OMG I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE PEOPLE COMMENTING ON THIS STORY.
I really wanted a new brella story too but not the usual high school or real life AU. So i wrote one hehe. I really wanted to incorporate magic and planets/kingdoms into this one to stick closely to the original Winx Club world building. I may be one of the few but i didn't really like Fate, but I liked the concept of more mature themes and characters with a bit more depth.
**WARNING** this fanfic is of mature themes, tread lightly. However, I do want to reiterate that I am not a psycho so mature themes are not psychotic or borderline jail worthy HAHAH.
"Happy coronation day, princess,"
Stella sat up abruptly, grabbing her energy daggers from underneath her pillow as she pulled her arms back in an attacking stance.
Instead of the cold eyes of her father's murderer, she was faced with the metal wall of the room she was assigned for tonight, lit up by the yellow energy daggers she held in both hands. Stella panted, letting out choked breaths when she realised she had been violently woken up from yet another nightmare.
This was the 3rd time this week she had woken up crying and screaming from the same nightmare. The memory of the night her father was assassinated and Magix fell into chaos kept playing in her mind, harrowing and fresh just like the day it happened.
4 years ago.
Stella pulled the covers off her sweat-drenched body and let her bare feet touch the cold metal floor of the portable camp rooms. It was still dark outside and considering how high her heart rate was, sleep was not on the agenda tonight.
The doors to her room slid open with a soft hiss, as the warm night summer air blew gently into her room. Most of the other members of the camp had retired for the night, only those who were assigned to night patrol were still up, gathered around the campfires, guarding the resources and weapons from enemy attacks.
Her eyes caught sight of a pair of familiar ocean-blue orbs as the blonde-haired man who had previously been sitting by the campfire, conversing with another member, stood up.
Seeing his face was enough to calm her hammering heart. It was the same face she had seen 4 years ago when she finally managed to escape Solaria that night and into a neighbouring trading planet with most other refugees.
"Trouble sleeping?" He asked, walking up to Stella as she stood a few feet away from the camp centre.
"Not at all, I was just checking up on your patrols," She shot back with a smirk and he let out a chuckle with a shake of his head. "You shouldn't be sitting around, Captain Rhodes,"
"Funny, I should put you on night patrol then," He grinned back, hands on his hips to playfully exercise his command.
Captain Noah Rhodes was the leader of the rebellion. A team of freedom fighters formed 4 years ago in retaliation to the havoc rained by the former Solarian high commander's coup de tat.
Unbeknownst to Solaria, and the rest of Magix, ex-High Commander Andreas Silver had amassed a large number of sympathisers. Aside from the Solarian Army who were unquestionably loyal to him, men and women from many other kingdoms who believed in his cause had pledged their allegiance.
A cause in which to eradicate the peaceful ideologies Stella's father, the late king had given his life to uphold.
It didn't take long for their reign of terror to spread to neighbouring kingdoms and soon all of Magix. They made it clear that any kingdom that was opposed to their rule was going to be purged and they had made a definitive example of that by massacring any Solarian who stood with the former king. Most of Magix had no choice but to live under their rule for the sake of minimal bloodshed.
The kingdom formerly known as Solaria was no more. They called it Drakar, and their followers, the Drakari.
"This is the 3rd time this week you're up late though Stell, is everything alright?" Captain Noah Rhodes asked, his usually playful tone dropping for a moment.
She forced out a weak smile. "Yeah, we're so close to Sol- Drakar, it's hard to sleep knowing they're out there," Knowing that he was out there.
It had been 4 years since her red coronation day. 4 years since she found herself alive and in one piece outside the Solarian castle canal system. With no memory of how she even managed to escape let alone move her shaky legs to walk. The last thing she remembered was watching in horror as that same blood-drenched green blade came slicing through the air at her neck, and the cold distant brown eyes behind it.
She had chalked it up to forgetting due to trauma and maybe all of those pathetic mornings she spent trying to practice her spells had somehow helped her stay alive.
"Didn't think you of all people would be worried about the Drakari," He smiled, running a hand through his sandy blonde hair, "You took out 12 of them on your own this morning at the supplies outpost," He wasn't wrong.
The dainty 16-year-old princess Stella of Solaria was no more. This Stella was a skilled and merciless fighter, a war solider she forced herself to be in the last 4 years. So that one day if she ever came face to face with him, she would be able to avenge her father.
"You make it sound like I killed them," She grumbled, as the captain raised his hands in surrender. Stella never killed any of them, despite the rest of the rebellion sparing no Drakari lives, she simply couldn't bring herself to take a life. "I simply knocked them unconscious," Whomever she knocks out, the rest of the rebellion handles.
"In 15 minutes, I hadn't even given the order! I don't know if you're my greatest fighter or my biggest pain in the ass," He added with a raise of his eyebrows, "Which reminds me – how many times do I have to tell you not to attack without my order?"
