Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Honestly, death wasn’t too bad. 

Seriously. 

Sure, it hurt the first like, five minutes. But after that? Frankly speaking, it was more of a rebirth thing. She didn’t expect that, not like she believed in Nirvana or anything. She wasn’t all that religious either. It took her by surprise really. But it was a dream come true.

She was always a Winx Club fan. She grew up on the series actually. Waking up as Bloom was the best thing to ever happen to her. An orphaned girl who had no dreams and relied solely on a fictional world to be her escape from reality, became her reality. It was ironic in some kind of way. 

Though, maybe she was taking it a little too far.

“You set the kitchen on fire again!”

Yeah. Definitely too far. 

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Bloom, this is the fifth time this month!” Her adoptive dad argued. 

Ok, so maybe she was a bit of a pyromaniac. But that isn’t entirely her fault! She was blaming her magic one hundred percent. Fire attracted her like a light to a bug. Not that she could exactly tell her parents that. They’d think she was crazy. Majorly because for the life (and death) of her, she couldn’t figure out how to access her magic whatsoever!

She took to finding lighters and trying to see if she could find a way to manipulate the fire to her whim. 

It wasn’t her fault the fire refused to listen properly. She always got it to grow, but then it wouldn’t stop until something caught on fire. It was a really good thing her dad was a firefighter….

Speaking of her dad, “Bloom, this is getting out of hand. I want you to give me all the lighters we know you’ve been collecting.”

“What! That’s not fair!” She pouted.

“Now Bloom.” Hearing his tone, she sighed and handed him the lighters she had on her person. His face told her that perhaps carrying fifteen lighters wasn’t the sanest thing. Though that expression multiplied by about ten when she reluctantly handed over the rest of her stash in her closet. 

“Sweetheart, your father and I have been talking and we think you might have a problem.”

Bloom huffed and crossed her arms, “So I like fire! It’s not like I’m intentionally trying to set things ablaze!”

Vanessa, unlike Mike’s worriedly shocked body language, was handling it with a lot more grace than she thought she would. Growing up with a firefighter as a father was probably a piece as to why their daughter enjoyed fire, but it was still a little too much for their tastes. Not to mention that fire Mike found her in clearly had some sort of psychological effect on her. But the red head was correct that it was obvious she wasn’t trying to do any harm. But the problem being that Bloom was causing harm, intentionally or not. It was just lucky she only ever set fire inside their home.
Sure having to repair the damage took a bit out of their pocket, but they had enough money for it to not be an issue. The issue was that they were mostly worried Bloom would accidentally start a forest fire or be arrested for arson. The glee she took when handling her lighters would not help her case at all. 

Vanessa didn’t want to stifle her interests, but this was one that was getting out of hand. Bloom didn’t have many friends. She was a bit of a loner, so Vanessa could understand why she took so much stock into her, hobby. But still….

She couldn’t even keep her around the shop in fear of her destroying the plants. 

So, in hopes of getting her mind off of her apparent need for lighters, Vanessa and Mike both pitched in enough to get her something that they wished would help divert her attention. 

“You got me a motorcycle?!”

They both hoped the happy squeal was a sign of Bloom having other hobbies. Though Mike was the stereotypical overprotective father and worried incessantly the entire time they were picking out which one Bloom would like the most. 

Vanessa thought his fears were justly made, but she also believed Bloom would be fine. Despite her lack of safety when it came to fire, Bloom was still rather cautious. For all her faults, Bloom was typically the one who considered the dangers the most. 

Of course, that didn’t stop her from learning quite a few tricks and stunts for her new motorcycle. 

Bloom whooped as she popped a wheelie on the way to the park. Kiko, her sweet little bunny, was fearfully clutching the inside of her bag tightly. Bloom fully believed he was at least a descendant of a magical animal, given his natural blue fur and his more sentient personality. 

Unlike typical rabbits, Kiko also liked taking walks, so Bloom made it mandatory that she walked him through the park weekly. Arriving at the park was filled with constant motor stunts, much to the rabbit’s horror. 

While walking, however, both Bloom and Kiko overheard the sound of fighting and yelling. Peeking through the trees, the redhead saw none other than the blonde fashionista fairy herself, Stella.

“Was that today?” she pondered, not caring about the ghouls that were flying past her and her panicking bunny. 

Kiko was squealing and thumping in fear while Bloom was just observing. “Should I be helping now or…..” Kiko kept clawing her pant leg, so she took that as a yes.
At the same time, the ogre, who she recalled was named Knut, had gotten ahold of Stella’s sceptor and was approaching her threateningly (though honestly Bloom couldn’t take him very seriously considering she knew he was really a softie), when she threw a branch at his head. 

Knut spun around towards her with a growl and Bloom frowned, “Honestly, I thought that would work a lot better than just irritating you…”

“Get her!” he shouted at the ghouls, who did as instructed. 

“The one day mom and dad take my lighters!” she whined. She yelped when one ghoul leapt at her, too busy in her bemoaning to have really noticed they got closer, and finally, finally , after so long of trying to activate her magic, it came to her calling. In an instant, a flaming shield blazed around her, destroying the ghouls that attacked. Of course, it was gone just as quickly as it came, but that didn’t matter to her, “Well it’s about damn time!”

Kiko cheered his owner on, happily dancing about. Until he saw one ghoul about to grab him, in which he shrieked. This gained the attention of Bloom, who kicked the monster away from her beloved pet. “Back off!”

It was then that Knut grabbed ahold of her arms and swung her through the air. Bloom growled at him (and yes, she was impressed at her own growl. It sounded very much like how she imagined a dragon’s would), and she could feel the fire in her veins as she shouted at him. “Let go of me!” At the sound of the words, the flames inside her burst forth in the shape of a dragon, knocking back all of the monsters that had surrounded them, the ghouls disappearing into gold dust. 

“Wow you really pack a punch” The blonde said, impressed with the new fairy’s magic.

Bloom merely shrugged as she helped the princess up off the ground. Knut and the few surviving ghouls cluttered across the clearing escaped within a portal, the ogre threatening them as they disappeared.

At that moment in time, Stella ended up fainting, her fairy form transforming back into her dress. “You know, I kinda forgot about that part…..How are we getting her home with us?”

It was a struggle, but she managed. 

By this she meant she called her dad to come pick them up after assuring him that no, she was not at the police station and no, she didn’t set a forest fire at the park. 

“For the last time, I have magic. She has magic. She was attacked by monsters. I helped fight them off. Come on dad, it’s not that hard.”

“Bloom, you’ve always been….special, but this is too much!” He argued. She rolled her eyes. This, this was why she waited until Stella finally showed up to tell them. Because even to her it sounded crazy, but she figured being blunt was the best way to go. 

“Dad. I. Am. A. Fairy.”

“Vanessa!”

Thankfully, her mom was way too busy focusing on the unconscious girl she brought home. Who took her sweet time to wake up, but finally did right as her dad was about to start ranting. 

“Oh good. Your skin isn’t pale anymore. How are you feeling?” Vanessa asked softly. 

The blonde sat up and smiled at the trio, “I’m better. Thank you for helping me.” 

Bloom waved her off, “No problem. These are my parents, Mike and Vanessa, and I’m Bloom. Nice to meet you.”

“My name is Stella, though I’m not from around here.”

“I figured. People don’t typically grow wings.” She ignored her dad’s groan.

Stella grinned and nodded, “Have you heard of the magic dimension?” Winding up on Earth wasn’t entirely bad. Despite the rocky start, given the ogre’s intrusion to her teleport spell on her way to Alfea, she met a new fairy. It was odd, as she heard that Earth didn’t have fairies anymore, but it was pretty cool seeing the redhead in action. “Well, it’s in another galaxy. I’m Princess Stella of Solaria and fairy of the shining sun. I was forced down here when this ogre and his ghouls attack me and-”

While Stella was explaining, Mike was questioning whether he somehow ended up in another world where everyone was delusional. 

“You see! Clearly the girls are delirious! I’m going to call the police and we can get everything settled.”

Stella didn’t appreciate that and merely sent a spell to turn the phone into a bunch of vegetables. Bloom grinned at her shocked father. “I told you.”

“Anyway, so I was fighting that ogre when your daughter showed up and blasted them all! She’s a pretty strong fairy!”

Bloom’s smugness levels surpassed the sky. While her father was questioning his own sanity, with her mother trying to calm him, the redhead invited the fellow fairy up to her room. “I love the color scheme!”

She was proud of her room design too. Mostly because it was entirely fire related. The red, orange, and yellows blended perfectly together. The walls were filled with drawings and posters of dragons and fairies.
“Did you draw these?”
“Yep.”

“I’m being pretty nosy aren’t I.”

“Eh. I’ve been worse.”

Stella pondered for a moment, examining Bloom for a long moment. The redhead raised her eyebrow curiously. It took what felt like perhaps a full five minutes (it wasn’t but it felt like it….), the blonde finally spoke, “I thought Earth didn’t have anymore fairies.” Bloom merely shrugged, “Well you’re taking it surprisingly well. Your parents didn’t seem to know.”

Bloom let slip a secretive smile, “I’ve always had an attraction to fire. That was already pretty abnormal, so magic isn’t much of a surprise. I’m plenty weird already.”

“A fire fairy then?”

“Maybe. But I’ll admit, I haven’t had much experience with my magic being used. Or maybe I did and just didn’t notice.” Both were a lie. She set fire enough times with her magic. It was just never when she wanted it and always at the worst of times.

“Well, you obviously need some training if that was the first time anything like that happened. I know! You should come to Alfea with me!” Stella grinned, as if she had the best idea ever. And it was in her mind. Meeting an untrained fairy, who just so happened to save her life. She owed the girl, and she would repay that by helping her with her magic!

“Alfea?” 

“Alfea College for Fairies! I was on my way there when the ogre attack me. All of the fairies in the magic dimension attend to train their powers and grow to become guardians of their home worlds. As Princess of Solaria, it’s very important for my growth as the future queen.”

“Will I even be accepted into it?” Bloom questioned. Well, of course she knew the answer was yes, but it’d be strange if she merely went along with everything as if she knew the future. Which, well she did, but still. Nobody needed to know that.

“Of course you will! All fairies are welcome! I mean, there is a list, but I’m sure we can get you in somehow!” Even if she needed to be sneaky about it, Bloom will attend Alfea no matter what if she had anything to say about it!

It was then that they heard screaming. It was an animal scream though, no doubt from Kiko. Bloom could tell. She heard it when she rescued and adopted her little bunny. From what she researched, however, rabbits screamed when being chased by a predator, or dying. So this clearly made her panic over her sweet baby.
Sure she knew the hunting troll would appear, but it was still spine chilling to hear a rabbit scream. For quiet creatures, it was terrifying to have such a clear sign of danger from them. 

Even Stella shook at the sound, “What was that?!”

“Kiko!” Bloom called, rushing out and down the stairs. Kiko’s screaming was soon joined by the shouts and screams from her own parents. She guessed it was pure adrenaline she was running on when she leapt down the stairs and kneed the hunting troll in the face. 

She failed the landing, but at least she hit the creature. 

Stella raced after the fellow fairy, pausing at the sight of a hunting troll. They were supposed to be reserve only creatures. Their temperment only allowed the best of heroes to handle them to track wanted criminals. How the ogre of all things got ahold of one made her worry quite a bit. 

But that was no matter. At the current time, she needed to focus on helping her new friend. The creatures were tracking her, therefore it was her duty to keep them at bay until proper authorities arrived. Thankfully, with a hunting troll missing, there was no doubt specialists trying to retrieve it. 

“Light of Solaria!” Blasting back the troll, it knocked into the yellow ogre, allowing her to help Bloom up for a brief moment. “We’re outnumbered. The best plan is to split them up. You take the ghouls out and away. I’ll deal with the two elephants.”

With a dutiful nod, Bloom ran past the collection of ghouls and whistled, “Come on you ugly little things.” Racing out of the house, she lured the ghouls into the yard. However, it wasn’t long before Stella was thrown out the window. Standing before the winded blonde, Bloom tried to shield her from the oncoming troll. “You ok?”

“Oh yeah. I have it completely handled.” Bloom was pretty sure Stella was trying to sound confident, but to her, it really just came out as though sarcastic. But neither girl had a chance to do anything more as a whip was wrapped around the trolls neck. Peering around the wide girth, the two saw a four man team of Red Fountain Students. Bloom grinned in excitement at meeting them (she particularly enjoyed Riven’s sarcasm and bluntness), while Stella took a moment to look over the new eye candy. What could she say? It was her natural response to guys.

Having an idea, Bloom allowed the boys to handle the monsters for a moment as she ran back into the house. Going straight for the cabinent with her mom’s home gardening tools, she easily found her entire collection of lighters. Grabbing a few, and a can of aerosol, she hurried back out while the boys prepared to take on Knut, the troll stuck inside a large split in the ground. 

Taking a moment to bask in the small flame as she flicked on her favored lighter, she pushed Riven behind her, “I’d step back if I were you!” With a (slightly manic) grin, she proceeded to spray the can behind her lighter, using a makeshift flamethrowing at the ogre. 

Hey, he may be a nice guy underneath, but he was still threatening her family at the moment. 

Knut let out a scream, the ghouls growling in pain as the ogre left behind the weak monsters to their fate, teleporting away. The ghouls she caught disappeared pretty quickly into their ashes. 

Stella eyed the redhead for a moment, “You know, maybe your parents were right about that intervention….” They had made sure to let her know that she should take any lighters Bloom may play with when in her room (something about believing she hid more than she admitted). 

Bloom pouted, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The blonde merely waved it off, moving towards the boys who, despite the shock at the ‘flamethrower’, moved to take care of the troll. The glasses boy locked a collar around the troll’s neck, restricting it’s movements entirely. “Thanks for the help!”

“No problem girls” The blonde male said, a smile gracing his face, though his eyes kept moving towards her new red haired friend. Stella withheld a squeal. She loved playing matchmaker and this would be a perfect side hobby during school. “Just doing our job. Great quick thinking by the way.”

Bloom’s attention was still lovingly eyeing her lighter, but the sound of someone talking to her snapped her out of it, “Huh?”

“With the fire. It was pretty smart.” Bloom grinned, proud to have someone acknowledge her fire addiction in a positive light. “I’m Brandon.”

“This is Bloom, and I’m Stella!” The fairy cut in, smiling flirtingly over at the brunette, who grew quite flustered at her attention. “But I already know you guys! My father says you four are rumored to be the best students at Red Fountain!” All four seemed to puff out their chests in pride. Bloom through they looked a bit like peacocks and couldn’t stop her giggle. Sky, or as he was going by currently, Brandon, in particular was trying to be rather extra for some odd reason. “Bloom, this is Timmy, Riven, and Prince Sky. And Brandon already introduced himself to you.”

“Nice to meet you” The redhead waved, spotting Kiko shakingly hopping towards her and cuddling him tightly. His screaming still scared her, and it was a comforting thing to both owner and pet. 

“Same here,” Sky, that being brunette Brandon, said, “but we should really be getting this guy back to his enclosure.”

The two girls waved the boys off as they led the blue troll into a portal. Bloom glanced back at the house and pondered on whether the damage was worse than her fires. 

It was. But nothing Stella couldn’t fix. Her dad was insistent that he didn’t need her to take care of it, but Bloom and Vanessa overruled him. Frankly, Vanessa was internally bemoaning not having such an easy out when Bloom had burned areas of their house.

And while that was taken care of, Bloom was quick to pack her things. And while her mom was quite supportive of this, rather rash, decision (it wasn’t rash to her, given that she had been waiting for this moment since, forever, but still), her dad was still on the ropes. For all her faults, she was still his little girl after all. “Are you sure about this sweetie?”

“Look at it this way. My fires will finally be someone else’s problem.”

She was impressed (and maybe a little offended) with how quickly he grabbed his coat, “Let’s go!”

“Speaking of,” She turned to her mom with a pout, “Can I please have my lighters back?” Her answer was a suitcase handed off to her. Bloom squealed happily, proud of her mother’s intuition. 

Stella was practically bouncing on her toes with excitement, “Alright! Let’s go! Ring of Solaria!” With a quick flip, the ring was off her finger and spun into the Solarian Staff. Producing a portal, Stella transported them all to the outside grounds of Alfea. While her parents were in awe, Bloom merely smirked with pride. This, this was going to be fun. “Unfortunately, you can’t go any closer. There’s a barrier to keep nonmagicals out.”

Bloom did feel quite a bit of homesickness, despite not even being accepted yet. Mike and Vanessa were the only parents she’s ever known in either life. While she had conciousness as a toddler, it was after they had taken her in already. She didn’t even get a glimpse of Daphne when brought to this world. While planning for her life at Alfea, leaving behind the only family she ever had completely escaped her mind until the moment. 

Turning to the two, she proceeded to give them a tight hug, “I’m going to miss you guys.”

“We’ll miss you too sweetie” Vanessa said, her voice turning shakey with what was clearly withheld tears. That struck the redhead even harder. Vanessa always had the strongest hold on her emotions, their precious rock. To see her reduced to tears was hard for both Bloom and Mike, the male who also appeared ready to burst (his baby was leaving him!).

“I promise I’ll visit whenever I can!” She swore. And she would keep to that as well. Every weekend, when she wasn’t burdened with homework. She’ll get Stella to teach her a portal spell. Or ask Faragonda. That was probably a better option.
After another moment for goodbyes, which went by way too quickly for Bloom’s liking, Stella sent her parents back to Earth.

“Oh this year is going to be the best! We’ll have so much fun together!” Stella cheered, happily dragging Bloom towards the school. Bloom grabbed Kiko and held him close as they walked. Stella went ahead and used a float spell to carry Bloom’s luggage, so her arms were free beyond the small rabbit. “Oh boy, that’s not going to be good.” The blonde was referring to the older brunette woman with a clipboard. “That’s Griselda. She’s the vice headmistress. She is a definite stick in the mud.”

“So how am I getting past her little list?” 

“It’s really simple!” Stella explained, “The princess of Vallisto was supposed to come with me this year, but she decided to do homeschooling instead. She gave me this letter to give to the school, but if I were to just so happen and do this,” With that, she tore apart the envelope and burned the remains with a small spell, “then we’re all set!”

Bloom gave a mock gasp, “Stella! I’m so disappointed in you! Lying to the school! That’s so wrong!” The redhead proceeded to smirk deviously alongside the blonde. 

“Alright! Let’s do this! Act natural!” The two sauntered forward to the woman who was clearly scrutinizing them. Though she did this with everyone so it wasn’t all that off putting, “Long time no see Miss Griselda!”

“Not long enough” She muttered, her typical frown pulling at her mouth, “Not after the little incident last year. I don’t know how your parents convinced the board to let you back. It’s absolutely beyond me!”

“They did donate that new computer lab!” the princess pointed out. Frankly, she was just glad that, despite the many arguments they had, the two would put forth much for her. People would say she was spoiled. And they’d be right. But for all their faults, her parents did love her and made sure she knew that.

“And who is your friend?”

“Princess Veranda of Vallisto” She was introduced.
“Ah yes. You’re on the list. Go ahead.” Bloom was a little disappointed at how easy that was. The school definitely needed to work on their security measures.
Bloom and Stella talked as they waited for the orientation to start. Nothing in particular, just odds and ends of their lives. Like Stella learned that Bloom made more explosions with her lighters than she ever did with unsupervised magic (read the school lab explosion), and Bloom, didn’t really learn anything new. Just that Stella’s parents didn’t get along too well beyond when it came to her and that she had a habit of trying to make new colors. Both of which she already knew.

And even when orientation began, Bloom was more concerned with her own thoughts while petting Kiko in her arms. She knew the rules. She didn’t care for them either. No breaking the rules, blah blah, no magic without supervision, meh meh, and no going to Cloud Tower, oh screw that. 

She died before, witches didn’t scare her. 

Besides, only the Trix would actually threaten death (cause they were that hardcore), and she was going to have to fight them anyway. 

And then there was Faragonda who kept going on about the future when they had trained magic. Bloom would admit she didn’t plan that far. Sky was a good friend candidate (much as the rest of the red fountain boys), but he was taken. He only left Diaspro because he and canon Bloom formed a romantic connection. She already had plans for a platonic relation. She didn’t flirt with taken men. It went against her ethics.

No matter how much she hated Diaspro. 

But she also knew that if she were to ever save Domino from it’s frozen hell, she was not suited for being a ruling body. Whatsoever. She would probably burn down the kingdom a day into it. Literally.

And that was only if she rescued Domino. She didn’t even know if she would ever get around to it. She also didn’t even know if it was possible.

Maybe she could be a superhero back on Earth!

Yeah. Ok. She made up her mind. She was going to be Earth’s superhero!

Chapter Text

“And you know, me and Veranda were supposed to be dormmates, so we’ll be together for the whole year!” 

Bloom smiled indulgently at the excited blonde. Stella seemed to cling to her quite a bit, but Bloom let it pass. She enjoyed it, actually. She knew Stella didn’t have many close friends and she was happy to be one of the first. 

“Ooh! Looks like this is the one!” Entering the dorm, Bloom spotted her and Flora’s shared room quite easily. She would need to be careful with her lighters given just how many plants she was going to be around. Which was pretty hard for her. It was why her mother refused her entrance to the flower shop.

Opening her room door, she easily spotted Flora’s talking plant, which was cooing happily at the new people. Bloom merely waved, making note to especially not harm that one knowing how much work Flora most likely put into growing it.
“Hello there. I guess we’re going to be roommates this year,” A sweet voice stated. Turning, Bloom happily saw none other than the adorable Flora. Her brown hair matched her caramel skin perfectly. Honestly, Bloom always thought Flora was the most flawless looks wise. Sure, they were all very beautiful, but Flora always took the top place to her. Her sweet demeanor only helped boost her greatness. “My name’s Flora.”

“I’m Veranda. Princess of Vallisto” Bloom introduced herself effortlessly. Lying came easier to her than she liked. 

Another voice cut in, “Vallisto. Fourth world of Magic Realms Upper Ring. Renowned for its rich artistic traditions. Its beaches are very popular with tourists.” It was easy for her to tell who it was at that point, “My name’s Tecna.”

“Nice to meet you, Tecna! I’m Stella!”

“Yes, you’re quite infamous.”

“That’s the word going around,” And yet another girl cut in. Bloom internally squealed at the sight of the original winx in the room with her. It was much like meeting your idols. These were the girls she grew up with, watching as they lived their lives and grew in their powers. And now she was a part of it! “Next time you decide to blow up the room, just let us know so we can bounce first.”

Stella pouted as the other girls giggled. No one understood her vision! “It was in the name of fashion!”

“I’m curious. Were you actually able to create this new shade of pink?” Tecna questions curiously. 

“No, but when I do it’ll be the official color of Solaria!”

“I don’t think everyone will be too happy with that,” Bloom remarked with a small smirk. Stella seemed to just deepen her pout rather than deign that with a response. It was then that the redhead also spotted a certain hungry rabbit, “Kiko no!” At the scolding from his owner, the blue rabbit stiffened and sent her a guilty face, hopping over to her and snuggling her leg as an apology while the talking plant sent angered whines after him.

“Aw, is he hungry?” Flora asked, though slightly rhetorically. 

Without waiting for an answer, she found an empty pot and, with some soil, grew a large carrot in an instant. Kiko let out a happy grunt and proceeded to eat the orange veggie that was much bigger than him. 

“Speaking of being hungry, I’m famished,” Stella began, “Why don’t we all go to Magix and get some pizza!” That would be a good way for them all to get to know each other! 

“That sounds like a great idea! Downtown Magix is so much fun!” Flora said happily. She hadn’t been there for a while, so she was getting pretty excited about it. 

The other girls were in agreement and they were soon on their way to the city. Bloom kept to herself while the rest talked about this or that. Mostly she was just basking in their presence. Though she would say small bits and pieces whenever Stella tried to drag her into the conversation.

“So how are you liking Alfea so far, Veranda?” Musa asked.

She merely shrugged, “It’s school. It seems pretty fun in some areas though. That transmutation class sounds like it’ll be nice.”

Stella was nodding along, “I can’t tell you how much I learned last year, before I got kicked out, that is. It was a great class to learn how to change my hair color to match my outfit of the day!” To prove this point, she turned her hair a light blue, “Blue really suits me, don’t you think? Of course, my natural color fits me best!”

Bloom picked at her food a bit. Her high was crashing and at this point, she was kinda missing her family again. She also knew her phone was pathetic at best where she was (she also made a mental point to ask Tecna to make her the best upgrade there was).

“Are you ok, Veranda?” Flora asked, noting her downtrodden mood. Being who she was, there was no way she’d be able to not detect the sorrow, she was just an empathetic person as a whole. 

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. But I should probably call my parents. Let them know I got here ok. Is there a payphone somewhere nearby? My phone broke and I’m waiting for my new one.” Showing them her outdated cell (to them at least. It was fairly new on Earth) was just screaming ‘Hey, I’m not a princess’. Well, she still was, but it was very complicated.

“I think there was one around the corner that way. Here, you can use my phone card” Stella said, knowing the girl wouldn’t have one, and probably not know how to use it. But she also knew Bloom was smart enough to figure it out, plus if she said anything, it’d make the other girls rather suspicious as to why she didn’t know what things were in Magix. 

It didn’t take her long to find the phone booth, and she ended up talking to her mother pretty long considering the sun went down when she was nearing the end of the call (she knew Stella didn’t worry, or care really, about the charging of it, and most likely understood her desire to talk with her parents). Though she would admit, maybe she was having an early batch of homesickness. She hadn’t even been here for more than ten hours and she was missing them desperately. 

To prevent embarrassment to her own mind, she claimed it was merely passing time until Knut would surely lead her to the Trix. 

Though, she obviously didn’t fool herself.

However, she did happen to take out a certain outfit she bought. Stella paid, insisted she needed better clothing and approved of what she picked out. Another note to self, find a job in Magix so she didn’t have to rely on Stella. She wondered if there was a treasury for Domino still active. It’d be nice if that was the case, but she wouldn’t get her hopes up. Instead, she would have to focus on figuring out how to provide for herself.

Brought out of her thoughts, she did in fact spot the large yellow ogre wandering the streets and quickly changed. 

Climbing atop the building connected to Witches Alley, she knelt down to peek over, seeing the infamous witch sisters themselves. Smirking to herself, she was happy Stella taught her a levitation spell the night before (seeing as they were practically having a sleepover after the whole troll ordeal, Stella figured she should know some basic spells, and taught her accordingly. For all her despisement of learning, Stella could be a good teacher when she wanted to be). 

Down below, the three witch sisters, otherwise known as the Trix, were discussing with their minion about a certain blonde fairy. However, not too long after they began, the middle sister, Darcy, sensed a fifth presence, “Sisters, we are being watched.”

The eldest triplet, Icy, narrowed her eyes. She detested spies, especially ones who would ruin their plans to take over the Magic Dimension, “Find them.”

Nodding at the order, Darcy made a copy of herself and went off to find the spy. 

She didn’t account for being kneed in the face upon teleporting. 

Bloom grinned victoriously when she noticed the hit distracted Darcy enough to let her push her over the edge. Standing on the ledge, she internally squealed when the cape flowed with the wind. She didn’t even have a fairy form and she already had the look of a superhero!

“You’ve plotted for the last time, villains!” She spoke aloud, “It is I! The crimefighter known as…..uh….You know what, I actually haven’t planned this far yet…..Prepare to be defeated!”

“...What?” Stormy, and her sisters, were quite frankly dumbfounded by this person. Not only did they have the audacity to confront them without fear, but they dared to act so, so lackadaisical about it!

“Kick of Silence!”

Leaping down, she used the levitation spell to slow her fall and kicked the youngest sister into a wall.
Ok, so, it wasn’t so much a kick as opposed to her failing the spell and crashing into Stormy, but the end result was still the same!

Icy didn’t really appreciate her coming in and attacking (however miserably she failed). Really, Bloom should’ve seen the freeze spell coming. But that was a fault on her part. It wasn’t like she could memorize everything . And it had been so long, too. She only knew major things. 

“I’m sick of this. We don’t enjoy having to bother dealing with pathetic fairies like yourself.” As if she could be anything else, unless she was a stupid civilian. But that was besides the point, because it was just gritting on her nerves that this was even happening, “We have a Solarian princess to look for. So unless you happen to know where Princess Stella is, I’ll have to say goodnight.”

“She’s right here!” Snapped another voice. The trio spinning to face the end of the alley, they spotted a group of more fairies, led by none other than the very one they were looking for. It was a good thing they got worried and went searching for their new dormmate. “Let her go!”

“As if. We don’t take such insolence lightly. Knut! Time to step up and crush those fairies!” Their ogre minion was pathetic really, but his strength as an ogre made up for it. Slightly. Just slightly. 

The ogre growled and acted upon his orders, moving to attack the fairies. However, the girls prepared for the punch and, while dodging, activated their fairy forms. In a flash, the four were covered in their glittery outfits and wings at the ready. Practice allowed them to think well on their feet which proved when Tecna sent out one of her spells, “Digital Wave!”

In what took only seconds, Knut was encased in a green sphere made of coding and encrypting. Trapped in the web, Musa sent out a soundwave blast that was meant to disorient the ogre. It worked quite well as Flora quickly grew magically strengthened vines that wrapped around the ogre’s large frame and swung him through the air.

Icy took back what she said about him being an okay-minion, while her sisters facepalmed, “What a useless ogre.” Growing quite tired of all this, Icy prepared a much larger spell than she needed on the masked redhead, “Alright you little firsties, you are going to be history!”

Sharp spikes of ice sped towards the four fairies as they tensed at the spell. Tecna was quick to send up one of her defense spells that created a digital firewall as their shield. Stormy didn’t appreciate being so winded by the first fairy and conjured her lightning (their mother named them accordingly), which was quite strong and broke the shield. 

Icy, prepared to finish it, began to summon her ice coffin, which would no doubt kill off the irritating fairies finally. And with them dead, they would have no trouble getting that damnable ring. 

However, that ring was exactly what Stella used to save them from the frigid death, using her staff to teleport them to safety. 

“They got away?! Not again!” Icy shrieked. Darcy and Stormy both knew it was best to just let her throw her tantrum, rather than getting in their elder sister’s rage. 

Elsewhere in Magix, far away from the three witches, Stella was using her sun magic to help heat up Bloom, who was rather cold due to being encased in ice. But she got better much quickly. Bloom chalked it up to having a piece of a dragon inside her, but she typically heated up faster than people usually would. It was why winters weren’t so bad as they had been in her first life. But she did enjoy having the fireplace roaring despite not getting cold. Something her parents found out the hard way after she decided it was a good idea to throw her whole arm into the fire. 

She came out with small burns, but it astounded them that she wasn’t worse off. 

“You could’ve survived a little longer in the ice, but don’t worry. Stella’s got you now! You know, considering you’re from Earth and all, you did pretty good against a bunch of senior witches! You were so brave Bloom!”

Stella was on a tangent and Bloom was more concerned with heating up rather than the fact that she completely blew her cover altogether. Though she only let her because it was a pain going by as Veranda and she was sure Stella wouldn’ve stopped anyway. The girl was probably going off pure adrenaline and Bloom could completely understand. 

“Stella!” And the blonde also completely forgot there were three other girls right behind her. “Why did you just call her Bloom and say she was from planet Earth?!”

The princess stuttered and fumbled with her words and soon just gave up and groaned, “Look, I’ll tell you the whole story on our way back to Alfea!”

“You do realize that we are way past curfew now, right?” Bloom remarked, sending the other four in a frantic run towards the bus, while she followed laughing. 

Bloom followed the other girls calmly, merely resting her arms behind her head as the four tried to ‘sneak’ through the courtyard. She knew it was pointless, so why bother? “By the way, at this point I feel we might as well just tell Faragonda the truth as well. There’s really no point in keeping it quiet anymore. I never wanted to lie in the first place.”

Sure enough, a spotlight shone on them and the two headmistresses appeared, stern frowns on their faces. Bloom simply waved with a smile.
“Do you have any idea what time it is?!”

“We were worried about you girls!”

“We ran into some witches in Magix and they attacked us.” Came the calm reply from the redhead before anything else was said. The two older women were more than reasonable when it came to things out of their control. And Faragonda definitely understood how stubborn witches were when it came to those they believed deserved ‘punishment’. Explaining fast and simple in blunt terms was the best way to have them go easy on the girls. The others were much too tense and worried about being in trouble to think this through rationally, whereas Bloom prepared for it. 

And true to her thoughts, the stern faces turned worried and surprised. While strict, the women were fair. They wouldn’t get in too much trouble for being past curfew. 

“I see. How dreadful, I’m glad you girls are alright. Go on and head to bed. We can discuss this further in the morning.” 

Eager to get out of the spotlight, the other four happily trotted off, while Bloom stood back at Griselda’s hand. “And just what was it that you were lying about missy?”

Honestly, she kinda forgot that there was a big chance the two would overhear her talking despite the fact that they were clearly laying in wait for them. Pondering how to go about it, she decided that, like before, being blunt was the best option, “I’m not Veranda of Vallisto. My name is Bloom and I’m from Earth. I helped out Stella when she came to Earth by accident and she suggested I come to Alfea to learn how to use my magic.”

Before Griselda could say anything, Faragonda held up her hand to stop her, observing Bloom for a moment. It was strange, while she knew that there was something a little off about the girl, she never thought she’d be from Earth. The magic of that planet died off, the reason why they held no contact with the Magic Dimension as they used to. Well, she said it died off, but it just vanished one day. Nobody knew what happened, but every check they gave the planet, there was no sign of magic whatsoever. Soon everyone just gave up on the planet and left it alone. So the question was, just how did Bloom come to be?

“I see. I will admit it must’ve taken a lot of courage to tell the truth.” Not really. But hey, she was getting off scot free so she might as well just keep quiet. “And in that fact, we shall overlook the deceit that took place. I assume Princess Veranda will not be joining Alfea then?”

“Stella said she chose to take homeschooling instead.”

With a nod the elderly woman continued, “Then, seeing as we have an opening, you may stay in her place and learn, just as Princess Stella promised. I expect great things from you Bloom.” Of course she would. She was amazing after all. Bloom also noted that perhaps she was getting a bit of a big head.

“Thank you ma’am” Bloom expressed her gratitude. Regardless of whether she knew it would happen, she was excited at the prospect of attending Alfea. There was so much she could do and learn here than she could at any Earth college. Plus being a future superhero was the best dream job ever. 

The next day was filled with the first day of actual school. And frankly…..

She was kinda bored.

Alfea was fun and all, but…..yeah, it was just school with magic. And while that may sound like a blast, seriously it’s magic, it was….not doing it for her. The fight with the Trix (though it wasn’t so much a fight given how easily Icy took her down), that, while ending horribly on her account, that was fun. This….was just school. Sure, all they were learning was magic but…..

Look, it was just filled with discussions on theses and essays, and it was just the first day. Transmutation class was kinda enjoyable, or at least it would’ve been if she could actually do it. 

As it turned out, not having your base fairy form kinda diluted your magic ability….

The most she did was make her hair move in some wind. Give her a class that had to do with fire however, and, well, not to toot her own horn but she got that down. Fire manipulation came much easier here than it ever did on Earth. Though maybe that had to do with actually unlocking her magic while saving Stella. 

The way she saw it, unlocking her magic allowed her to use her most basic form of magic, that being fire. It was a part of her, hence she was able to do that without her base fairy form (which she found was named Basix. It was actually kinda smart since it’s the most basic form a fairy can have without all the upgrades that they can unlock). But that was it. That was all she could do. And yeah, while it impressed her teachers, it wasn’t all that spectacular to her. 

She did it all the time after all.

So, much to all of her teachers’ dismay, she spent a majority of the classes playing with her lighters.

Yes, she was taking great advantage over the fact that her teachers were not warned of her pyromania. 

It was pretty funny seeing their faces during lunch when all the teachers who had confiscated her previous lighters saw she somehow acquired another. They have yet to find her stash. 

Joke was on them. She had multiple stashes all around the school. And they were all in places no one would expect.

Stella, so far, counted a total of one hundred thirty six lighters Bloom had in her possession. 

She had yet to find her other hundred.

(Honestly, Bloom was kinda worried with just how much her parents didn’t realize she bought and owned. But she didn’t blame them either. She was pretty sneaky about it and always had a great hiding place back home. If anything, it rather proved how well she was at sneaking around).

She was pretty sure at this point they just gave up because she found a lot of the confiscated ones back in their dorm.

Stella again took up trying to help teach her though, so that was a plus. She ended up doing better when the blonde was involved. Maybe it had to do with their quick bonding or something, she didn’t really know. 

Or she was just a better teacher than originally thought. Either or. 

Halfway through the week however, Faragonda had an announcement that shook the school at the core.

Ok, not really. Well….maybe to some of the more….dazed fairies at the school it was that kind of news. But to Bloom….meh.

“As per tradition, we shall be hosting a ball to commemorate the new year, and our special guests shall be the boys from the Red Fountain School of Heroics and Bravery. We hope that you’ll be warm and friendly hostesses and make them feel right at home!”

“But not too friendly!” Griselda called, making Bloom snort and choke on her tea (something she blamed her mother for getting her addicted to). 

Stella patted her back as the redhead calmed down, trying desperately to stop her giggles. Griselda! Such a dirty mind!

Eh, two colleges full of hormonal young adults. Honestly Bloom didn’t consider that part. Maybe Griselda made a good call. 

“Love spells and crush potions are forbidden!”

Seeing the disappointment in some of the students' eyes made Bloom a little more than wary and worried about those poor men. 

“But dancing is encouraged, and the boys shall bring surprise gifts for all. So I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time!” 

Well her sweet new friends were excited at least. Each of them had a nice new dress that fit them quite perfectly. From Tecna’s digital focused mind, to Musa’s pride in her ethnicity and culture. And Stella….

Stella seemed more than eager to tease the guys. 

“It’s pretty, revealing.” Sure, their casual wear consisted of crop tops and mini skirts, but while they sounded skimpy, they really weren’t. Their everyday outfits had a ‘comfort’ feel to them. You really wouldn’t look twice at it. Stella’s dress for the ball was slimmed to her figure and the cuts were made specifically to bring attention. 

Though it did fit Stella perfectly, she would admit. 

“It’s an Eyewink Rizrahi! I maxed out the card my daddy gave me to buy it!” She pouted at her redhaired best friend. 

“Yeah, but exactly what did you plan to do with that dress?”

“Claim myself the fashion queen of the school duh!” Bloom would give her that. No one seemed to have an eye for fashion quite like the princess of Solaria. “Not to mention Prince Sky will be there and this will definitely get his attention!” And there’s the kicker. “What about you Bloom? Brandon will be there! He really seemed interested in you when you guys met before!”

“I wasn’t planning on going.” More like saving Stella’s ring and finally getting her basix. Her lack of magic control was getting to her. 

The looks on her friends’ faces made it sound like she committed murder.

Stella even more so, “Uh-uh! No way! You are going whether you like it or not! Or my name isn’t Stella Solaria!”

Bloom rolled her eyes, “It’s not like I have anything to wear either. Everything I brought consisted of my everyday clothes. I didn’t plan on parties and whatnot.”

“Well then we’ll just buy you a new dress!”

