.
Those memories... They were just too painful to reach into.
But she still didn't know why the girls were so okay, why it had taken, her of all people to lash at Faragonda, for one other to speak up.
They were supposed to be a team.
"Headmistress please, this school is formed to help us in controlling our magic. Bloom makes one mistake, a mistake that isn't even her fault and she is punished like this?"
"A mistake? Stella, Sky is-" Layla interrupts, her voice shaking, eyes almost blazing at the sun fairy. Stella ignored her, not moving her gaze from the Headmistress.
Of course, she knew, Sky's screams were still haunting her every time she closed her eyes. But she wasn't about to say that out loud. Though she was sure the entire thing couldn't leave anyone alone.
Faragonda sighed, moving from her desk chair and coming to stand in front of the 5 girls. Now, looking at them apologetically, Stella knew there is no way out of this. No matter how much she objected, the Council will do what they decided. And Bloom...
They will never see her again.
"At least let me see her then. That is my only request," the fairy of the sun and the moon pleaded, her arms crossed. Layla was still shooting her glances. Faragonda placed a warm squeeze on the princess' shoulder and nodded: "But you better hurry." Without another word Stella was already out the door, leaving the rest of them with the principal.
The hall that led to the hospital wing was crowded with students that were hurrying to their classes. "Coming through!" Stella yelled as she pushed her way through. Many of the freshmen just cleared the way out of pure fear, while the others snarled at her.
She burst the door open, looking around frantically: "Where is she? Where is Bloom?"
The doctor's eyes were alerted at the mention of the fire fairy's name.
"I don't-" she blurted out, unprepared and caught off guard. She clearly didn't expect a 17-year-old girl to corner her during her work hours.
"Where. Is. She?" Stella hissed at the woman. She was ready to cut the world apart to get to Bloom before the Magix Council did.
"Please, I really don't know," the doctor answered in a low voice. She sounded terrified.
"The school's secret archive."
It was Griselda's voice, coming from the hall behind Stella. "I presume you remember where it is?" she added with one of her brows raised. The irony of the situation did not go unnoticed with Stella.
"I suggest you get there before they do Princess." It was the first time that Griselda seemed genuinely worried. Perhaps all of them had a completely wrong impression of the Alfea's head of discipline.
"Thank you."
Stella didn't waste another second and pushed her feet to move again. The real challenge was running up all those stairs in shoes such as hers. One corner down, three more to go. She heard complains from all the other students she had accidentally knocked over but didn't stop to apologize. She couldn't prevent Avalon from kidnapping Bloom but she could at least try to do so with the Council.
Finally, she recognized the hall Lockette had taken them too when Bloom was being controlled by the Shadow virus. Squeezing open the invisible door she was happy to find them unlocked. She guessed since only so little people knew of the archive they thought no one would stumble upon it. But once upon a time, Bloom did and that was where the whole mess started.
Concorda, the pixie guardian of the archive, who usually sat in her floating platform, was nowhere in sight. Neither were any of her pet friends. The place seemed entirely abandoned. All traces of the secret books and massively long shelves filled with scrolls were erased. Instead, there were vials and potion bottles on the scientific-looking tables, magic ingredients, pipes and injections.
And a tube.
A tube that contained Bloom.
Her friend seemed to be in some kind of enchanted sleep, much coma-like. She laid inside, and by that point, all colour had gone from her face. It was sadly exactly as she had looked on that day. Stella's body shivered just by remembering. Alongside her in the tube were chains that seemed to be containing her new power and her in general.
"I will get you out of here Bloom."
Stella moved closer, searching for a lid or anything to get it to open. Transforming into her charmix she even tried using her sun blasts to weaken the glass, but it wouldn't budge. Neither did the smashes of her fists, that were bound to leave scratches. It seemed to be indestructible, which was an irony since they were so afraid that Bloom would erase the world if they let her out.
"Princess of Solaria, please step away from the prisoner," said a deep male voice.
Prisoner?
Stella turned, coming face to face with about 10 men, all made more from muscles then bones and a lot taller than her.
"You can't hurt her, I won't let you!" She said, stepping in between them and Bloom, shielding the tube by her own body.
"Stella, let them pass," at the back of the group Layla spoke.
The men parted, revealing the four other members of the Winx club. Stella could only blankly stare at her supposed friends as they continued to stab her further in the back. Stab them further. They weren't just betraying her, they were betraying Bloom too. Even if she didn't know it. What was wrong with them?
"Do you realize what they want to do?"
"Can you blame them? We all saw what happened... what she did," Musa, who stood up for her with Fargonda, now cut in against her.
"That wasn't her fault and you all know it!" Stella almost hissed at them. The whole situation was making her feel sick.
"Then whose was it?"
Stella's blood ran cold. This wasn't the girls she was friends with for 3 years. They knew exactly what happened, and this, blaming Bloom for all of it was not fair in the slightest.
"Flora you too?" She tried tugging on the most compassionate of the fairies. But not even she could meet her eyes.
"Girls come on... We are supposed to be a team," Stella whispered, defeat washing over her. After all the battles they have fought together, was this the thing that will finally break them? Break the Winx club?
"Enough of this childish drama, we are leaving with the prisoner. Don't make it any more difficult then it needs to be."
For a moment, a dull, stupid moment of pity, Stella actually considered the idea of doing nothing, of just letting them take her. She would go back to her room, to her classes, to her "normal" life. But Bloom wouldn't be there. A girl that she had brought into the world of Magix and lived alongside with would just be gone. Her best friend just obliterated.
A memory flashed before her eyes. Bloom giving the Trix her Solaria ring so that they would let her go. Bloom chose her.
She was going to choose Bloom too.
As the guards started pushing her to the side, Stella grabbed one of their hands and unleashed her power on it. The man swore, clasping the wounded area. The rest turned toward Stella, ready to fire at her if need be. But their leader rose his hand for them to halt. He looked directly at her as he spoke: "I thought we won't have to do this but you Princess leave me no other choice."
"Bloom is innocent and you know that. You can't- You can't send her to Omega-" Stella choked on the words.
But the man then nodded to someone out of her vision and something like a piece of cloth came pressing around her nose and mouth. The smell was so intoxicating that in a matter of seconds Stella started losing her footing.
The last thing she saw was the man's undisturbed eyes before she blacked out.