"Ugh, you take too long to find 'the right moment'" Stella bit back jokingly, air quoting the words to drive her sarcasm further, "You're not proposing to them, just get on with it,"
Noah let out a laugh, a contagious and boisterous sound that made Stella giggle along with him. It took her years to reach a point in her life where she was able to smile and laugh even if it never fully reached her eyes. A notion she thought she'd never experience again even in the slightest after her father died, if not for Noah.
"Alright, I'll give the order earlier," He grumbled once the laughter died down. Noah turned to face her, ocean blue eyes glimmering from the light that the campfire gave off, "I just don't want to see you get hurt, Stella,"
Stella bit her lower lip as she stared into his concerned gaze. Noah had been her rock, her anchor, quite literally the beacon of light she held onto desperately after losing everything and everyone.
After meeting him at the trading planet she took refuge at a couple of weeks after her initial escape from Solaria, Noah had already gathered a force small in numbers but determined to fight for their freedom. He was just a 17-year-old kid, with no home planet and no family to call his own, barely older than herself, but the fire in his contrasting blue eyes made her feel an insatiable amount of drive.
In the last 4 years, he had trained her to fight, survive and live, she would be lying if he didn't hold a special place in her heart. Obviously when he said things like that her heartbeat hammered just a little bit louder.
"I'll be fine," She shot back quickly, avoiding his gaze to cover the slight red blush that tinted her cheeks.
"Yeah, you will be if you listen to my orders," He added with a slight tone of chiding to which the former princess rolled her eyes to. A habit she never seemed to have shed from her royal life. "Now get some sleep, we've got some intel of a Drakari ship holding prisoners and supplies passing through bright and early,"
Over the last 4 years, the Rebellion had grown into its own reckoning force, through the rescues of prisoners and displaced residents of the colonised planet who were willing to fight.
"Yes, Captain sir," She replied playfully, and Noah let out a laugh.
"You know you don't have to keep calling me captain, right lieutenant?" He shot back and Stella shrugged with a chuckle, "Feel better?"
"Yeah," She admitted. He always made her feel better, Noah was a kind and noble leader. She returned his sincere smile with one of her own, one that never quite reached her eyes.
As much as she devoted her life to Noah and his cause to free Magix, there was always a wall between them. A wall between her and everyone in the rebellion. A guard she had put up the day everything in her former life had crumbled.
The day she lost trust in anyone she ever met.
Because of him.
The following morning Stella was out in the mess hall earlier than the captain himself, partly because she didn't sleep a wink last night. Every time she closed her eyes her mind would keep replaying the day the great hall was painted red with the blood of her people.
It was better to just exercise in her room till it was time to get ready.
Doing her hair into two braids she slipped on the black combat suit and grabbed her energy daggers, sliding them into the two sheaths built into the outer thighs of the suit. She didn't expect anyone else to be up early considering the day hadn't even broken.
Stella was slightly surprised to see one of the recruits sitting on the mess hall tables. Her dark blonde hair was loose and wet against her back from possibly taking a shower so early as she sat with her shoulders slumped and her spoon sloppily shifting through the food on her plate.
She was taken in by the Rebellion during one of Noah's raids 3 months ago, supposedly she had been displaced during the fight on her planet against the Drakari. She hasn't spoken much but according to Noah, her entire family had perished in that fight.
Mila was the name she managed to choke out to Noah when he brought her back to base camp.
"Good morning," Stella called out, announcing her presence so as to not startle her.
It startled her anyway as she dropped her spoon in surprise and attempted to stand but hit her knee on the table.
"L-Lieutenant, good morning," She stammered rubbing her knee awkwardly and dropping her head in a bow. No one has ever bowed to her since her coronation day. Probably because no one knows she was formerly the royal princess with a queen ruling of approximately 5 minutes.
"No need for formalities, just Stella is fine," Stella chuckled, sitting down next to her as Mila pursed her lips in acknowledgement. "Why are you up so early?"
"Today is my first raid," Mila admitted quietly.
Stella frowned, "You know you don't have to be out on the field if you aren't ready right? I can talk to Noah, he can-"
"N-No," she interjected quickly, "I mean, I asked Captain Rhodes if I could join the raid today,"
"Do you feel ready?"
Mila sighed softly and shook her head, "No not really, but I want to,"
"Mila, you know raids are dangerous, we can't afford any Drakari to escape and we can't afford to lose anyone either,"
"I know, I just-" She slumped her shoulders, "I've watched so many people I care about die and all I could do was watch. I hate feeling so helpless, I never want to feel like that again,"
A feeling Stella was all too familiar with.
She sighed, nodding slowly, "I get it," She remembered her first raid when she hesitated in the face of a Drakari. If it weren't for Noah stepping in and blocking that devastating magic attack with his body, she would've died then and there.
He still has the scar on his back to remind her of her mistakes. Mistakes that she intends to never make again.
Stella smiled, "Stay with me the whole time, and remember, don't ever hesitate because they will kill you the second they get the chance,"
For the first time in the 3 months of Stella knowing her, Mila sent her a small, determined smile.
You're gonna love Noah teehee.
Lots of love,
Star