“Stella, it's not that easy. I don’t have much money here. I haven’t had the time to look for a job yet” Bloom explained, allowing Kiko to hop into her lap before she began to scratch his ears, “For all thoughts and purposes, I’m broke.” Well, she did have her saved up allowance, but there was no way she was going to waste that on a dress she was never going to wear again.

She ended up being dragged to about ten different stores all over in Magix. Quite literally at some points. Musa just threw her over her back when she tried to fight them off. The girl was pretty strong actually. 

After hours of searching and refusing, the girls still wouldn’t give in. Bloom stared at each of them with a hard face, “You aren’t going to let this go are you.” At the determined shakes she sighed, “Fine. Come on. We’re doing this Earth style.”
Stella was horrified when she brought them to a clearance shop that she had spotted on their first trip. 

“And just what do you plan on getting here? An ugly carpet?!”

Bloom sighed in disappointment and tutted at the blonde, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, “Stella, if there is one thing you need to learn about earthlings, it is that you never, never , underestimate the power of being thrifty.”

Bloom proceeded to buy a third of the store with only half her money and Stella would admit that a majority of what she got was pretty good. Bloom figured she may as well buy new clothes for the rest of the year too since she found some pretty good deals. Thankfully Magix had a monetary system that allowed them to switch currencies from all around the galaxies. This included Earth, despite how uncommon it was. In fact, it was so rare that it actually gave more money, so Bloom was pretty good with the allowance. Not Stella good, but still ok. She still couldn’t afford even one store that the girls forced her to though.

“But still. None of this looks good enough for a ball!” Stella argued. 

“That’s where home designing comes in.” Bloom didn’t say any more even though Stella kept bugging her about it. The redhead was also thankful that the girls willingly helped her with the many bags she had. 

Once safely back at their form, everyone went on to get ready, while Bloom picked and chose what to do with each clothing piece.

By the time the ball came, Bloom wasn’t finished sewing and insisted the girls go ahead. This gave her the perfect opportunity to go ahead and begin her search for the Trix. Though, not without swiping an egg first. As much as she hated to admit it, Icy was right. They should really work on their stashing abilities. But Stella did in fact hide her ring well enough that even Bloom couldn’t find it. 

Of course, the Trix would probably use a tracking spell or something. Something she wasn’t able to do…..

She had special plans for this egg though. 

However, a part of her was also insulted that the boys thought glitter butterflies was the best present to give. They were pretty, sure, but they disappeared quickly! She wanted something more permanent! Hence why she needed to save an egg. 

However, before anything else, Bloom went straight for the ball, ignoring the looks some of the girls gave her. To be fair, a sweater and miniskirt weren’t the best things to be wearing during a formal party. But hey, she was a girl on a mission. Plus she didn’t particularly care to begin with. 

Searching for the girls however, was cut in when she ran into a firm chest. Arms quickly caught her before she could fall though, so that was a plus. “Sorry!”

“Oh hey. I was looking for you!” Brandon (actually Sky, but at this point who really cares), said, a grin on his face.

“Really?” 

“Yeah,” A sheepish smile grew on his face as he rubbed the back of his head nervously, “Actually, I was really hoping to ask you for a dance.”
Bloom pondered. On the one hand, he was engaged. On the other hand, a dance didn’t mean much. Besides, she had full intentions of him being her new guy friend. At least on Magix. Andy was forever her bestest male friend ever. 

She met him when they were much younger, in elementary school actually. He was being bullied by some of the older kids (probably because of just how geeky he looked with his buck teeth and large glasses) and she beat them up for him. They had almost been inseparable since that point, at least until he graduated and started college a year earlier than her. Things had gotten too busy for him at that point. But they still called each other frequently. 

Speaking of, she should probably give him a call sometime. It’d been a while since they talked and he was probably wondering what she had been doing with her time since she kept to a strict schedule of calling every weekend, except she missed this last one because of the whole magic thing. 

But back to the matter at hand, she saw no reason not to dance with Sk-Brandon (she gave up. For now on, she was calling him Brandon in her head and vice versa). However, some things did take precedence. “Sure thing. I just gotta do something first, so go ahead and save me that dance ok!”

With that, she raced off towards her friends, who were gossiping in one corner of the room. Well, it was more of Stella trying to attract Sky’s attention, and succeeded quite thoroughly, while the other three laughed and giggled at her antics. 

This was all interrupted when Bloom began shoving them out into the hall. Shocked at the suddenness, the girls were easily moved. Flora was the first to question it, “Bloom? What’s wrong?”

“Witches in Alfea. Cursed the eggs. Need to reverse it” She gave them the cliffnotes version instead. Faster that way. 

“The witches cursed the gifts?” Stella shrieked. Luckily, the party was loud enough that nobody heard her. 

Bloom nodded her head, “They changed the eggs into some kind of creature. A bite can cause projectile vomiting in an instant.”

“Gross” Tecna muttered, rather disgusted at the thought. As was the rest of them.

“Good thing Professor DuFour gave us a basic lesson on Convergence” Musa stated, gesturing to hold their hands. Convergence was typically something that was taught in second year, but DuFour believed it would be best to have a simple class in first year so that they would be prepped for the actual training of it. 

“Alright! Let’s do this counterspell!” Stella cheered as they linked hands. Bloom had a much harder time entering the spell, while the other girls easily began to glow from the magic. She quickly tried recalling something Palladium said about meditation. If she cleared her mind of everything, the core of her magic was enhanced. 

It wasn’t an easy feat for her given how much she relied on her many thoughts. Besides Andy, they were her only friend until she met Stella.

That is both sad and disturbing. 

The girls began chanting as Bloom tried to clear her mind. Thankfully, by the third time chanting, she finally had it down and quite literally felt the magic exit her body and converge with the magic of the other girls. The moment everyone had been combined, the spell shot off towards the chest of eggs right as it was brought out to be presented. 

Spell finished, the girls were left leaning against the wall and each other, gasping for breath, “I never knew, how much spells, take out on you…..”

“I, think it’s just, convergence spells….” Bloom murmured as she rested her eyes. Compared to the other girls, it took a lot more from her than she thought it would. 

And of course Sky had the worst timing ever. “This one is for you Stella.” She muttered her thanks as the blonde tried to keep standing. 

Bloom weakly took out her lighter of the day and kept her hand in the small flame it made. She found that fairies got more energy and power when around that of their magic core. This was probably also why Stella was weaker than the rest, as it was night out. She was more powerful when in sunlight. Stars were good too (made sense as the sun itself was a giant star), but they weren’t really close enough to stars to work all that well. Flora was getting her energy back from the flowers that decorated the dance hall, Musa from the music playing, and Tecna was always carrying some sort of tech with her no matter the circumstances.

Easily getting her strength back, while Stella was getting it much slower than the rest, the redhead handed one of the two eggs she swiped to Flora, “Do you mind enchanting this egg for me? I figured it’d be fun to get back at the witches with their own plan.”

Flora smiled and agreed, using her nature magic to enhance the curse upon the egg into a reversed spell. Insead of removing the curse, she switched it, changing that of which the egg was supposed to hatch into the opposite. 

Once that was done, Flora proceeded to use a spell designed to switch the contents of the egg with the ring. Bloom gave her a sheepish smile and handed her another egg, whispering her wishes to the nature fairy. She wanted to surprise the rest of their friends. 

Flora giggled, but agreed nonetheless. And then pushed Bloom to go change into the dress. Bloom had been hoping to get out of it, but to no avail she supposed. Besides, she kinda already promised Brandon a dance so she might as well. 

However, in the room, she instead changed into a completely different outfit. Her superhero one to be exact. She giggled as she placed her mask and cape on. Honestly, this was the most fun she had since she and Andy rigged the whole men’s locker at the Gardenia middle school to explode paint at the same time as a big basketball game. 

They never did get caught for it.

Spotting the jewelry box Stella stashed her ring (which now instead contained the egg), Bloom raced off after it, leaving Kiko behind in shock. The poor rabbit didn’t know how much magic he could actually take. 

Finding the perfect place for her hero monologue, she stood directly into the spotlight, allowing the ring box to float by. Before it could reach the witches however, she swiped it out of the air and posed, “Freeze villains!”

Icy has had it up to here with this stupid fairy! The ice witch growled and shot off a spell, “No, you freeze! Ice Bracelet!”

Bloom quickly dodged and sighed in disappointment, “That was a pathetic comeback!”

“Heel of oblivion!” Bloom yelped when Darcy split apart the earth, trapping her in the cut off land. 

“Twister!”

Bloom frowned when the tornado Stormy made blew towards her, “Now, really. Why do they have awesome spell names and you’re just naming weather effects? That’s just weak! At least have some creativity!”
Stormy snarled at her as Bloom backed away from the twister heading straight for her. Unfortunately, lacking the wisdom of Edna Mode, she probably should’ve gone without the cape, because it ended up getting caught in the tornado and sent her flying. 

Maybe she should’ve thought this through some more as she shouted while flying to the ground. “I could really use those wings now! You stupid no good dragon! Help me out here!”

Luck seemed to be watching, however, as her plea was in fact heard. The dire situation and panic that ensued worked in her favor as in a flash of flames, her hero costume transformed into a glittery top and skirt, a pair of sheer blue wings behind her.

And let her just say, having wings was weird !

She could feel them, they were a part of her now. It was like having an extra leg or something. And since it was so new, it was actually a little uncomfortable. And then there was the fact that she had no idea how to use them and continued to fall. 

However, it seemed that fairies had basic instincts and before she could become paste on the ground, her wings fluttered with a speed she couldn’t keep up with, stopping her fall just in time. 

She still landed on her face when she realized she wasn’t going to die again. She really needed to work on her landing strategy. 

Standing up, spitting out grass and dirt, Bloom took a moment to examine the wings on her back. They looked exactly as she knew they would. But that didn’t change the feeling. Shifting her back, the wings followed the motion, flapping together slowly by pure instinct. They were thin and smooth, as if chiffon fabric, and were cool to touch.

She was so enraptured she completely forgot about the three witches in front of her.

“Frozen Prism! Artic Blast!” Bloom yelped as she maneuvered around the ice pillars that grew, but was easily hit by the frozen breath that was shot at her back. “Now time to finish with a personal favorite of mine. Ice Coffin!”

In an instant, a sphere of ice surrounded the forest area Bloom landed in. She, however, was quick to start a fire in her arms, which helped melt the ice that would’ve no doubt killed her. Thankfully, the witches seemed to believe she was in fact dead and vanished, believing they had won. 

Bloom melted her way through the ice and, seeing her friends rushing over, happily waved at them, her wings fluttering behind her. 

Stella seemed more than excited as she crushed her into a hug, “You got your wings!”

“Yeah. And it’s kinda weird having them. How long did it take you guys to get used to it?”

“It’ll take a few transformations, but you’ll be fine soon enough. It’ll be like they were always there” Flora said, happy for her roommate.

“Great. Now. Last question…..How do I turn back?”
After a few minutes of trying to turn back, with the girls’ guidance, she succeeded. 

And was pushed back into their dorm to finally change into her dress. Well, she said dress. It was a top and skirt, which you could tell because of the way she cut them. After a few more touches, she was dressed and made her way to the party. She arrived, as Stella would say, fashionably late. 

There was still half an hour left of the party so at least there was that. 

“Bloom! You look amazing!” Stella cheered.

“See? What did I tell you? Never underestimate the power, Stella. Never. So what did I miss?”

“Well, Mrs Faragonda had Musa perform a few songs, Prince Sky flirted with Stella, and Brandon kept asking where you were” Flora caught her up. 

“Yeah! He seemed really anxious to find you” Stella giggled. She was shipping them so hard right now!
“I kinda promised him a dance, so I should probably go find him,” Bloom admitted. She ignored Stella’s squeal as she walked off, trying to spot the mane of blonde hair. But she didn’t have to find him, because he easily spotted her. Honestly, that was probably because for the life of her, she couldn’t find another redhead in any of her classes…..

“Bloom!” 

“There you are. I was looking for you” She stated.

“Really? So was I” Brandon chuckled and stuttered, “I mean, I was looking for you, not looking for myself. I mean, why would I be looking for myself that doesn’t make any sense. Uh, I mean-”

Bloom snickered, “You’re rambling.”

“Right. Sorry.” Poor boy looked so sheepish. She took pity on him and grabbed his hand.

“Well, I believe I owe you a dance. So come on!” She laughed as she pulled him onto the dance floor. 

“So, are you liking Alfea so far?”
“Well, it’s school. But I suppose. I definitely have more friends here,” Bloom explained, the two swaying to the music, “I only had two friends back home, and even then we kinda went our separate ways. Don’t get me wrong, we still keep in touch for the most part, but still. And what about Red Fountain?”

“It’s the best. Sky and I have been friends since we were young, so I already knew him, but Timmy and Riven are cool to hang with too. Well, Riven’s kinda….Riven….”

“He seems to be the type to enjoy his privacy.”

“A little more than that but yeah.” There was a bit of silence between them as Brandon tried to think of something else to say. Bloom simply enjoyed the atmosphere. She never really went to parties. She, Andy, and Selina (another friend they made when she moved to Gardenia when her military dad was stationed there) weren’t invited to any parties held by the other people they went to school with. Not that they particularly minded much (well, Selina did, but she didn’t seem to mind just hanging out with them either), since Mitzi was usually the hostess and they pretty much despised her, and vice versa. She had been to a few parties in her first life but the last one she had gone to before her death wasn’t very…..good for her.

This had to be the best party she’d ever been to really. So it had that in its favor.

The silence continued until the next song came on and they chose to get a drink, “So, did you like the enchanted eggs?”

“Oh!” Bloom had a blank mind until he brought it up and took out her egg, “Actually, this got caught in the crossfire with some witches. They’re gone now, but I kept the egg. I guess it didn’t get countered when we dispelled the curse.” A little white lie didn’t hurt anyone. 

Brandon seemed confused at the mention of witches, but they were cut off when the egg began to hatch. Bloom grinned widely at the sight of the baby swan she insisted Flora made. The swan shook out its feathers and looked up at the two (one a grinning redhead and the other being a confused and shocked blonde), “Mama! Papa!”

Bloom let out a faux cry, wiping away an imaginary tear, “I’m a mother!”

“....Papa?”

“Guess we’re parents now~!” She didn’t mention his face growing the same shade as her hair. She supposed he was just shocked at it. “I say we name her….um….Ooh! We shall call her Hedwig!” She giggled at the irony of naming the swan after the wizard familiar. The opposite in many ways. The swan was black, her namesake was white, her owner was a fairy, namesake was a wizard. 

Hedwig let out a small honk as she danced in her mother’s hand. 

“You know what, this really is the best party I’ve ever been to” Bloom grinned.

And her life, as it seemed, was just going to get even better~!

Chapter Text

“Welcome class, to Black Mud Swamp!” Palladium said. Bloom still pondered on just how he would get that famous makeover that changed his small brunette form into the tall golden adonis he would be in the future. Maybe elves had a different type of puberty? She knew elves lived much longer than other fae creatures, so it made sense that the teacher probably hadn’t hit that inheritance yet.

After the ball, it was right back to classes galore, to Bloom’s irritation. Thankfully, they had the other classes off days of nature exhibitions, so that was a plus to Palladium’s class. 

That didn’t get rid of all the work they had. College was not fun. Now she understood all those college memes that used to float around, and they weren’t even a month in!

Though, for all his nerves, she could appreciate Palladium’s teaching methods as he proceeded to explain just what they were required to and then vanished, leaving them to the wild. She could always appreciate learning by doing.

“Well, we aren’t getting anywhere just standing here. Let’s go guys! Trust me, I have an innate sense of direction!” With that, Bloom strutted off, knowing the others would follow. Though, she paused and looked around, “Now….Where are we?”

Flora giggled as the others rolled their eyes, “Maybe we should try this way?”

“Perfect! Ok, new plan! Listen to the nature fairy! Lead the way Flora!” Honestly, how did Palladium not catch that clear advantage?

They soon came across a muddy pond and Bloom stopped them before the girls could attempt to walk through it, “Wait a sec. We should make sure this isn’t some sort of quicksand or whatever. We can’t go tramping through everything without thinking it through. The lesson is to sense nature and use it to navigate after all.”

“Good point” Musa agreed, picking up a stick and throwing it into the mud. It popped one of the bubbles, which let out a stream of gas, turning an overhanging tree into stone, “Oh boy. That’s Medusa Gas. Good thing we didn’t go into it.”

They trekked along the edge and found a shallow spread of muddy water. Making extra sure that it was just mud, the girls proceeded to slowly make their way through, allowing Flora to take lead as she extended her senses to the trees around. They had thoughts, even if they couldn’t express them, and Flora’s magical core allowed her to hear these thoughts when she focused in on them.

“Uh, is that what I think it is?” Bloom questioned, pointing ahead of them towards a crashing ship. 

“It’s a Red Fountain Aircraft” Tecna stated, the five quickly racing after the falling ship to ensure that whoever was manning it was ok.
Arriving at the crash sight, they saw the four guys, whom only Stella and Bloom really knew (the other girls knew of them, but they hadn’t met officially), climbing out of the smoking aircraft, coughing. Bloom grinned at them, “Well well, look who it is? Are you guys ok? We saw you guys crashing.”

“It wasn’t a crash, it was an emergency landing” Riven argued, not noticing Musa staring adoringly over at him. Bloom could feel it was probably an instant crush for the musical fairy. 

“The ship is smoking. You guys crashed. Don’t even bother denying it because I’ve seen emergency landing before.” Sure it was mostly on tv, but she saw them!

“So what were you guys doing anyway?” Stella asked curiously, only having eyes towards Sky.

“Actually we were-” the brunette made a strangled noise in his throat when he spotted the broken jail hold and tracks leading away from the ship, as Brandon quickly took over to avoid giving any important details away. Not that they didn’t trust the girls, it was more precaution.

“Transporting a, uh, a very important package, to a uh, location.” Never said he hid details well .

“It was that troll that attacked Stella, wasn’t it.” Bloom smirked while Riven glared down at her. She knew she was going to love messing with him. 

“Uh, well, heh…”

“The troll got away!” Sky yelped, gaping at the sight.

“Prince Sky!” Brandon scolded with a small glare. Honestly, he had no tact whatsoever! 

Proven when most of the girls freaked out at that, whereas Bloom looked like she didn’t really care. This was majorly because she didn’t. Stella on the other hand, had quite the voice on her,  “You let a troll escape?!”

All the boys winced at the shrillness of her shriek, and Riven glared (though really, he glared at everything and everyone so this wasn’t big news), “We didn’t let anything escape! We had an accident!”

“Mechanical failure,” Timmy agreed.

“Besides, we have him in Avail Shackles. Those things will slow him down.”

“Yeah, they act just like a tranquilizer.”

But Sky seemed to be the continual bearer of bad news, holding up a pair of metal cuffs, “Uh, guys…..I think these are those shackles we put on him….”

“You guys aren’t doing so hot are you?” Bloom laughed.

Desperate to move the attention elsewhere, Brandon quickly changed topics, “So what are you all doing here?”

“A field exercise for nature class.”

“So why don’t you girls all get back to your nature class and leave this to the specialists” Riven snorted.

Stella, however, the legendary gossip queen, always had a snarky comeback for such a case, “And just when are the specialists going to get here?”

Riven growled, “Listen here you privileged little-”

“What Riven is trying to say!” Sky was quick to intervene before the hothead could verbally assualt his crush, “Is that it would probably be best if you girls got back to your nature assignment.”

“I can tell her to bug off myself!”

“Now now” Bloom cut in, holding her hands between the two groups, “We shouldn’t stand around and argue. The longer we’re here, the farther that troll is going to get. I know you guys have some sort of macho man thing to prove to yourselves, but a bigger team is always better no matter the circumstances.”

“We don’t need any help from a couple of spoiled princesses!”

Bloom sent him a sneer that matched his own, “Ok, listen up you little egocentric hothead, first off, Stella is the only princess in the group, so you’re already wrong in terminology.” Technically speaking, she couldn’t really be a princess to a dead planet anyway, so she wasn’t entirely lying. “Secondly, you can yap away all you want, but we’re going to help whether you like it or not. And thirdly, if you want to get into it, I will fight you. I don’t care how much training you had against me, I will knock you down. Probably by cheating, but all is fair in love and war, and it will definitely be a war. So I will not say this again. Back. Off.”

It was silent as the two paired off in what appeared to be some sort of glaring match. To the others, it felt like ten minutes before one yielded (very reluctantly), that being Bloom. But only because there just so happened to be noises coming from her small pack she was carrying. 

And in a moment, out popped the heads of both Kiko and Hedwig. “Mama!”

The girls groaned in unison as she sent them a sheepish grin. “You brought your pets?!”

“There is a very simple answer to that question. And that answer is yes, however ! I couldn’t just leave them back at the dorm alone!” At the unamused looks the girls gave her, she huffed, “Ok look! Hedwig is still a baby, and I am her mother. If anything, I’m proving to be a good parent!”

“It’s a bird….”

“A bird who happens to verbally acknowledge that I am her mother!”

Hedwig proved this by leaping out of the bag and nuzzling the redhead’s face, “Mama!”

“Besides, Kiko can hardly babysit her. I left him in charge of my hamster once and I never saw Weeble again after that!”

The rabbit grunted, pouting at that. It wasn’t his fault that hamster wanted to rebel and ran away! He tried to get him back! And then he ran into a bunch of cats and it had just been a really bad day!

Tecna sighed and moved on, examining the hole in the ship, “We are getting way off track. We need to find that troll before it comes across one of the other groups. Looking at the shape of that hole, I’d say that it was created by an outside force. Someone wanted that troll to escape.”

“Sabotage?” Timmy muttered adjusting his glasses as he brought out his phone.

“Which means,” Bloom began, decidingly taking charge. As if she’d let Riven try to do so first. Establishing alpha status was the best way to go when dealing with a bunch of hormonal men. “We better find that troll before whoever shot you down gets away with him. Follow me.” She strode after the prints left by the troll, not bothering to check behind her, knowing that at the very least her girls would follow, “The footprints get less and less deep as we go. Chances are he began to levitate off the ground. Whoever took him is magical. And with the theory of deduction on our side, we can make an estimated guess that the ones who took him, and shot down your ship, were witches.”

“And just how did you come to that assumption?” Riven retorted.

Bloom cooly stared back at him, “No prints indicate signs of magic, Trolls are incapable of using it in the first place, so it couldn’t make the spell itself. No fairy I know would take a troll. And no, not because the whole ‘fairies are too prissy to do any work’ or whatever else you deem worthwhile to come from your mouth. A wizard could be a possibility, however, what we already know is that there is a group of witches who happen to have previous dealings with the troll you were no doubt shipping off. With that knowledge, I can deduce, quite easily, that the only ones with the right motive which we know of, are those three girls.”

“Great thinking Bloom!” Brandon praised, grinning at her with awe.

“It certainly helps matters knowing who we’re looking for,” Tecna stated, “But how are we going to know which way they went?”

“Simple. We listen to nature, like professor told us to do.”

“Oh great” Riven scoffed, “And how exactly are you going to talk to a bunch of trees?”

“Clearly your mind is smaller than I gave you credit for” Bloom deadpanned. He growled over at her and she rolled her eyes, wiggling her fingers. Sparks waved around her hands, “Magic, duh. Plus, you know, we happen to have a fairy who’s magic is specifically for trees. Flora, ask them where they went.”

The nature fairy nodded and closed her eyes, concentrating hard as she connected to her magic. It took a while for her to stablise her core, but once she did, the surrounded plants eagerly told them which direction to take, “They went east.”

“Fine. Let’s go guys.” Riven led the boys forward, not caring about how far they went without the girls. Showed them right for trying to take over their mission. The boys mumbled half-hearted apologies to the winx as they strode after their wayward teammate, the three internally hoping the girls wouldn’t take offense and actually follow after them.

Stella huffed, stomping her foot, for once not caring about the mud that gathered around her, “Shows how grateful they can be! See how long they last without us!”

Bloom merely rolled her eyes. The sooner Riven got over his irritating angry teenager phase the better. She liked him way better when Musa finally got through his thick skull. “Let go before they get themselves killed. There’s dangerous plants in these swamps. Pretty sure Professor mentioned vines that strangle people.”

Flora nodded, “Oh yes, Quaitius Carnivorous. They hate loud noises. If you are too loud and wake them, they get very agitated and will not hesitate to eliminate the problem. They’re natural habitats are deep moist swamps where they can grow and rest.”

Meanwhile, that was the exact situation the boys found themselves in as their bodies were almost completely wrapped tightly within the maroon vines.
“Go drink some water or something!” Brandon yelped as he felt his body being squeezed together.

Timmy choked as a vine moved around his neck, “I don’t think they survive just on water! I think they’re trying to eat us !”

“So what do you suggest we do?!” Riven exclaimed, wiggling around as he tried in vain to weaken his bounds. 

“We should stay calm and-” Timmy cut himself off with a scream as another vine looped around his ankle.

Sky sighed, giving up on even fighting, “It’ll be so embarrassing if somebody found us like this…”

And speak of the devil….

“Well well. Look what happened here” A quiet, but smug voice reached their ears. Below them were the exact girls Riven had them ditch, the feisty redhead leading the pack as she stared up with a smirk. 

“Stay back!” Riven warned. Irritating they were, he was a hero at his core and protecting fairies was what they were trained to do. “These vines belong to dangerous bloodthirsty demon plants!”

“It’s more like dangerous sleepy plants who were so rudely woken up by loudmouths such as yourselves” Musa retorted as Flora quickly went to the cranky plants, shushing them softly as she calmed their frazzled nerves. No longer angry, the plants eased the boys down as they began to rest once more, eager to get back to their sleep.

“Now then, let’s keep moving and leave these guys alone. You’ve upset them enough” Bloom commanded, the groups quietly making their ways far from the plants. Once they reached a clearing she turned to the sheepish boys, “Now then, want to stop wasting time and actually work together? Or do you want to go back to being suffocated by those vines?”

“We’re with you one hundred percent!” Brandon agreed, not hesitating the slightest as he moved closer to the fairy. 

“No way!” Riven argued.

Sky merely shrugged, “In that case, you can keep going on your own. But hey, if you find the troll, give us a shout.”

With that, the now combined groups moved off, leaving Riven behind. He stewed in his thoughts for a moment before reluctantly chasing after them, though not giving them the pleasure of hearing him agree to follow. 

Brandon eagerly made his way towards the front of the pack, walking beside the newly self appointed leader, “So, uh, you really know your stuff. Back at the crash with all the tracking knowledge and all.”

Bloom grinned as she cuddled Hedwig and Kiko in her arms, as they leapt out of her bag once away from the dangerous plants, “My dad took me on a survival training trip with his coworkers. They’re firefighters so they need to be in peak physical health. The trip also helps to train their bodies to keep in shape. I think he was hoping I’d grow to like nature too much to play with fire around the parks and mom’s flower shop.”

“Yeah, you, uh, you really like fire.” He had not missed her playing around with the earth firemaker (she called it a lighter, but it was certainly more primitive than any lighter he had seen). 

“I’m attracted to it. I really can’t explain it very well.” More like she couldn’t without a very good explanation as to how she knew about being the fairy of Dragonflame, let alone about Domino since she had been only a baby when it happened. “My parents think it’s because of how they found me.”

“Found you?” Musa questioned curiously. She forgot they had other people behind them and very well in hearing distance.
She spun to walk backwards as she grinned at her friends, “Oh yeah. I’m adopted. Dad was on call for duty at the station and found me in a burning building. The whole place was on fire and he heard me crying, so he raced inside and found me, alone on the floor. My birth parents never came back after dad rescued me. Mom and dad think they abandoned me or died in the fire.” There. Not lying to them flat out, just withholding information. She never said she believed they abandoned her or died. “I think maybe my magic adapted to fire in some way. Dad claims that he saw my body being protected from the fire by something.”

“Perhaps your magical core kick-started early on in order to protect you from the danger” Tecna theorized, looking deep in thought as they reached another bog. Bloom merely shrugged, unable to hide her sly smile but it went ignored anyway. The technology fairy looked at the muddy water and examined the small pieces of land scattered, “Looks like we’ll have to hop out way across. It’s much too wide to travel around, we’ll never catch up to the troll if we tried. The quickest way is forward.”

Timmy gulped as he looked at the floating clophaturfs, “Good luck Tecna.”

“Thanks” She deadpanned, sending him a quick glare for sending her first. Gathering some courage, she leapt forward, landing unsteadily onto a close piece of land. She moved with the motions to keep balance as a giggle escaped her, “Actually, this is kinda fun!”

Bloom stared at the bog, a cross expression on her face. But in an instant it was wiped away as she quickly began laughing while hopping away. Kiko shrieked in her arms out of fear as Hedwig quacked giddily, the chick trusting her excited mother’s actions and having fun with her. After all, mama would never put her in a situation that would bring her harm.
Flora yelped as she wobbled, “My clophaturf won’t stop wiggling!”

“Ditto!” Stella stuttered.

“I believe Bloom has the right idea. The key must be to keep moving” Tecna called back, following the redheads lead as she leapt from turf to turf.

“Geez, she’s completely unstoppable” Stella huffed, losing breath as she tried to keep up. Unfortunately for them, Bloom was leagues ahead, almost close to the shore. Sky noticed her losing energy and, in a bout of trying to impress her, picked her up and began jumping with her in his arms. She let out a squeal of laughter as he grinned down at her, slowly, but easily making his way across.

Bloom landed on the sturdy ground, hurriedly moving away from the edge of the bog, waiting for her friends to make it. She reached out and helped steady Brandon when he jumped after her, pulling him back with her as the others made it as well. However, right when Riven made to jump to shore, his turf move, slipping him right into the water.

“Gotcha!” Musa yelped, not hesitating to lean towards him, grabbing his arms tightly as a whirlpool began to arise. Timmy and Tecna quickly reached forward and grabbed Musa’s legs as the force began to pull her into the water with the hero.

Sky and Brandon grabbed the other two and with all four, they easily dragged Musa and Riven back onto stable land. Stella couldn’t help but quip up as the six tried to regain their breath, “Bet your glad you decided to team up with us girls now, huh Riven.”

He glared over at her, his ego taking quite the bruising, “Yeah well, I could’ve gotten out without you guys! Come on get up! Let’s go already!”

Musa glared at his back, snapping out, “You’re welcome!” He decidedly ignored her as he continued his stride. Bloom gave her a comforting pat, making rude gestures towards Riven’s back resulting in the music fairy laughing. 

However, they were all distracted when a loud snarl followed by screams resounded close by. The group raced towards the noise after determining it must’ve been the troll. 

Peering past a thick brush, the teams easily spotted the trembling fairies backed against a cliff with the blue troll advancing. Sky gathered their attention from the scene, a firm gaze on his face, “Alright. I have a plan. Phase one, the girls distract the troll.”

“I hope phase two isn’t the troll eating the girls!” Stella snapped at the brunette.

“We wouldn’t let that happen” He assured her, “Phase two will be Brandon and Timmy pinning him down. Then Riven and I jump in and slip the shackles on him.”

Bloom didn’t even bother letting him get another word in as she raced out of the bushes with a charging yell, despite the girls’ yelps and calls. “The hero has arrived!” She cheered triumphantly as she took a leap towards the troll, climbing onto its shoulders. The troll snarled and shook, trying to buck the fairy off of it. She clung tightly to its hair instead, a manic laugh escaping her. 

“Bloom, you’re crazy!” Stella shrieked, but clutched onto the trolls arm to keep it from pulling her off. 

“That’s what they keep telling me!” Bloom laughed giddily. 

“I guess this is our distraction huh!” Musa yelped as she grabbed onto the trolls legs. 

“Wait, we were just supposed to distract it?” 

“BLOOM!”

She pouted, but wrestled the troll enough to grab a lighter from her pocket, “Don’t worry I got this!”

“Wait!” Flora shrieked, but to no avail as Bloom cackled and lit the trolls hair on fire. The troll snarled and growled, throwing the girls off of him finally and raced in its own fight or flight instinct, toppling to the ground as it tried to put out the fire. 

Bloom called over to the specialists, who stood by not exactly knowing what happened, “Now would be a good time to shackle it!”

“Of course you like the psycho” Riven muttered to the blonde beside him. He sent the rough teammate a small glare at the slight. There was no other talking however as the boys set to work in wrangling panicked troll and shackled it tightly. 

“And you guys told me to leave my lighters back at the dorm!” Bloom huffed proudly, a smirk playing on her lips as she let Kiko and Hedwig out, gentling petting them in her arms. The girls merely groaned lightly, but didn’t argue. Crazy or not, her fire obsession did end up helping them. Bloom took a glance to where the attacked fairies had once been, “Guess they ran when the troll got distracted. Can’t tell if we should be insulted or not.”

“Thanks for helping us get this troll back” Bradon said cheerily, running a hand through his golden hair. “We would’ve been in so much trouble if we lost him.”

“On. Off. On. Off” Bloom giggled, playing with her lighter.
Stella smiled in amusement, patting her shoulder, “If anything, you should thank this one’s addiction.”

Bloom pouted, “I’m not addicted! I can stop any time that I please!”

“Every addict says that” Musa stated, “And that time usually means never.”

“No one asked you!” Bloom whined, grabbing onto Brandon’s arm, “They’re bullying me! Make them stop!”

He just blushed and laughed.

The group all made it back to the shipwreck in less than hour (given Flora’s natural abilities to navigate the forest, they easily avoided all the dangerous stuff). Tecna and Timmy then spent the next two hours repairing the ship so they could once again fly. 

Bloom took notice that the troll kept trying to back away from her whenever she wandered close to it. 

She felt rather proud of herself for that.

When the ship was repaired, they all boarded and the heroes in training flew them to where the class was supposed to reconvene, finding everyone and their teacher clearly waiting for them. 

Bloom skipped off the ship, waving at the boys, “Thanks for the lift! Don’t get shot down again! And don’t lose the troll!”

“Thanks for the help, girls” Sky waved, before the ship took off once more. 

Bloom strutted over to their teacher and grinned, “Gosh you wouldn’t believe the day we had! See, the boys from Red Fountain got shot down and the troll they were guarding escaped! We saw them crash and so of course we had to go help them out! But then the boys got cocky and they wandered off into the forest alone and so we had to go rescue them because they ran into some silence obsessed vines and were being strangled, so we saved them from those things and then we had to go find the troll and we did find it but it was attacking some of the girls, I don’t know which of them, oh wait she’s over there! Hi again! Thanks for leaving us to die! Where was I? Oh right, so I used the lighter I smuggled into the trip to light the troll on fire and we were able to capture it while it freaked out trying to stop the flames on its head and then we went back to the wreck and fixed the ship and afterwards the boys offered to drive us back here so we wouldn’t be even later than we were! Gosh! I am just so exhausted! We should do this again some time!”

Paladin deadpanned at her running sentences and explanations, but shook his head in exasperation (having gotten quite the gossip about this particular student and therefore expected something to go haywire with her group). “Well, for punctuality, I have to give you a zero, despite the extenuating circumstances. However, I can award you thirty points for generosity, twenty five for initiative, fourty for courage, and fifty for your ability to listen to the voice of nature. And with that, you girls have received the highest score in the class.”

The girls all grinned and cheered for themselves as another fairy huffed, “But they were the last ones to arrive!”

“I never said it was a race,” Paladin said sneakily, “The point of this exercise was to show just how important the journey is, rather than trying to speed through to your destination. And even so, they knew the risks when they generously offered their help to those in need. A fairy’s main purpose in life is to help others and that is exactly what they did.”

Later that night, as they settled into their dorm, Bloom posed, standing on top of their couch, “I have made a decision! We need a team name!”

“A team name?” Musa questioned.

The redhead jumped gleefully on the cushions, “Yes yes! A team name! Every team has a name! Just think about when we become super-duper famous!”

Tecna hummed, “It is a rather good idea. A name is good for quick reference.”

“Yeah, but what?” Flora asked.

“I have the perfect name!” Bloom squealed, “Kiko! Get mommy’s banner! I made us a logo!” The rabbit bounced into their room and brought out a piece of fabric. Bloom took it and brandished it proudly. But she received confused looks instead.

“Uh, is that even in a known language?” Musa questioned. 

Bloom frowned and looked down at the banner. She then turned to the blue rabbit, “Kiko, this is your banner. Mine is in my nightstand.” The bunny flicked his ear and hurried off, giving the right one to her. Bloom double checked it before happily holding it out, “From now on, I hereby dub thee group, the Winx Club!”

“Catchy” Flora mused. 

“This is totes cute” Stella stated firmly, taking the banner and, with a wave of her finger, sending it to a wall and enlarging it to hang proudly in their dorm. 

Bloom grinned brightly at seeing her sign be accepted so easily. Of course, she knew it would’ve, but it was a nice feeling to have.

XxXxXxXxX

“I don’t see what the big deal is!” Bloom exclaimed.

“Of course you don’t, you little pyromaniac” Musa retorted. 

The redhead huffed and crossed her arms, slouching into the couch and glaring at the girls in front, “I don’t have a problem!”

“You almost set the kitchen on fire! Twice! Within five minutes!” Musa exclaimed.

Tecna fiddled with the box she made, which they were now keeping her lighters. It was coded and only Tecna knew the passcode, to prevent Bloom from coercing it out of the others. Apparently this was the intervention they kept threatening her with.

Yet again, they didn’t have all of them. She hid a lot around the school, many which were still being found today by teachers and students alike. 

“Oh come on! Nobody got hurt and the kitchen was fine!” Bloom whined. 

“That’s besides the point!” 

Then their door burst open and in skipped the solar fairy, “Everyone shut up and pay attention to me~!”

“Not now Stella. We’re holding Bloom’s intervention” Musa stated firmly.

“No no. Let’s pay attention to her” Bloom cut in, sending an innocent smile to the blonde fairy, “You look chipper!”

Stella ignored the grumblings of Musa and twirled to the center of the room, “I got a date~ Prince Sky sent me a letter inviting me out to a new cafe~!”

“That’s great!” Bloom cheered. Though there was a part of her that felt off. Like something was wrong. Maybe it was indigestion. Or the fact that her precious babies were being cruelly separated from her. Either one of thoses.

“Yes!” Stella agreed, “But I need help choosing the perfect outfit!”

“Hear that Musa. Stella needs help. Let’s forget this so called ‘intervention’ and focus on what is really important. Like finding a dress for Stella to wear!” 

“This isn’t over Bloom!” Musa snapped as the redhead raced towards the solar fairy’s room to raid her closet. 

“Too puffy!” Bloom exclaimed, throwing the odd dress she knew Stella designed, “Too black!” Flora squeaked when the black top was threw on her head. “Found it!” Bloom cheered as she pulled out the silver and blue dress she found. “This one is what you should wear! Silver is a good color for you!”

“I know right!” Stella squealed, quickly changing into the dress. She then picked out a pair of heels and showed them to the girls, “Are these too intense?”

“They don’t look very practical” Tecna pointed out, given how narrow the heels were. 

“But they do match,” Flora added.

“Musa, be a dear and bring me that green chest!” Stella said as she tied the ribbons of her heels around her ankle. 

“Oh of course your majesty!” The music fairy replied sarcastically, though still dragging the chest over to her. Musa heaved for breath, “What’s in that thing anyway?!”

“Just a few accessories” Stella waved her off, opening the chest to revealing tons of gold jewelry and gems. 

