Chapter Text
Tecna slammed into the ground. Her skin and wings scraped against hard ridges, and her head banged into the middle of a crack in the stone floor.
The first thing she noticed was that it was cold. Freezing. The stone she was on hummed with magic, the energy giving it warmth, but everything else was frigid, like Zenith in the middle of winter.
It took a moment to regain her bearings. Flexing new wings, feeling through new magic, all with a throbbing pain all over her body. She felt her magic kick into overdrive, producing more energy to keep her body warm, digging into her brand-new magic reserves.
She had expected to die. She had fully expected to breathe her last breath.
Stopping the portal's uncontrollable magic required her to forcefully seal the exact middle between the two entrances of the portals with her magic. It wasn't a permanent solution by any means. The magic in the portal itself would need to be repaired by Andro's most powerful witches, but her fairy magic could hold it steady long enough for the repairs to happen.
She didn't expect to be sucked through. She didn't expect to gain her Enchantix.
Looking up she saw the inverse of the portal she had just closed. Instead of a stone spiral going up to a peak, it was one going down to the lowest point in the center. A thick net of magic covered the bottom, holding the magic down.
Valtor had smashed the portal in, shattering the complicated magic that kept the portal stable and rendered them functional. A single mistouch from a witch trying to control the magic could speed up the process of the two planets ramming into each other. The turbulent and explosive magic that spewed out of the thing was too erratic to even interact with. Quarantining it was the only option.
The magic should have vaporized her. That amount of powerful magic, wrapping around her body, surrounding her in a vortex, should have turned her into bloody dust laying on top of the Omega portal.
She remembered closing the portal, forcing the two interacting magics apart, making it impossible for them to destroy their respective planets. She remembered being sucked though, realizing most of the damage was on the Omega side, using up the rest of her magic to plug the damage, then closing her eyes.
Her enchantix saved her life, it must have. She used up all her magic in an explosion of energy. She should be dead. Either burned alive or so thoroughly frozen there would be ice in her veins and yet. Here she was. Staring at her hack job on the portal.
Standing up on unsteady legs, Tecna didn't know what to expect next.
Her legs ached, and she knew she was on borrowed time. She used every last drop of her magic to close the portal. Even with the expanded supply of magic enchantix allowed her, she was already starting at a deficit. Not to mention the magic required to shield and heal her when she had passed out.
She climbed out of the portal's entrance. Feeling every crack and imperfection in the stone, her bare feet gingerly stepped up each layer.
Even though this form was much more powerful, and her feet were less likely to sustain an injury, she couldn't help but miss her boots.
Hearing a loud hiss, Tecna quickly turned her head to stare up at a gigantic snake. The creature's body was the color of the frozen ocean, with eyes that were pure white. Its scales bulged in strange directions in the shape of crystals, opening its mouth to reveal fangs like icicle daggers, a ball of magic already forming between its teeth.
Tecna dropped into the defensive stance that the boys had taken upon themselves to teach her and the girls, quickly summoning her Neon Sphere shield, barely summoning it fast enough to brace against the sheer force of the blast. The beam of ice magic bounced off her reflector shield and Tecna dug her feet into the ground so she wouldn't be thrown backward. Her shoulder shook, and her hair and arms were slightly frosted as she looked to where she was redirecting the attack. It was hitting a random part of the ceiling. Shifting forward, using her magic to make herself stronger, Tecna slowly moved her shield till it was pointing directly back at the snake. First freezing its eyes, the its mouth when its magic stuttered.
Not wanting to waste a drop more of magic, Tecna broke off into a sprint. She opened her new wings and powered them on. Wobbling into the air. Flight was awkward at first, the mechanics of her new set of wings being distinctly different from her old ones, but instinct took over and she swiftly dodged the snake bashing its head on the cave opening.
Tecna didn't even get a moment to celebrate her victory, as, curled in the cavern she just entered, was a serpent that made the other one look like a garden snake.
The cavern it dominated with its presence was nearly the same size as the Alfea gymnasium, which was designed to let fairies fly around inside of it. Huge didn't begin to describe its massive size, its head nearly touching the ceiling. Its eyes held intelligence that had to be imbued from powerful archaic magic. The snow and ice seemingly bent around the creature in reverence, and the serpent thrummed with immense energy.
Tecna faltered, hovering in the air before the previous snake thrashed its tail, forcing her to fly closer to the new serpent. Despite the threat behind her, she couldn't bear to wrench her eyes away from the serpent in front of her. Now that she was closer she could see its milky white scales glittered and shined, its protrusions looking more like sapphires than crystals, with wings like a bat on its face.