“A few?” Flora questioned, gasping at the shining chest.

Stella hummed as she glanced at her finger. “You know what. Bloom can you keep an eye on my ring? I’ll be tempted to cast a love spell on him if I wear it. And I don’t think I’ll need any magic!” 

“Sure thing” Bloom said, carefully placing the ring into her pocket.

“I don’t understand” Tecna frowned, “Why are you getting so worked up over some guy?”

“Prince Sky is not just some guy !” Stella gasped, appalled by the slight, “He is handsome and kind and so sweet !”

“Someone’s in love~” Bloom sang, giggling. Stella cooed and blushed. The redhead cheered and began to shove the blond out of the room, “Go and have fun! Come back with a man!”

Stella laughed and hurried out of their dorm, leaving the girls to themselves.

Bloom rubbed her chin in thought. Seriously, what was she forgetting? She knew there was something important….It was on the tip of her tongue….

She was brought out of her thoughts when she was shoved onto the couch with Musa leading the other three in staring her down, “I told you we weren’t done.”

Bloom whined.

Thankfully for her, it didn’t take too long for them to grow bored of their so called ‘intervention’ and began gossiping about the Red Fountain boys as they waited for Stella.

“And what is with Riven! Why isn’t he asking me out yet?” Musa huffed.

“Riven? You like Riven ?” Tecna gaped. That rude callous boy? Honestly, what could she even see in him?

“Yeah? What of it?” Musa frowned.

“She likes the bad boys !” Bloom cackled. But she winked with a grin, “I can see it!”

The music fairy giggled, collapsing onto the couch, waggling her eyebrows at Tecna, “What about you and Timmy?”

Tecna simply looked confused at the question.

XxXxXxXxX

By curfew, Stella still hadn’t come back, so the girls decided to just head to bed. 

And they all promptly woke up to shrieking and things crashing. Flora moaned, sitting up from her bed as Bloom yawned, “Is that Stella?”

“Sounds like the date didn’t go well” Bloom hummed. Why did that sound familiar?

“What on earth is going on?” Musa exclaimed as the four girls conveyed into the common room. 

Bloom frowned and knocked on Stella’s door, “Hun? You okay in there?”

The fashionista opened the door and gave them a strained smile, “Hiya. What’s up?”

“That’s what we want to know” Tecna replied, “What are you doing in there?”

“Uh nothing! Just doing a little cleaning! And reorganizing!”

Bloom frowned, “How’d the date go?”

“It was fine” Stella said, ready to close the door.

The redhead put a foot into the doorframe, staring the blonde down, “Doesn’t sound like it was. What happened?”

“Nothing happened! It was very romantic!” She snapped.

“Really?” Bloom raised an eyebrow.

Stella growled, “Yes! Now leave me alone! Sheesh don’t you have your own life!” with that, she kicked the redhead’s foot away and slammed her door.

“What the hell!” Musa shouted, storming to the door to give the blonde a piece of her mind. 

Bloom, however, held her back, “Leave her alone for now.” Besides, she needed to figure out why this behavior was trying to trigger something in her mind. 

Unfortunately, they still had class and so her thought process had to take a back burner. 

“Great heads everyone! Now, say decapidoncus!”

“Decapidoncus” The classroom repeated Wizgiz’s instructions. In a burst of sparkles, their pumpkin heads all returned back to normal. With the exception of one girl who sat in front of Bloom.

She, in turn, sort of panicked, “Professor Wizgiz! It didn’t work! What do I do? What do I do!”

“Don’t be alarmed Miss Spicka” The leprechaun assured his student, “It just means that you’re thinking too much of the pumpkin.”
“I can’t help it! What do I do to get my head back?!”

“You just need a good scare” Wizgiz said. 

He began to rummage in his pocket, but Bloom interrupted, a manic grin on her face as she pulled out one of her lighters, “What if I set her pumpkin head on fire?!”

The fairy shrieked, trying to move as far away from the pyromaniac as possible. In the process, her head also transformed back to normal. Wizgiz gave an uneasy grin, “Well that’s one way to scare someone.” The bell rang and Wizgiz informed the next class schedule, “For our first full body transformation, we’ll be turning our bodies into slugs.”

There was a collective shiver of disgust as the Winx, minus Stella, made their way out the door. Musa frowned as she took note of their missing friend, “Guess Miss All That decided to skip class.”

“I’m worried about her. Something must be wrong” Flora said softly.

“Maybe Bloom was right. Perhaps her date didn’t go well” Tecna added.

Said redhead hummed, “It’s probably because it’s a witch disguised as Stella.” The girls all froze and gaped at her as she let out a gasp, “ That’s what I was forgetting!”

“Bloom what are you going on about?” Musa questioned firmly.

“The trix want Stella’s ring and one of them is masquerading as Stella to find it” Bloom explained.

“And how exactly do you know this?!”

Bloom paused and grinned, trying to play off her unease, “Uh...I’m psychic?” The girls deadanned at her in disbelief. She let out a nervous laugh. She quickly tried to distract them, “We need to go save Stella! Come on!”

“Bloom! Bloom this isn’t over!” Musa called, the three chasing after the striding redhead.

XxXxXxXxX

“So, I don’t remember where it is, but we need to find the Blackwood Cafe,” Bloom said, guiding the girls through Magix. “That’s where they’re keeping Stella.”

“Bloom, you can’t really have us believe you’re psychic!” Tecna argued.

“And why can’t I?” She pouted.

Musa sighed, “Okay, so you’re psychic. Why are you just mentioning this to us now then?”

“Uh….I was worried you wouldn’t believe me?”

“You don’t sound very confident,” Flora remarked.

“Let’s go find Stella!” Bloom cheered, trying to change topics. The three other Winx exchanged a glance and a shrug. “Flora, how far can you sense dead trees?”

Flora frowned, “Not too much. Life is much more overpowering. Why?’

“Well the ‘cafe’ is in a dead area of a forest somewhere around Magix. It’s a decrypt cottage beside a large dead oak tree.”

Flora hummed, “If there is a substantial amount of deceased nature, I could probably find it if I’m close enough. We’ll just need to search around the forest until I can pinpoint it.”

“Bloom. You are one hundred percent sure that Stella is in danger from witches?” Musa asked yet again.
“Positive” Bloom nodded firmly. 

The music fairy sighed, “Alright then. Let’s get going.”

It took them most of the day before they finally got some kind of response to Flora's magic. “Over there.” The nature fairy led them to a large blooming orange tree, and beside it was a nice cute cottage. “This place….I’m not sensing any kind of life here.”

“An illusion spell” Tecna suggested, typing on her magic digital watch. With a quick hacking spell, the tech fairy was easily able to overthrow the illusion, revealing the dead nature and destroyed building.

“This is the place!” Bloom affirmed, striding to the door. With her friends close behind her, the redhead slowly creaked the door open, the four of them peering inside cautiously. A shadow streaked past them towards the stairs, startling the Winx. Bloom sang lightly, “If you came here to kill me, clap your hands.” A loud bang echoed from above them, “Well that wasn’t clapping your hands.”

“Bloom!”

“What?” Tik Tok was so underappreciated here….

“Well well well. What do we have here?” A sneering voice called from the shadows. Stella slinked out into their sights. The blonde had a nasty glare on her face, “You pixies just don’t know when to quit, do you.”

“I’ve been told it’s a problem, but I can’t see it” Bloom stated ‘helpfully’. 

“You brats have been getting on my last nerve. I think it’s time to teach you a lesson!” Bloom quickly tackled her Winx to the ground as ‘Stella’ sent a blast of purple magic towards them. 

Tecna was quick to transform and summoned a shield to protect them. Bloom stuck her tongue out, “Is that the best you got Darcy?” 

“Ooh. Pixie has a brain” the blonde said before her form shimmered to reveal the purple clad witch. As if it was a call, the two other witches appeared beside her in their own lights. 

While Flora and Musa followed Tecna’s lead and transformed, Bloom stayed wingless. The redhead narrowed her eyes at the witches, “Where is Stella.”

“She’s right here” Icy revealed, a sinister smirk on her face as a trapped Stella appeared in the air. “And she’s going to stay here until she tells us where the Ring of Solaria is.”

“Is that all you wanted?” Bloom scoffed, pulling the ring out of her pocket, “Fine. Give me Stella and you can have it.”

“Bloom! No!” Stella yelped, whimpering when the magic coils around her tightened.

“Well?” The redhead prompted, staring down the witches.

The sisters exchanged a glance before narrowing their eyes at her. It seemed too easy But at the same time, fairies were known for their pathetic bonds and willingness to save others. Icy stepped forward, “Done. But if it’s a fake, then there will be hell to pay.”

“Whatever” Bloom rolled her eyes, gesturing to Stella. Icy snapped her fingers and the blonde crashed down onto the floor. Without hesitation, Bloom tossed the ring towards the ice witch, who smirked as she turned the ring into its scepter form.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” In a flash, the three sisters vanished, leaving the fairies to themselves. Bloom skidded towards when Stella was left, and quickly gathered the frightened and injured fairy into her arms.

“Let’s get out of here” Musa prompted, the group quickly making their way out of the run down building and making their way towards the town again.

“I’m sorry you girls had to come save me” Stella sighed as they wandered over a bridge.

“Don’t apologize like it’s your fault” Bloom stated, “Never blame yourself for being a victim.”

“Yeah” Flora agreed, “You had no reason to believe it was a trick by the witches.”

“Still. Now they have my ring” Stella sighed, “I don’t have enough power on my own yet. I can’t transform without it….”

“Have you ever known me to do something without a plan?” Bloom questioned with a grin.

“Yes.” Came the immediate response from all four fairies.

Bloom pouted, “Fine. but I do have one!”

“And what is that?” Tecna asked.

“We’re gonna break into Cloud Tower” Bloom declared, cackling.

……

“WHAT?!”

Chapter Text

“I think I got it!” Musa cheered. They were lounging in their dorm, split between research and planning. Tecna downloaded a map of Cloud Tower, to which Bloom was configuring their route and escape plan.

The others were more curious as to why the Trix wanted the Ring of Solaria, and had taken to reading Solarian History books that Stella found. 

Musa continued, “The ring is so powerful because it is made from pure starlight. But some sources say that it’s even more powerful because it’s made from the same light of a creature called the Great Dragon.”

Stella pondered, “I knew about the whole starlight stuff. It’s why it was given to me in the first place, beyond being a family heirloom. It’s directly connected to my powers, after all. But I don’t know anything about that whole dragon spiel.”

“What even is this Great Dragon anyway?” Musa bemoaned.

“It’s a legend that claims the creator of the whole Magic Dimension was a powerful dragon made of blazing eternal flames” Bloom spoke up casually, not entirely focusing on the conversation as opposed to mapping the Tower, “After the dimension was created and magic was gifted to those born within the worlds, the Great Dragon rested on a planet called Domino before disappearing.”

The four girls looked at her in some awe and confusion.

“How did you come by this information?” Tecna asked curiously, as she herself came empty handed from searching the web after Musa explained the ring. 

“Books,” Bloom hummed. She wasn’t technically lying. After all, canon-her read books to get the answer. It kinda counted.

“Reading in your spare time. Such a nerd” Stella teased light-heartedly. Bloom winked at her.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

“Where’s the map?” Flora asked as the girls followed Tecna’s lead through the tunnels. Once lights out hit, and after Griselda finished her rounds of check-in, they quickly made their way to the secret tunnels. Both Alfea and Cloud Tower had underground tunnels for emergency evacuation from centuries ago.

Red Fountain had them as well, when it was still a grounded school. However, that was something they lost when they transitioned to a floating campus decades before the Winx were born. As far as Bloom found (by which she meant Tecna told them all about it after she downloaded the tunnel systems because the techno fairy was too excited to keep that information to herself), Red Fountain now had escape pods in case of emergency.

While convenient, Alfea and Cloud Tower might want to reconsider emergency plans since it seemed anyone had access to the system (with it being online and all), so it kinda defeated the purpose if any enemies knew where to block.

Granted the Magic Dimension was in an era of peace since the Ancestral Witches were banished, but still. 

“After I downloaded it, I memorized it,” Tecna stated. It was a common tactic she used when studying for tests. 

They soon reached a door that would lead into one of the hallways for the witch school.

“This seems a bit too easy,” Flora murmured hushedly.

“Be on the lookout for traps. It is a witch school after all” Bloom stated, equally quiet.

Tecna gestured her head, guiding them up two flights of stairs before moving to a dorm room further down the hall. Musa placed her head against the door, listening for any sounds or movement. Being a fairy of music, she was more sensitive to noise and had better ears than the rest of them.

She shook her head and opened the door, the girls peering inside warily. With no outbursts at this action, they quickly entered the empty room. 

“Alright. Let’s find the ring and get out of here” Bloom declared, quickly casting the quick search spell they learned in one of the classes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a complete help, but it did tell them the general direction. 

Bloom sometimes bemoaned not having an eidetic memory. It would go faster if she remembered tiny details like this. 

Maybe she should make a list of everything she remembered from the show?

Nah, that was too much work. She got it handled.

“Looks like they're into voodoo. I wonder who this is. The poor girl” Tecna muttered, holding up a doll with pins stuck within it. She quickly placed it back on the shelf, becoming more creeped out the longer she held it. 

“What do you think this is for? Cheerleading?” Musa snickered, holding up a baton stick. She quickly dropped it with a yelp when it sprung spikes.

“How about we don’t touch the witch stuff” Bloom said blandly as she knelt to look under beds. She sneezed when some dust flew up her nose from the pile in the corner. Doing so, however, moved away some of the dust to reveal the ring within the dirt, “Found it!”

“Oh my baby!” Stella cooed, plucking the ring from the pile, “My six point one carat of pure magic!”

“Great. Now let’s book it” Musa said. The five girls quickly hurried to the door, making a quick peek to make sure no one was coming. 

With that assurance, they raced towards the tunnel entry again, quickly making their way back to the school.

Yeah, because Bloom was gonna risk her friends’ on the off chance of checking out books to find information she already knew? Not likely.

Of course, even though they didn’t get trapped by Griffin, Bloom was still rather surprised along with the other girls to find Griselda waiting in front of their dorm, tapping her fingers against her crossed eyes as she leveled a stern glare at them.

Which is how the Winx found themselves in Faragonda’s office the next morning. 

“We had warned you that Cloud Tower was dangerous and off limits! Yet you ignored us and snuck out in the middle of the night to break in!” Faragonda scolded, “Do you have any idea how worried we were when Griffin sent us the call about finding the tunnels open and discovering you girls in her school?! You are very lucky you left when you did, as I am sure Headmistress Griffin wouldn’t have hesitated to retaliate against you!” Bloom winced. The very reason she avoided staying any longer was to keep that from happening, and to prevent them from being discovered. At least they were safe from the older witch’s vengeance.

“You must be punished,” Griselda agreed, making the girls all whine.

“We cannot tolerate this kind of behavior at Alfea, but I hope you at least have a reasonable explanation!” Faragonda exclaimed. 

Bloom moved to speak, but Griselda interjected, “If I may, I believe that in such an extreme violation, any reason they give us would be completely irrelevant.”

Bloom took the moment to quickly speak up before Faragonda made a decision, “The witches who attacked us in Magix stole Stella’s ring. It’s a family heirloom and a connecting source of her power. She can’t transform without it yet. We only snuck into Cloud Tower to get it back from them.”

Thankfully, that seemed to ease the two older fairies, though they still laid disappointed eyes on the girls. Faragonda spoke, “Even so, you should’ve come to us first. We could’ve spoken to Headmistress Griffin about the situation and resolved it without this violation of our rules and disregard for your safety.”

“Your reaction was still out of line. As Headmistress Faragonda stated, this could’ve been taken care of more easily if you simply told us about it” Griselda added, “You must still be punished for your actions, but given the circumstances, we can be more lenient.”

The Winx let out a small sigh of relief.

Faragonda came to her decision, “Tomorrow, you girls will stay at the school while everyone goes to the concert in Magix. While we are gone, you girls are to clean the school without your powers. When we return, you can have your powers back.”

Casting the spell, the headmistress locked their magic, away from their access, before sending the girls to bed.

“Well, it could’ve been a lot worse” Flora said softly, “They could’ve locked our powers for more than a day.”

“Yeah, but I was really looking forward to that concert,” Musa bemoaned.

“And we have to do work!” Stella cried. Musa launched a cushion at the girl to stop her loud whines. Stella huffed and threw it back at her.

Bloom rolled her eyes fondly and quickly joined in the mini pillow fight the girls began.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

“Only ten more lecture halls to go,” Bloom groaned. They had gotten up earlier than most of the other fairies, if only so they could try to finish faster and have the rest of the night to themselves.

They split up after Griselda gave them their supplies, with Tecna and Flora going to tackle the hallways while Bloom, Musa and Stella did the lecture halls. 

Of course, this resulted in Bloom and Musa doing most of the work while Stella sat on her butt and filed her nails.

Musa did not like that, “How about some H to the E to the L to the P, Stella!”

“I don’t do work” Stella stated.

“Just grab a scrub brush!”

“Blisters are my enemy!”

“Then wear gloves!” Musa exclaimed.

“Gloves with this top?!” Stella shrieked in horror at the very idea.

“She has a point, Musa,” Bloom nodded, pouring a bottle of soap into her water bucket.

Musa looked at her in betrayal as Stella puffed up happily, “Thank you Bloom! At least someone understands that dirt is just not-” She shrieked when Bloom dumped the bucket of sudsy water onto her. Musa cackled along with the redhead.

Until Bloom threw the other half of the water onto her. Musa’s nose flared, “Oh it is on !”

And while the three girls engaged in a water fight, Flora was having a time helping Tecna figure out how buckets worked….

When that failed, she decided it was best to go find the others and combine efforts. Which is how they came across the three strewn across the lecture hall, soaked to the bone with soap in their hair.

“What happened here?”

Stella sat up excitedly, “Bloom taught us this cool earth sport called water fight and I won!”

“Yeah right!” Musa scoffed, climbing up to her feet with a grin, “I did!”

“It’s not funny. What if Griselda sees this?” Tecna argued.

“Yes, what if!” Speak of the devil and she shall appear.

“Big oof” Bloom muttered, getting to her feet to stand beside her friends.

“I came to inform you girls that we are heading out now” Griselda stated, “We will not be back until a little past midnight, so you girls should have plenty of time to finish cleaning.”

Bloom would beg to differ, but whatever. She wasn’t going to make their punishment worse by arguing otherwise. Knowing Griselda, she would simply extend their punishment to ‘give them more time to finish’.

As the Winx cleaned a hallway, the rest of the school left on the hover buses. As soon as the vehicles pulled away, Stella cheered, “Let’s call up the boys!”

“Oh yes, because they’ll be so joyous at the idea of helping us clean” Flora said, sarcastically.

Bloom hummed, “We could tell them we are in dire need of their heroics and bravery.” After all, if things go the way it was supposed to, then the Trix should be coming tonight (as the school was supposed to be empty), so they really needed all the help they could get.

“Won’t Griselda get angry?” Tecna questioned.

“She said no magic. She never said we couldn't get help” Bloom stated, making Stella cheer.

The blonde didn’t hesitate to whip out her phone and send a message to ‘Sky’. He responded immediately (because if there was one thing Bloom could count on, it was how dedicated Brandon was to his lovely princess, even if they weren’t technically an item just yet).

The Winx continued cleaning until the specialists arrived on their motorbikes. Of course, with the added bonus of boys, Stella was quick to join in the cleaning rather vigorously. With this, plus added motivation, they got quite a bit of work done.

They waited outside when ‘Sky’ sent their arrival message. Stella squealed and all but skipped towards the brunette. “Sky!”

Bloom squealed equally excited, “You brought a puppy ?!”

The redhead zipped past the boys to cuddle with the canine sitting with ‘Brandon’, who’s wagging tail showed her joy at the pets. The blonde smiled, “This is Lady.”

“Such a beautiful girl you are, aren’t you? Yes you are!” Bloom cooed, giggling as the dog licked her face. She easily lifted the dog in a cradle, rushing off, “I’m stealing her!”

“Wait a second! She’s my dog!” ‘Brandon’ laughed, chasing after them.

It wasn’t much longer before they gathered into the main hall, where Musa explained what exactly they wanted from the men. 

“We skipped a concert for this?” Riven scoffed, “We thought you girls were in trouble or something!”

“We are in trouble” Bloom grinned, “That’s why we have to clean the school with no magic!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Bloom tapped him with the end of her mop, “What’s the matter Riven? Not manly enough to do simple chores?”

The male growled at her and snatched the mop from her hands, grumbling hatefully under his breath. The redhead snickered gleefully as she picked up another mop and skipped after her friends.

Thankfully, it only took them a little more than two hours to finish the work that was needed. Musa easily made them pass the time by displaying they could work while dancing.

Even still, it had in fact, been rather boring to do. Things picked up more so at their little party in the dorm room. Tecna and Timmy helped connect the stereos to the whole wing of their school, so it was as though they were having their own concert. 

Bloom let out a whoop as she spun on top of their table. Stella squealed in amusement as the redhead danced. Flora giggled as she swayed beside Tecna, who was dancing quite well despite her initial reluctance.
And Musa was well immersed in the music, freely letting loose through the whole room.

The boys seemed to be having a blast as well, with ‘Sky’ sneakily dancing his way towards Stella, and ‘Brandon’ playing with Lady. Timmy was sticking to the couch, though he did appear to be contemplating on whether to get up and talk with Tecna, given how often he was taking glances at her. 

Even Kiko was teaching Hedwig how to dance, the little chick happily flapping her wings to the beat.

Riven was actually the only one not having fun, the ever so sulking boy leaning against the wall and drinking punch (Which may have a tiny bit of alcohol per Bloom’s pleading. Alcohol laws were less strict in Magix, since magic tended to dilute its effect enough. The only rule was that you couldn’t drink on school grounds, but what the teachers don’t know won’t hurt them. Meaning the eighteen year olds could enjoy it freely, even if Stella was the only one who could do so on Earth). 

Eventually, however, fate had it out for them as the room began to quake. Bloom shrieked as she fell from the table, but before she could hit the ground, she quickly found herself being carried. 

She blinked as the shaking came to a slow stop, confused as to what had happened. Looking at the one who helped her, she grinned when she met ‘Brandon’s concerned gaze, “Why thank you kind hero!”

He gave her a small smile and placed her back onto the now steady ground. 

“What was that?” ‘Sky’ pondered, “An earthquake?”

“I don’t think so” Bloom stated, briefly recalling that the Trix had something to do with it. She moved towards the balcony and peered outside, right when a wall in the courtyard burst apart.

“What the hell?!” Riven exclaimed at the sight.

“That doesn’t look good” Stella squeaked.

The specialists called their bikes, hovering over to the damaged wall. Bloom facepalmed, ‘Why didn’t they take us with them?”

“Come on!” Musa urged, the fairies rushing out of their dorm room and out into the courtyard.

The boys were already examining the damage, swords out and ready should they be needed. Bloom swatted ‘Brandon’ for leaving them behind as Tecna thought over what had caused it. 

“It was made by some kind of creature,” Timmy stated.

“A very big creature” Tecna added in thought.

Riven, ever the sarcastic, spoke up, “Really? Tell us something we don’t know.”

Tecna didn’t appreciate his remark and deadpanned, “It’s three meters tall, weighs close to a ton. Its fur is bristly, not soft. It walks upright, has horns in addition to multiple clawed limbs and it gives off a foul musky odor.”

Bloom and Stella snickered at Riven’s laxed jaw. Their amusement was cut short when a loud roar echoed through the halls. The heroes immediately drew their phantom weapons, with ‘Sky’ leading the way, “Let’s go!”

“We’ll check the other halls!” Bloom stated, waving them off. After all, what she did recall about their current situation, it ended in Faragonda’s office. So that’s where they’ll be heading. 

‘Brandon’ sent her an encouraging smile, “Be careful!” She winked, giving him a thumbs up. 

“This way!” Musa said, focusing her hearing to listen for the monster. The noise it was making echoed from above. She led the way as the fairies hurried up the staircase, albeit wary of the monster.

As they drew to the second story, Musa’s ears began to pick up heaving snorts, similar to a bovine animal. Bloom and company froze when they came across the large blue minotaur, who easily towered over them. “Think we found him.”

The minotaur stared down at them with angered grunts, letting out a growl.

Bloom let out an uneasy chuckle, “Okay, see, probably should’ve remembered that we don’t have powers before we decided to go monster hunting.”

“Run!” Stella shrieked, bolting down the hall, with the other girls quickly following.

The redhead heaved as they made it to the third floor, becoming rather winded from their chase, “Gotta work on our cardio!”

The minotaur kept up with them easily, which surprised none of them. Minotaurs were known to be quite agile. The beast let out a loud roar and stomped a hooved leg into the ground. The weight and force of his stomp cracked the floor beneath them, as the hallway shook, sending all the fairies tumbling off balance.

Bloom shrieked when the minotaur leapt towards her, quickly rolling away before she became a pancake. With her move, the minotaur decided to aim for the next closest girl, that being Tecna.

The purple fairy got her bearings enough to realize the danger and quickly jumped out of his line. As a result, the bull crashed into the wall, his horns becoming stuck within.

“Gosh you stink! Here.” Stella, deciding now was the perfect time to antagonize the beast (please note the sarcasm), spritz her perfume at him.

The minotaur sneezed and roared in response, using his new irritation to force his horns from their prison.

“Way to make him angry Stella!” Musa snapped as they once again began to run away from the beast.

Bloom glanced back to see the minotaur, which apparently had four arms, was using said arms to run faster, “What in the Breath of the Wild is this shit?!”

“We’re not getting anywhere with this” Musa grumbled, making the quick decision to attempt to surprise the beast. At the very least, she could give her friends some time to run. 

Leaping up against the wall, she kickjumped herself back to land onto the minotaur’s head. The sudden weight atop him startled the bull enough to lose balance and crash his chase.

Scurrying back to the floor, Musa tried to think of another attack as the minotaur shook away the surprise and turned towards her in rage. 

Thankfully, she had no need to defend herself as the specialists, who had been tracking the roars and vibrations, arrived. Riven was head of the pack, always eager for a fight, “This is my kind of party.”

“Good job Musa” ‘Brandon’ complimented as he and the others readied for battle.

Musa beamed proudly as Bloom let out a happy whoop for Musa’s actions.

“If you want a real challenge, come over here!” Riven taunted, unconcerned with wasting any time before fighting, dashing towards the beast.

The minotaur grunted as Riven slashed his blade at him. Shallow cuts were made, but nothing that would stop him as he swung its large fists at the specialist. Riven, luckily, was able to dodge on pure instinct. ‘Brandon’ quickly came up from behind, “Need a hand?”

“Just worry about protecting your prince, squire boy” Riven growled out as he once again raced towards the minotaur.

Said ‘prince’ quickly followed, “Don’t think you’re getting all the fun, Riven!”

“Yeah, save some for us!” ‘Brandon’ argued.

“I can handle-” of course, in a sense of irony, Riven was immediately punched by the bovine monster, sending him crashing through a nearby window.

Meanwhile, Stella hurried off to grab their cleaning supplies, hoping they could do something to help with them. 

“What are we supposed to do with these?” Musa questioned.

“Makeshift weapons!” Bloom cheered.

Tecna, however, had a different idea. “Minotaurs are nearly blind. They rely on a sense of smell and hearing to hunt. If we invade his senses, it will confuse him. And as they have hooves for feet, they are also more susceptible to becoming unsteady on slick ground.”

With the new plan decided, they quickly began to bang the buckets and other cleaning supplies together. The disastrous sounds echoing in the beast’s ear enraged him further as it began to feel dizzy by the noise hurting its sensitive ears.

Shaking away the pain, the beast was coherent enough to recognize the source of the sound and roared, bounding towards the girls. Bloom quickly drained the bottle of soap onto the floor as they scurried out of the minotaur’s way. 

The moment the bovine stepped onto the slippery floor, it fell, sliding down the hallway until it eventually was thrown through the railing, crashing down three stories.

Bloom leaned over the side and noted the bull not moving. She grinned at the others, “He’s out cold!”

“That was amazing!” ‘Brandon’ exclaimed, enclosing the redhead in a happy hug, lifting her up in his awed joy.

She cackled as he put her back down to her feet, spinning the now empty bottle of soap in her hand, “All in a day's work for-” Her hero moment was interrupted when the bottle slipped out of her hand and smacked her in the face, “Ow…”

“Smooth” Stella taunted. Bloom stuck her tongue out at her.

“Let’s get down there and capture it before he can recover” ‘Sky’ suggested.

They made their way down to where the minotaur crashed, examining the unconscious beast. Flora frowned as she inspected the animal. It may have been attacking them, but it was still an animal. As a nature fairy, she had to make sure he wasn’t too harmed. “Where did he come from?”

“The Creatures Preserve?” Riven suggested. Which wasn’t a bad guess since the troll they delivered there had also originally been a part of their beasts before being stolen away.

Though there was one drawback to that suggestion, “The Creatures Preserve doesn’t have any minotaurs. They tend to stay away from large populations because of the noise, so they have no need to corral them.”

It was then, however, that from under the bovine, a small duckling squeezed out from under him. The duckling flapped its wings and quacked, “Mama!”

“And-a-oop” Bloom hummed.

“It’s Icy’s duckling” Stella exclaimed, “The Trix are here?!”

The duckling began to cry and whine for his ‘mama’. Bloom cooed, swaddling the duckling in her arms, “Hi baby. I’m your sister’s mommy! Call me Auntie!”

“What goes on in that messed up head of yours?” Riven muttered, eyeing the redhead oddly.

She didn’t understand his question but Riven was weird like that. It was how he showed affection after all. The sweet tsundere he was.

“They must be after Stella’s ring again” Tecna deduced.

“Ooh! Let’s trap them in Faragonda’s room!” Bloom bounced excitedly. She knew where Fargonda was holding her precious lighters captive! She would have her babies back!

“How do we get them to her office?” Timmy questioned.

Bloom’s eye gained a knowing glint, which none of them were able to really decipher, “They’ll go there! Trust me!”

Tecna hummed, “To be fair, Ms Faragonda had an all-seeing crystal. If anything, they may go to her office to use it.”

Bloom simply giggled and raced off. ‘Brandon’ was quick to follow, as was Stella, both have enough trust in the redhead to know she had plans.

The group arrived at the dark office and watched as Bloom dove towards a large cabinet, working eagerly to break the lock on it. The duckling, whom she claimed as her nephew, was sitting on the desk, confused and whining for his mother. 

“Um, Bloom? What are you doing?” Musa asked as the fire fairy became frustrated and began tugging on the lock with her own set of whining.

“My babies!” She sobbed.

Immediately the fairies groaned and rubbed their foreheads. ‘Brandon’ while not fully understanding, was easily swayed by her cries and used his phantom blade to cut the lock open. She squealed happily and clinging to his arm, “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”

Riven rolled his eyes at the bright blush the blonde gained. He was so obvious, it was pathetic.

“My bestest baby!” Bloom squealed, pulling out a lighter that had been duct taped to a can of hairspray. She giggled almost maniacally as she fiddled with the lighter cap.

“Oh dear god, she’s insane,” Riven muttered.

“You have no idea” Musa mumbled in agreement.

“Everyone hide!” Bloom commanded, leaping behind Faragonda’s desk. Almost reluctantly, mainly because of her reaction to her ‘bestest baby’, the others hid in the shadows, waiting for the Trix to hopefully arrive so they could get the drop on them.

As Bloom predicted, the three witches floated into the room, following a glowing light. As the light stopped in the middle of the room, it began to shine brighter. Icy sneered, “Interesting. The crystals are responding wildly. The Dragon Flame must be in this room.”

“I don’t see anything,” Stormy argued.

“I’m not leaving until I have the Dragon Flame!” Icy snapped, “We’ll just have to trash the place!”

“I don’t think so, bitches!” Bloom jumped up onto the desk, holding out her makeshift flamethrower towards them. “Now Riven!”

The male teen immediately flicked on the lights, showing the witches that they were surrounded at all sides by the fairies and specialists. Icy growled, “What are you doing here?”

“I’ll do you one better, what are you doing here!” Bloom smirked. Of course, she knew that already. But it was mainly for the sake of the others.

“What are all of you doing here?!” Startled, Bloom tumbled back off the desk, yelping as she hit the ground. Faragonda entered the office with a stern glare. Bloom attempted to hide her flamethrower as she stood back up, but the headmistress spoke, “Don’t bother hiding that item from me, young lady. I see everything.”

“That’s creepy” She muttered, pouting as she unhappily placed the flamethrower into the headmistress’ outstretched hand.

Faragonda huffed, as she put the confiscated item back in the cabinet, setting another lock in place along with a sturdier spell. “Gentlemen, if you wouldn't mind bringing that minotaur to your school, I’ll make your headmaster aware of the situation. Ladies, please escort the specialists to their vehicles while I speak to our guests.”

“You’re in trouble~” Bloom sang under her breath as she passed the irritated witches. She grabbed ‘Brandon’s’ hand and all but dragged him off, “Come on guys! Time to go!”

As Riven and Timmy hooked the minotaur up to their bikes, ‘Sky’ and Stella shared goodbyes. ‘Sky’ went as far as to kiss the surprised princess’ cheek in farewell.

Meanwhile, Bloom whined as she hugged Lady, “I’ll miss you so much! Who’s a good girl? You’re a good girl! Yes you are!”

The dog was happily soaking up the attention. Whereas ‘Brandon’ was pouting at being ignored.

Within Faragonda’s office, both the headmistress and her deputy stared down the senior witches in disappointment. As it stood, their intent with harassing the fairies was getting out of hand. Witches were needed in their world, to keep a hold of dark magic. But there was a limit to be kept and these women needed to learn it. “You three have taken things too far this evening. I don’t know what’s going on between you and my girls but it ends tonight. Do you hear me?” 

The three witches looked irritated, but stood in silent acceptance of the scolding. 

They were evil, not stupid. Without the Dragon Flame, they didn’t have much of a chance against Faragonda, whose power was on par with their own headmistress, not to mention adding in her deputy Griselda. Plus, Faragonda immediately took their powers as punishment when she caught them in her office.

Icy was mostly just angry at how her duck stalker was latched onto her face.

“I’m sending you straight to Griffin’s office with a letter of complaint. I trust she will discipline you accordingly. Once she has, I’ll be sure to send your powers back. Have a nice trip.”

Faragonda snapped her fingers, sending the witches to Cloud Tower in a beam of light and sparkles.

Faragonda stared out of the window in thought. She had arrived when the fairies and specialists first arrived at her office (due to her sensor spell). So she was able to hear the three witches all but announce their intent in finding the Dragon Flame.

However, she had been under the impression that the Dragon Flame was a myth. Domino told tales of the Dragon Flame, claiming it was a royal treasure. But neither Oritel or Miriam, may they rest in peace, hinted it was anything more than a tall tale.

Of course, it wouldn’t surprise her if they were simply allowing people to brush it off as a story in order to protect it. Even the legends that had been written as mere fiction told how great the power it held.

If those witches were convinced it was real enough to sneak into her school to find it, then she couldn’t just let it slide as them being mistaken.

So the real question was, how did this great power come to her school? And who brought it here?

Something for her to dwell over and have Concorda investigate. In the meantime, she had fairies she needed to return powers to.

Chapter Text

“Bloom.” A soft ethereal voice echoed around her in the dark room she stood in. The redhead frowned in confusion as she glanced around. She could’ve sworn she had been reading in her bed.

“It’s me, Bloom. Don’t you remember me? Don’t you know my voice?”

Suddenly, the dark room expanded, as a glowing golden figure appeared before her. 

Bloom barely withheld a squeal of excitement, “Daphne!”

The golden nymph beamed (ha, get it. Cause she was glowing), “Bloom. My dear little sister.”

Said fae bounced on her toes, giggling giddily. She was meeting one of her favorites! Best day ever!

Her sister let out a small laugh and floated closer to her, gently brushing her unruly red hair away from her face, “Your destiny is approaching. The time for your journey will soon be here.”

“It hasn't started already?” Bloom tilted her head. After all, she already died and was reborn. Kinda sounded like a journey already. 

Daphne shook her head with a fond smile, “You are waking up. You need to find me as you did tonight, Bloom. I have more I need to share with you.”

Before she could ask any questions, Bloom shot out of her bed, awake and alert. Kiko and Hedwig, who had been resting atop her chest, tumbled off of her, squeaking in shock at the sudden movement.

“Look who’s awake” Flora teased, “You almost missed our goodbyes.”

“Goodbyes?” Bloom trailed after Flora into the common room where Tecna was checking her bags.

“It’s the Day of the Rose” Flora explained, “Tecna and I are going home for the weekend.”

“Already?” Bloom was surprised. She hadn’t realized that much time had passed. Mid-terms would be coming up soon enough at this rate.

“Do they have this holiday on Earth?” Tecna asked curiously as Flora gathered her own bag.

“Not this particular day. We have Father’s Day and Mother’s Day instead, but they’re separated by a month. Still got a while before it’s time for them, though.” It was only the end of October, after all. 

Stella popped in cheerfully, “Does that mean you aren’t going back to Earth yet? You can keep us company if you stay!”

“I didn’t plan on leaving, so sure,” She agreed.

After some brief goodbyes to Tecna and Flora, and a quick change, Bloom, Stella and Musa made their way to the cafeteria. Of course, they had apparently been the only students to stay at school, leaving the large cafeteria to be rather ominously empty.

Stella sighed as she sipped her tea. The cafeteria had been charmed to serve the students and staff whatever they wished for meal times, excluding things like alcohol of course. It made Bloom quite happy to be experiencing her own version of Hogwarts. “I  hate when the school is empty. I don’t know why, I just find it so depressing.”

“Probably because it’s usually noisy and crowded,” Bloom remarked.

“Later!” A croaky voice called out. 

“Bye Professor Wizgiz” The fire fairy waved.

Stella asked curiously, “Going home?”

“Of course! Going to see my dear old mama!” He replied, summoning a rose on his chest, “Gonna turn into a basilisk and give her a good scare!”

“I aspire to be like Professor Wizgiz in my later years” Bloom nodded proudly while Musa and Stella exchanged a confused glance.

Musa tried to keep the silence away, “So, why are you guys staying?”

Bloom shrugged, “My parents have work and they aren’t expecting me. Might as well wait until school break.”

Stella, however, sighed, “I never told you guys this, but things are kinda tense back home. Mom and Daddy are in the middle of a divorce right now. They have two palaces and it’ll just cause more problems if I stay at one castle instead of the other. And there’s no way they’ll last being in the same room together, even if it’s because I’m visiting.” The blonde proceeded to carry on, hoping to remove the awkwardness. Unfortunately, this meant she asked Musa instead, “So why are you staying?”

The music fairy winced, but answered nonetheless, “I lost my mom when I was young, so today has always been a bittersweet day. And my dad is on a business trip, so he’s MIA.”

“I’m so sorry, Musa. I didn’t know” Stella blanched. 

Musa simply sent her a smile, “Don’t apologize Stella. Of course you didn’t know. I’ve never really been good at talking about it. My dad kinda went quiet after she died. He stopped his music career, and never really wanted to talk about her. I’ve never had someone actually listen when I brought her up. It feels nice to get a little bit of it off my chest.”

Stella sniffled and drug the noirette into a tight hug. Bloom had the misfortune of sitting across from them, but reached over to grab Musa’s loose hand. The redhead sent a sympathetic smile to the teary fae, “We might not be blood, but we’re our own little family. So we should have a good time today.”

Stella, not the best with heartfelt emotions and used to shoving away the icky feelings, quickly got to her feet and rubbed the tears away. “She’s right! The suns are shining, there’s a festival in the city, shopping and concerts!” 

Her spiel was cut off when some music began playing from her skirt pocket. She quickly pulled out her phone and beamed, “It’s a text from Prince Sky! He and some of the other boys are going to the festival today! They’re also inviting us to the dance tonight!”

The blonde began cheering excitedly at the thought of an actual date with Prince Sky. And not a trap made by witches!

Bloom looked towards Musa questioningly, “Shall we?”

She, however, shook her head. Though it was not unexpected. “I think I’ll just hang back. But you guys should have fun.”

Stella squealed, “Get over here, you two!”

“I’ll do you one better!” Bloom grinned, standing up, “Winx Pile!”

“Wha-” Stella shrieked when Bloom tackled her to the ground. Musa grinned and quickly fell to the floor with them as the trio began laughing.

As Stella and Bloom arrived on the bus, the city was packed with people enjoying the festivities. Bloom tried to see over the crowd, “Where are the guys, anyway?”

Stella was already on it, having texted her prince, “They'll be waiting near the cafe on Pix Street. Let’s go!”

It didn’t take them long to find the three guys. It helped that Riven was rather tall and his magenta hair was pretty recognizable. As they reached the trio of specialists, ships began to fly overhead, dropping roses upon the ground. 

‘Sky’ grabbed one and, seeing Stella approaching, held it out to her with a gentle smile, “For you, my Princess.”

She giggled and blushed brightly, taking the flower. Bloom shook her head with a small laugh. Stella and Brandon had always been one of her OTPs. Particularly after Season 2. Musa and Riven were a very close second, though.

Speaking of Riven, he rolled his eyes with a sneer at the dovey stares of the lone couple and his blonde dormmate. It was kinda pathetic, actually, how besotted he was with the red haired fairy, who was so obviously oblivious to his attraction. Not to mention how oblivious he was to the fact that she sometimes gave him appreciating eyes.

Riven was not blind, however, and knew full well the redhead was attracted to him. And while she was hot, she wasn’t exactly his type. Too crazy, that one was.

Pigtails, though, drew his interest. 

Not that he’d ever tell her that. Emotions , gross.

“Hey, Romeos, look. Some racers are already warming up.” That, thankfully, dragged all of their attention to the one thing about this day that made Riven excited. 

“The annual Race for the Rose” ‘Sky’ grinned excitedly. 

“This year is going to be so intense!” ‘Brandon’ exclaimed eagerly.

“Maybe for you guys, but for me, this is going to be a walk in the park” Riven sniffed haughtily.

‘Brandon’ barked a laugh, crossing his arms, “Oh boy. Here it comes.”

“I’m just saying,” Riven shrugged, “You jokers don’t stand a chance.”

“A chance of what?” Stella puffed.

“Of beating the Riven-ator.”

“Oh dear gods, don’t tell me you actually call yourself that” Bloom snorted, trying her best to hold in her giggles. She knew Riven was sensitive. She didn’t want to upset him. Too much, at least. It was fun riling him up. He got all huffy and would parade like a peacock. It was hilarious . Later series Riven was much more tame and she appreciated a good character growth.

She was hoping to help him branch out of his insecurities by giving him a proper outlet via arch nemesis. 

“Whatever! I’m going to leave these wannabes in the dust! They might as well put my name on the Rose Trophy now.”

‘Brandon’ shook his head and explained further to the irritated Stella and amused Bloom, “Riven doesn’t think we’re going to be any competition for him.”

“Competition? Last year, little Sky fell off his bike in the first lap.”

‘Sky’ gritted his teeth in annoyance. It wasn’t his fault his bike had malfunctioned! Stella, however, was more concerned as she grabbed his arm, “Sounds dangerous.”

‘Brandon’, however, disagreed, “Nah. Level Bikes are safe. We wear state of the art padding. Look.” Bloom would say it was plot convenience that an accident happened right when ‘Brandon’ directed their attention over to the race. “See what I mean? No worries. That guy hopped right back up.”

The group began to make their way further into the city, deciding to grab some food before it was time to race. 

“Are they still letting people sign up? I wouldn’t mind giving this race a try” Bloom said curiously.

Riven just scoffed, “Please. Like you’d make it further than Sky did last year. Do you even know how to ride?”

Bloom pouted, “It shouldn’t be too much different from my motorbike back home.” Granted she only rode it a couple times before attending Alfea, and even then it wasn’t racing as opposed to just cruising through the city. But still. The mechanics should be near the same. 

“You’d probably get hurt at the first checkpoint” The arrogant specialist stated firmly.

Bloom cut off his walk with a proud grin, “Oh yeah? Well I bet you that I’ll make it to the finish line in one piece! Loser has to give five hundred credits to the winner!” 

“Fine! You’re on!”

Stella interjected, sending Bloom a stern look, “We gotta work on that adrenaline junkie instinct of yours. It’s getting out of hand. It’s bad enough we needed a second intervention about your lighters.”

Bloom just winked at her with a smirk. 

“I bet Bloom will still be cheering on Brandon, even while she competes,” ‘Sky’ teased, making the redhead snort as ‘Brandon’ became slightly bashful at the thought, “And Stella is rooting for me.” The princess giggled and happily squeezed his arm in agreement, “So I guess that leaves Riven as the only one without a cheerleader!”

Riven growled back at him, “I don’t need one. Unlike you.”

‘Brandon’ pursed his mouth in irritation, “Geez, relax Riven. It’s just a joke.”

“If I actually wanted one of these Alfea pixies, I could have my pick of the litter and both of you know it!”

‘Brandon’ merely let out a sharp breath and turned away, deeming the argument not worthy of their time, “This is dumb.”

“In fact, a certain someone has been giving me the eye!” Riven normally wouldn’t care to boast about receiving attention from a woman, especially when that one was being cared for by one of his….well he wouldn’t call them friends, but they were dormmates, so still. He may be an asshole, but he wasn’t that bad. 

But Brandon and Sky were getting on his last nerve, so screw that. 

“Isn’t that right, Red?”

“What?!” Stella shrieked as ‘Brandon’ nearly snarled. “As if Bloom would ever be interested in a stuck up jerk like you!”

Bloom was very nonchalant as she spoke up, picking at her nails, “Nah, he’s right.” Stella looked very betrayed while both ‘Brandon’ and ‘Sky’ exchanged startled glances (of which ‘Brandon’ also held some hurt in his gaze). “I don’t really go for the rough around the edges, misunderstood asshole thing, but I can appreciate some good eye candy. Have you seen his abs?”

‘Brandon’ frowned and discreetly felt his own muscles, trying in vain to see if he could really catch Bloom’s eye with them. But while his were certainly more defined than the others, Riven was the most muscular of the whole team, so it was rather unlikely if that’s what she was into. 

Riven was also surprised, as he never really expected Bloom to agree and admit her attraction. 

“Besides, I know someone likes him, so even if I was attracted to that type, I wouldn’t go for it out of principle. Girl code and all that” Bloom shrugged.

The group continued their way, this time with Bloom leading the pack as the others were still not quite over her blunt confession. ‘Sky’ was mainly trying to cheer up a now depressed ‘Brandon’ and give dating advice to him, while Stella was gossiping more with Bloom about her choice in guys. 

Riven was content with ignoring them now that they were actually leaving him alone. 

“Ooh what’s that!” Bloom darted off into the crowd, having spotted some ribbon flying.

“Wait! Bloom!”

She waved the group off as she pushed her way forward, now able to spot the fae dancer, whose performance outfit actually reminded her a bit of Daphne. It was then, however, that a hand landed on her shoulder.

“Bloom! I found you!” She turned to see none other than Timmy. Except it wasn’t Timmy. He had gone home for the weekend and she remembered most of this episode. The Trix wanted to cause trouble and hypnotize Riven to their side. This was Knut in disguise. 

But she knew better than to not play along. 

“I just ran into the guys and they said you had vanished! Let’s go find them!”

Yeah, Knut was not good at acting. His words were stunted and spaced unnaturally. Poor ogre. Well, soon enough, he’ll find a nice job as the Alfea janitor, where he won’t be abused and mistreated. 

“So, Timmy. I thought you went home.” Bloom stated coyly. She may as well help him out a bit. Give him something to work off of. 

“Oh! Yeah! I, uh, I am leaving soon! I just wanted to give Riven this new thing I made!” Timmy pulled out a disk that turned into a helmet. “It’s a domni-I mean, Omnidriven Helmet!”

“Nice” Bloom held back a laugh as he flustered about. 

“Hey, uh, I actually have to catch my ship for home! Could you, uh, give this to Riven for me? You don’t have to tell him it was from me though! I’d rather he didn’t know! It’s a, uh, surprise!”

“Oh really?” Bloom raised an eyebrow. ‘Timmy’ sweated in his nerves. “Alright. You better go. I think the last ship is leaving soon.”

“Right! Thanks! Sorry! Here!” 

He shoved the helmet into her arms before running off. Bloom giggled in amusement before heading off. 

Like she was actually going to give the helmet to Riven. He’s an ass, but he didn’t deserve to get hurt for the plot. 

Besides, she needed a helmet.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the annual Race for the Rose! Will our champion go home with his third Rose Trophy? Or have last year's losers learned a thing or two?”

‘Brandon’ looked around hopefully but was quite disappointed when he couldn’t see Bloom. Stella waited close by, waving happily to ‘Sky’ with cheers, but she was alone. 

“Racers, to the starting line!”

He merely sighed and put on his helmet, lining up with the rest of the competitors.

Up on a rooftop, the Trix waited menacingly for their plan to be in action. Icy scanned the racers with narrowed eyes. Knut almost blew it, but the annoying red head took the helmet. All she needed to do was give it to the man they were targeting and everything would be just fine. 

“There he is!” Stormy pointed out, gesturing to the biker who was wearing the helmet they charmed.

“Perfect” Icy smirked with glee. 

Bloom was quite wrong about how the Level Bikes were like her cycle back on Earth. It only took her a moment to get balanced, but the mechanics of it were rather different. It had weird buttons and symbols that she didn’t understand. 

She really just got lucky when the button she pressed on the bike she rented actually turned it on and it began to levitate. 

She was used to flying with her wings at this point. Flying a bike like it was a broom, not so much. Thankfully, her balance kept her steady enough.

Really, the only reason she made it so far was because of Darcy sabotaging everyone else for her sake. Not that the witch knew that. She thought she was helping Riven, of course.

Let it be known she was not prepared for the world to go pitch dark. To think Riven had to go through this originally.

Unlike Riven, though, she was not able to stay on her bike and crashed pretty quickly. 

Thankfully, Darcy caught her as she was flung from the bike. 

Bloom coughed when Darcy pulled the helmet off her. She huffed out a laugh when the witch choked in surprise, “Gotcha bitch. Gods, my head hurts….”

“Bloom!” ‘Brandon’ hurried off his bike and fell to her side. “Are you okay?!”

“Why are there three of you??”

‘Sky’ leaned over, “I think she’s concussed.”

“I’m not verlust,” Bloom argued as Riven approached. “It was not like my motorbike, Mr Dole Whip Man.”

“What did she just call me?” The magenta haired man questioned.

“She definitely needs to get her head checked out” ‘Brandon’ stated.

“She’s not gonna die, right?” Riven asked.

‘Brandon’ laughed, “I think she’ll be fine after we get a doctor to look at her.”

Darcy was very angry at the counter trick of the pixie girl. But she wasn’t Stormy. She knew how to play off problems. She quickly shot an attraction spell at Riven, speaking up, “Are you okay?”

With him turning to look at her, the spell activated just as she wanted. She could already see the hearts in his eyes as she pulled off her helmet. Perfect. 

“Why is the witchy so pretty?” Bloom asked the blonde specialist, who was leaning her against him. He looked very confused. 

Riven ignored the injured fairy in favor of his new attraction. “You saved her. Who are you?”

“My name is Darcy” She introduced, hiding her smirk well, “It was no problem, really.”

Stella, however, had finally ran up and immediately spotted Darcy, growing tense, “You! Get away from her!”

Riven, however, stiffened with a glare, “Back off, Blondie! She just saved Red!”

“She’s a witch! She probably made her crash in the first place!” Stella argued back.

“Stelly is mad” Bloom gasped in an attempt to whisper up to ‘Brandon’. She actually shouted instead, but she didn’t really tell the difference.

“Of course I’m mad!” The sun fae exclaimed, “You’re hurt and I have one guess as to why that is!”

“Show a little more gratitude, will ya! Even if she is a witch, she still helped! Why don’t you just say thanks and leave!”

“Riven, come on” ‘Sky’ spoke up, “Why don’t we all just calm down and hear each other out.”

Riven just sneered in response, being the only one to not spot the little smirk that grew more on Darcy’s face. Though, even if he did see it, he probably wouldn’t have really noticed in his spelled state. “You know what, I’m outta here.”

“Good idea” Darcy cooed, wrapping her arm around his bicep. Icy and Stormy could be disgusted all they want. It was their loss. She had a thing for strong guys, particularly if they would obey her every whim. “Why don’t I show you a nice cafe my friends like to hang out at?”

“Sure thing” Riven immediately became entranced with her attention, ignoring the concern and anger of the others, “I’ll treat you. Might as well show more gratitude than these morons.”

“Riven!” ‘Brandon’ exclaimed.

But the large specialist ignored him as Darcy traipsed away with him loyally following after her.

Stella was the one who spoke all of their thoughts. “What the hell just happened?”

Bloom felt very grateful to Daphne for helping speed up her healing from the concussion. She hadn’t heard from Daphne regarding it, but she could feel it in her magic. Daphne’s nymph magic had a distinct feeling of warmth and a sense of home. Though she was very dismayed at how she was unable to help Riven due to her injury, she knew it should be fine in the end. 

Unfortunately, Musa was very upset when Stella blurted out how Riven had become smitten with one of the Trix. 

It had only been a couple of days since the festival, and Bloom finally found herself in another dreamscape with Daphne. She had been trying to center herself to meet with her, but she figured it was due to her concussion. 

“Bloom” Daphne greeted joyously.

Bloom squealed with glee and, as she was in her winx, fluttered closer to her sister, happily attaching herself to Daphne’s large cheek. The nymph was a giant in this dreamscape, just as she was in the previous one. 

Daphne chuckled and gently rubbed the fire fae’s head with a large finger, “Hello again, little sister. Your power is growing at a much faster rate than I anticipated. This may be due to our bond being reawakened. We were quite close in the short time we were together. Your magic may be trying to mature quickly due to that and your own mental maturity.”

She was quite mature for her physical age of eighteen. Though that was purely because she was a few years older than now, having originally been twenty when she ‘woke up’. Though she didn’t think it was terribly much, as her thoughts had been rather childish for a number of years. Sure that was normal for regular children, but she didn’t think that would apply to children who had been reincarnated from adults.

Daphne smiled, “Your brain was not large enough to handle your adult thoughts, Little One. Of course you would not mentally grow as much as you believed.”

“Holy shit, you can read my mind?!”

This time her sister let out a loud bellow of a laugh, “Little One, we are in your mind. Of course I can hear you thinking within your dream space. I also have known of your Old Soul for quite some time.”

“You did?” Bloom questioned.

“Yes,” Her sister nodded, “I am technically dead.” What she meant with ‘technically’, Bloom didn’t know and Daphne didn’t elaborate. “I have been able to see your soul for many years as I’ve watched over you. However, I am unsure if it had been something you were born with or if the Ancestral Witches had something to do with it.”

“Well wouldn’t it make more sense if it did have something to do with the Witches?” Bloom asked curiously, “I don’t remember being aware of anything before dad found me in that fire.”

“Old Souls are too complex and oft unpredictable to be so sure of the circumstances, Little One” Daphne disagreed, “It is also entirely likely that the stress from the attack on Domino burdened your magic and awakened your past memories.”

Why Daphne knew so much about ‘Old Souls’ Bloom didn’t really know. If it was such a big thing, shouldn’t she know more about it?

She also forgot briefly that Daphne could hear her thoughts, and had answered, “You are not the only fae to have been born with one. Unfortunately, they have only been spoken of by word of mouth. None have thought to write down their experience, unwilling to play with Life Magic. I only know of them due to my experience as a Nymph.”

Oh. Okay. That explained it then. 

“Little One, our time is drawing close. I must return to my lake now” Daphne said mournfully. She reached up and caressed Bloom’s head with her finger again, “Be brave and know that I will always be watching over you.”

It was then that Bloom woke up. Only this time, it was still the middle of the night and she was surrounded by her friends looking over her worriedly. “Uh. Hey guys?”

“Geez girl, you gotta stop freaking us out” Stella proclaimed, though Bloom could spot the slight fear in her eyes.

Flora frowned, “One of my plants woke me up and I saw you were glowing. Your magic had been activating while you were sleeping and you even transformed.”

“I did?” Bloom frowned, scratching her neck in thought, “I didn’t really feel any different.” Then again, she had been in her Winx during her dream with Daphne, so that might’ve had something to do with it.

Tecna, however, was tapping away quickly at one of her devices. “It is quite uncommon, but that is actually a symptom of your magic evolving at a faster rate than usual. Not many fairies go through that kind of experience.”

“Does it have something to do with her not having any training before Alfea?” Musa asked curiously, “Usually we all have some kind of teaching when we’re young so our magic doesn’t hurt people.”

Tecna hummed, “That is possible.”

Stella yawned, “Well as long as she’s fine, I’m going back to bed!”

“Good idea” Flora nodded. She looked to Bloom in concern, “You’re sure you are alright?”

“I’m good Flora,” Bloom smiled, “I gotta do some research in the morning, so I’m gonna go back to sleep too. Good night!”

With that, the others headed back to their rooms as Flora settled back into her bed. 

Bloom missed Daphne, but she also liked sleep. So here comes the sheep!

Bloom hummed as she entered the massive library. She had to write a paper for her History of Magic class, and chose to write it on the Town Hall of Magix. While the library system confused her to no end, she didn’t want to bother the librarian. She was always a little mean to people who interrupted her reading. 

So she instead went to the closest unused catalog. It was pretty cool to use actually. All she needed to do was state a keyword for what she was looking for and expel some of her magic into the pedestal, then the books she needed would fly out to her.

If only Earth Libraries had something similar. 

“Town Hall.”

Of course, even this would have some kind of bug in it. Because she was that unlucky. Instead of a textbook, the pedestal summons a recent magazine that was talking about the new sports game coming up being held in the stadium beside Town Hall. 

“Town Hall history?”

Thankfully, that brought out two books that had better answers. One was of the architecture of the building and the other holding the significant events that had been held there, like the Protest for Elf Rights in 1438.

She had completely forgotten Daphne had been carved into a mural outside Town Hall. It had been made prior to the fall of Domino, featuring her and the other eight nymphs of her time. Unfortunately, all of them had been of Domino, the largest reigning planet of Magix, and also met their end during the attack.

While Bloom had been preparing to take down notes for her essay, however, the catalog began summoning more books. Far more than Bloom needed and considering some of the content in these books, not necessary for her paper.

She unwillingly let out a small shriek when some of the books became over eager and dive bombed her. Kiko and Hedwig, whom she had brought along so they could get some exercise, also screamed and hid behind the catalog with her for some kind of protection.

“What is going on?!” The librarian exclaimed as the gate to the Restricted Section began shaking as books from inside banged against the bars for escape.

“HELP!” Bloom shrieked as another book barely missed her nose. 

“Ms Faragonda!” 

“Oh gee! Thanks!” Bloom exclaimed sarcastically as the librarian bolted out, “Just leave me here to be attacked by books!” 

“Restituo Ordo!”

Thankfully, Faragonda appeared rather quickly and her spell took away the magical animation of the books. Bloom let out a sigh of relief at her arrival, standing up and gathering her two animals in her arms. 

“She couldn’t have possibly requested these books. They are some of our most obscure titles” The librarian stated to the headmistress.

Bloom explained, “I was just looking for information about Town Hall. I have a paper due.” She had an idea as to what happened, but she wasn’t going to tell them that it was because her magic made them react to her. Dragon secret and all that. 

“The books must have reacted to some kind of powerful magic” Faragonda mused. Bloom thought she did well in not having a reaction. “You go back to your dorm dear. We will figure this out. Please don’t mention this to anyone.”

“You got it, Headmistress” Bloom saluted and scurried off with her animal children.

Faragonda examined some of the books and became quite concerned at seeing a book about the last witch Coven. The Ancestral Witches created such chaos that covens had been banned as a whole. Witches were still a little bitter about that, but even they understood the destruction the Ancestral Witches caused.

It was more concerning that the book had been locked far away in the Restricted Vault, and should not have been able to escape when the others, equally eager, had been unable to.

Bloom scurried into her room to find Tecna and Flora scolding Stella. “What’s going on?”

“Stella was making fun of Musa about Riven” Flora explained, giving a stern motherly look to the blonde princess, “It was very mean as well.”

Stella, however, looked very confused, “But I don’t even remember what I said! You guys keep telling me that I’ve been rude but I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Honestly, she hadn’t really noticed Stella making any comments about her or the others. Then again, she had been recovering from a concussion and trying to contact Daphne. Bloom sighed, “Stel, have you been giving the seniors fashion tips again?”

“If they don’t want tips then they should dress better!”

Tecna rubbed her forehead in exasperation as soon as she reached her own realization, “They must have casted another Mood Swing spell on you.”

“I have no idea what I said, but I definitely have to apologize,” Stella bemoaned.

Flora glanced out the window and frowned, “Musa just got on the bus to Magix. That was the last one of the day. You’ll have to wait until she comes back.”

Bloom, however, spoke up, “Don’t the senior witches have the day off?”

Stella paled, “Oh! What if she runs into them?! We have to go after her!”

“But there’s no more buses,” Tecna argued.

The princess, however, pulled out her phone excitedly, “Guess we only have one option left! Time to call the boys!”

The three other girls exchanged an amused glance as they knew Stella had been waiting for an excuse to meet with ‘Sky’ yet again.

Of course, when Stella says jump, ‘Sky’ will always ask how high. Any plans he and the others had were most likely dropped in favor of them coming to their rescue . 

“Flora, do you have anything to wear from the current century?” Stella huffed. Flora blanched as Stella shook her head, appearing confused. “Did I say something?”

Tecna sighed, “It may take some time for that spell to wear off.”

“We really gotta learn the counterspell if Stella is going to keep insulting the seniors,” Bloom remarked.

The men arrived in record time actually. ‘Sky’ must’ve been in charge of driving then. He was the first to hop out of the ship, closely followed by ‘Brandon’ and Timmy. “You summoned us, my princess?”

Stella giggled and bounced eagerly. Tecna rolled her eyes, but was quickly distracted by Timmy waving at her. 

“Hello boys” Bloom greeted with a grin, sauntering past them into the ship, “We need a ride to Magix. Musa went by herself and the senior witches are loitering around the city. Hop to it! We got a music fairy to save!”

“Not good,” ‘Brandon’ agreed, “Let’s go!”

Bloom could only guess that it was the collective desire to impress them that got the ship to Magix so quickly. ‘Brandon’ was in charge of the monitor, which would log magical signatures in the vicinity of the ship. 

Which worked very well considering they would be searching for one fairy in a city full of witches.

Thankfully, they were able to locate Musa right as she was being cornered by a group of angry witches. Timmy expertly landed the ship as Bloom hurried off the ship, “Musa!”

“Guys!” The other fae exclaimed in relief, quickly moving towards her friends for help. 

“Who invited you dorks?” Icy sneered, “This event is RSVP only.”

“Hey Brandon!” A gruff voice called out. Riven pushed his way through the crowd of witches, glaring eyes staring down the blonde specialist.

The men all practically gaped when they saw their dormmate surrounded by the witches, looking none too pleased to see them. Then again, that wasn’t strange. The strange part was even with all his faults, Riven never did like witches. Until Darcy, that is.

“Seriously? You’re hanging with this crowd now?” ‘Brandon’ exclaimed.

“They’re way more happening than you guys could ever be” Riven sneered, before he pulled out his plasma blade.

“You’ve lost your mind” ‘Brandon’ retorted, following suit, “And now you’re going to lose this fight!”

Their swords clashed as the two men focused on battling one another. 

One of the witches decided she didn’t want to be left out and called to the others, “We’ll take care of the fairies. Come on ladies!”

‘Sky’, however, intervened, bringing his blade down to the concrete. A nifty part of his weapon was the ability to summon plasma shields, which effectively blocked the witches.

Icy became very irritated at the current state of their day. Darcy had wanted to spend the whole time hanging around her little slave, which already left her and Stormy to deal with their day without their third sister. Things looked up a bit when they ran into that Harmonic fae. A nice beating of the little fairy would’ve definitely made the day better.

It just tracks that her pathetic little friends came rushing to her rescue. 

“This is really starting to piss me off!” She proclaimed, easily summoning her magic to filter the air surrounding everyone to become freezing, snow beginning to float down. 

The other witches were less than pleased at the new temperature, given none of them were really dressed for winter. Stormy, however, was entirely too eager to follow suit, summoning an electric storm to loom over everyone.

“Now would be a good time for us to transform,” Bloom stated plainly, watching the clouds forming above them. 

In a quick flash of glitter and their respective magic, the four girls were officially ready for a fight. 

“I find this whole thing shocking!” Stormy proclaimed, sending a bolt of electricity towards Tecna, who had been unable to dodge. Timmy quickly raced towards her, making sure she was okay. “And I see you do too!”

Icy, noting Stella’s distracted state, began shooting ice shards towards her. The blonde fae quickly fluttered away from her line of fire, hiding behind a parked hovercar. Icy, however, lit the car on fire, making the fae attempt to scramble away from it while she was cornered.

Musa quickly tried to fly towards Stella to help, but Darcy finally decided to join the party, knocking her towards the ground. The noirette was stunned long enough for Darcy to summon shadow illusions of herself to surround her.

‘Sky’ saw this and quickly threw his sword at the shadow witch, angling it to work as a makeshift boomerang. But given how he was distracted, the other witches had snuck up on him, sending him flying away.

“I’m okay!” he assured as Musa got to her feet.

“Good assist” She complimented.

He withheld a groan as he held up his thumb. “Stella.”

“Right” She nodded, hurriedly flying after the princess.

Meanwhile, Bloom and Flora were keeping Stormy’s attention on them, both adapting well enough to distract her. Flora was one of the best fliers in the group, and she was easily weaving between the attacks from Stormy, with Bloom dodging well enough to escape with only small cuts.

Stormy, however, was able to get in a lucky shot, blasting Flora out of the air. 

“Oh hell no!” Bloom snarled, shooting out a flame blast towards the witch. Stormy was more experienced and dodged, but not well enough to get away without a scorched dress.

“This was my favorite!” she shrieked, her anger activating her magic to summon a tornado.

Icy focused on an unconscious Tecna and protective Timmy, letting her ice creep across the ground towards them.

Musa was able to help a dazed Stella from the hovercar wreckage, quickly placing her in a hidden alcove as her magic worked to filter out the smoke she inhaled. Seeing Tecna in trouble, she moved to go help them, but was once again blocked by Darcy.

“This is a fun game” She taunted as she used her magic to lift the hovercars nearby above the fae, “It’s called Crash, Test, Fairy!”

Musa paled as she quickly tried to find an escape, but Darcy quickly moved each car in her path, forcing the fairy to fly into them until she finally fell to the ground, unconscious.

Stella, recovered from her smoke inhalation, flew to Tecna and Timmy’s rescue, using her sun magic to shield them from Icy’s magic.

Darcy smirked as she collected the hovercars into a pile held together by her magic, lifting it high above the unconscious music fae.

Bloom, seeing this during her altercation with Stormy, quickly tried to fly to Musa’s rescue. Stormy, however, was unwilling to let her prey escape, blocking her path. Bloom snarled at her, “Move!”

“You aren’t going anywhere” Stormy grinned as she began to form new clouds.

“I said, move, you bitch! ” It wasn’t the slur that made the weather witch pause. No. What made Stormy falter was seeing the pupils of her opponent’s eyes shrink to a reptilian gaze. What made her near freeze in both fear and anticipation was the crackling fire that began to surround the angry fae. 

There were many fire fairies, but this was different. This felt more powerful. More…alive. 

“Icy! Check your crystal!” She called out, warily moving away from the younger fairy. 

Icy quickly looked toward the other witch, also sensing the power that she had. Quickly summoning her Whisperia Crystal, she felt a manic grin crawl onto her face as it glowed brightly. 

That grin was quickly wiped away when, with a loud roar that shook the city, Bloom’s power exploded from her. To the fairies and specialists, it felt like a gentle caress of cool flames.

But to the witches, it felt like a fierce burning blaze that tried to claw into them. Only their magic protected them from harsh burns, but it still wasn’t enough to prevent total damage. 

“Retreat!” Icy quickly called, recognizing they could not continue the battle with the new unknown. The Trix would need to come up with a new game plan to take the power they desired.

‘Sky’ was awed by the quick getaway the witches made, Riven following after them with an injured Darcy in his arms. “I’ve never seen a power like this before. What is it?”

“I have no idea” ‘Brandon’ stated. As the power dissipated with the enemy gone, Bloom fell from the air. The blonde specialist easily spotted her falling and raced to catch her, quickly protecting her from the fall. 

Bloom groaned in his arms, her energy greatly depleted with the excess magic that had been used in her anger.

Bloom rubbed her head, an aching thumping occurring from within, as they flew the ship back to Alfea. Flora comfortingly rubbed her back as ‘Brandon’ brought her a potion vial, “This is Hero’s Brew. It should help get your energy back up.”

She quickly downed the drink, eager for any kind of escape from the sluggish pain. Bloom sighed in relief as the pain quickly went away, “I feel better now.”

“Well you don’t look so good” Stella bluntly stated, “Maybe you need some Hero’s Makeup too!”

Tecna facepalmed as Bloom rolled her eyes, “Stel.”

Stella shook her head and looked appalled at the deadpan of the fairies, “It happened again?!”

‘Sky’ looked extremely confused, as did the other two men, “What?”

“Stella is spelled. She’s been making rude and mean comments all weekend” Flora explained.

“That explains a lot” Musa huffed, still slightly bitter about the remarks she made about Riven. But she was starting to let go of that anger with now knowing Stella didn’t actually mean what she was saying. 

“What happened out there, Bloom?” Timmy asked, ever the curious one. It had been rather obvious that the power that scared off the witches came from her.

“I just got angry” She shrugged, not willing to spill anything just yet. Not until she worked things out with Daphne. She wanted a better hold of her powers, especially after that fight. She had hoped to keep a handle on it to prevent the Trix from finding out, but that was a complete bust. It’s just….she saw Musa under that car pile and the very thought of her being hurt, let alone killed...

These were her fairies. Her friends. Like hell was she going to stand by and watch those witches hurt them.

Chapter Text

“Bloom? What did you wish for?” Stella asked as the five girls hung out in the courtyard. Due to the upcoming midterms, class time had been decreased to let the fairies study more for the tests. And while Bloom would love to study, she was far more concerned with having nightly visits with Daphne. Her sister had been helping her with breathing techniques to maintain her dragon magic when angry. 

Ever since the fight with the witches in Magix, Bloom noticed her hair flaring up when she became annoyed. Usually when someone stole her lighters, as Bloom didn’t really have anything to be upset over. All the issues with the Winx weren’t anything other than inconveniences that Bloom was more than willing to brush aside in favor of adoring her companions.

Though that didn’t always spare her ire when they broke into her secret stashes and hid her lighters or turned them in to Faragonda.

Bloom had never really been that upset when people took her collection. Sure it was annoying, but she usually got over it quickly.

But not lately. Lately she had become irritable when anything that belonged to her was taken, ergo, her lighters. 

Thankfully, the girls simply thought she was having hormones due her monthly time. Which, they weren’t entirely wrong, but that only made her emotions worse.

“Bloom~ Hello? What did you wish for?” Stella asked again, seeing the dazed distraction of the redhead.

Bloom sent her a teasing glance, “If I tell you, it won’t come true.”

Not that she was going to tell them that she was wishing they’d never find her newest stash. That’d give them more incentive to go searching when she was distracted or asleep.

“Does it have blonde hair and blue eyes and happens to be taking you on a date tonight?” Stella cooed.

Bloom raised her eyebrow in amusement, “Just because Brandon wants to go for a walk, doesn’t mean it’s anything special.”

“I don’t know what it means on earth, but in my realm, when someone asks another person to go for a stroll at night, it usually is a date” Musa chimed in.

“Or they want to murder you” Bloom nodded. 

Flora looked horrified, “Does that happen often on Earth?!”

Bloom quickly backtracked. She didn’t want to scare Flora into never visiting her in the future after all, “Not that often. It’s just a joke.”

“Though statistically speaking, she isn’t wrong” Tecna stated, clearly not getting the vibe, “It’d be much easier to kill someone in the middle of the night when no one else is around. Less chance of anyone to stumble across the act or hear anything.”  That only made Flora start to tear up. Tecna realized she probably made it worse and hurriedly added, “But given how Brandon looks at Bloom, and that she has told us where she was going, there’s really no fear of anything bad happening.”

Bloom quickly tried to change the subject as well, given it was now making Musa uncomfortable, “What do you mean how Brandon looks at me?”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t seen how he gets all dopey around you” Musa huffed a laugh in amusement, mostly glad they changed the topic, “Guy is head over heels for you.”

Stella nodded excitedly, “Oh yeah! And he is always asking you to hang out on our days off!”

“Because we’re friends. Friends hang out. Even the ones who are opposite genders” Bloom rolled her eyes. She knew canon Bloom and Sky had a thing in the series, but, well, she wasn’t her. If anything, she was just surprised he enjoyed being friends. 

“Yeah okay. You just keep telling yourself that” Musa laughed.

Bloom simply shook her head, “Anyway. Do you guys wanna do a quick study before the tests start up? I could use some help for History of Magic.”

“You know, I didn’t really like school last year,” ‘Brandon’ stated as he and Bloom walked through the courtyard of Red Fountain. He had gotten permission from the headmaster to show Bloom around the school, claiming she wanted to learn more for her classes. Thankfully, Saladin was close friends with Faragonda and heard plenty of the new ‘Earth Girl’ to believe she was simply intrigued by the other school’s history.

As it turned out, Red Fountain was the only college that took four years, bringing in hero students from the ripe ages of seventeen. Apparently it was so they could work strictly on muscle training for the actual classes in the following next three years.

“What made you change your mind?” Bloom asked curiously, bending down to take the ball from an excited Lady. She proceeded to throw it further into the garden, which the dog happily gave chase.

“You know, better people around this year,” He said, giving her a deep glance.

She didn’t notice it at all. So he quickly backtracked with a cough, “And, other stuff too. They started serving donuts in the school. So….donuts.”

Bloom laughed, lightly swatting his arm, “Do they have jelly-filled? Those are the best kind!”

“Yeah. Those are my favorite too” He stated excitedly. He was really just happy to know they had more in common, even if it was something simple like a flavor of donut. So far, not much really was the same. He didn’t get her collecting hobby and she made jokes he didn’t understand but assumed was an Earth thing.

But she was just so interesting . He has never been around a girl so willing to throw caution to the wind, so willing to be as open as she was with him. She was weird but she took pride in it. She liked being different from everyone and it was really attractive.

Diaspro would hate her.

His estranged fiance used to be similar to Bloom, when they were younger. Much younger. And not as, well, crazy. But she used to be so free and fun to be around. Up until they were betrothed at least.

Nowadays, Diaspro was more concerned with her status and controlling his interests. She didn’t like that he enjoyed sword fighting. She didn’t like that he was friends with ‘commoners’. She especially didn’t like it when he made friends with other women. 

Vivian was her cousin and she still hated that they were friends, despite the fact that he was friends with her for just as long as he used to be friends with Diaspro.

Even when she dragged him on dates during the summer, they never talked about themselves or did anything he liked. It was always whatever Diaspro wanted to do and talking about what she wanted to talk about. Which was usually about what she wanted to do as Queen. 

Which weren’t…. bad perse. Just, it was usually things that didn’t really come with the territory of being Queen. Like, changing the royal colors or which person was going to be fired because they upset her. 

Diaspro had become rather superficial in the last decade and he truly believed she just liked the thought of being in control of people, including him.
He didn’t know Bloom for very long or as well, but she didn’t really strike him as the person to care about those things. She didn’t care how people treated her or what they thought of her. Riven had told her to her face that he thought she was crazy (you know, before he went crazy and joined witches of all people), and she just laughed. She was fun and just enjoyed being herself.

He felt so free around her.

He could only hope that she wouldn’t be too angry when he told her the truth about himself. 

“So, how’s Alfea?”

“It’s cool. I like it, but, I mean, it’s school” she shrugged, “Learning more about magic is fun and I enjoy being taught new spells, but I still have a hard time with classes like History. And Arithmetic? Like, why do I need to know numbers to cast magic? What’s up with that?”

He laughed, “Well I can’t argue with that. Even Red Fountain has those basic classes. To be fair though, we do need numbers to drive the ships or make coordinates. Can’t say I’m too well versed in the fae side of things.”

Bloom nodded, “We have midterms starting tomorrow. I’m a little nervous about failing some of my tests.”

“Hey, I’m sure you’ll be fine” he assured as Lady came racing back to them with her ball. ‘Brandon’ threw it for her this time.

Bloom stretched out her arms, “Well tomorrow is going to be the Magical Reality Test. Hopefully that one goes fairly well.” She only remembered some brief points of that test. Mainly that the Trix were going to try attacking her. 

“No way!” ‘Brandon’ gasped with a grin, “Hey, have you heard about the girl who disappeared in the chamber?!”
She deadpanned at him, “Somehow, that’s not very comforting.”

“Come on, it’s probably not real” He patted her shoulder, “Besides, I was there when you fought those witches. Your power is awesome! You’re totally gonna ace your test.”

“I think I’ll do okay in the Magical Reality,” Bloom stated, “It’s the other classes I’m more worried about.”

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine in those too” he replied, “Just be confident and don’t second guess yourself.”

She smiled, patting his arm, “Thanks for the advice.”

Unknown to them, however, Riven overheard their conversations, and immediately reported to Darcy so she and her sisters could plot against Bloom.

“You are nervous” Daphne stated as Bloom cuddled atop her head. While Daphne could shrink her spirit down to Bloom’s size, her younger sister loved climbing on her. It made Daphne reminisce fondly of their life together back home. It had been a fun pastime for Bloom when she was a baby.

“The Trix are going to sabotage my test” Bloom explained, though she knew Daphne most likely had seen it in her mind already, “I don’t really remember much but that. What if I can’t handle them?”

“I’m sure you will be fine, Little One. Just remember, keep your breath steady and know you control the fire, not the other way around” she advised.

Bloom you’re gonna be late!

The dragon fae groaned in annoyance at her time being cut short. Daphne chuckled and plucked her from her head, caressing her hair, “I will talk to you again another night, Little One.”

“See you later Daphne!”