This was no simple magic serpent, this was a wyrm .
Frozen in place, Tecna barely registered the snake behind her going silent. All she could do was lock eyes with the creature that dwarfed her in size and power.
The dragon slowly approached her and moving didn't even cross Tecna's mind. How would she ever hope to escape?
It slithered and snaked its way until its face was right in front of where she hovered in the air, Tecna watched it carefully as it closed its eyes and tilted its head down.
The only part of her body that moved were her hands, which shook with barely concealed fear. What did it want from her? It held still, not making a single move, waiting for her to do something.
She could use this chance to run, fly as fast as her new wings could go, and escape through the tunnel behind it, but that wouldn't work. Wouldn't it? It likely knew the surrounding area better than she did, and a wyrm was far more powerful and sacred than the four-legged dragons of Red Fountain.
Tecna didn't need to run any calculations, trying to get far enough to be safe was a fool's errand.
There was only one thing she could imagine that it wanted.
Tecna slowly reached out her hand, looking at its scales that had as many facets as diamonds, and placed her sweaty palm on the wyrm's forehead.
The link was almost instantaneous.
"You fixed the portal." Its voice reverberated around inside her mind, the sound clear and strong. "You saved planet Omega."
Tecna didn't respond, it was not a question.
"You are unlucky to end up here, Tecna of Zenith. My planet was thrown into this pocket dimension eons ago. That portal is the only connection to the outside world. This place is all but sealed off without it." Its voice was resolute and grave, with a hint of sympathy that Tecna thought she could be imagining.
This was all information Tecna knew. Of course, she knew it. Tecna's memory was eidetic, she read up on tons of phenomenons like this. Her elementary school geography had covered this, it was such a simple and well-known topic. Still, the blood in her veins ran cold as the full weight of her situation dawned on her.
She was stuck on the planet Omega, in the Omega dimension, where all the worst criminals that have no chance of redemption end up.
The ones that used their magic to wreck civilizations. The ones that created and disrupted massive amounts of mind control potions, ripping consent from the hands of so many innocent victims. The ones that destabilized the magic running through planets, nearly destroying worlds in the way Valtor just did. The one that turned an entire planet into an icy wasteland, forcing its inhabitants to flee, only being stopped by an all-powerful guardian that could brave the onslaught of her powers. The very same guardian she was communicating with now.
The only worse place she could have ended up alone and weakened is Obsidian . The prison that was specifically designed to hold the Ancestral Witches.
"Your natural resistance to the cold as a Zenitan will do you well, but you will not survive at this level." It continued, either unconcerned with or not noticing her internal panic. "The higher levels are warmer. If you de-transformed here you'll die of hypothermia within minutes. Follow me."
With that final message, the wyrm slithered back away from her through the tunnel, and she gingerly followed it, fearful to disturb the goodwill she had managed to gain.
Tecna's wings whirled and clicked, and she couldn't help but wonder how Bloom and Flora would react to them. They thought her previous wings were unconventional, but nothing about her would ever be ordinary. She liked them, mechanical and drenched in her technomagic. They’ll likely kick up a fuss due to how artificial they look. Tecna smiled as she imagined the questions her friends would lob at her for her strange wings.
Her friends…they must have heard about Tecna by now. They probably think she's dead. Disintegrated. There's no way for them to know she gained her enchantix, no way for them to know her enchantix was even powerful enough to protect her from the magical assault. If she were any weaker, she'd be dead by now.
They're probably mourning her. There's no way they'd be looking for her, would there? If she could catch someone's–anyone's–attention could she even be saved?
Tecna rolled the facts around in her head. True interdimensional required one of the elemental forms, but this wasn't true interdimensional travel. She was in a pocket dimension, which technically meant she was still in Magix. If she could get a message out, somehow, someway, with enough power…
With Stella’s teleportation spell…she could be saved.
The wyrm stopped and looked up. Following its gaze, Tecna looked up to see a tunnel going up and up out of the cavern she was currently in. Despite how high the tunnel went, she couldn't see the sky. There was just more and more stone. There was no way to tell how far underground she was, but looking at the type of rock around her she could be as deep as the upper mantle.
Tecna pushed more magic through her wings and flew out of the cavern she was thrown in.
She could make a communicator. She would find a way to contact her friends, and she was going to get out of here. There was no other option worth considering.