Bloom blinked her tired eyes open and yawned. Flora was gathering her own pack and smiled, “You better hurry. The test starts soon.”

She sighed and got out of bed. Thankfully, she had already packed some things the night prior, as she had hoped to connect with Daphne and spend as much time as possible. 

Also thankfully, none of the other girls decided to check her bag for….certain things.

“Good morning class!” Palladium greeted, “I trust you all are full of energy?” None of the fairies deemed it worthy of responding beyond tired groans and yawns. So he simply moved on, “Remember this is no make believe. Everything within the chamber is real. So don’t get hurt.”

“I don’t think any of us plan to get hurt,” Bloom remarked.

“Bloom! Thank you so much for volunteering to be the first student” Palladium retorted, making her blanched while her friends giggled. “Now then, what potions did you prepare?”

“Well, I have the starter’s kit from lab class” She remarked, “Uh, and not much else.” Yeah, cause she was gonna bust herself? Not likely. If he didn’t catch her prior, it was his fault.

Thankfully, Palladium was just a little too trusting. Or maybe he also was tired from the early morning and it just slipped his mind. Either way, she was gucci. 

“Would you like a few moments before we start?” he asked kindly, knowing how stressed the students were about the Reality chamber.

Bloom, however, shook her head, “Might as well just get it over with.”

“Alright then. Remember, you cannot leave the chamber until the testing time is up. However, if you are truly in danger, make sure to use the emergency button. All set?”

“Yepper doodles!” Bloom grabbed her bag and skipped to the door.

“This is a test of skill and wit. Use them both wisely” He stated, opening the chamber door for her, “And trust your instincts. As long as you listen to nature, you should be fine.”

Bloom let out a shaky breath, internally wishing that the chamber wouldn’t send her to very specific places, and entered the room.

“Be cool!”

“Be careful!”

“Make us look good~!”

“Be logical!”

“Tecna, what kind of advice is that?!”

“The only logical kind!”

Her Winx were such good friends. She was so happy they were cheering her on.

She warily stepped out on the platform as Palladium's voice echoed around, “Okay Bloom. This will be my last communication with you. Once the environment is set, you’ll be on your own.”

Around her, the room began to glow brightly, near blinding her as the platform beneath pulled away. However, she was kept standing by the magic of the chamber as a new world formed around her.

“Oh fuck you too, Magic Chamber!” Bloom shrieked when she became surrounded in white flurries, snow crunching beneath her.

Of course they sent her to Domino. Good thing she made Kiko and Hedwig stay behind. Neither would do well in the freezing temperature.

Okay, first part of survival in icy tundra’s, keeping warm and finding shelter. She didn’t have any spells that would create shelter for her, so her best bet was to use a compass spell to guide her to one, most likely to be a cave of some kind. 

Warmth wise, she was a fire fairy, so her internal temperature was typically raised to begin with. She was able to summon a small ball of fire, as the smaller the fire was the easier it was to control, which she used to keep heat against her extremities, which were the most susceptible to frostbite.

She had just begun to follow her compass when the three witches popped up. 

“Aw, look at her. Not doing so well, are you” Icy’s voice cooed.

Bloom rolled her eyes and groaned, “You’re like roaches!” She activated her winx, not hesitating in shooting a fireball towards Darcy, sending her to the ground. 

“Darcy, stop playing around” Icy scolded, before she used her magic to freeze the fire fairy’s legs. Stormy cackled as the ice slowly crept up the fae’s body, while the weight of the ice sent her spiraling towards the ground.

Thankfully, due to the snow, it wasn’t a harsh landing, but Bloom felt very uncomfortable as she tried to heat her body to melt the ice. It was much harder due to the fact that the magic ice was helped with Domino’s tundra.

“What a weak little fairy” Stormy cackled, as she gathered lightning to strike down on the trapped redhead. “She can’t even protect her little bunny.”

Bloom was very confused, considering she distinctly remembered leaving her two animals behind. Of course, given Kiko had as much attached issues as she did, perhaps she should’ve realized he would sneak into her bag. 

Her gaze followed Stormy’s finger, spotting the shivering rabbit being held tightly in Darcy’s grip. “Kiko!” 

“One wrong move and the rabbit gets it” The witch taunted, tightening her grip around the rabbit’s head. Kiko let out a pained squeal.

Bloom tried desperately to hold onto Daphne’s small lessons. She took some deep breaths to calm herself down as she felt her magic start to become rampant underneath her skin. 

“I wonder if rabbit’s land on their feet,” Darcy pondered wickedly, floating higher before letting go of Kiko. 

Kiko shrieked as he plummeted down. Regardless of the snow piles, with the height Darcy released him at, he would die upon landing.

Bloom let out a rageful roar, feeling the brief grip she had on her magic snap due to her panic. In an instant, the ice trapping her body shattered as a large dragon made of flames escaped her, rushing towards the falling rabbit. 

The Trix cackled gleefully as the dragon encompassed their bodies, each disappearing ominously. 

The dragon easily caught the rabbit, its flames not harming the animal at all as it carried Kiko back to an exhausted Bloom. 

The last thing she could recall was Kiko’s nuzzling and rambling chitters before she passed out. 

As Palladium quickly closed the chamber and hurried Bloom towards the infirmary, elsewhere, a certain trio of witches were celebrating their victory.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for!” Icy cheered with an evil grin, each sister summoning their crystals that had gathered the Dragon Flame from the annoying little fae.

As they began their ritual, however, they underestimated the power that they desperately coveted. The moment they attempted to convert the Dragon Flame from the crystals to themselves, the magic vanished, yet again escaping their grasps.

The trio shrieked and snarled at the failure, vowing to steal away that which they desired no matter the cost.

Due to the sabotage of the Trix and Bloom’s explosion of magic, the Reality Chamber needed to go into repair, resulting in the midterms for the other fairies to be postponed. So Bloom became regarded a little bit as a hero to the other fae since it was her test that let them have more time to study. 

Too bad she couldn’t enjoy it terribly much as the school nurse put her on bedrest for a little bit due to Magical Exhaustion. Bloom had been worried that Daphne would be disappointed in her for failing to control her Dragon Flame, but her elder sister was more than understanding.

“Many other fae spend their whole lives being taught how to control their magic. It is through no fault of your own that you must play catch up. You have done incredibly well practicing prior to Alfea, and have dedicated yourself to improving even more. You made the best out of a poor situation. And we both know that those three witches failed in their attempt, so there is no worries.”

Daphne was such a great big sister. Bloom was a little upset she couldn’t contact her before she joined Alfea. Would’ve been nice to have her around during her younger years. 

Another plus was the Palladium still gave her an A+ for how she handled the Trix during the test. It was assumed majorly that their appearance was a result of the Reality Chamber, and Bloom didn’t think it would do much to state otherwise. Aside from being unable to explain how she knew, that is. Griffin was extremely lenient towards her witches and wouldn’t reject the Trix until after their coup d'etat.

Being on bedrest meant she was excused from her remaining midterm exams until the nurse gave her the okay, so that also meant she had more time to study as well.

At least she would if the other girls would stop their arguing. 

Tensions were a bit high with all of them trying to study hard for their exams, and Flora didn’t really help a lot since her plant experiments have begun to invade the other rooms of their dorm.

“Why don’t you take your hippie-dippie research and go save another planet!” Stella snapped.

Flora gasped, “That’s not nice!”

Bloom deadpanned at the two, “Can you both please stop fighting?”

“Her flower power has gone too far!” Stella exclaimed.

“I’m close to finishing my potion!” Flora argued in her defense, “It will protect us from the witches!”

“And I can appreciate that” Stella huffed, “But this is out of control! It’s bad enough she turned your room into a stinky twenty-four seven potion lab, but now she’s invaded my room with her veggies! Look at those ratty little fashion victim plants! They’ve been stealing my clothes and makeup since they got here! My one of a kind couture dress had been shrunk by one of those monsters already! I was going to wear it for my date with Prince Sky!”

Bloom quickly hid a snort when she saw a rose plant applying lipstick to itself.

Flora clearly felt bad at how rudely her plants were behaving as Stella cried and tried to snatch one of her dresses away from a vine. “I’ll ask Tecna if she might have a counterspell for your dress.”

She peered into the other room, spying only the music fae composing some sheet music, “Hey Musa, have you seen Tecna?”

“Nah, she’s been off the radar since this morning.”

“Oh” Flora frowned, “I wanted to ask if she knew a spell that would unshrink couture.”

“Doesn’t the Nocturnal Ivy do something like that?” Musa remarked absentmindedly.

Flora was appreciative of the suggestion, quickly thinking up a potion with the use of the Ivy, “Oh, right. I could combine it with a drop of Sparkling Parsley Oil.” She opened the closet where she had asked to grow her Ivy, only to find the technology fae trapped and held hostage. “Tecna!”

Flora held back a small giggle as Tecna let out a muffle shout, glaring at the plant fairy. She quickly waved a finger, soothing the ivy into releasing her friend. Tecna quickly climbed out of the closet, shaking off the last of the vines as she huffed, “Where have you been?! I just wanted to grab a jacket and I got kidnaped by your psycho plant!”

“You see what she’s been doing to our living conditions?!” Stella proclaimed.

Musa had been widely unaffected by Flora’s experiments, but clearly agreed due to the incidents with the others. It would probably only be a matter of time before they invaded her own space as well. “Not cool, Flo.”

“Your plant also happened to eat my notebook” Tecna muttered, “Is there any way to get it back?”

Flora let out an uneasy laugh, “Uh….No?”

“Not even a spell?!”

She winced, “Whatever the Ivy eats is pretty much gone. It has to do with their digestive tract. You see, they actually have little spikes near their roots that-”

“I don’t care about their digestion habits! I needed that book for my History of Magix exam! It had all of my notes from the year in it!” Tecna snapped at her. “What am I supposed to tell the teacher?! That my plant ate my homework?!”

“I’m really sorry” Flora whimpered, “I didn’t think it would grow that fast.”

“Your plant business has gone too far! This is a dormitory, not a rainforest!” Stella scolded.

Flora hunched into herself, seeing the trouble her plants have caused the people she cared about. But she couldn’t just stop her experimenting. The Trix have been cause so many problems for her and her friends. She just wanted to keep everyone safe. 

But she could see that she was causing them problems too. 

Her experiments were almost finished, though. Maybe she should just move out until she finished them. They wouldn’t take too long. And if she camped out in a plant heavy area, she could gather her ingredients even more quickly. 

“I understand” She stated, finding her resolve, “I’ll move out to Black Mud Swamp and I won’t come back until I’m done with my potion.”

“Uh…What?” Bloom questioned, as the other fae watched Flora make her way to her room to pack. “But Black Mud Swamp is filled with Cheech Bugs and Subterranean Sludge Slugs and-and-” Bloom turned towards the other three, “Guys, we can’t just let her move to the swamp! Come on! We’re her friends!”

Stella frowned and shrugged, “Her plants used all my makeup!”

“Oh boo hoo, you’re out of makeup. Meanwhile, Flora ends up falling into a vat of Medusa Gas and dies, but yeah, let’s focus on the important things here!”

Stella winced and let out a small whine at the scolding.

“Look, I get it. I’m the one sleeping in what amounts to equalling a drug den, minus the, you know, drugs, but that doesn’t mean we just let her exile herself. She’s just trying to help us. Does she need better boundaries, sure, but we’re adults, goddamn it! We need to talk shit out, not just ignore and berate each other!”

Musa sighed, “Alright, alright. We get it. Let’s go talk it out with Flora.”

As it turned out, Flora was determined to go to the swamp regardless. They were able to discuss the needed boundaries, but Flora was insistent that she had one last ingredient left and it could only be found in the swamp.

So, Bloom volunteered them all to tag along with her and help find the plant she needed. When they returned to the dorm, Flora agreed to move her plants out of the other spaces and promised to keep them on her side of their bedroom. Bloom didn’t entirely mind the plants in their room though, so she renegotiated it to just keeping the plants out of her closet.

“Thank you so much for coming with me!” Flora beamed as she finished setting out their tent. “Only true friends would follow me into this swamp.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world” Stella grumbled out, trying to sound positive about the experience.

“So, what exactly are we searching for?” Musa questioned.

Flora pulled out her herbology book, flipping it open to her marked page, “The Cheerful Gladiolos. There’s only one left in the world and it’s being taken care of by the BMJL.”

“Is, that like a hip hop group or something?”

The flower fae smiled and shook her head, “It’s the Black Mud Junior League. This faction of the Junior League is run by the Undines. They’ve been in charge of Black Mud Swamp for centuries.” 

Stella put a halt to the idea, “I doubt the Junior League would let you just take the last flower. The JL is extremely protective of near-extinct species.”

“I don’t expect them to give it to me” Flora stated, before proudly pulling out a bottle, “This is one of the experiments that I’ve been working on and I finally finished its development.. I call it the Vego-Cloner. It will be revolutionary in the preservation and restoration of plants that are near extinction, such as the Cheerful Gladiolos. I hope that the Department of Herbal Magix will be able to use this potion in order to revive vegetative species in all of the worlds.”

“What a wonderful potion!” Tecna proclaimed when Flora dripped it onto a nearby plant, which immediately grew a clone of itself. “I’m certain this would even grant you an award in the Magical Chemistry field.”

Flora flushed brightly, a shy smile growing, “Awards are nice, but I really just wanted to save those poor dying plants.”

“Well what are we waiting for!” Bloom cheered, “Let’s go clone a flower!”

“I’ll stay here and watch these two!” Stella offered, gesturing to both Kiko and Hedwig, who were happily chomping on the newly grown plant. Bloom also surrounded the two in a pet playpen she convinced her parents to send her after Kiko nearly died due to sneaking into her bag. 

“Nice try. Come on you” Bloom snorted, grabbing the solar fairy’s arm and dragging her along.

“But I have a really bad feeling about this!” She whined.

“You feel bad whenever you aren’t near the mall,” Musa teased.

“But I’m serious!” She argued, “I feel like something is out there.”

“It’s a swamp, there’s plenty of things out there. Now come on!”

It took them about half an hour of trekking, full of Stella’s whines and complaints, before they reached the Undine’s pond. The little creatures were very welcoming and guided the group of fairies to their queen for an audience.

“So, what is it that we may help you with?” The golden Undine asked graciously, “The Junior League pride ourselves in being able to assist in many endeavors of those who ask.”

Flora, as this was her mission, became their spokesperson, “I had hoped you would allow me to borrow the last Cheerful Gladiolus flower. It’s the last ingredient I need for my witch repellant potion. I also wanted to offer the use of my newest potion that clones plants, which will help in repopulating the flower.”

“Oh my” The Queen Undine’s eyes glowed in anticipation of the offer, “That sounds like it would indeed be very useful. I have a request of my own if you would be willing. You see, we’ve been having a rather trying time recently with a monster.”

“A monster is after you?” Flora gasped along with the other winx.

“Allow me to explain” The queen said sadly, gesturing to a nearby fog, “That is Zillith Island. It is the one place in this swamp that our food grows. We had full access to the island the Zillith leaves until a large water creature began attacking us. Now we cannot go anywhere near it lest the monster eat us. Due to the monster, we have also been unable to send requests for help to Magix.”

“Do you know why the creature started attacking you?”

She shook her head, “Unfortunately not. The creatures of the swamp have lived in harmony for centuries. We do not know what has changed to get the water creature to attack out against us. We have lost many of our dear friends to the monster and soon enough, if things continue this way, we will perish due to starvation.”

“Even now,” One of the other Undine spoke up, voice shaking in fear and sadness, “There are some of us who will not even make it to tomorrow.”

“It has become so desperate that one of our dear friends left last night to try bringing back food. It was brave, but very foolish. She was lucky to escape being caught by the creature, but she has not returned since and we fear greatly for her.” The queen added, “We hate to impose, but your arrival has shown us a beacon of hope. Would you perchance be able to help us with this monster?”

Bloom felt fire burn in her eyes as she stood up, “Of course! We’ll fly over to that island to find your friend and to bring food back for you guys! And we’ll get to the bottom of what is causing the creature to lash out!” The other winx nodded firmly in agreement, to the joy of the Undine. “Not a moment too soon! Let’s go right now!”

“Thank you very much, and please do be careful” The Undine Queen spoke after them.

“We should fly higher from the water. Just in case” Bloom suggested, guiding them to above tree tops.

Stella added in, “You know, what if the creature is just normal sized and it only looks like a giant to the Undine. You know, cause they’re so tiny.”

“You really wanna take that chance?” Musa retorted.

The solar fae pouted but didn’t argue. Of course, the giant creature took that chance to snap its large head out of the water in an attempt to eat one of the fairies. Thankfully, since Bloom guided them high above, it was unable to reach them. But it definitely gave them all near heart attacks.

“No wonder the Undine are terrified of that thing!” Stella exclaimed as they landed on the island. 

“Good thing we flew high up,” Musa nodded.

Bloom was thankful she remembered that incident from the show. She had a hard time recalling a lot of the earlier episodes. The only reason she remembered the monster was because that scene terrified her as a child and gave her nightmares about giant turtle monsters eating her alive for months afterwards.

She didn’t really remember much else of this episode. It was kinda overshadowed by the upcoming Miss Magix one, which she really only remembered after seeing a flier for the contest in Stella’s room during a small study session.

Stella let out a yawn, “Ya know, all that walking and flying really made me tired.”

The group slowly made their way further into the island, searching for the trees that grew the Undine’s food source. As they walked, however, each girl slowly became more and more lethargic.

It took Musa tripping over her feet for Tecna’s brain to properly snap into action despite its own exhaustion. She quickly accessed a spell to check the oxygen levels, and easily found that they were greatly overshadowed by another, “Don’t breathe! There’s a high level of narcoleptic gas!” 

Unlike the others, her fae form gave her a helmet that she quickly slipped on, filtering herself proper oxygen as her magic worked to eliminate the gas attempting to infiltrate her body.

Unfortunately, this also meant the others slipped into unconsciousness with ease. 

Tecna tried desperately to wake them up, knowing it was extremely dangerous for them to pass out with such a toxin in the air. But it was no use, they were out cold. Except for Bloom, who tried to keep her eyes open from pure stubbornness alone. “Bloom!”

The technology fae quickly caught the collapsing fire fairy when she stumbled forward. The redhead let out a tired giggle, “Hey Tec, that’s a real ugly tree.”

“That must be the source” The purple fairy muttered. Tecna didn’t have enough magical power to expand her oxygen spell, but she had enough to cover one of her friends. If they were going to filter out the gas, she needed someone with a high concentration of magic. For as much as Bloom was inexperienced, she proved time and time again that her magic was very powerful. The two of them could cover enough of the island.

With that in mind, Tecna quickly covered herself and Bloom in a shielded bubble, “Oxygus Layrus! Fumus Removus!”

With those two spells, Bloom quickly snapped up to attention, a small wobble from a throbbing headache, but fine otherwise. “What the hell happened?”

“That tree is spreading a volatile toxin. We have to expand my spell to wake the others up before their minds are attacked” Tecna quickly explained, sending more magic into her bubble, “Oxygus Layrus.”

Bloom easily caught on and repeated the spell with her, until Tecna’s green shield covered all of the fairies and the passed out birds that surrounded the evil looking tree. As Bloom focused on keeping the bubble intact, Tecna quickly used her spell to filter out the gas.

Musa yawned as she got up and stretched, “Good morning.”

Stella stubbornly tried to roll over still, muttering “Let’s get the continental breakfast.”

Flora blinked lethargically, “What happened?”
“Something hinky is with that tree. Look at its evil face. Big evil” Bloom nodded, before she quickly reached out to snatch the little Undine that was just barely out of reach of the bubble. Thankfully the shield opened only briefly to let Bloom grab her before snapping back close.

The Undine slowly opened her eyes and let out a small yawn, “Oh. Hello. Please excuse my appearance, I have only just woken up.”

“Hey there. We’re here to rescue you” Bloom grinned, holding the Undine gently. “We’re also supposed to bring some food back to your clan. Did you happen to find any before you fell asleep?”

The Undine shook her head, “I was only able to find one leaf. I do not know how long it will take for the Zillith Trees to grow back. You see, when I arrived, I was able to figure out that this island is actually the back of a giant turtle. She had been living in our pond, happy and content for a long time. However, her shell has caught a horrible parasite. That tree is a Wendigo Willow. It’s been feeding off of the plants that have been growing on the turtle and injecting it’s disease upon her, which is why she has been acting violently. Unfortunately the Zillith Trees have taken poorly to its corruption and have since died. The leaf I found could regrow the tree, but it will take time that I don’t believe my clan has.”

“Don’t worry, we have a solution for that” Flora assured the Undine, “Right now, we’ll focus on getting rid of this parasitic tree.”

“Good idea. Cause I think it’s mad now” Stella whimpered, spotting the red tree begin to groan and move, shooting its branches out against the shield.

It broke easily, unfortunately, but Bloom was quick to act, handing the Undine to Musa for protection. She summoned a fireball and shot it towards the willow. It withdrew its branches, but was unharmed.

“Wendigo Willow bark is fireproof” Flora informed her, “However, if you aim your fire towards the roots, I have a spell that will make it absorb the flame magic.”

“Got it” She agreed, switching her hands towards the base of the tree. Flora quickly administered her own spell, forcing the willow to take the fire within itself.

The tree groaned and shrieked as it began to burn from within, its trunk and branches turning to ash. Flora then used another spell to remove the dead ashes from the island shell, effectively removing the parasite from the suffering turtle.

It was a quick trip back to the Undine’s home, with the now calm turtle raising her head to let out a grateful groan towards the fairies. 

The Undine were very happy with their return, with the one they saved being piled into a tight hug from her family. With the one Zillith leaf, Flora was able to produce more and planted a new tree to grow right outside the Undine’s home as well. It would take some time to fully grow, but Flora added some of her floral magic to help speed up the process. With the potion, she made plenty of leaves for the Undine to eat until the tree bloomed.

The Queen inclined her head towards the fae in her own gratitude, “We very much appreciate your assistance in this. You have saved us and we shall be in your debt.”

“Oh that’s not necessary” Flora insisted, “We’re glad to have helped.”

“We would like to present you with the Cheerful Gladiolos” The Queen stated, gesturing for some of the Undine to bring the flower, carefully held in a tiny vase. “We will entrust it to you to help revive the species.”

“Thank you very much!” Flora beamed, holding the flower carefully in her hands. “I will do my best to make sure its species returns.”

“Well this has been an exciting adventure” Musa grinned, relaxing her arms behind her head.

“And now we can head back to Alfea without staying the night in a swamp!” Stella cheered, “Let’s go!”

Bloom snickered as Flora sent the blonde a pleading look, “Stella, I promise to move my experiments out of your room but would you be willing to let the Cheerful Gladiolus grow in your room? It has the best sunlight.”

Stella withheld a groan and whine, but ultimately agreed after Bloom sent her a raised eyebrow.

Chapter Text

“And then Flora used a spell that made the willow absorb my fire magic into its roots and it burned from the inside!” Bloom gestured wildly with a large grin on her face.

‘Brandon’ invited her into Magix for the day since she was the only one finished with her midterms and she texted him about how boring it was with the other fairies still off studying or taking exams. 

“That must’ve made you happy, Miss Pyro” He stated with a snort. She waggled her eyebrows, making him laugh.

“Hey, Daphne said that I am perfectly normal with my love of fire, so there!” She stuck her tongue out.

He paused and tilted his head curiously, “Daphne?”

Bloom frozen for a moment. That was not a topic she should really go on. They were too open, anyone could hear, especially any witches loitering around. She didn’t need the Trix catching wind of her sister helping train her Dragon. 

“Oh, uh, just, another fairy in Alfea. I have some classes with her.” Not entirely a lie. Daphne did go to Alfea and she technically had classes with her. Just that Daphne was the teacher and it wasn’t in reality, rather her mindscape. 

“Well, I’m glad your making more friends” ‘Brandon’ said with a teasing smile, “Though maybe try not setting their hair on fire.”

“That was one time!” She whined, “Beside, you have plenty of hair that burning the edges wouldn’t be that bad!”

“I happen to like my hair the length it is, thank you” He laughed, “Good thing Stella had her hair restoration spell.”

Bloom sighed, “Yep. That’s Stella. Always prepared.”

He frowned a little at her light sarcasm, “Is something wrong?”

“Not, wrong per se. Just, Stella has been dipping out of classes and I’ve had to cover for her a lot. She hasn’t really done any of her midterm exams yet, so I’m just a little on edge with her lack of concern.”

“I’m sure she has her reasons.”

“Oh I know exactly what her reason is” Bloom huffed, “She’s preparing for the Miss Magix contest that’s coming up. I don’t mind that she wants to focus on that terribly much, just…Well Alfea has strict rules on exams and grades and…”

“You’re scared she’ll be kicked out because she fails them” He guessed. 

It really did surprise Bloom how much he could figure out from her. Sometimes she wondered if he had some kind of mindreading magic in his blood. “Yeah. She, well, she was my first friend in the Magic Dimension. I didn’t really have a lot of friends on Earth, and now that I’m at Alfea, I don’t get to see them very often. Though I guess that’s not very different from what it used to be. Silena had to move away a while ago, and it had already been difficult to get a hold of her. It was a little lonely before I met Stella.”

She looked down at her hands, slightly forlorn. With Silena moving away to a different timezone, there wasn’t ever really a good time to contact her. Andy had also been busy with college assignments, having been accepted pretty easily after graduating high school. Bloom insisted on not going to college yet, claiming she wanted a gap year, though she was really just waiting to meet Stella and kickstart her life as a fairy. 

But being in Magix meant she couldn’t meet up with Andy anymore, like they used to plan when he had weekends off from work and college. They could text and call each other sometimes, but it was more difficult given her rather busy life with the Winx. 

She felt horrible about it, feeling like she all but abandoned him, but Andy knew her rather well and insisted that it was perfectly fine for them to drift apart a little now that they were adults. According to her parents, he sometimes popped into their house when he wanted a break from life.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she felt another hand land on hers. ‘Brandon’ smiled encouragingly, “Even if Stella does get expelled, she won’t just stop talking or hanging out with you. And the other girls will still be there too.”

“Yeah” she returned his smile, feeling a little better. He was right. Even with the distance she had with Andy, they still talked and she could call him to hang out during her upcoming spring break. She should try reaching out to Silena too. 

“And you know, maybe Stella just needs someone to help her focus. She might be feeling nervous and is just trying to distract herself. I can also ask Sky to give her a call if you want.”

“That might help” Bloom perked up, “Especially if he suggests they have a date if she passes her exams.”

“Good idea” He grinned, “You can count on me.”

“Thanks Brandon!” Bloom beammed, reaching forward to hug him, “You’re a good friend!”

‘Brandon’ felt a little bummed by the initial thought of ‘friend-zoned’, but he quickly pushed it aside. They didn’t have any talks about being more than friends and he would feel bad otherwise to suggest it while still engaged to Diaspro. Which he wouldn’t want to end until he firmly figured out where the two of them stood, mainly because he would need a better reason to inform him parents aside from ‘I’ve fallen in love with an Earth fairy but I don’t know how she feels about me, so if you could just give me a bit of time’. 

But such was the life of a prince…

Bloom arrived back at her dorm to find Musa, Flora and Tecna scolding a pouting Stella for lying about being sick and skipping exams to participate in a beauty pageant. 

The blonde perked up when she saw Bloom, “Bloom! Tell them how important the Miss Magix contest is!”

The redhead sighed and pursed her mouth, peeking briefly into Stella’s room to see the disarray. She also, however, spotted the poster hanging against the wall filled with pink doodles of stars and trophies. She didn’t get it, but it was important to Stella. And ‘Brandon’ was right. Maybe Stella just needed a confidence booster. Winning the pageant would help her in the long run. 

“If you swear to binge study, I’ll help you with the contest,” Bloom offered.

The other three gaped at her while Stella leapt from the couch, throwing herself at Bloom in a hug.

“As Miss Magix, I will study like you’ve never seen me study before!” Stella proclaimed with an excited squeal.

Bloom set out Stella’s makeup kit as the blonde princess began pushing her way through a clothes rack. Tecna was sulking in a chair nearby, as she was against Stella’s concern for the pageant more than her schooling.

Musa and Flora, however, gave in to Bloom’s agreement. Musa set up a small radio to help relax Stella’s muscles while Flora mixed together a herbal face mask.

“This is boiled vera betola and leaves of ranko ficus” Flora explained, carefully applying the mixture to Stella’s face. 

Musa began rolling her blonde locks up as Stella reclined in her chair.

They were all distracted when a loud cry echoed from the hallway. Bloom gestured for the others to stay and focus on Stella, going out to see the problem.

Of course, it was the girl who had been cursed with a high pitch chicken squawking voice. Bloom attempted to undo the spell, but it was to no avail as she didn’t know what was cast in the first place. 

Plus Stella made a small comment without knowing the situation and that sent the girl running away in hysterics.

But the contest soon began and so Bloom’s concerns quickly switched targets. 

After all, she had to focus on making sure Stella stayed safe from the Trix and won the contest. 

Bloom made her way through the floor, doing her best to slip past the view of the Trix. They were here specifically to humiliate Lucy, but she didn’t want to risk them deciding to pick a fight with her instead. 

But at the same time, she needed to try countering any spells they shot at Stella. And maybe the other contestants as well, but Bloom was willing to let them sabotage the others if it meant Stella would win.

Priorities and all that. 

But imagine her surprise when she ended up spotting two familiar men sitting in a booth in the back.

“Sky, Brandon. What are you guys doing here?” Bloom questioned.

‘Brandon’ smiled, “Sky wanted to cheer Stella on.”

The brunette beamed, “She’ll win, but I wanted to show my support anyway!”

Bloom snorted, “Simp.”

“What’s a simp?” ‘Sky’ asked.

She waved him off and lightly pushed ‘Brandon’ to scoot over, climbing in next to him.

Things went pretty much the same as what she could recall from the episode. ‘Sky’ and ‘Brandon’ had been confused and slightly concerned by the frequent accidents, but Bloom assured them that the contest had healers on standby, so they felt a little better about it. Thankfully neither of them noticed the Trix lounging in the back of the room.

“Up next is Miss Stella! She will be performing the Dance for the Great Western Moon of Solaria!”

Bloom and ‘Brandon’ snickered at ‘Sky’s dropped jaw when Stella took center stage in her cowgirl outfit.

Stella sauntered proudly out of the theater, clinging happily to ‘Sky’s arm as the others trailed behind her. Yeah, things went pretty much the same from what Bloom could remember. Did she feel bad for Lucy? A little. But frankly speaking, Stella was just more important to her. And said fae was beaming with pride and joy. “I’d like to thank the little people! Bloom, Tecna, Musa and Flora!”

“Gee thanks” Musa drolled.

“No problem!” Stella grinned, cuddling closer to ‘Sky’s side. “And you too, Prince Sky! I’m so happy you came to cheer me on!”

“It was my pleasure, sweet princess.”

Bloom and ‘Brandon’ exchanged amused glances and lightly elbowed one another at how corny their two friends were acting.

“Oh! Let’s stay out some more to celebrate my victory! I know this great new club that-“ Bloom interjected with a harsh cough. Stella blinked and turned towards her, “Oh, Bloom, are you sick?”

The redhead deadpanned at her, “You made an oath. Now say goodnight to Sky and let’s go. You have a lot of studying to do before the exam tomorrow.”

Stella whined and it took both Bloom and Musa to drag her off of ‘Sky’, who chuckled and waved after them with ‘Brandon’.

Thankfully, due to the harsh hours put in with Tecna leading the charge, Stella was as prepared as she could be the next day. 

Her downfall came in the form of being completely exhausted however. Palladium commended her efforts though, and gave her a passing grade.

Though just barely, so he also assigned her extra credit to complete during their spring break, to her dismay.

“So how long are you going to be home?” Her mom asked as the two cut vegetables for dinner. 

“Just a week,” Bloom answered, “We just finished our midterms, so we have a small spring break before going back to class.”

“I see. So…how are your classes going then?” She asked, sounding almost hesitant. Which wasn’t very surprising for Bloom. She knew both her parents, while happy that she was making friends and learning more about herself, were also incredibly worried due to magic being widely unknown to them. “And how is this Sky boy doing? Your father had been rather startled when you told us about him” Vanessa giggled lightly. Mike had always been protective with Bloom dating. Even when she and Andy had given it a try, he didn’t really know how to handle it since Andy was a family friend yet still an ‘icky boy trying to steal his baby away’.

“I don’t know why. I have guy friends too” Bloom huffed, “Sky is just a guy friend who also is involved with life in Magix.”

Yes, she told her parents that ‘Brandon’s real name was Sky. They never met him, so she didn’t feel like having to tell them about him and then proceed to later tell them he lied about his identity. There wasn’t much harm in starting off with them knowing everything.

“You know how he is with boyfriends.”

“Sky isn’t my boyfriend,” Bloom argued, “He’s engaged, remember.” However unwanted it was. She had hoped that regardless of their lack of their romantic attachment he would break it off. Diaspro can be a bitch.

Though maybe she should give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, canon was pretty cruel to Diaspro first. Maybe without the tension and, well, cheating, the blonde Eraklyon princess wouldn’t be so mean.

“Oh right. You had mentioned that. My, and he’s your age too. How young” her mom sighed.

“Royalty, am I right?” Bloom snorted.

“There’s certainly a lot more royals in that dimension than on Earth” Vanessa said, a little overwhelmed at the idea, particularly because her daughter was becoming friends with people who were clearly high governmental powers and it didn’t seem like her daughter really realized that there may come potential consequences for that.

She had no idea what governing bodies were like in the Magix Dimension, but it couldn’t be too different from Earth for there to not be a lot of problems down the line, which may or may not include her clueless daughter.

Lost in her thoughts, Vanessa didn’t notice the smoke coming from the oven. Bloom, however, did. “The roast! Mom, stand back!” Bloom pulled her away from the smoking oven before focusing her attention to the danger. Quickly turning off the oven, she began to summon her magic to filter out the smoke. “Aero Lux!”

And just like that, it was almost like nothing had happened. Minus the burnt to a crisp roast that was supposed to be their dinner.

The two quickly came to the decision to order pizza instead.

Bloom happily rode her motorcycle through the city. Much better than her hovercycle disaster during the Rose Festival. No buttons or screens that confused her, no floating off the street (though if you ask her, that one was a con rather than a pro). 

Plus she was in a good mood since Andy was able to push back his shift so they could meet up for lunch. 

She soon pulled into an open space to park on the side of the street, thankfully only a block away from the cafe. She had to leave Hedwig behind with her mother, since Andy didn’t know anything about magic, so he really shouldn’t be meeting her talking swan chick. 

Plus she didn’t know much about the status of people on Earth knowing about magic. Earth used to be one of the governing bodies in the Magix Dimension, but given magic disappeared and no one really remembered it existing, she didn’t think it was the best idea to suddenly start spouting out and showing off. At least not until she asked Faragonda or someone about it.

“Well look who it is!” A particularly familiar, near nasally voice announced.

Bloom sighed. So close to a perfect break, “Hello Mitzi.”

“So, where have you been?”

“Away” Bloom replied bluntly, “Gotta go.”

She attempted to speed walk away, but Mitzi slipped in front of her, “Wait! There’s a rumor!”

“Oh gee. How nice.”

“Oh yeah!” Mitzi said, a mocking smile on her face, “Everyone is saying you were sent to reform school!”

Bloom barely kept a twitch from forming in her eye, “Mitzi. We’re eighteen and graduated high school. Reform school isn’t an option for either of us.”

That didn’t stop Mitzi at all in her attempts to be nasty. It was always like this for her. Bloom had attempted to avoid ever interacting with the girl, but that didn’t do anything. Actually, Mitzi always seemed to try purposefully seeking her out just to try getting on her nerves.

“So what then? They shipped you off to military school?”

“It’s called college, Mitzi,” Bloom rolled her eyes, “Maybe if you tried, you could actually get into one. You know, without having to buy your way in.”

Mitzi’s family was rather well off, especially compared to Bloom’s family, who were firmly middle class. So yes, Mitzi was the popular rich girl of her school years. Clearly being the popular rich girl meant nothing regarding personality since Stella had the same circumstances and was not a complete bitch like Mitzi tended to be. 

Though maybe it was her royal training that kept her from that, since she was the crown princess for both of her kingdoms. Her people probably wouldn’t take well to having a bully of a queen.

“Oh please. What kind of college would accept you ? One for losers and rejects?” Mitzi let out a nasally laugh.

“Oh my. That hurts so bad. I’ll never recover from that insult” Bloom drolled, not affected in the slightest. She easily pushed past the girl, “See you later. But hopefully never.”

Mitzi fumed and growled but Bloom ignored her as she strode towards the cafe. 

Andy was already sitting at a table outside, and clearly had ordered given the drinks and food placed out. Bloom grinned as she slid into the opposing seat, “You know me so well.”

Andy fixed his rather large, round glasses, “Yeah, well, you always order the same thing.”

“Do not” She pouted.

He let out a small laugh, “Yeah you do. You love strawberries too much to get anything that isn’t a strawberry lemonade. And you’ve always been obsessed with this place’s sandwiches.” Bloom huffed and in response, she reached out and roughly ruffled up Andy’s hair out of its normal neat slick. “Hey!”

“Oh come on” Bloom giggled, as her friend tried his best to restyle his hair back, “You look good with your hair messed up like that!”

“It doesn’t really fit me” Andy argued.

“You should branch out from your neat little nerd routine” she retorted, “Try some variety.”

“No thanks” he replied blandly, “I’m fine with my glasses, slicked back hair and bowties.”

Bloom snorted, grabbing her drink to take a sip. She smiled at the familiar taste of strawberries as her eyes drew towards passerbyers. 

And promptly choked on her drink when she saw a spirit hovering above one guy walking his dog. 

“Are you okay?!” Andy exclaimed in concern as Bloom heaved. She could verbally respond but quickly nodded her head.

Honestly, it was such a miniscule thing, she completely forgot OG!Bloom had been able to see spirits. It had been brought up in one episode and never again, so her mind never dwelled on that power.

You know, until she was able to. It wasn’t everyone, she couldn’t see anything of Andy, but she could see a spirit trailing after a waitress. She couldn’t see the vegetable vendor across the street, but she could see the young girl playing with a ball.

It was very freaky and kinda giving her vertigo. 

Andy was concerned by her distractive state, but the two got through their lunch without any more incidents, aside from Bloom eyeing every spirit she saw. After the two went their separate ways, Bloom decided to go visit her mother at the shop.

Vanessa was typically against Bloom visiting due to her pyromania, but she reluctantly agreed when Bloom argued that she had gotten slightly better at restraint during her time at Alfea. Which wasn’t entirely a lie. She just left out that the restraint was only because everyone in Alfea kept stealing her lighters from her.

Bloom was eagerly awaiting the day when she wouldn’t have to rely on her lighters to hold a flame. But right now, her magic was too rampant to attempt playing with a fireball without it causing a whole lot of problems.

“Hey mom,” Bloom greeted, as she entered the store. As it was, her mom was in the middle of the meeting.

“Bloom, dear. I’d like you to meet my prospective business partners, Mr Bauner and Mr Brown” Vanessa happily introduced.

Bloom felt her eyebrows raise in surprise, “Business partners?”

One of the two men spoke up, “Yes. We are currently proposing that your mother sell the store to us.”

“Well, not entirely. They will own the shop itself, but the ownership rights will belong to all of us” Vanessa explained, “They plan to create chain stores.”

See, Bloom was surprised by the thought, certainly. Her mom had built the store from the ground up and was fairly popular within the city, having a lot of big clients who held events that the store would provide flowers for. So it wasn’t entirely impossible to have gained enough traction that someone would reach out to partner with her shop.

But what did catch her surprise was the spirits hovering above the two men. Both were snickering to themselves about plans to turn the shop into a supermarket or something like that. Bloom couldn’t really hear them very well, only enough snippets for her to become wary. 

“Well then, come back tomorrow and we will go over your proposal in more details” Her mom said, shaking hands with the two men as they left. Bloom furrowed her eyebrows as her mom turned to her, “So, what do you think about this? I think it’s a good opportunity for everyone.”

Bloom shifted her eyes away from her mom. She had a really bad feeling, but she also didn’t want to go full ham against the idea. She didn’t know how her powers are developing after all. And she barely heard the spirits, so for all she knew, they were thinking about something else entirely. 

But this all was also pretty familiar to her, so maybe this was part of the episode? She really only remembered the whole, seeing spirits/aura thing, and even then it was minor.

So, her choice of answer was to change the subject, “Do these go on the shelf?” She knelt down to grab one of the new pots for restocking, placing the flower with its breed. 

Vanessa was immediately concerned. “Honey? Is something wrong?”

“Um, where did you find those guys?” Bloom hesitantly asked.

“I didn’t. They found me. They are two business men who work for a big company,” Vanessa answered, narrowing her eyes in worry, “Now tell me what’s wrong.” It wasn’t a question, it was a concerned demand. And Bloom knew it.

“I can see people’s auras,” Bloom blurted out. What could she say? Her mom knew her too well to try lying. And she picked up her stubbornness too, so she knew her mom wouldn’t let up until she told the truth. It had been an annoying thing in her younger years, but Vanessa also knew when to give her space for the personal times, so Bloom never held a grudge for her pushiness.

“You can do what?” Her mom raised an eyebrow.

“See auras. Like, what people are thinking. It’s new” She shrugged. Extremely so, only an hour old. But still. “And I think those guys are con men. I know if it was real, it’d be a good opportunity, but…”

Vanessa bit her lip. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe her daughter. Magic was new to all of them, after all, so who was to say she wouldn’t be able to hear or see what people were thinking with it. It was just, well, she didn’t want to think she was being taken advantage of. 

But if it was that important to her daughter…

“I’ll talk about it with your father.”

Later that night, Bloom met up with Daphne yet again for their biweekly mental get together. 

The conversation was brought up after Bloom finished explaining away her week so far. “What’s the deal with this aura thing anyway?”

“Ah.” Daphne hummed, gently caressing Bloom’s head as she lounged in the large hands of her elder sister, “Contrary to your belief, it’s not a normal magic in every fairy.”

“It’s not?” Bloom was surprised at this. Or perhaps she shouldn’t be. After all, not every fairy was the incarnation of a universe-creating dragon.

“That’s correct. It is the Dragon.” Daphne confirmed her thoughts, “With its power, you are able to see the life energy within others. Your Old Soul merely enhanced the power to an advanced degree much more quickly.”

“Am I going to be seeing spirits all the time then? Cause it’s already giving me a headache.” Bloom was not whining. Daphne raised a transparent eyebrow. She was not!

“Well, Little One, I will help you learn how to control it.”

And thus began their nightly magic classes. Cause more learning. Yay.

Please note the sarcasm, Daphne.

Come morning, her parents both explained how her mother was going to refuse the offer. Thankfully, her dad was a lot more wary and suspicious of people, so he spent the night digging on the internet.

Given the time period (that being technology and the internet weren’t all that advanced as it will be in the coming years), there wasn’t much, but the few things he did find made him even more concerned that it would be a scan, just as Bloom thought.

Since Bloom had no plans, and was a little more concerned, she tagged along with her mom to the shop, doing menial tasks to help as she spoke with the two men.

“Vanessa, I don’t understand why you changed your mind,” Mr Bauner said. He was probably trying to hide it, but Bloom picked up the condescending tone real quick. She held back the urge to light his suit on fire.

“A minute ago, you were ready to go for it” Mr Brown added, “What happened? We thought we had a deal.”

“Nothing happened,” Vanessa smiled, albeit a little awkwardly, “I just realized I am very happy with the way things are right now.”

“At least take another day to consider the offer,” Mr Bauner said, pushing the contract over to her, “We’ll come back tomorrow to discuss it further.”

“That won’t be necessary, thank you. My mind is made up. I want to keep my business as it is.”

Apparently that was enough for the two to drop the ‘nice guys’ routine. Mr Brown’s face turned stony, as he leaned against her desk, “Listen, Vanessa, accidents happen. You know what I mean?”

Oh. 

Oh Hell No.

This man did not just think he could try threatening and intimidating her mom and get away with it. 

“My decision is final” Vanessa said firmly, entirely put off with their intimidation tactic as she crossed her arms and glared.

“Very well. But like I said,” Mr Brown casually flicked his hand out, carelessly knocking over a pot of flowers, “Whoops.”

Bloom felt a rumbling growl vibrate through her chest. She took a step forward, more than ready to beat the shit out of the man, but her mom grabbed ahold of her shoulder, firmly pulling her back as the two exited the shop. 

“You should’ve let me at them!” The redhead snapped.

“Watch your tone, young lady,” Vanessa warned. 

Bloom closed her eyes and took a breath, “Sorry, mom.” Vanessa nodded, accepting her apology, before turning a disappointed gaze to the ruined bouquet. Bloom quickly took it upon herself to use a spell Flora taught her to heal the flowers and fix the pot. 

Vanessa smiled, picking up the pot to replace on her desk, “Thank you, Sweetie.” She sighed, “I supposed I dodged a bullet. Thank you for warning me, Bloom.”

“Of course, mom.”

“Say, why don’t we go take in some fresh air. Might do us some good” The brunette suggested.

“Ooh! Let’s get ice cream!” Bloom beammed.

Vanessa laughed, “Why not!”

No, Bloom was not using the flower shop as an excuse to avoid people. She was just worried about her mom being alone with those two assholes still hanging around. That was all.

Especially when someone had thrown a brick into one of the glass doors at the shop when Bloom was hanging out with Andy again. It had been reported to the police, after her mom made a frightened call to her dad, but it was enough to make Bloom concerned.

So she decided to stay at the shop with her mom during her break and hope things got better by the time she had to go back to Alfea. 

“Bloom, can you put out the vase with the Lavatera Maritima?”

“Big one with pink purple petals?”

“Yes dear.”

“On it!”

Bloom heaved the large vase up, carrying it out of the shop with relative ease. It wasn’t all that heavy for its tall size. She carefully set it down outside as instructed, moving to head back inside.

And then let out a shriek when a motorcycle revved by and the vase shattered, sending soil, flowers and glass flying. 

“Bloom?!” Vanessa raced outside at the sound of her cry.

“I’m okay” She quickly assured, “Though the flower isn’t.” 

“As long as you weren’t hurt” Her mom said with relief.

Bloom still felt bad and glanced around before using a quick repair spell, fixing the vase and flowers. “Can’t report this one to the police, but at least we have no loss in revenue?”

Vanessa let out a partly amused sigh and caressed Bloom’s red hair, “Thank you, Sweetheart.”

Unfortunately things had progressed beyond that, when Vanessa and Bloom arrived at the store the next day to find the doors broken into and the entire shop trashed beyond repair. 

So instead of fulfilling orders, Vanessa had spent the day on the phone with the insurance company and the police. 

It would be just their luck that the cameras had been cut too, so no footage of the assailants was caught.

Things truly came to a head later that night, however. Bloom was trying to enjoy an actual night of sleep, as it was not a Daphne Night, since the nymph needed to recover energy from spending three nights in a row within Bloom’s mind. 

And yet, Bloom felt restless. Tossing and turning in her rest, she couldn’t get comfortable whatsoever. Something inside her was shifting, pushing. She mentally tried to suppress it, but to no avail. 

“Bloom? Bloom!”

She woke with a gasp, seeing her parents hovering above her in concern. Instead of waiting for either to speak, the words spilled from her mouth, “I think something’s wrong with the shop.”
Either a hunch, her magic or maybe even subconscious memories from her first life, regardless, Bloom didn’t let up, urging her parents to make a quick drive over to the storefront. 

“Oh my God!” Vanessa cried as they skidded to a stop. Sure enough, Bloom’s instincts had been right. The store was ablaze with fire and smoke billowing through the air. Mike was quick to call the department, and was assured they would arrive as quickly as possible.

Bloom didn’t hesitate to start bolting towards the shop, however, her dad quickly grabbed hold of her, “Bloom! No!”

“I have to try containing it! It’s already beginning to spread to the other buildings!” She argued.

“I can’t let you go in there! It’s too dangerous!” He retorted.

“I have to do something, dad! It’s my job!” She affirmed, staring at him with eyes filled with determination.

He didn’t want to let her go. How could he? She was his baby, after all. 

But she was all grown up now and…using magic. She was strong and if she could help, then it would be great.

So he would make a compromise. No matter how powerful she may be with her access to magic, he wasn’t letting her go alone. “I’m coming with you.”

Bloom was reluctant. After all, she was fire resistant to a point. Her dad wasn’t at all. But she got his stubbornness and knew he wouldn’t budge. And the longer they argued, the worse the damage could get, “Fine. But stay close.”

She quickly placed a barrier around them, using a mixture of spells to filter oxygen for them to breathe as they carefully made their way inside the burning building.

“We need to get to the center of the fire. I’ll be able to contain it better from that point.” They slowly walked further into the shop, Mike warily looking at the flickering flames that licked against the barrier but unable to push past it.

Bloom took a few breaths and summoned her magic, using all the control she could muster to reign the fire in, to keep it from moving to the neighboring shops as it so desired to. 

As she concentrated, Mike could hear the pleas close to them. A quick examination of the room, his trained eyes spotted the begging man cowering behind some rubble, coughing as smoke surrounded his lungs. 

“Stay calm sir! We’ll save you!” He proclaimed, shrugging off his flannel pajama shirt as he reached out to pull the struggling man into the safety of the barrier.

It was then that the sirens began blaring. Hearing the arrival of the team, the two quickly helped the man out of the fire to let Mike’s team do their job. 

“I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my life” The man said, voice husky from the smoke inhalation. Vanessa quickly gave him a bottle of water from the back of their car. 

“What were you even doing in the shop?” Bloom questioned as the man took large gulps of the water to soothe his aching throat.

At the question, he avoided their gazes in shame, “I…I’m the one who started the fire. But it grew rather quickly and I ended up getting trapped by the flames.”

Her mom’s face twisted into resigned anger, “Did Mr Brown and Mr Bauner tell you to do this?”

He flinched, “Y-yes. When you refused to sign the contract, they wanted to send you a message. You aren’t the first they’ve done this to, either…”

“But this time their tactics backfired” Mike growled out, “You are in a lot of trouble, my friend.”

“I know” He said, already resigned to his fate, “But it’s time for Mr Brown and Mr Bauner to meet their end too. I’ll be telling everything to the police. I’m so sorry….”

“I know” Bloom murmured, eyes darting up to see the cowering and shame-filled spirit hovering above him, “I can see that….”

With the driver’s testitomy, Mr Brown and Mr Bauner were soon arrested after a rather quick investigation. Following the shop being burned down, more and more people came out regarding their intimidation tactics and threats.

There had been dozens of small businesses that had been scammed and threatened by the two men. Enough so that the mayor ended up giving them a monetary reward on live television as a thanks for helping end the scamming ring.

Bloom was proud to know it would be driving Mitzi nuts when she found out.

Her parents were more than happy despite the circumstances as well. “With the insurance payout, and this reward from the city, I’ll be able to expand the shop even more! And we’ll have plenty left over to put aside!”

“Along with the best alarm system that money can buy” Mike added in, making his wife chuckle in agreement.

Both of them then took notice of their daughter’s distracted state. It was a little unusual for her to be so quiet.

Bloom hummed, “Nah. It’s just been a long spring break. And, ya know, the whole me and dad in a fire thing. Makes me a little reminiscent.”

Vanessa’s expression softened, smiling over at her daughter, “The circumstances may have been horrifying, but you were a blessing to us.”

“Though with all this stuff about magic and fairies and ogres and witches, it really does explain why you hadn’t been affected by the fire at all, even as a baby” Mike stated, taking a sip of his coffee. “Nearly had a heart attack when you brought it up.”

Bloom had semi-confronted them about it a number of years ago. Not in any way to imply she was upset, just a casual mention. If anything, she had claimed it was the school's fault. They had been doing a genealogy test for science class and she asked her parents what the school would do about her own grade, since she had been adopted and they didn’t know her biology.

It had shocked the two that she had figured it out, and made them a little worried how it would affect her.

Of course, given she had known the whole time, it wasn’t a big deal. It didn’t change the fact that they were her parents. They still raised and loved her, after all. Blood didn’t matter to her in the slightest.

And so, the next time someone tries to make threats to her mom and dad, she’ll beat the shit out of them first.

Chapter Text

It had been almost a month since her eventful spring break. In that time, not much really happened.

Yeah, it was pretty boring actually. 

See, she was fairly certain the original plot sent her off to Cloud Tower again. But for the life of her, she couldn’t remember why. Probably something to do with her adoption.

But, well, what was the point in going and probably getting into trouble for answers she already knew? She wasn’t stupid. If she hadn’t known her life story, yeah, sure. She’d be curious enough to risk it for the biscuit. But she did know, so who cared?

And then they had more tests and all that normal school stuff. Though one pop quiz did involve Wizgiz trying to do some kind of test of honor involving fake answers.

And Bloom casually gave him the folder he dropped the next morning, cause she wasn’t a cheater. 

She spent a few of her days off on Magix with ‘Brandon’, both typically bringing along the animals, to Hedwig’s immense joy at seeing her Papa. 

All the interesting stuff was still on the way, really. Parent-teacher meetings, and school exhibitions. Red Fountain would host theirs first, allowing everyone from all schools and their families to come watch a showcase of what the Hero students were learning.

Speaking of interesting stuff, Bloom heard through the grapevine that Mirta was actually in the process of being transferred to Alfea. No pumpkin transforming for her (another plus of avoiding Cloud Tower a few weeks back), but Griffin took notice of her magic during an exam and noted that it tended to showcase a flux of fae magic rather than the dark arts of witches. 

It wasn’t unheard of for witches and fairies to sometimes get mixed up during the administration process, apparently. 

It was a discussion that had sparked some debate within classes as witches and fairies had been at odds since the fall of Domino. Look at Mirta go. Bridging gaps between the animosity of the schools. 

But Bloom was more concerned with the upcoming Parent-Teacher meetings, considering her parents couldn’t exactly be there with the barrier around Alfea. She had brought it up to Faragonda, who promised to look into it. 

Of course, the Trix couldn’t let things be, which she honestly expected. 

The day had been innocent enough. After classes ended, the winx all decided to catch a movie in Magix. There were debates about which one to see, but Bloom won in the end. And of course, the movie she chose had been a horror family drama. 

So naturally, most of the girls had been freaked out after it ended. Bloom found the whole thing hilarious, however. How scary could those movie monsters and ghosts be when she fought actual monsters and had technically once been a ghost? Exactly. Not to mention all the blood and gore looked so fake. This world had literal magic and they couldn’t be bothered to figure out a way to make better effects? Bull.

Her friends all disagreed however. Really, the only one who seemed to have enjoyed the movie aside from herself was Stella. Tecna was muttering about the lack of logic being used by the characters, Flora had been terrified, and Musa seemed mostly put off by the movie in general.

“At least it had a happy ending?” Musa said, trying to cheer up Flora. 

“Yeah! Nothing brings a family back together like having to fight an evil demon, an army of zombies, escaping a few explosions and surviving a massive tidal wave!” Bloom added in. Yeah, it was one of those kinds of movies. The ones that throw a bunch of random things in for shock factor but only end up screwing with the plot. 

It was Tecna’s main gripe with the film.

“And yet my parents are still separated,” Stella quipped, drawing small laughter from Flora and Bloom.

“Movies about parents always bum me out” Musa muttered, looking more glum, “They always end up making me miss my mom like crazy.”

“Can we please stop talking about the movie?” Flora begged, “It freaked me out.”

“Okay, fine. We’ll stop mentioning it” Stella sighed.

Up until they made it to the hallway where Bloom was reminded of one part of the movies she had laughed loudly at while the rest of the theater shushed her, “Remember that scene where the daughter was locked in that chamber with the slimy ghost thing?”

“Bloom!” Flora whined.

“Sorry” She grinned sheepishly.

However, Tecna froze and looked around warily, “Did anyone else hear that growling sound?”

The winx paused and tried to hear for anything, but even Musa shook her head, “Maybe it was Kiko’s stomach?”

“He and Hedwig did in fact eat all those gummy bugs at the movie” Bloom nodded sagely.

“Sure Bloom, it was Kiko and Hedwig who scarfed down all the candy” Stella nudged her, making the redhead waggle her eyebrows. The blonde then let out a yawn and moved off towards her room, “Night Darlings!”

“Goodnight!”

However, it was not, in fact, a good night. As the moon rose higher in the sky, the girls all woke up to hear Stella screaming later in the night, and rushed into her room, finding awake and frantic. “Stella?”

The girl rambled on and on about her parents and a mirror attacking her. Bloom calmly petted her head, trying to mimic Daphne during their talks. 

“Sounds like a nightmare” Flora cooed softly, “I know they can seem real and scary but they can’t truly hurt you.”

“But it felt like something was scratching at me! Even now my head is still throbbing!” She argued weakly. 

“I think the movie got to you more than you thought” Musa stated, gently poking her hand. “Try to get some sleep. If it happens again, we’ll give you a calming spell.”

Once again, they headed off to bed, trying to get some sleep for the long day ahead of them. Unbeknownst to them, as they slept, a creature crept through their dorm, crawling over each girl to feed more and more on their nightmares.

Musa tossed and turned, frantically searching for her mother within her mind. Trying to hear the familiar calls of the sounds that made up the natural music of life, to no avail. As though her ears shut off, nothing but an empty vibration of knowing sound waves were echoing around but unable to truly hear them.

Growing more from her nightmare, the creature proceeded to make its way to the other bed, hovering above the techno fairy, using its dark magic to draw out her fears.

Tecna whined and cried in her sleep, trying to escape the horror within her mind. Where numbers began to warp and attack her, where the world itself malfunctioned around her, leaving nothing but blocky pixels and abstract forms.

Satisfied with its meal, the creature moved on, focusing in on the last room with suitable victims for it to feed off of.

Flora shivered, feeling an emptiness within her as she tried to reach out to the trees and plants around her. But it was nothing. They felt nothing, or perhaps she could not feel them. The comforting life that once surrounded her was gone, her constant companions were no longer responding to her. 

The creature growled, growing even more as it moved towards its last target, the one its masters had wanted from the beginning.

Bloom had been enjoying a nice dream filled with flying and spending more time with her friends.

And then it changed.

She was no longer in the air, but rather on the ground. A small piece of land, surrounded by nothing but ocean. Waves kicked around her, water rushing by without a care.

She froze, staring down in horror as the water began to rise up the island she was on, moving closer and closer to encircle her. She tried desperately to will her transformation into activating, to grow her wings so she could fly and escape.

But it was to no avail, the waters swallowed the island and her along with it, sinking her down below its endless depths.

She tried to scream, but water enveloped her mouth and lungs, as she moved her limbs in a panic, trying to make it to the surface.

She could feel her body begin to lose strength, her vision blacking out, her mind going numb.

Until suddenly, she saw a bright golden glow, feeling a warmth encompass her as the water vanished.

Bloom’s eyes shot open only to meet what was honestly the most nightmare inducing monster she could see. Literally. It was a Nightmare Gargoyle. Its grotesque body stood over her, gleaming red eyes staring down as a growl rumbled from its chest.

She screamed so loud she was sure she had woken up many other dorms.

Flora burst up from her bed at the sound, let out a shriek of her own when her eyes caught sight of the demonic being. 

The other Winx shoved their way into the room just in time to see the giant monster wrap its large tail around Bloom, jumping out the window without a care as she weakly struggled.

Despite their own exhaustion, the four all mustered up as much magic as they could to transform, flying after the monster that nabbed their friend.

“Look who we finally got a hold of.” The three witches appeared, smirking with glee at the sight of their target.

“Leave her alone!” Stella snapped, aiming her staff towards them. Before she could use a spell, however, Icy shot one at her, trapping both her and Flora in an ice prism. 

Tecna moved to try freeing them, but the Gargoyle sent out a plasma blast, shooting her out from the sky. As Musa did her best to dodge, her own drained power resulted in slow flying, giving the creature a clear shot as it hit her as well. 

“Now that those interruptions are out of the way, you have something we want” Icy drawled, gesturing for their monstrous pet to bring the redhead closer to them. 

Unlike her friends, however, Bloom was still having a hard time drawing out any magic after the Gargoyle had drained her energy. 

“What is going on here?!”

Thank the gods for Faragonda. 

“Oh great” Stormy muttered.

Darcy glanced at their eldest sister, “What do we do now?”

“Let the beast take care of them” Icy stated, the three flying higher to allow their pet room to attack.

Faragonda, however, had not been known as one of the most powerful fairies for no reason. The moment her line of fire was clear, she sent forth a blast of magic, hitting the Gargoyle in the face with ease. It roared as its vision was blinded, the creature stunned as the fae headmistress flew closer, “I’ve had it with you three witches. Conjuring a Nightmare Gargoyle goes far beyond an inter-school prank!”

With all the noise, it was no wonder the other fairies all woke up and came out to see what was going on. The moment they caught sight of the weaken fairies, witches, and least of all the giant monster, they all kept their distance, allowing their headmistress to handle the situation.

“Ice breaker!” Faragonda shattered the prism that trapped two of the Winx. With them safe from the ice, she focused her attention on the Gargoyle, “Take this you foul creature of the night!”

The five fae struggled to crawl out of the way, leaning against one another as Griselda also appeared, not wasting a moment to help Faragonda fight off the demon.

With both of the powerful fairies attacking the creature, it was quickly defeated, vanishing back to the bowels of darkness that they had been conjured from. The immediate danger gone, Faragonda turned her ire towards the cause of the mess, “Now for you witches! You invaded Alfea for the last time!”

The Trix were not stupid. They failed to retrieve the Dragon Flame yet again, and there was no chance they could fight off the fae headmistress, let alone when her deputy was right alongside her.

So they quickly teleported away. 

Griselda quickly focused on the four fae, “Are you girls alright?”

“Big headache, man,” Musa wavered.

“I’m so exhausted,” Stella whined.

“Just a little dizzy here” Bloom murmured, more withdrawn than any of them have ever seen of her.

Faragonda landed gracefully, an angered expression on her face that had yet to leave where the Trix had disappeared from, “This has gone way too far. A Nightmare Gargoyle is not a creature to be taken lightly.” The last Nightmare Gargoyle that had been conjured had nearly killed a group of young fairies once, leaving them on magical life support for years due to the energy drain. Ever since, it was a forbidden magic to summon them. “Professor Griffin will be hearing from the Magix Council about those girls. They’ll see to it that they punish those three witches, for good this time.”

That was a confirmation of their expulsion if they had ever heard one.

“Now then, you girls go back to bed. And don’t worry about class tomorrow. I think you’ve more than earned a day off after what those witches have put you through tonight.”

And while the rest of the girls were very much grateful, only one refused to follow through with the suggestion.

Bloom laid in her bed, staring intently at the wall as Kiko and Hedwig snored away against her, refusing to let her mind rest.

“Are you sure about this?” Bloom asked as she brushed the green paste into Stella’s hair.

“Absolutely!” Stella beamed, “It’s an organic condition that Flora concocted, and I fully trust our fairy flower child!”

“Suit yourself,” Bloom hummed.

Stella immediately zeroed in on her. It had been a few days since the Nightmare Gargoyle had attacked. Faragonda assured the Winx that the Trix had, in fact, been expelled from Cloud Tower. And with that out of the way, Red Fountain’s Exhibition was approaching. 

And yet Bloom had been more calm than ever. Sure, she still flicked around whatever lighter of the day she had, but she didn’t put up any fight when they were confiscated, and she had become much more quiet. 

So naturally, Stella was concerned. “Something’s on your mind.”

“Nah” Bloom disagreed, “I’m….just tired, is all.”

“Have you been sleeping okay?” Stella questioned, “You know, I’ve been having a hard time sleeping too. That Gargoyle really put us through the ringer.”

“Oh yeah. I’m fine. Just. Studying, is taking a lot out of me.” Liar liar pants on fire.

Truth was, she hadn’t slept at all. She made an attempt the night after, but she quickly woke back up. Honestly, she had been hoping Daphne would appear in her dreams, but without her…Bloom just got unsettled enough to wake up and she hadn’t tried again since.

But if she said that, the girls would just interrogate her. And she really didn’t want to bother them with something they couldn’t really understand.

“You haven’t been sleeping, have you.”

Damn it Stella. Why does she know her so well?

“What? Pfft, course I have!” Stella hummed and stood up, dragging Bloom over to her bed. She then shoved the woman down and closed the blinds. “Uh, Stel?”

“I need to triple wash my hair” The blonde princess stated, “ You , meanwhile, are going to get some sleep. My bed is uber comfy, so you’ll be counting sheep in no time.”

“But-”

“Uh-uh” She zipped, “Sleep. Goodnight!”

With that, she shut the door, leaving Bloom alone in the now dark room. 

She sighed and laid down. Maybe it wouldn’t be bad to get a little bit of rest.

….

Or! She could call ‘Brandon’! She hasn’t talked to him in a couple of days since he was preparing for the exhibition!

“ Hello? ”

“Brandon! Hey! How about that weather, huh?!”

“ Uh, Bloom? Is that you? ”

She grinned and casually kicked her leg, ignoring the sleep-deprived shaking in her hand, “Yepper-doodles! Have you noticed how nice the weather has been lately!”

“ Um, I mean, yeah. I guess. ”

“Yep! Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice clear day too! And the day after that! Just in time for the exhibition, right?!”

He was silent on the other side, before hesitantly asked, “ Bloom, are you okay? ”

“Okay? Of course I’m okay! Why wouldn’t I be okay? I’m perfectly normal! Same old Bloom! Nothing wrong here! Say! The Red Fountain Exhibition is coming up! That’ll be fun right?! When is that again?”

“ Tomorrow, actually. ”

“Oh right! Well, I guess I’ll see you then!”

Of course, it was then that Stella popped her head back in and sent her a scolding glare, “Bloom! You’re supposed to be sleeping!”

“Gah! Hey! Wait, no! I’m talking to Brandon! Give it bac-!”

Prince Sky, otherwise known as Brandon to a majority of everyone he knew, stared down at his phone in confusion. Bloom did not sound okay. Her voice had been shaky and breathy, completely unlike the usually bursting with energy woman. 

Not to mention when Stella was shrieking at her to go to sleep despite it being the middle of the day.

Honestly, he may or may not had been avoiding her. Not to be mean or anything. With the exhibition coming up, he was already really busy. But then his mind would spiral into Diaspro finding out about Bloom.

There wasn’t anything going on between the two of them. No, they were just really good friends, even if a part of him wanted to be something more. It wasn’t fair to either woman, really. 

His engagement with Diaspro was completely arranged by their parents, but he knew Diaspro liked him on some level, given they were friends before she changed. Though he also recognized she wanted the power of being queen more than she actually wanted him. 

Which definitely put a downer on their future marriage, obviously. 

But even she deserved better than to be cheated on with. And Bloom especially deserved better than being the side woman. 

So no, they were firmly friends, and he loved hanging out with her.

And yet he knew Diaspro would take it completely the wrong way. She was a jealous woman in general and he didn’t want her taking that out on Bloom. 

Though perhaps he was being too hard on Diaspro. After all, despite being envious and power seeking, she was still being trained to be a queen. So she would no doubt know to show decorum to a woman who hadn’t slighted her.

Or maybe it was just his hope that deep down inside, there was still a piece of the shy girl who had been friends with the prince.

“Look, if you really want to give things a try with Bloom, I’m sure your parents would understand. You should talk to them about it” Timmy suggested. 

While his identity as the prince was kept secret, he couldn’t really keep Diaspro a secret. Not when she constantly called him during classes and training (which really went to show her lack of respect for his decision to attend college instead of immediately having a coronation). Of course, this was Timmy, so while the others just accepted it, Timmy quickly figured out he and Brandon swapped places.

So aside from Brandon, Timmy was the only one he could actually talk to regarding it.

Of course, with the exhibition coming up, that would probably go down the drain, since his parents would be coming as well. It was nice while it lasted though.

“I don’t know. They were rather insistent on my marriage to Diaspro” Sky muttered. Granted that was probably because when they were younger, the two used to tell their parents they were going to get married so they could be friends forever.

Look how that turned out.

The fact that her family was one of the major nobles of Eraklyon probably encouraged them further. Breaking the engagement would not go over well with her family. 

At least with her parents. Vivian privately claimed to him that she didn’t believe Diaspro was right for being Queen of Eraklyon. And he didn’t know what her parents thought.

“You at least owe it to yourself to try. Especially if you feel so strongly about Bloom.”

“Maybe you’re right, but it’s not that simple.” It never was for royalty, no matter what other people believed. Deciding to gather his thoughts privately, he left the dormroom, only to run into Riven.

Which by itself was a little shocking. He usually spent his free time with Darcy in Magix.

“Why do you care so much?” Riven scoffed, clearly having heard the gist of the conversation with the door being open, “I certainly wouldn’t give much thought to a girl like Bloom.”

“What?” Sky felt most of his conflicted feelings wash away at the insult towards his friend and possible love interest. 

“You know, Darcy said she’s been hanging around nearly every guy at Red Fountain anyway. You really wanna waste your time around a flirt like her?”

He really shouldn’t. He should’ve held back. They all knew Riven was going through something since the Day of the Rose and he started dating Darcy (or he was just that much of an ass). 

But Sky couldn't help himself. Bloom was one of his closest friends. In fact, he would say she was right behind Brandon, with him only having the advantage of knowing Sky their whole lives. And to hear Riven insulting her character, it was way out of line.

So, he balled up a fist and slammed it right into Riven’s stomach, the magenta haired man letting out a pained grunt. “Shut the hell up, Riven!”

Of course, he should’ve expected Riven to fight back. He always did. 

Riven kicked him to the floor, kneeling down to land a punch to the blonde’s jaw. Thankfully, Sky had enough training to act on reflex, grabbing his fist before it could make contact.

He got the better of Riven, reversing their positions, when Brandon showed up and pulled him off the other man, “Break it up! Brandon, take it easy!” With the brunette’s arrival, Sky felt himself calm down ever so slightly. Seeing this, Brandon released him, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah…”

“And you, Riven? You good?” Brandon asked, placing a calm hand on his shoulder. Only for Riven to shove him away with a snarl, which only made Brandon upset, “Hey! What’s your problem man!”

“What’s your problem?!”

Brandon growled, “You know, ever since you started hanging out with Darcy, you’ve been a real prick! You do realize she’s just using you, right?! They aren’t your friends!”

“Oh yeah, and who are my friends?! You guys?! Don’t make me laugh!”

“What’s going on here?!” The dreaded voice of their headmaster rang through the hall. Saladin strode towards them, intimidating despite being much shorter than the rest of them. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the exhibition? It is an important day for the school. Don’t let me down. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” Sky, Brandon and Timmy straighten up in respect. 

Riven, however, stayed slouched and quiet. Saladin stared dead at him, “Riven?”

“Yes sir” He grumbled, more respectful than he had been since before Darcy came into his life. After all, he wasn’t going to risk any mark on his record at Red Fountain by being rude to the headmaster.

“Good. Now go get ready for tomorrow.”

Let it be known that Stella was nothing if not determined when it came to her relationship with ‘Sky’. Turned out that the Red Fountain Exhibition was ‘invite and ticket only’. Money can buy you many things, and if you ask Stella, yes, it can also buy happiness.

Because she was incredibly happy to have been able to buy five more tickets for the Winx just so they could see her boyfriend in action. 

Bloom quickly split off from the other Winx when they arrived at Red Fountain. Nothing against them, of course, but she wanted to avoid Stella’s stern stares given she yet again hadn’t slept the night before. 

Plus when Stella found out about the Brandon-Sky switch, she was going to hurt people’s eardrums.

As she was wandering the halls, she ended up passing none other than the King and Queen of Eraklyon.

Yeesh, talking about blinding. The amount of gold they were wearing was almost ridiculous. Granted she knew Eraklyon was known to be the richest planet since the Fall of Domino, with a lot of their trading being from the mines filled to the brim with minerals and jewels. So it did make sense that the royals would proudly wear their main resources.

Plus she actually didn’t know what Sky’s parents were like since they rarely appeared in the show. So she probably shouldn’t judge them based on their appearance. After all, ‘Brandon’ turned out just fine. Should she still call him that? It was all going to be revealed anyway. Might as well go back to their actual names.

Oh! Speaking of! She needed to talk to him!

“I wonder where Sky is,” Bloom hummed aloud, skipping off to find the blonde. And not at all noticing the pale blonde woman nearby quickly follow after her.

It didn’t take long. With the few times he had brought her to Red Fountain to explore, she knew where to look. The armory was where the hero students all prepared themselves for combat training, so it would make sense they would go there to prep for the exhibition. 

“There you are!” She proclaimed, scurrying over to where Sky was.

“Bloom” He smiled, returning the greeting hug.

“I was looking for you!” She beammed, “I wanted to wish you good luck! Oh, and make sure you win, cause I have money riding on you!”

He snorted, “You didn’t. You made bets?”

“Yeah! Imma win big if you win the combat tourney!” She bounced on her feet, trying to showcase an abundance of energy as opposed to her sleep-deprived state.

However, Sky was more observant than she gave credit for. “No offense, but you don’t look so good. Are you okay?”

She pouted, “I told you on the phone! I’m fine!”

Sky gave her a look of disbelief, “I heard Stella yelling at you to sleep.”

“She’s just being a helicopter mom!” Bloom argued, “I swear I’m fine!” He looked ready to argue, but fate seemed more in her favor as he was announced for his own showcase. “Go team!”

He chuckled at her cheer, and reluctantly headed off. 

Bloom decided to go find a place to watch the showcase, and cheer on her friend.

Of course, things took a bit of a complicated turn when she was shot through a wall by some kind of magic blast.

Meanwhile, the other Winx were happily making their way through the halls of Red Fountain, trying to find a good place to watch. Though they could do without Stella’s concerned whines about meeting his parents.

“I’m having outfit doubts. I should’ve worn a dress!” She then paused to think it over, “Then again, parents love me regardless of what I wear! It’s the combination of my royal upbringing and signature bubbliness! It never fails me!”

“Of course his parents will love you” Musa assured, “Who wouldn’t want an alliance between Eraklyon and Solaria.”

Both planets would be a deadly combination for any that would want to try starting a war. With both planets being in the top five richest kingdoms, and Solaria’s history as warmongers (an ancient and bloody time that was long over, but still talked about), it was asking for trouble.

So Stella really had nothing to worry about. 

“True. I can see it. Our empire will be vast and powerful!” Stella proclaimed, “Let’s go find them!”

The Winx found their seats quickly. To Stella’s dismay, they were rather far from where the Eraklyon King and Queen were seated. Given the race was starting, however, they decided to wait until the intermission to meet them. 

“Oh! There’s Timmy!” Tecna barely held back a squeal. Musa and Flora nudged her with smug smirks.

“Go Prince Sky!” Stella cheered.

In the arena, things had been progressing just as they rehearsed. Up until Riven decided to taken out his plasma sword and aim for the blonde. Sky yelped and took out his own sword, blocking the move, “What are you doing Riven?!”

“Finishing what you started!”

“This is not the time, man!”

“I don’t care!”

Sky dodged the next swing, focusing most of his attention on avoiding the other man. He quickly braked and made a swift turn, driving the other way to give him the slip. However, this had the added effect of needing to avoid running into both Brandon and Timmy. 

But with little time to react, his bike slammed between the two. He had enough control to keep himself from flipping over, but not enough to fully prevent the skidding crash. Brandon, easily gaining better control, quickly leapt off his bike, throwing aside his helmet as he hurried to check on him.

“Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine” He huffed, standing back up as he internally thanked the uniform manufacturer. He barely felt anything when he landed, purely thanks to the magic padding of their suits. “Riven is just an ass.”

Brandon was more than angered on his behalf, “Let’s teach him a lesson!”

Riven, hearing this, barked out a laugh, removing his own helmet, “Bring it!”

Timmy, ever the level-headed one, rode over, quickly getting between them, “Save it for later! The dragons are coming out!”

Sure enough, the announcer came on, “And now, ladies and gentlemen! From lands distant and unexplored, the Mustang Dragons! These wild and dangerous are the fiercest dragons in all the known realms! But fear not! Our students have mastered the art of dragon wrangling! Using only their mind energy, they will control creatures once thought uncontrollable!”

Deciding to put aside their current differences, the four men quickly focused on their respective dragons, ensuring they were calm and collected so that the powerful animals would not lash out.

However, it was then that the ground rumbled, startling the men. The dragons became unsettled, so they hurried to calm them. But then, a loud explosion and shriek echoed in the air, disrupting the performance and startling the crowd. Sky spotted a falling blur of red heading in his direction and was immediately on the defense, easily catching the oncoming object with his trained reflexes.

Said object, was actually a person. Specifically, a rather dizzy looking Bloom.

She moaned and shook her head, regaining her bearings. She blinked and looked up at a shocked Sky and grinned, “Hiya!”

“Uh….Hi?”

“What’s psycho doing here?” Riven exclaimed from across the arena. 

“I have a name!” She huffed, climbing out of Sky’s arms, “And it’s not my fault! Some blonde bimbo attacked me and I ended up here!”

“ BLOOM! ”

Bloom yelped and looked up to the stands, letting out a nervous laugh when she realized everyone in the crowd was staring at her, “Hey everyone…..You guys having a good time?”

“Bloom.” A sigh echoed easily across the silence of the shocked crowd. The redhead sent a happy wave to Faragonda, who seemed to be looking quite done with the situation. She couldn’t guess why that would be. Maybe she also didn’t sleep well the previous night? 

“Faragonda, what is going on here?” a burly man beside her questioned.

“I already told you!” Bloom exclaimed, “Some blonde fairy girl came up to me and started yelling about something before she attacked me!” She looked at Sky curiously, “Actually, I think she mentioned you, but I don’t remember exactly.”

“I told you to stay away from my fiance!”

“Oh right! That’s it!” Bloom laughed, before pausing, “Wait, where did that come from? That wasn’t in my head!”

“Diaspro?!” Sky exclaimed when a red clad blonde appeared from the hole Bloom had been launched out of . 

“Wait, that’s Diaspro?!” Bloom gasped. She examined the clearly angry fairy, “You know, if it weren’t for the personality, I’d say she was out of your league. But given everything that’s just happened, you’re way too good for her.”

“....Thanks, I think….”

“Stop ignoring me!” Diaspro shrieked, clearly either ignorant or uncaring of the shocked crowd of people watching them.

“Excuse you. I’m talking to my friend. You’re being extremely rude” Bloom scolded.

“Get the hell away from my fiance!”

“Diaspro, that’s enough!” Sky snapped at her, feeling rather humiliating of his betrothed’s behavior. 

“Is this because I gambled on him winning the combat tournament today? What? Did you bet on Riven or something?” The fire fairy pondered.

“ BLOOM! ” Griselda’s rough voice shouted in clear irritation.

Said fairy let out a nervous laugh, “Did I say gamble ? I meant, uh, rooting for him! Yeah! That’s what I meant to say! It must’ve been a slip of the tongue that I said gamble! Because, you know, gambling is wrong !” She leaned over to Sky and grinned, “I think I convinced her.”

Sky snorted as Faragonda sighed, rubbing her temple.

Diaspro growled at the redhead and shot a blast of magic towards her. Bloom yelped and shoved Sky away, leaping to the side to avoid the attack, as the blonde shrieked, “What the hell is your problem!”

“You’re clearly the one with issues here” Bloom pointed out, “Have you been taking your medication?” Diaspro shrieked and sent another attack. Bloom dodged it yet again and groaned, “This is getting annoying. Bump this!” In a flash of fire, Bloom shot up from the ground and slammed into the other fairy. Bloom let out a cheer when her tackle sent Diaspro towards the ground, “I learned that one from my dad’s firefighter buddies!”

“Bloom! To the right!” The ever so loyal Stella called out, warning her best friend. “No! Your other right!”

“I have two rights?”

“You know what I mean!”

Bloom obeyed and quickly dove away from the oncoming fairy. However, she was unable to dodge the next jewel blast, sending her towards the dragons that the other three specialists had been making sure stayed away and kept tame.

The sudden movement startled them, however, and the dragons began to make a fuss. Riven and Brandon tried to calm them, but to no avail.

Bloom realized the dragons were beginning to become fire-breathy and quickly tried to help calm them, not wanting them to get out of hand with the crowd so close. She cautiously fluttered near them and tried shushing the frightened creatures.

The dragons huffed and snorted out smoke, but they calmed down just a little. Honestly, as much as Bloom would like to say she had that effect on animals, she was sure it was because of the specialists using their taming abilities. 

Or maybe they smelled the dragon in her, who knows.

She saw the next blast of magic coming and, not wanting it to hurt the dragon if she dodged (not to mention they would definitely lash out at being attacked), allowed herself to be shot. She yelped and fell back towards the dragons, who became more agitated.

“Bloom!” Sky yelled in fear and worry.

Her winx all gasped and hid their eyes away, unable to bear looking any further in their own fear. 

Sky quickly leapt forward, picking up Bloom and moving her away from the dragons before they could accidentally crush her under their feet. 

“ Enough!” Saladin proclaimed, standing up and slamming his staff down. “You have made a mockery of our school and this exhibition!”

King Erendor stood up as well, anger rushing through him as his wife stayed seated in utter shock and appall. “ Diaspro! ” The blonde fae princess was startled at the rageful tone, turning towards her future father-in-law. “You have humiliated us in front of the entirety of this school!”

“But she-!” Diaspro shrieked.

“Quiet! You have done enough! Squire! Take her back to our ship!”

Brandon quickly knelt at the order, “Yes, Your Majesty!”

Stella stared in horror at the reveal, the other three gaping in shock.

Codatorta leapt down, quickly taking over for the young specialists with his more mature wrangling skills, quickly commanding them to their pens. Brandon took a hold of Diaspro’s arm, given the woman refused to move (either out of stubbornness or shock at being publicly scolded by her future in-laws), and guided her out of the stadium. 

Bloom groaned in Sky’s arms, eyes blinking open only briefly before they shut again. Her body was too exhausted to try regaining consciousness. Faragonda and Griselda quickly gathered her from the blonde prince, taking her away for examination and healing.

The Winx quickly followed after them, in a mix of worry and just wanting to avoid both Sky and Brandon.

Chapter Text

Well, things really could’ve gone better.

See, after Bloom finally woke up, after two days of being passed out, Faragonda and Griselda both scolded her. Not for the Exhibition, of course. It had been made clear that she had been trying to de-escalate the situation, only fighting when given little choice.

No, they both were scolding her for different things. Griselda was focused on the grambling part. Which she felt was unfair, given not only was she an adult (though Griselda’s point was it making a poor example of what a fairy ought to be) but she lost anyway. Bloom thought that was punishment enough, thank you very much. Granted she got her money back, since the Exhibition had ended due to the fight and near dragon rampage, but it was the principle of the matter!

And Faragonda had scolded her for not taking proper care of her health, which, like, fair, but still.

On the plus side, she had received a formal apology from the Kingdom of Eraklyon, so that was cool. Probably on Sky’s insistence, but it was still nice to have a letter from his parents expressing apologies. 

With the topic of Sky, Stella had sent a nasty break-up text to Brandon, following the whole reveal, and had been avoiding him like the plague whenever he showed up. Bloom knew it was rightly deserved, but she still felt a little bad considering how often she had seen the brunette chasing Stella while literally on his knees, pleading forgiveness.

The other Winx were also doing bodyguard duties against him too, so…

Yeah, Brandon had a while to go before Stella would be ready to forgive him.

Sky had yet to reach out to her, and that made Bloom a little downtrodden, but she figured he was dealing with drama back on Eraklyon regarding Diaspro, so she was letting it slide. And given Stella’s meltdown, it was probably for the best that he hadn’t shown up either.

Though a simple text would’ve been nice.

But with all that excitement out of the way, she felt better than she had prior to the Nightmare Gargoyle. She really needed those forty-eight hours of sleep, apparently. She was still a little wary of attempting to sleep, but she made an effort.

And it paid off for her in the end, when she allowed herself to relax and found herself in her dreamscape.

“Daphne!” Bloom exclaimed, rushing to slam into the large nymph’s cheek.

“Little One” Daphne sighed, bringing a finger up to gently rub Bloom’s back. She cooed as hiccups and sobs began to escape the younger woman.

“Y-you were gone for so long! An-and I didn’t-I didn’t want-“

“Oh, Bloom,” Daphne soothed quietly, “I’m sorry, Little One. I needed to recover my energy. It took a lot out of me to fight the Nightmare Gargoyle out of your mind.”

“S-so, that was you?” Bloom hiccuped.

“Yes, Little One,” she confirmed, “You needed my help. Nightmare Gargoyles are very difficult demons. You would’ve suffered horribly if I hadn’t acted.”

“It was-I was-water and-“

Daphne shushed her gently, “I know, Little One. I know.”

So with Daphne recovered from interfering with the Nightmare Gargoyle, Bloom had less fears of going to sleep. 

Yet another plus side, Faragonda was giving her a few days to go back home as a small reprieve. Something about her needing some health days with her family. 

“Are you sure you don’t want the easy way?” Stella questioned as Bloom began packing for her small vacay.

“It’s fine, Stel. You guys need to study for the next quiz in DuFour’s class” Bloom stated, “I can take the transporter in Magix just fine.”

“If you say so” Stella hummed.

“Don’t go easy on him, got it? By the time I get back, I wanna see him throwing pebbles at your window and serenading you!” Bloom teased.

Stella huffed, upturning her nose, “Not even that will soothe my rage!”

Bloom laughed, shaking her head. “Well, I’m off. See you all in a few days, okay?”

“Have a good time, Bloom” Musa called.

“Get some proper rest!” Flora added.

“And don’t forget to study!” Tecna proclaimed.

Bloom beamed and waved, hurrying out with Kiki and Hedwig in her arms, suitcase floating after her as she raced to catch the bus to Magix.

“Oh Sweetie.” Her mom immediately drew her into a tight hug. Of course her parents noticed how bad she got.

And who was she kidding? No way they wouldn’t notice her new raccoon eyes. Almost a week of no sleep would do that to you.

“Bloom, what happened?” Her dad asked with worry, the two gently pulling her into the living room to sit on the couch.

“It’s just been a little rough,” she said. 

“Bloom,” her mom said with concerned determination.

She sighed, “There was a monster attacking our sleep. I’ve just been a little wary since then.” She didn’t really want to get too deep into it. Again, it would bring up questions that she didn’t want to answer.

“Oh Honey” Vanessa cooed, hugging her around the shoulder, “Say, why don’t I make your favorite for dinner tonight?”

Bloom felt a smile quirk up her lips, “Thanks mom.”

As her dad went to the store to grab something for dessert and her mom cooked dinner, Bloom scrolled through her phone.

Coming across Sky’s number, she hesitated briefly before pressing the call button. No harm in trying to reach out first, right? She wasn’t upset with him or anything.

Unfortunately, she only got his message box, “Hey Sky. Or Prince Sky? I don’t know if you’re okay with me being so casual? I mean, I guess you wouldn’t mind, actually. Um, anyway, just wanted to talk. I know you’re probably busy, but when you get a chance, could you call me? Thanks.”

Well she felt awkward. Don’t know if he’s okay with being casual? Idiot. Course he is. He wanted to attempt being normal instead of a prince in the first place. She probably just insulted him by thinking otherwise. 

It had been a few days of being back home, and it wasn’t bad. Sure she missed her Winx’s company, but they texted her between classes with updates on both upcoming tests and the drama surrounding Stella and Brandon.

Brandon was now on phase ‘sending apology gifts since you won’t talk to me and I hope you don’t burn them out of anger cause I’m actually really poor and these were expensive’.

It said a lot that Stella was keeping them hidden in a closet instead of getting rid of them. She was just hurt, is all. She still cared deeply for Brandon.

Meanwhile, Sky still hadn’t reached out. No call, no text, nothing.

And Bloom wouldn’t lie. It kinda hurt. She was used to an occasional text from him every few days before all the shit with Diaspro went down.

But she tried to shove that away to be understanding. According to Musa, according to Timmy, according to Brandon, Sky was still in Eraklyon and apparently, again via the according list, was in the process of settling a broken engagement.

Apparently his parents were in fact that angry. 

She’d feel bad for Diaspro if she hadn’t, ya know, attacked her out of the blue just because she saw her talking with Sky.

Red Flag™ if Bloom had ever seen one.

“Am I boring you?”

“Huh?” Bloom startled out of her thoughts. 

Andy rose an eyebrow across the table from her, “You’re spacing. And you haven’t stopped checking your phone every couple minutes.”

Bloom frowned down at the phone in her hands. The screen was open towards her texts with Sky, with her last text asking for updates on him being left on ‘read’.

Which was, frankly, a shitty thing to do.

“Uh…”

“Is it a guy?” Andy read her like an open book.

Bloom tsked, “Not what you’re thinking. He’s just a friend.”

“But it is a guy.”

“I mean, yeah. A guy friend.” Andy looked disbelieving, but she ignored that. “Something happened a couple days before I came home. He’s dealing with a family thing and I haven’t been able to talk to him for the last week.”

“Sounds complicated.” 

“Little bit. Big rich family. Arranged marriages and all that telenovela drama.”

“Damn” Andy whistled. He then gave her an amused smirk, “Are you the other woman?”

Bloom barked out a laugh, “I said he’s a friend and I meant it. But how funny would that be?” Mainly because canon-her was, in fact, the other woman. It would’ve been hilariously ironic.

Andy snorted, “Yeah, well, I’m just glad we avoided all that drama.”

Bloom let out a dramatic sigh, waving an arm over her forehead, “I know it has to be hard! But you truly must get over me! Our love was just never to be!”

Andy merely threw a paper straw at her, “And you say I’m the dork!”

Bloom was helping out at the newly reopened flower shop. In the time she was gone from the end of spring break, the shop had been renovated from the fire and expanded. 

The remainder of the monetary reward and insurance money was placed in a savings account for her when she graduates from Alfea.

“It doesn’t look like I have any pink Jigsaw Blossoms left” her mom said to their recent customer, “I’m so sorry. We’ll get some more in tomorrow morning's shipment though.”

“What a shame” the woman sighed, “They’re my daughters favorite and today is her birthday.”

Bloom felt bad and decided to do some fairy goodness for the world. So, she found the Jigsaw Blossoms and quickly used her magic to change the color from orange to pink, just as the woman wanted. “Hey mom. I found some in the back. Looks like it’s the last one!”

The woman beamed, giving Bloom a warm feeling in her chest at fulfilling her fae duties. However small it may seem, a simple act of kindness, with or without magic, could go a long way in making a person’s day. And a fae’s job was to protect their planets and spread goodness to others.

After Vanessa cashed out the woman for the blossoms, she turned to Bloom with a raised knowing eyebrow, “You used magic to make those.”

“It was just a color spell. They’ll never know” she grinned.

Her mom merely laughed and gave her a hug.

And then her phone beeped, to which she practically leapt towards it. She had hoped it would finally be something from Sky, but nope. Just a simple text from Tecna reminding her to study for the exam that was scheduled the day after she returned. 

No, she was not that disappointed. And yes , she was more than happy to find that it was a text from one of her best friends.

However, her mom knew her better than she wanted at that moment, “Has that prince still not reached out to you?”

“It’s not a big deal,” Bloom stated, flicking her hair away from her face.

Clearly she did not fool her mother, given the raised eyebrow she shot her.

Now then. Face the enemy she did know versus the enemy she didn’t.

Choice was pretty obvious.

See, after her bout of forgetfulness with some pieces of her future, Bloom sat down and wrote out as many details as she could.

Which actually wasn’t a lot because apparently, a second life filled with new memories took up too much space.

But she remembered enough of the main plot to get by! So she knew the chances were high that the Trix would show up when she was on her small reprieve. She had written down that they would take her powers while on Earth after the Red Fountain incident with Diaspro.

She figured it was for the best to let that play out. They’d never give up on trying to steal her magic, and this way, she could have a better idea on how to beat them.

Though she didn’t really take into account that it would put her family in danger. It was a misstep that she would work to prevent in the future.

“Oh hell no. You did not just take my parents hostage!” Bloom could practically feel her pupils make the draconic change into reptilian slits. Both of her parents were suspended over a swirling vortex, which no doubt led to a place that would only mean death for them.

“Aw, is the little fairy mad?” Icy cooed, “Don’t worry. We’ll let them go as soon as you give us your power.”

Bloom initially planned to make an effort of fighting. Less suspicious that way. But they brought her parents into the mix and she knew the Trix were evil enough to take it out on them if she put up a fight.

At the very least they would simply write it off as her being ‘too soft’. They had a horrible understanding of what it meant to be a family.

“Fine.” She ignored her parents muffled disagreements, “Put them down first. On the ground, not the vortex. I won’t fight back if you just leave them alone.”

Icy grinned, “Good little pixie.” 

Honestly, Bloom was shocked they even followed through with the deal. The Trix weren’t exactly known for being honor-bound. And yet Icy still pulled her parents away from the Vortex, which slowly disappeared, leaving their carpeted floor once more in its place. 

Though perhaps the Trix were more eager to enact some torture on her than risk her rage at throwing away her parents.

Bloom yelped when Darcy blasted her into the bookcase. The force shook the shelves, sending beloved picture frames and other memorabilia of their family to fall atop her. The glass fixtures cracked and shattered at the contact, making the woman flinch when she felt areas of her back and arms sting in pain.

Of course, that really held nothing compared to when Stormy sent bolts of lightning at her, no doubt leaving behind burns that would be the most severe if it weren’t for her magic. The fact that she could survive it at all was thanks to it. 

She shrieked as her body trembled under the electric currents spread through her body. 

It felt like forever, but it truly was less than a minute. Bloom gasped heavily, vainly trying to stop the shaking of her limbs in an attempt to get up. But Icy wanted her own turn.

With a simple wave of her hand, the ice witch trapped Bloom against the wall in a block of ice, leaving only her head free. “Time to finally get what we deserve. Darcy.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll barely feel a thing” The dark witch cooed in a mocking softness, right before she sent another spell at the fae.

Bloom desperately tried to resist, but she felt her body go numb, falling into a fit of unconsciousness.

The witch sisters grinned with glee. It was finally time for them to take what was owed to them. Their ancestresses may have been defeated, but their coven would finally have the power they so much coveted.

Together, they summoned the crystals that had been left to them by their ancestresses. Ancient relics that were created specifically to track and steal the Dragon Flame for their coven. And after so many years, they would finally be put to good use.

“Ladies, we are finally fulfilling the dreams of generations of witches!” Icy proclaimed. The work may have been most known by the three ancient witches who succeeded in destroying Domino, but it certainly did not start with them. No, it had been something sought by many others before their three predecessors nearly completed it. If it hadn’t been for the Crown Princess of Domino, they would have succeeded. “Think about all they had gone through to get the Flame, and now we’ll be the ones to achieve ultimate power!”

“Well what are we waiting for!” Stormy cackled, “Let’s take it now!”

The trio of witches focused their black magic into fueling the crystals. In union, they chanted the ancient latin tongue of their ancestors, casting the dark spell that was created for this purpose. For the purpose of stealing the life magic from the fae who would wield it.

Bloom’s body jolted against the ice, an involuntary wheezing breath choking out of her unconscious form as flames began to spark around her, crackling as the magic within her struggled to fight against the threat. 

But it was to no avail. A stream of golden fire strained against the dark magic as it was pulled out of her heaving chest, slowly being absorbed into the trapping crystals.

The sister witches cackled maniacally, already feeling strong effects from the magic they had stolen. Not wasting any time, they disappeared without a second thought.

Mike and Vanessa both struggled in vain to escape their bonds, wanting nothing more than to free their daughter from the ice that still imprisoned her. Their efforts were for nought, as the magic tied to them stayed strong, and they could only hope that someone would come find them.

And, to their immense relief, it appeared some beings above heard their pleas as a portal opened once more in their living room.

“ Surpri -OH MY GODS!” Stella shrieked as she and the other three Winx girls stumbled forward at the sight.
Flora and Tecna immediately moved to free the two humans as Stella and Musa quickly began to break the ice that trapped their friend. With their magic, it didn’t take much work to help both sides. 

“What happened?” Flora gasped as Kiko and Hedwig ran out from their hiding place to her for comfort.

“Mama!” Hedwig squawked. 

“Bloom? Bloom, are you okay?!” Stella cried, carefully trying to wake up the redhead.

“There-there were these witches” Vanessa stuttered out, both her and MIke quickly crumbling to their daughter’s side, “They to-took her magic!”

The four fairies immediately paled with sharp intakes of air. Tecna quickly spoke, “We need to get her to Faragonda, right now.”

“Wh-what’s wrong?” Mike questioned, eyes wide with panic at their reaction. 

The fairies exchanged uneasy and worried glances. Flora hesitantly spoke, “Fairies are different from humans. Magic makes us who we are, in the most literal sense too. Without her magic…”

“She could die, if we don’t leave now” Tecna was blunt, but it wasn’t in an effort to hurt. Time was of the essence for the situation they were in, they didn’t have a moment to lose. 

“We’ll keep you updated!” Stella hurriedly added in as Vanessa let out a crying wail. 

Flora quickly gathered the older woman into a hug and gestured to their friends, “You go. I’ll stay here.” Understanding the empathetic nature fae wanted to make sure their friend’s parents were taken care of, trying to help ease their fears and worries, the other three nodded and quickly portaled away, back to Alfea.

Chapter Text

It was a normal lunch break for the witches of Cloud Tower. Sky was cloudy, food was bad (in the best way, that is), and the Trix were sauntering their way through the spiraling cafeteria.

Wait, hadn’t the Trix been expelled?

Griffin stood from her table, enraged at their audacity. “You girls have some nerve to show up in my school after I expelled you!” She shot a spell meant to trap the three younger witches so they could send them away yet again.

However, to everyone’s shock, while the trio were once not as strong as their headmistress, something clearly changed. As proven when Icy merely grazed the spell barrier with her hand, resulting in the green energy being coated in ice before shattering. A gust of powerful wind sent the shards flying back towards Griffin, some piercing the elder witch as she was flung back into a table.

“Ms Griffin!” Two of the teachers, Ediltrude and Zarathustra, quickly flew to the headmistress to ensure she was already. The ice that struck her created some bleeding from the woman, but aside from that and a general stunned aftereffect of crashing, she appeared to be alright.

Still, it was clear that the Trix needed a firm hand in discipline, “This behavior is unacceptable!”

“What are you gonna do? Give us detention?” Darcy taunted.

Icy glanced towards their third sister, “Teach them a lesson, Stormy.”

The weather witch gleefully cackled as she summoned a powerful tornado. The winds were much stronger than anything she had produced prior to their expulsion, gathering every student into its whirlwind, destroying the cafeteria as debris flew around into the trapped forms of the studentsas Ediltrude and Zarathustra were both shot out the high windows of the Tower, leaving only Griffin left. 

She quickly focused on protecting her students as Stormy calmed her tornado, which only served to let gravity do its work. Most students were too stunned or harmed from the debris to land safely with their magic. With that in mind, Griffin leapt off her own platform, summoning her magic to teleport each student safely to the ground. She then shielded them from the falling furniture and stone. 

Teleporting behind the three young witches, she then sent forth a more powerful imprisoning spell, one that would keep the trio paralyzed until they could get authorities involved. Their attack on the school gave way for more serious consequences than their expulsion. 

However, it was to Griffin’s shock when Darcy was able to catch the spell that should’ve expanded upon contact, using her own magic to shrink the orb until it was nothing more than a puff of smoke.

Even more concerning, Icy’s eyes began to glow a burning red, something she had never seen from any of the witches before. She was so startled, she had gotten caught up in another ice blast from the witch, slamming her into a wall as ice crept up her body, trapping her.

“In case it isn’t obvious,” Icy sniffed haughtily, “We’re in charge now.”

“Listen up! We’re making some changes around here” Darcy called out to the witch students, all cowering in fear at seeing the three former seniors easily take out their powerful headmistress without a sweat. 

“And whoever doesn’t like it, will end up like old Professor Griffin here” Stormy added in.

“Powerless and useless” Icy taunted, the three sisters cackling as they took pride and joy in seeing their teacher and former classmates terror.

Faragonda sighed as she rubbed her forehead, trying to relieve the stress after such a long night. As she exited the infirmary, she easily spotted the three young fairies fretting against the wall.

They quickly jolted up at the sound of the door, staring at the headmistress in an effort to try gauging her own thoughts. Stella couldn’t wait a moment before blurting out, “How is she?!”

“She is not completely safe, but it’s just enough” The woman stated. After the panicking fairies woke nearly the whole school trying to get Bloom the help she needed, Faragonda worked tirelessly with the nurse and Griselda to keep Bloom from flatlining.

Having a fairy's magic stolen was such a rare occurrence, they needed all hands on deck to save the fire fae’s life. It was what made fairies and witches so intrinsically different. Witches did not have the same magic core that fairies did. Magic only worked alongside their natural energy. Meanwhile a fae’s natural energy was magic.

Which really meant that the Trix (whom Stella insisted had to be the three witches Bloom’s parents said attacked them) were no doubt going to be charged with attempted murder once it was brought up to the Magic Council.

The three fae pushed past her and squeezed into the room before she could stop them. Stella let out a wailing cry at seeing the tubes that were injected into the redhead’s lithe form. Musa paled as Tecna began to mutter to herself the possible outcomes of what happened.

“Ladies, please” Faragonda said tiredly, trying to guide the young women out of the room, for their own peace of mind if nothing else. 

It certainly was not a good sight. The nurse had insisted on every life support imaginable until a more permanent solution could be thought off. From an oxygen mask, to a magical heart monitor that would alert them of any changes no matter where they went, and the many tubes connecting essence of fire magics to the fae, the poor woman looked on the verge of death.

Which she was, so that did not help anything.

However, it appeared that the noise was enough to actually awaken the redhead from what Faragonda had deemed a coma. 

“Bloom!” The three fairies proclaimed at seeing the woman’s eyes flutter open ever so slightly. 

“Ladies, please quiet down” Faragonda ordered sternly. As good as it was to see Bloom wake up, she still would need to be on contact bedrest and sleep to prevent any complications.

“Are you alright?” Musa asked, more quiet at the scolding from their headmistress.

Bloom seemed to be phasing in and out of consciousness, but still was able to muster up weak words, “Trix.”

“I knew it was those bitches!” Stella shrieked, receiving a stern glare from Faragonda for both the language and the loudness. She withered at the stare.

Faragonda placed a gentle hand onto the fae’s, a kind, reassuring smile on her face, “Don’t worry, Bloom. I’ll reach out to the Magic Council about this. With their help, we’ll be able to get your magic back.”

Bloom let out a weak wheezing breath, slowly shaking her head, “Danger. Dragon Flame.”

“What?” Faragonda couldn’t help the cold shiver spill down her spine at the words. She had her suspicions, but she had truly doubted them as being fact. Her suspicions of Bloom being related to Domino and possibly being the holder of the Dragon Flame. Really, the only evidence she may have had was Bloom’s natural talent with fire and her resemblance to the late Queen Miriam. And there was the fact that Bloom was quite open about being adopted.

However, there was no solid proof, so Faragonda was beginning to think that perhaps her mind was merely playing tricks.

“What does that mean, Bloom?” Tecna asked. Unfortunately, the redhead couldn’t muster up any more strength, once again closing her eyes into a bout of unconsciousness.

If Bloom was confirming what she thought, then Magix was in more danger than it ever had been since the war against the Ancestral Witches.

“Miss Faragonda?” Stella called quietly, confused on how pale and still their headmistress had become.

“I need to make some calls.”

“Witches of Cloud Tower. Welcome to our pep rally” Icy taunted. After easily capturing both Ediltrude and Zarathustra when they made an attempt to free Griffin, the Trix quickly ordered for all the witches to sit and obey as they claimed the three thrones that once belonged to the headmistress and two deputy teachers for themselves.

The sisters reveled in the frightful stares from their new peasants.

“As your new self-appointed leaders, we’re planning to make some big changes” Icy continued, lounging in her new throne, “And I don’t mean new machines for the cafeteria. We’re going to take over all of Magix.”

“No!” Griffin pounded against the bubbled prison the Trix trapped her in.

“We won’t let you do this, Icy!” Ediltrude proclaimed from the prison she was in with Zarathustra.

Icy cooed, ‘You have no say. You’ll be taking a nice vacation down in the snake and rat infested dungeons of Cloud Tower.”

“You won’t get away with this!” Griffin argued.

Icy sniggered, “Of course we will. In fact, I’m feeling so generous, I’ll let you in on a little secret. We have the Dragon Flame.”

Griffin flinched back in fear as Icy’s eyes glowered red as she gave a sneering grin. Alongside Faragonda, she heard plenty of the Dragon Flame from rumors when Domino was flourishing. And she, just as the fae, had brushed them off as rumors on the words of Oritel and Miriam. Sure, her former paramour had claimed to hold a fragment of the power, and the Ancestral Witches didn’t hide their endless search for it, but she had never entirely believed them. 

And that apparently had dire consequences.

Stormy cackled, “The most powerful force in all the known realms in our possession. Nothing can stop us with this.”

“And that’s not even mentioning the Army of Decay” Darcy gleefully informed.

“You can’t!” Griffin exclaimed, voice trembling ever so slightly. Just enough for all the students to understand the great danger the Trix were going to place them all in, “No one can control the Army of Decay! Once unleashed it will destroy everything in its path!”

Icy yawned, examining her nails, “Uh, yeah. That’s kinda the point.” She then stood up, “Anywho, you have a sabbatical to get to. Have fun~”

“Icy-!”

With a wave of her hand, Griffin, Ediltrude and Zarathustra all vanished, being teleported down into the dark dungeons of their school.

“Anyone else?”

The younger witches all shivered and cowered at the stoney eyes of the Trix.

“Any luck, Saladin?” Faragonda questioned the moment she once again contacted the headmaster.

Ever since Bloom gave her warning, Faragonda had been making call after call. Of course, her first attempt had been for Griffin, but she had been unable to reach the witch. She feared what that may have meant and expedited calls to other officials, believing their time was running out.

The man’s image shook his head, “No. I tried to call Griffin as well and only received a brief message. It was a young witch stating Griffin no longer worked there, and then laughter.”

Faragonda closed her eyes in resignation, “Then I fear Griffin and Cloud Tower has already been seized.”

“I’ve already put my students on high alert. I suggest you do the same” Saladin stated, before ending the call.

“I’ll cancel classes and start preparations” Wizgiz stated.

“I don’t want to frighten the girls,” Faragonda sighed, “But yes, that may be for the best. And have the faculty be on high alert.”

“Bloom’s phone,” Stella’s voice stated on the other end.

Sky winced. Out of everyone, Stella was the most upset. Of course, she had good reason to be, considering how attached she had gotten to Brandon, only to find out that they had lied to her about who he was.

Though Bloom didn’t sound upset in any of her messages, so he had been hopeful. 

He had finally returned from Eraklyon after dealing with the mess regarding Diaspro. Given how public the whole confrontation she had with Bloom was, it wasn’t exactly surprising to find out that many of the noble families were now very much against their marriage.

Truly, the only ones who tried to fix it was Diaspro’s parents and some other nobles associated with the family. But with Diaspro’s aunt and uncle firmly against it, alongside their heiress, there really wasn’t much say otherside since Vivian’s father was the head of their family line. 

Plus all the women Diaspro antagonized and vilified over the years of their engagement did her no favors and rallied many neutral families to speak against the marriage as well.

And his parents were more than willing to listen after the embarrassing display she showed to other kingdoms during the exhibition. 

With everything that had been going on, he had no time to reach out to Bloom, which he desperately wanted to, to both apologize and attempt explaining himself. Though from what her messages relayed, it sounded like she understood and just wanted to talk to him.

Except now she was having Stella answer her phone, which probably was not a good sign. He only hoped it was because she was upset at how long it took for him to contact her again.

“Uh, hey Stella. Um, is Bloom around? I wanted-”

“Oh yeah. This is the perfect time to be talking to her” Stella scoffed, “You have some nerve calling her back after a five days of no contact and thinking you can just-” Her voice strangled on the other end, clearly very upset at him (again, with good reason), and she took a moment to calm before speaking up again, “Gotta go now, Brandon or Prince Sky or whatever the hell your name is!”

With that, she hung up, leaving him on dial tone. Sky sighed and put away his phone, heading off to think of some way to reach out to Bloom later in the day. And hope she actually picks up instead.

Riven, ever the eavesdropper for his witch girlfriend, quickly ran off to update her on the little trouble in paradise Sky was having with his fairy not-girlfriend.

Of course, things took a bit of a turn when he arrived at Cloud Tower.

Darcy called him over to the headmistress’ office, where her sisters were lounging and fiddling with the different artifacts within the room. 

Riven furrowed his eyebrows at the three witches, confused as to why they were meeting there. “What's going on? Since when does Griffin let you use her office?”

“Since we took over Cloud Tower, of course” Darcy grinned.

“You did what?” Riven exclaimed. He took a step back when Icy’s eyes glowed red while Stormy sauntered over.

“Oh Riven” She cooed, carelessly slicing his cheek with a single nail, making the man flinch, “You’re still in the dark, aren’t you.”

“Sorry, hun” Darcy sighed, sounding mournful, “But you’ve outlived your usefulness.” She knew it wasn’t going to last forever. Not that she wanted it to. He stopped being fun after the spell started to wear off a week ago. It lasted a good few months due to his personal issues. But his moral compass eventually won out and he began asking too many questions about their fights with the annoying pixies.

And now that they had ultimate power, they had no need to keep him around any longer.

“But it really is all thanks to you” Icy announced with a grin, “Your spying skills made all the difference. You should be proud.”

“You, you tricked me!” He snarled out as the three witches began to circle him.

“It’s been fun,” Darcy said casually as the trio flew around him, “But in case it isn’t clear, I’m breaking up with you.”

“You snakes!” Riven growled, taking out his plasma blade. He quickly leapt away when Darcy summoned a portal beneath his feet, before making a swing towards Icy. She easily teleported away.

Stormy lit herself up with electricity, her eyes turning equally red as her sisters, striking out bolts of lightning at the specialist. With his training, he was thankfully able to dodge her attacks.

However, Darcy summoned her own spell, trapping him in her Sphere of Oblivion. Using his lack of vision and mixing in their illusion magic, they easily got the best of him, sending him spiraling down into the dungeons where Griffin and the many students were imprisoned.

And now, it was finally time for them to summon their wickedly horrendous army.

“Will she be okay?” 

Bloom hadn’t woken up since that first time, but the girls still refused to leave the infirmary where she was resting. And with the new information Faragonda gave them, they decided it was time to fill Flora in while she was still on Earth with Bloom’s parents and animals.

“Faragonda said they need to find something that will work better than just the magical energy they're using to keep her alive, but for now, she seems to be okay” Musa explained.

Flora nodded, looking more relieved at just hearing Bloom wasn’t dead. She hesitated briefly but her curiosity got the best of her, “Is she really a survivor of Domino?”

Domino was a hot topic for every magical planet. After all, they had once been the most influential empire in the whole Magic Dimension before its destruction almost two decades prior. Every planet had some kind of tie to the empire, and the majority of the kingdoms lost a vital ally. 

It said a lot that the nine Nymphs decorating Magix Town Hall were all from Domino.

So there weren't many who didn’t know about the history of the destroyed empire.

“Faragonda believes so” Tecna stated, “And we did some research into the Dragon Flame too. It was rumored to be the royal treasure of Domino and the most powerful magic to exist. It’s the energy that was used by the Great Dragon Bloom had told us about.”

“Honestly, if Bloom had that magic, the growling and obsession with fire would make a lot of sense” Musa remarked blandly. 

“She is rather animalistic sometimes” Stella muttered, not quite as lively as she would’ve been if Bloom was awake and fine and not, you know, ready to die at a moment’s notice. 

“It would also explain why she had so many lighters,” Tecna stated, her mind jumping around to make more connections, “Dragons take their hordes very seriously.” However, she was then distracted when she spotted the growing dark clouds outside, “Strange. It wasn’t supposed to storm today.”

“Is it just me, or does that rain look black?” Musa questioned, the three girls peering out the window.

“What? What’s going on?” Flora asked, being the only one not to be able to see through the call.

“That isn’t a normal storm” Tecna exclaimed, noting the wiggling gathering on the ground outside, “It’s a spell!”

“What are those things?!” Stella shrieked.

“We’ll have to call you back, Flora.” Musa flinched as the disgusting creatures began to crawl up the window, their disturbing pincher legs clicking across the glass. “Sorry!”

“They’re trying to break in!” 

“Like hell I’m letting them get near Bloom!” Stella growled out, transforming in a ray of sparkles and sunlight. She aimed her scepter and fired at the window, uncaring about the shattering glass as she shot out spell after spell at the creatures attempting to crawl into the infirmary.

“Don’t take all the fun” Musa grinned, transforming alongside Tecna as they took cover of each corner of the room. Tecna quickly made a digital shield around Bloom and the machines connected to her as Musa blasted more of the disgusting creatures with sound waves. 

They were not the only ones fighting either. As it stood, each fairy student who could, had transformed and were fighting off the creatures as best as they could, with some taking initiative to protect the fairies who weren’t able to transform yet. And adding in the teachers as well, they seemed to be getting the best of the situation.

Of course, that really meant nothing since the creatures seemed to just keep respawning from the ground.

Musa summoned a disco ball to spin above the courtyard, magical bursts falling around and exploding upon contact with the wiggling creatures. Tecna saw a much larger opponent approaching, looking more like a demon than any of the squirming bugs that were infesting the school. And more of those began to appear as well. Tecna theorized they were spawning from the smaller creatures combining together to create a bigger threat.

She quickly threw some magical microchips set to explode, taking out many of the large creatures, which would blast apart into the small bugs, only proving her theory.

Meanwhile, Red Fountain was also under siege, with every Specialist and teacher on the defense.

Brandon and Sky fought back to back, doing their best to fight off the large demonic creatures that were threatening their school. Timmy focused on shooting down the flying monsters that dove and swept through the students.

Codatorta leapt down from one of the towers, snapping his plasma whip out to strike the closest creatures. 

Soon, however, a ship arrived and began shooting down at the creatures, taking out many. 

“Prince Sky!” Sky was startled mid battle, but Brandon quickly stabbed the beast he was initially fighting. The two men looked towards the call, seeing the lone ship where it was none other than Diaspro calling down. 

“You have to admit, she’s persistent” Brandon scoffed, spinning his twin sword to slice up two oncoming beasts. “But I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Reinforcements are good!”

“I don’t think that’s the case” Sky remarked when Diaspro threw down a rope. He proceeded to stab one of the creatures, ignoring the rope entirely.

“Grab the rope, my Prince! We’re getting you out of here!” The blonde fairy was not deterred.

“What?!”

“We’re here to rescue you!” She proclaimed over the sounds of fighting and the shots fired down by the three soldiers in her family’s guard, “You can’t see it but this army is endless! Red Fountain will fall!”

“My place is here!” He argued, kicking a creature towards Brandon for him to slice open.

“Don’t be absurd! You’re a prince! Let these peasants fight instead! Your kingdom needs you!”

Sky growled and threw his plasma boomerang, cutting through not only two of the creatures, but the rope as well, “My friends need me more! I’m not leaving!”

Diaspro muttered under her breath, glaring in frustration. Fine. He wanted to be that way, then he could fall with Red Fountain for all she cared. “Leave him.”

Brandon gaped at the ship flying away, “I can’t believe she actually left you here!”

“Somehow, I doubt my parents will be okay with that,” Sky remarked. Even if he refused to leave Red Fountain, the fact Diaspro actually abandoned him here instead of allowing the guards she brought to defend him could be counted as treason considering his status of Crown Prince. 

“Unless Viv gets to her first” Brandon added in, throwing an explosive at a horde of the beasts.

It took nearly six hours of fighting before the monstrous army in Alfea and Red Fountain made a temporary retreat. Of course, this was not due to any of their prowess in battle nor mercy from the Trix. Rather, they demanded a joint meeting with both Faragonda and Saladin instead.

And so, Saladin made a quick teleport over to Alfea where the two received a video call from the eldest witch sister.

Icy smirked at the sight, “Why hello there, Faragonda, Saladin. Did you enjoy our little surprise?”

“Enough games. What do you want?” Faragonda demanded.

Icy barked out a laugh, “How cute. You think you can intimidate us. Newsflash, with the Dragon Flame and the Army of Decay at our fingertips, you don’t stand a chance. If you want your precious little school spared from total destruction, you must follow these conditions. First, lay down your arms and surrender. And second, you all must swear allegiance to us! If you don’t do that, then we’re going to wipe your schools right off the face of the Magic Dimension! You’ve got five hours.”

With that, Icy ended the call, leaving both school leaders stewing in frustration and anger. Faragonda grumbled, “If those witches think we’re going to just lay down and surrender our schools, they have another thing coming.”

“But with the Dragon Flame, they’re too powerful” Saladin stated.

“There may be a way to defeat them,” Faragonda said, mind racing through the possible counterattacks. But, there was one drawback with many of them, “However, with Bloom as she is now, I fear you may be right. We must find a way to help Bloom first.”

“Perhaps the answers could be found on Domino” Saladin suggested, “If we send a team to Domino and have them search the palace, we may find something to help her. And a way to defeat the Trix.”

Faragonda nodded, “Yes. And I believe I know the fairies for the job.”

Saladin hummed, “I will try to get those witches to attack Red Fountain first. Buy you and your girls some time. But you must be swift. I don’t know how much more my students can take.”

“Good luck, Saladin.”

Chapter Text

“Aw, my sweet little babies” Darcy cooed at the wiggling worms and bugs that made up their Army of Decay. “Look how excited you are. You ready to take over the universe for Mama? Are you, pumpkins? Are you?”

The creatures all clicked their pincers and shrieked in response, making the witch awe over them more.

However, behind her, Knut stood against the wall, Icy’s duckling, Pepe, cowering on his shoulder.

When the witches had hired him, he didn’t know what it was they planned other than general common witch mischief. And he needed a job, so he thought it’d be fine.

But this went beyond what he thought they schemed. He may be an ogre, but he wasn’t stupid. Taking over the Magic Dimension included the Ogre Realm.

And he wouldn’t subject his family to the cruelty of his employers.

With that in mind, Knut took Pepe (because he knew Icy couldn’t care less about the poor thing and someone had to look out for him) and snuck out of Cloud Tower, thinking where he could go to help stop the Trix.

Faragonda met up with the three fairies within the infirmary. With Bloom as vulnerable as she was, the headmistress knew she would find the girls still inside the room with her. Wizgiz had seen them defending the redhead during the first attack, which allowed the teachers to focus more on the frontlines. “I’m afraid our victory will not last long. Red Fountain is going to draw out the latest round of attacks.”

“They are?” Stella paled. She may be angry, but she still cared deeply for Sk-Brandon. And she knew the witches would not hold back, so there was a very real chance of him being seriously injured, if not killed.

She really didn’t want her last memory of him to be her ignoring his pleas of apologies.

“It is only a diversion. Once Red Fountain falls, the witches will turn their full attention onto Alfea,” Faragonda warned. “However, we do have one hope left. If we can take Bloom off her life support without fear of her death, then she may be able to take back her magic from the Trix.”

“How can she do that? And how are we supposed to help her?” Musa asked.

“Bloom most likely is the heiress of Domino. Now that we know she possessed the Dragon Flame, it all but confirms my suspicions. I feel the answers to both questions would be found on Domino itself.”

“How are we supposed to get there? Domino is a dead planet. It was taken off the interdimensional tele-portals years ago,” Tecna questioned in confusion.

“Professor Palladium has worked tirelessly to reprogram the Simulation Room into a transporter for this exact reason. It will be a direct link to Domino, allowing you girls to arrive onto the planet and to return after completing your mission,” Faragonda explained, “However I must warn you, this is not like your midterms. It will be real, so you must be prepared for the dangers that are to come, including the freezing temperatures and any monsters that may have been drawn to the planet after its demise.”

“If going to Domino means we can help Bloom, then we’ll do our best!” Stella proclaimed, the other two nodded firmly, equally determined.

Faragonda felt a proud smile grow on her face, “Bloom is lucky to have friends like you, ladies. Once you get to Domino, you must search for the palace. It may be difficult, but the answers we need will most likely be found there.”

“Understood!”

They wasted no time in gathering into the Simulation Room. Palladium was going to be monitoring for their return, while Griselda would keep a close eye on Bloom for any dangers that may present itself should the Trix refuse to wait before attacking Alfea.

The three fairies were magically dressed up in black, yeti fur-lined, thermal bodysuits and heavy duty goggles to help them traverse the brutal snow and winds of Domino.

“Remember, Bloom and the fate of the universe rely on you. Good luck.”

“Geez, no pressure” Stella muttered as she, Musa and Tecna were transported onto Domino. The three warily took in the dark planet as best they could with the blizzard that immediately invaded their vision. “This place looks awful!”

“Eternal winters would do that” Musa muttered, “We have to find the palace!”

“Leave it to me!” Tecna stated, typing into the device on her wrist, “I made sure to download all the information I could when Faragonda informed us of our mission. Including a map of the planet. It’s a little old, and I’m certain the current conditions have changed the landscape quite a bit, but it should work well enough to help guide us.”

Stella glanced up at the two moons circulating the planet. Thankfully, she could feel some power she depleted during the attack, restore itself using the moonlights, and she was grateful that there were two of them. Alfea was on a one moon planet, so she had to get most of her energy back from the stars.

She was also glad that Flora was not on the planet with them. The nature fairy would no doubt be weakened due to the dead state of Domino. 

Tecna snapped her out of her thoughts, “We go north, following the indigo moon.”

With that, the three fae began their hike.

Saladin stared down the large yellow ogre fidgeting before him. 

Knut knew he deserved the scrutiny, but it didn’t diminish how uncomfortable it made him. The elder sorcerer had many years of experience above even Knut, and he trained to fight ogres like him.

So if he didn't convince the man of his change of heart, he knew there was little chance he had of escaping.

“And how can I even trust you? Faragonda has had nothing but poor things to say regarding how you helped the Trix harass her students.”

“I know what I did was wrong, but this has all gone way too far!” Knut exclaimed, “I didn’t want this! I just thought it was the usual witch and fairy rivalry, ya know!”

Saladin hummed in thought. He would grant the ogre that, aside from helping the Trix with their harassment, neither he nor Faragonda had heard of the ogre helping with the invasion. Of course, it would reflect poorly if the ogre had helped steal Bloom’s magic. Yet there had been no evidence of him even knowing they had done so. 

In fact, the ogre had seemed upset when Saladin brought up how the redhead fae could have died if it weren’t for the quick actions of her friends.

And there was the fact that if he truly did have a change of heart, then it could be a great advantage against the Trix. The ogre would have inside information about them and of Cloud Tower, which would be great since Griffin and her students had been MIA since the Trix announced their take-over.

As Saladin pondered, however, a visage of said witches appeared in his office, putting him on edge. He immediately stood from his desk, grabbing his staff for protection.

Icy sneered at him, barely glancing at the large ogre in his office, “Saladin. We got your reply. Just know that you had a chance to save your school and students.”

Stormy, however, brought up the fact that their former lackey was there, cackling, “Looky here! They convinced our minion to join them! Oh, I’m so scared! Whatever shall we do without that pathetic cretin!”

Darcy snorted, “Better watch out, sisters. They clearly have us beat.”

The three witches cackled mockingly as they disappeared.

Saladin gritted his teeth. Clearly the Trix didn’t think the ogre would be of any help. Then again, they had a horrible habit of underestimating everyone around them. 

“Welcome to Red Fountain.”

All students and faculty members of Red Fountain gathered, firmly positioned around the courtyard to hear their incoming orders. Before them, Saladin stood, shoulders straight as he commanded their attention with ease.

“Heroes, our intelligence reports that the second invasion from the Trix is on its way. You fought well yesterday, but today, it is time for you to put everything you’ve learned in classes to the test. We may be outnumbered, but that does not mean we are outmatched!”

“For honor!” Codatorta proclaimed, beginning their school code.

“And the glory of Red Fountain!” The collection of specialists announced back.

Saladin leaned towards the buff deputy, “Anyone who lives passes the semester.”

It was only partly a joke to lighten the mood. There was a very real chance many would lose their lives in this battle. The Trix would not hold back. They had already had plenty of injured specialists after the initial attack.

And they did not waste any time arriving either. A loud, mangled cry echoed around them from the above. Following, came a bolt of lightning that just barely missed one group of students, as dark clouds swirled in the sky.

“Look at all the scared little boys in uniform” Stormy’s voice carried across the courtyard, a visual of her manic face forming in the clouds that began to pour down black rain, “How pathetic!”

Codatorta took lead as the demonic army began to rise with each coming raindrop, “Freshmen and sophomores fall back! Juniors, seniors, hold steady! Wait for my command! And remember the formations we studied in Advanced Tactics!”

The creatures began to storm closer to the formation of heroes, many climbing upon one another to merge into the large beasts that had lead the first invasion force.

“Class A, circle round! Class B and C, push them back to the gate!”

Sky and Brandon fell back into their same battle positions as the day before, covering each other's back as creatures stomped towards them.

Sky noticed one classmate closeby distracted from an approaching beast, “Bishop, to your right!”

The purple haired specialist immediately turned, blocking the oncoming fist with his dual hook swords.

Brandon noted the beasts attempting to surround the two of them and called out, “Sky, duck!”

The blonde, highly in tune with his best friend and squire, fell to the ground as the brunette swung around his twin sword, slicing apart the four monsters around them. Sky stood back up and didn’t hesitate to stab another beast close to them. 

“Is it just me, or is that one new?” Sky questioned, referring to the much larger creature that appeared headless and more burly than the other ones. 

“Out of the way!” Timmy exclaimed, aiming his plasma shooter out at the newest monster. The specialists near him leapt out of his line of fire, allowing the glasses-wearing hero to freely shoot down the headless beast. It took five blasts, but the monster soon exploded. Timmy then focused on shooting down the smaller cretins marching closer to them.

“Isn’t it so sweet of the Trix to give us all the monsters they have?” Brandon said sarcastically, gesturing to the large manta ray monsters that were flying above them.

“Rather kind of them,” Sky muttered. The invasion barely started and they were already nearly overrun by these things. Of course, it didn’t help that most of the beasts they took down simply rose back up as the almost millions of bug-like creatures continued to merge and reform together.

Another Headless began to make its way over, so Sky quickly rushed it, swinging his sword as he attempted to take it down. While he was busy doing so, he had not noticed three of the beasts coming towards him.

Thankfully, a large orge like Knut could easily barrell his way through piles of the wiggling bugs, smashing them with ease.

“Way to go, Knut!” Brandon called over.

Most of Red Fountain was easily accepting of the ogre switching sides. Mainly due to the fact that the only ones who had any experience with Knut working for the Trix was Sky, Brandon and Timmy. 

The trio were wary, but if Saladin trusted him, then so would they. After all, their headmaster was a powerful sorcerer, so he could no doubt use his magic to figure out if it was a trick.

“Thanks!” The ogre beamed. It was the first he had been complimented since he first was hired by the Trix nearly a year ago. However his pride at being complimented quickly wiped away when he saw a beast sneaking up behind the brunette, “Behind you, Sky-I mean Brandon!”

So even Knut got caught up in their identity swap. Great. What a reminder.

Brandon didn’t have time to dodge as the monster clamped a claw around him, swinging him around.

“Brandon!” Sky yelled in worry. He moved to help his friend, however the headless beast refused to let up, continuing to beat its fists at him.

Knut let out a roar and stomped over to where Brandon was, slamming a hard punch into the creature's back, forcing it to release the brunette. He then picked up the wiggling monster and threw it at another. The force of its landing shattered the two out of form.

“Nice throw, Knut!” Brandon said, with a small wince at the pain as he climbed back to his feet. He was going to have bruises all over, he just knew it.

Saladin began chanting in the middle of the courtyard, summoning a powerful spell to block the clouds that continued to pour above them. With the shield in place, the little bugs stopped rising from the ground, leaving only the ones they’ve been fighting to remain.

With that in mind, he then focused on the creatures that had been created, sending out a loud high pitched sound wave spell that forced the beasts to deconstruct themselves.

Their relief was only temporary as the beasts merely reformed yet again after the initial shock from the attack.

Alongside that, a form of Icy’s head appeared in the sky much like Stormy’s had, and a large bolt of lightning struck down, above the stables.

This sparked a fire as Icy spoke, voice echoing, “Dragons of ice and fire, I am your master now! Break your shackles and descend upon my enemies!”

Within the stables, the school dragons roared and beat against their chains. The call was too much for the once tamed dragons to resist. And Icy knew it. With the Dragon Flame, the reptiles were practically compelled to obey her. 

“The dragons are loose!” One student cried out as the giant dragons broke out of their stables and began to wreak havoc upon the school.

“They’ve been spelled! Be careful!”

“The fire at the stables is spreading!”

Saladin was quick to act, extinguishing the fire before it could do anymore damage. Unfortunately it didn’t do much to help as the dragons began to breathe down their own flames.

And then Icy sent out her latest spell. The physical manifestation of her current holding of the Dragon Flame forming a dragon made of ice. The ice dragon released a roar and swallowed the school in its frost before vanishing, leaving the school crumbling apart in its wake.

Codatorta looked towards Saladin and was given the confirmation, “Everyone, retreat! Get to the evacuation ships! This is not a drill!”

There was no hesitation from any of the specialists as they all raced towards the loading dock, scurrying into the many ships ready to be boarded. With Codatorta flying, he led the ships towards safety as Saladin made the call.

“Saladin,” Faragonda greeted, not at all disturbed despite the late time. She had stayed up expecting him.

“Red Fountain has fallen. We’re making our way to Alfea now,” He stated.

“Understood. I will have the school prepared for your arrival.”

The Red Fountain ships carefully landed on the outskirts of Alfea. The gates to the school opened as the students and teachers tiredly made their way into the school. Faragonda met them at the doors, allowing Griselda and Wizgiz to guide the students to the prepared quarters.

Codatorta and Saladin wandered over to her, faces grim, “The Trix will no doubt be targeting Alfea next.”

“Yes” Faragonda said, lips thinned, “And as it stands, my girls have yet to return either.”

“We may have more time. Magix has gone on the defensive,” Codatorta stated, “The Trix may want to save Alfea for last, given their history with some of your fairies.”

“I hope you’re right,” Faragonda sighed.

“Headmistress Faragonda?” The three professors turned towards the tired voice. Sky approached them, Brandon and Timmy not far behind, and despite his exhausted appearance, his eyes still held determination in them, “Where’s Bloom?”

“And Stella,” Brandon added in.

“And Tecna?” Timmy meekly asked.

Faragonda cleared her throat, exchanging an awkward look with Saladin. However, seeing how concerned they were, Faragonda gave in. She knew how close these three were with her, excitable yet promising, students. “Stella and Tecna are not here. They are on a mission with Musa, that will hopefully give us the advantage in this war.”

Sky hesitantly spoke, noting her lack of acknowledging the redhead, “And Bloom?”

She sighed, “Come with me. She…she is not well.”

Sky straightened up at that, following the headmistress close to her heels, while the other four men paced further behind. It was a short trip towards the infirmary where she quietly opened the door to reveal the unconscious fae.

“The Trix has stolen her magic. I’m sure the Trix are not hiding the fact that they now have the magic known as the Dragon Flame,” Faragonda carefully explained as the blonde prince slowly walked closer to the bed, pale as he took in the sight, “Bloom had been the holder of that magic. Without it, she could die the moment we stop transfusing fire magic into her. That is the mission the girls are on. To find a way to help her stay alive without her magic until it can be taken back from the Trix.”

He felt cold. He felt numb. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. Sky barely noticed anything, too negatively entranced at the sight of the tubes and wires that encompassed the redhead that had once been as lively as the flames she adored. 

Faragonda, Codatorta and Saladin quietly left the room, more than understanding that the young prince no doubt needed time to himself with his close friend. Brandon gestured for Timmy to go with Codatorta and Saladin towards their quarters, and Timmy, though also worried about Bloom, was hesitant to intrude, and quickly left as well.

Brandon wandered closer to his best friend as he stumbled into a chair next to the bed, not moving his gaze away from the woman. The brunette lightly bit his lip, unsure what he could really say to make anything better. Because there weren’t truly any words that could alleviate whatever despair Sky was going through.

Hell, he didn’t even know how he would be taking it if it was Stella who was laying in the bed, on constant life support. And he knew that the feelings he had for Stella were rather similar, if not the same, as what Sky felt for Bloom.

So, instead of saying anything, he simply clamped a comforting hand onto the blonde’s shoulder, not saying a word as those shoulders shook under his touch.

Chapter Text

“I can barely feel my hands” Musa groaned as the three girls continued their trek through the snow. 

“Here.” Stella summoned her staff, allowing it to start circulating heat via sunrays. She allowed it to wave close to Musa and Tecna, warming the three of them up as best they could with the blizzard still raging around them. “Now then, do you think the palace could be located over that hill?”

Tecna turned to where she gestured, only to pale, “That isn’t a hill. That’s a Frost Ape.”

“A what?” Stella questioned, only to be shushed by Tecna, who then went to gesture for them to crouch. Growing fearful from her own reaction, the two followed suit. 

Tecna explained hushedly as she led them slowly around and away from the resting creature, “It’s a nomadic beast that leaves its home planet during breeding season in favor of searching for one of a similar temperature to build a nest. Given the state Domino is in, there may be more of them around. We must be very quiet and not wake it, else it'll lash out.”

The trio quietly moved out of the area, until they were a safe distance from the Frost Ape. When Tecna believed they were okay, she stood back up, the other two following suit. “The sooner we find the palace the better. We should be close to it by now.”

“I can try using my Sound Beats to help locate it,” Musa suggested. She held out her hands and allowed music to start playing through her magic, listening carefully to the echoing sound waves. “It’s bouncing off of that giant ice prism over there. It’s a different sound from when it hits normal ice. I think there’s something inside it.”

“It does look the size of what a palace would be” Stella stated, noting the large stature that was in the same vain as her father’s palace on Solaria. “I’ll try to make a path.” She moved her scepter towards the ice, allowing heat to emit off of the magical artifact. Due to the sheer volume and the general temperature of the planet, it took quite a while for her to melt their way through, but eventually, the three fairies found themselves within a vast echochamber.

The inside was covered in frost, but certainly not to the extent of outside. The ice that crept along the hall did nothing to distract from the beautiful murals painted around the crumbling walls.

“This palace is still rather pretty despite…well, falling apart and being covered in ice,” Musa noted.

“Look,” Tecna gestured to a hallway below one of the broken floors, “I think this must’ve been a hidden passageway. It’s almost completely undamaged. Do you think the Dragon Flame protected it?”

“Maybe!” Stella cheered, “If we can find some of that here, we can help Bloom! Let’s go!”

The blonde didn’t hesitate to leap down to the passage. Musa warily and carefully climbed down, “I hope there’s nothing like those Frost Apes down here.”

Tecna hummed as she used a tracker to try finding heat signatures, “I don’t see any sense of life, so we must be safe here.”

“ Welcome. ” The three girls jumped and shrieked at the echoing voice. Before them, a transparent body faded into sight. It was a woman, taller than any of them and clothes flowing in the nonexistent wind. She continued to fade in and out of existence, but waved at them, “ Hello. I am Daphne. Please, follow me. ”

The woman did not wait for a confirmation, merely turned and floated further down the hall. The girls exchanged a wary glance before slowly following her, each on alert in case it was a trap.

“ I am happy to finally meet you ” the spirit, Daphne, said, “ Despite the circumstances, of course. ”

“You know who we are? And why we’re here?” Musa questioned warily.

“ Yes ” she confirmed, “ Bloom and I had reunited many months ago in her dreams. I know the Dragon Flame had been stolen from her, as I have not been able to reach her since then and I can feel her spirit becoming weaker. ”

“Yeah!” Stella agreed, “That’s why we gotta get more of it to save her!”

“ I know. That is why I am using most of my magical energy to meet you here. With Domino in its current state, I cannot stay for very long, however, so we must hurry. Time is running out. For me and Bloom. ”

“Who are you anyway? I mean, beyond your name being Daphne,” Tecna questioned.

The spirit brought them to a pair of doors nearly three times their heights, “ I am Bloom’s sister. I was once the Crown Princess of Domino, before the Ancestral Witches destroyed our empire and I became like this. ”

Tecna jolted, “So Bloom really is the heiress of Domino!”

Daphne nodded, opening the doors with a wave of her hand, “ This is the treasury. All of its contents now belong to Bloom. ”

The three women gaped widely at the large halls decorated in ancient paintings and statues. Piles of gold and jewels laid across the expansive room, artifacts of pure magic hanging against the walls, golden arches spinning around the ceiling. It was very clear that Domino had been the reigning empire for a very good reason, beyond just their naturally powerful fae.

“This is nice and all,” Stella muttered, “But how is all this stuff supposed to help Bloom?”

“Stel” Musa scolded quietly.

“What?!”

Daphne chuckled, floating towards a pedestal, “ These shall help my sister. ” She tapped the dome that covered it, which then slid away, revealing a carefully placed crown and a glowing amulet. Daphne picked up the silver, gem encrusted tiara, handing it to Stella, “ This is Bloom’s birthright. Keep it safe. She shall need it to prove her legacy when the battle is won. ”

“You got it!” Stella nodded. Tecna took the crown and placed it within her magical digi-storage for protection. 

“ And this, will save her ” Daphne said, carefully handing the amulet to Stella. She began to flicker more and more, clearly running out of time to be on Domino with them, “ This amulet had been created many eons ago, at the creation of Domino, with Dragon Flame. It was a symbol of our status as descendants of the Great Dragon. As long as she wears it around her neck, Bloom will be safe from her loss of magic. ” As she began to fade from their vision, she added in, “ I am out of energy. Please, tell her to come find me. She knows where. ”

With that, the nymph disappeared, leaving the three fairies alone in the treasury. 

“Let’s hurry back to Alfea and get this necklace to Bloom!” Stella cheered, leading the way back through the halls so they could find the portal back to their school.

As they made their way out of the palace, they were happy to find that the blizzard seemed to have taken a break, though with the way the clouds were, it would no doubt pop back up at any moment. 

Tecna, however, spotted something in the distance, “Oh no. Those are Ice Crabs!”

Stella groaned, “First Frost Apes and now this?!”

“One touch and they can turn their prey into an ice crystal that they then eat!”

“Great” Musa muttered.

Stella glanced down at her staff, “You know, I couldn’t teleport us here because I’ve never been to Domino, and didn’t know the coordinates. But I’ve teleported to Alfea plenty of times!”

Tecna perked up, “I can also direct a more accurate coordinate spell to help us land inside the Simulation Room, where Professor Palladium is waiting for us!”

“Well what are we waiting for?” Musa exclaimed, “Cause those things are getting closer!”

Stella held out her staff, waiting for Tecna to type in the coordinates and add her spell in. When given the go ahead, the blonde princess slammed her scepter against the ground, activating the teleportation spell around them.

Sky jolted awake at the sound of a door slamming open. Given the recent attacks, he was already on edge and thus, the moment he was startled awake, he immediately rolled off the chair he had been sleeping on and swung out his plasma sword.

Tecna quickly created a digital shield, keeping the sword from hitting any of them.

“Geez! How rude!” Stella proclaimed.

Sky winced, quickly putting away his sword, “Sorry. I was acting on instinct.”

“We get it” Musa stated with a nod.

“Yeah whatever. Outta the way!” Stella exclaimed, shoving him to the side so she had better access to the bed. 

Sky perked up, seeing her rummage through the pockets of her wintersuit. “You found something to save her?”

Musa shrugged, “More like her sister gave it to us, but yeah.”

“Her sister?”

He was ignored as Stella let out a proud shout and held up the glowing amulet. She then leaned over the bed and carefully locked the amulet around Bloom’s neck. The four waited anxiously, staring with hope at the redhead for any sign of a change.

As they stood around the bed, Faragonda swiftly entered the room with Palladium and Saladin close behind. 

Seeing the four young adults gathered around the bed intently, Faragonda drew closer as well. She easily spotted the large jewel, the size of a goose egg, resting atop Bloom’s chest, shining brightly.

And then….

Bloom took a deep breath, and opened her eyes, “What’s going on?”

Stella wailed, leaping forward and pulling the redhead into a tight hug. Bloom let out a strangled gasp, “S-Stel!”

The blonde began crying inconsolably, tears streaming down her face and she began talking so fast none of them could really understand what she was saying through her own choked gasps.

“Woah, Stel, let the girl breathe,” Musa said, gently pulling the princess off the other. 

Bloom slowly sat up, wincing as her movements tugged on the tubes attached to her, “Geez, I look like some kind of science experiment.”

Faragonda let out a relieved laugh, “Quite.”

“So, uh, what happened?” Bloom asked. Honestly, the last she remembered was the Trix showing up and taking her magic. And then she blacked out. But clearly something happened because Sky was there, and oh my Dragon, Sky was actually there, she thought he was ignoring her and or just too busy on Eraklyon and-

“YOU ALMOST DIED!” Stella wailed, once again dragging her into a tight hug.

Bloom choked at the pressure. She coughed as she pulled back a little, “That explains why I feel like I got hit by a bus.”

“But, you do feel better, right?” Musa asked hesitantly.

“I mean, I’m not passing out from pain, so yeah.”

Tecna spoke up, “Plus the fact that she’s sitting up and talking fine, albeit with her voice rough from lack of use, is very telling considering she only got three words in before she passed out a few days ago.

Bloom glanced over towards where Sky stood. He stayed silent throughout the four fairies talking. However, given the soft look on his face, she could tell he was happy she was apparently okay now. 

And she was gonna ignore the twisting feeling in her stomach at seeing him staring at her like that okay, he was just her friend and that was it, nothing else, even if he may or may not be engaged to Diaspro still. Cause they were just friends.

Bloom also noted Saladin’s presence, and became a little more concerned. After all, Saladin should be at Red Fountain with the Army of Decay invading. Unless he came to escort Sky, but she doubted that. “Headmaster Saladin? Why are you here?”

The group began to fidget, before Sky spoke up, finally, “Red Fountain has been taken by the Trix.”

Bloom practically felt her eyes bug out of her head, “ What?! ” She scrambled to get off the bed, only to wheeze in pain and fall back onto the mattress.

Faragonda was quick to place calming hands onto her, trying to keep her from irritating the tubes still attached to her, “Bloom, I understand, but please be careful. You aren’t at your full health yet.

“B-but I-Red Fountain and-Domino!”

Musa spoke, “Yeah, speaking of Domino, how long have you known you were the princess?! We met your sister! She said you guys have already reunited!”

Bloom squeaked, startled by the influx of knowledge. After all, she had expected to go to Domino with them. Then again, she also hadn’t been looking forward to the blizzards, so maybe she lucked out.

But this wasn’t supposed to be how things went!

Faragonda slowly worked to remove the wires and tubes as the three fairies cut off one another to explain everything that had happened. 

“You know how to contact Princess Daphne without your magic?” Saladin asked curiously.

Bloom nodded, albeit reluctantly. Nothing against seeing her sister at her resting place, but…well, it was more of where her resting place was. 

But she didn’t need to worry about that at the moment.

When Faragonda finished removing everything, Bloom stood up from the bed on shaky legs. It seemed even though she was much better than before (ya know, since being in a near death coma was obviously worse than just being weakened), she was not at her best. 

She tried to take a step, only to stumble when she lost strength in her legs. Sky shot forward before anyone else could react, catching her so she wouldn’t faceplant into the floor. Bloom took a breath, “Thanks.” She then fully took note of the whole room, “So, where’s Flora?”

Chapter Text

Bloom was very thankful to Flora for her initiative to stay on Earth with her family. Her parents were beside themselves, considering the circumstances, and Flora offered constant updates on her status to them via calls with the other Winx. And she helped keep watch over Kiko and Hedwig too.

Flora was a God-send, truly.

With her subsequent revival (for lack of a better word), Bloom spent over an hour talking with her parents over the phone. She would’ve loved to actually see them, and vice versa, but with the Trix preparing yet another invasion and Faragonda reluctant to let her leave the infirmary as is, she wasn’t allowed to go.

There was also the undercurrent fear that the Trix would somehow realize she was alive and on Earth and would attack her family again. Very valid, so Bloom contented herself with the phone call.

And soon after that, Flora returned to Alfea to help prepare for the next attack. Though Bloom insisted that Kiko and Hedwig stay on Earth with her parents. War was no place for her little babies.

“No way! Why’s he here?!” Stella shrieked, backing away at the sight of the large yellow ogre.

“Woah! Calm down!” Brandon jumped in, waving his hand placently. It did nothing to soothe her, seeing as the two were still on the outs. At least, Bloom thought that was the case with Stella’s wary and unsure glances to the brunette.

Given she heard that the three specialists did not show up to help them at Domino, probably accounted for the two having yet to begin reconciling. And man, did that throw Bloom into a loop. For the most part, everything had gone fairly the same. So to have such startling changes occur was rubbing her the wrong way.

She’d get used to it, obviously. Frankly, she was expecting changes to happen, what with her stark differences with the original Bloom. But it was still a little unsettling.

“Knut helped Red Fountain during the second wave of attacks” Sky intervened. 

The four Winx appeared still unsure, so Bloom took initiative. After all, she had been waiting for Knut to see reason. He wasn’t evil, just misguided. So they had to show him that it was okay that his past was a little rough! Second chances and all that jazz!

“Welcome to the family!” Bloom cheered, leaping forward to jump onto the ogre’s back. He was surprised by the sudden attack of affection and let out a small yelp. She slid off of him, stumbling lightly as her vision blacked out briefly, “Woah. Head rush.”

Sky was quick to help steady her, which she very much appreciated. He had been rather attentive with her sluggish responses, so Bloom wasn’t terribly concerned, trusting him and her other friends to help her out in her weakened state.

Despite the poor after-effect of her greeting, it seemed to work in making the Winx more open to accepting the ogre. After all, Bloom was the one he hurt the most by helping the Trix, so if she was okay with him joining them, then they would be too.

With everything settled, Bloom gathered into Faragonda’s room with Stella, Brandon and Sky, trying to convince everyone to follow her idea.

“It’s much too dangerous!” Faragonda proclaimed.

It wasn’t going very well.

Bloom pouted, “We need all hands on deck! I know where the Trix are keeping the witches! If we can free them, we’ll have an even better chance at fighting back against the Army of Decay!”

Sky, however, was also against her. The traitor. “Bloom, you’re still weak. And you still can’t use magic!”

“I might not be at my strongest, but I can still do stuff to help!” Bloom huffed, “You all know I’m right. If we can get Griffin and her students out of the dungeons, they’ll be able to ally with us!”

“I admit, she does have a point,” Saladin stated, despite looking unconvinced.

Stella bit her lip, fidgeting with her hands, “I don’t know, Bloom. You almost died. You still could if that necklace breaks off.”

Oh yeah. The necklace. Bloom had attempted to take it off, but that merely sent everyone into a panic when she passed out immediately. So, she had been ordered to leave it on indefinitely, until they could get her magic back from the Trix. Faragonda even added a sticking charm to ensure it couldn’t come off accidentally.

“Look, we don’t have many options here” Bloom pleaded her case, “The Trix could strike at any moment and we’re way too outmatched as it is. With the witches, we could even the playing field. And! I have to leave Alfea anyway! Daphne is resting within Black Mud Swamp, and that’s closer to Cloud Tower than it is to Alfea! We’ll save the witches and then head to her lake! Badaboom badabing!”

Brandon seemed to have good sense about him, “She’s right. And who knows, maybe the Trix will be too busy to realize we’re there.”

She knew otherwise, but she wasn’t going to give them any more reason to reject her plan. 

Faragonda very reluctantly nodded, “Alright. But Bloom, you must be very careful.”

“I promise!” 

Apparently that did nothing to assuage the professors, who all merely stared at her with blunt disbelief. Which she felt was very unfair. She was perfect at being discreet!

“Oh, can I bring my babies!?”

Faragonda barely withheld a groan.

Faragonda saw reason in that she needed something to protect herself with, even with Sky, Brandon, and Stella going along with her. So she allowed Bloom to take both her flamethrower and a second lighter as well. 

Bloom gleefully hugged her makeshift flamethrower to her chest, relishing in the faint feeling of the fire within. Without her Dragon Flame, it was harder to distinguish, but the amulet Daphne gave her seemed to connect her just a little to the fires very close to her.

Stella was already transformed, so they were just waiting on Sky and Brandon to meet back up with them in the courtyard. They were currently with Knut in the drained well. He would be guiding them through the underground tunnels since Tecna would be staying behind with Musa and Flora to prepare for the next attack.

Of course, none of the three were very happy that they weren’t allowed to go with them.

“We’re already a group of five. Anymore and the Trix will be able to sense us easily,” Bloom stated.

“Then leave the boys and take us!” Musa argued, “We can protect you better than they can!”

“Then who’s going to protect Alfea?” She retorted, “The boys would be fine in helping but having fairy hands on deck is much better.”

Musa scowled, unwilling to argue otherwise but still upset at being left behind. Flora placed a calm hand on her shoulder, looking saddened but accepting of the plan, “Understood. We’ll do our best on our end. Just please be careful.”

Bloom squealed, tackling the two, “Winx Pile!” Stella quickly joined and dragged Tecna in as well.

Tecna used it as a cover to hide her sniffles. It didn’t work as well as she hoped. Stella cooed, “Aw! Tec! You’re crying?”

The digi-fae trembled, not wanting to admit that she was found out, “It’s just a speck of dust.” Bloom cooed and tugged the other woman tighter in the pile.

Brandon then popped his head out of the well, “Knut found the right path.”

Reluctantly, the girls pulled away from their group hug. Flora let out a sniffle of her own, clutching Bloom and Stella’s hands one last time, “Please be careful.”

“Promise!” Stella swore. Bloom merely nodded, refusing to make a promise she was unsure would be kept.

After all, she was much weaker than canon Bloom had been. Which she felt was extremely unfair because seriously? It’s bull that Canon Bloom got away scot free with just having no magic whereas she almost effing dies. Sure, it was a kids show, but come on! Least they could do was warn her!

“Careful,” Sky said, helping Bloom down the left few bars of the ladder.

She raised an eyebrow at him, “I’m fine.”

A small blush formed on his cheeks, “Sorry. Just, you aren’t at your full strength and-”

She patted his head and cooed, “You are adorable.” He choked at that as she hefted up her flamethrower. Technically, it was a large can of aerosol with a kitchen lighter messily duct taped together. But it worked for her. “I’m armed and dangerous!”

“Danger to yourself, is more like it,” Stella teased. Bloom whined at her as Brandon shook his head. He turned to Knut, who was staring down the dark tunnel.

“Which way do we go, Knut?”

“Right now, straight ahead,” He stated, leading the way with his lit torch.

It was silent and, frankly, awkward, as the group made their way through the tunnel. Bloom pursed her lips and glanced at her best friend and her….suitor? She wasn’t sure where they stood at the moment. Stella was still bitter, and Brandon was still miserable when she ignored him. And honestly, it was a little like being a third wheel with the way the two kept glancing at each other every so often. 

Despite there being animosity-filled tension on Stella’s end, in some regard.

Bloom let out a cough to try stifling the awkward silence. It only served to make Sky’s head snap to her and examine her worriedly. She deadpanned at him, making him blush and focus back on Knut.

“So….You’re not a prince.”

Bloom facepalmed at Stella's statement.

Brandon, meanwhile, winced and slumped down, “No. I’m Prince Sky’s squire.”

“Oh yes. Sky tricked Bloom and you tricked me , isn’t that right?” She sneered.

It hurt, mostly that he thought she would have cared. And, maybe she would’ve briefly. She definitely would’ve been more thoughtful in approaching him. There were expectations to be had for her relationships given her status as heiress to the Solarian Empire. Of course, while most nobles might’ve thrown a fit, she knew her parents didn’t care where her partner would come from, only that he held respect for her and loved her as opposed to her wealth and title. They knew the horrors of a political marriage, them being a prime example, and wanted better for her. She simply would’ve been more wary about being in a relationship with him.

And perhaps that would’ve been wrong for her to do, to base such a thing on his class. But she couldn’t say what she’d do if she had known from the beginning that he was not Prince Sky. She truly didn’t know what her honest reaction would be, and now the only thing she had to go off from was the subsequent betrayal. On finding out he intentionally lied to her.

Sure, from what she gathered, it was less personal, rather a planned effort for Sky (the real one) to experience life without his title. And some kind of protection order or whatever. But still! He pursued her while under a false identity! Didn’t even bother explaining the situation to her after their third date. Or the fourth, or the fifth or so on. It had been almost an entire school year of them being together and she had to find out by accident .

And yet….

He still hadn’t given up. It had been a number of weeks now, and he hadn’t thrown in the towel on winning her back. That had to mean something , right? If he thought she was that shallow, or if their relationship wasn’t important to him, he would’ve been long gone. She knew Prin-Brandon wasn’t the type to seek a relationship from what he could gain. She knew him rather well, or so she thought. For all she knew, all of it had been an act.

But she did know one thing. She wanted to know the real him. Whether that was learning a whole new man or simply learning his background, she was at the point that she would be okay with starting over. 

“I…suppose that changes things between us?”

Stella hummed, lifting her chin haughtily, “Maybe, maybe not. Let’s focus on business before talking about us.”

And once again, it was back to silence. 

Bloom nearly let out a loud groan of annoyance if it weren’t for the fact that they came to a split in the path. Three tunnels laid before them, and Knut seemed unsure of which one to go through.

“Well?” Stella questioned.

Knut let out a confused grumble, “Um, I’m not sure….”

“Don’t ogres have a great sense of smell? Try to sniff them out! The Trix strike me as the kind to not bathe” Bloom jested. Stella snorted as the boys shook their heads in exasperation.

Knut took deep sniffs, trying to familiarize himself with each path that may lead to the Tower. Unfortunately, the scents were merged together, and he couldn’t really get a distinct scent. But his gut was telling him the middle one! And his Ma always said to trust his gut!

….

Well, apparently his Ma tended to be wrong a lot as well, as the group were chased out of the tunnel by some kind of sludge monster herd. 

“Hey, it’s okay” Bloom assured, when Knut fidgeted to himself in embarrassment. “Everyone is wrong sometimes. Let’s just try again.”

He then picked the path on the right, which led to a ladder reaching the ceiling of the tunnel, where a door laid. Knut was fairly confident that it could lead to the Tower.

Turns out he was wrong there as well, as it apparently opened to a lake or river or some kind of waterway as the tunnel then became flooded. The waters swept them all away and honestly, at this point, Knut was just confused.

But he wasn’t going to tell them that! They were counting on him to guide them to the Tower! He wasn’t going to ruin it by making them think he had no idea what he was doing!

Of course, they all already figured that out by the time they got tangled in a sentient magical root not unlike the Quietus Carnivorous. When they tried to take a break to reconvene and plan their next move, the giant rocks they were using were actually giant bug creatures. 

They had no choice but to take a break when the bugs finally stopped chasing them away from their nest. Stella was definitely annoyed by this point, “So much for knowing the way, huh?!”

Knut whined and leaned against the wall, “This place is full of smells! I’m trying my best!”

“Okay, I think we just need a moment to gather our thoughts,” Bloom said, trying to play peacekeeper. Which was very odd, considering she was more so used to being the one to cause chaos. But hey, she could take a step back to reevaluate their position every now and then! Mainly cause she also had no idea where they were going, and, frankly, really wanted to get out of these tunnels. And they could do that faster without all of them falling into arguments.

But life was the original Harbringer of Chaos, and the wall Knut was leaning against crumbled away, leading him to fall down the giant gray chute that was on the other side. For some reason? 

“Ooh! A slide!” Bloom bounced, before jumping after the ogre.

“Bloom! No!” Sky leapt after her.

“Why is she like this?” Stella bemoaned, flying down the same path. Brandon swiftly followed. 

Bloom squealed gleefully as she sped down the newly revealed slide. Knut already made it to the bottom, plopped onto the ground, disoriented. Bloom used his body as a handspring to avoid crashing into him, flipping around to her feet with ease. It wasn’t very surprising given how much flexibility one needed to fly with fae wings. 

Alright, it was a little surprising due to the fact that she was still a little out of it, even with her amulet keeping her up and about. But that was fine! She landed on her feet just well!

The same couldn’t be said for Sky, who did, in fact, crash into Knut. But he recovered swiftly, barrel rolling over the ogre’s body and landing in a crouch. 

“Oh hey! It’s Cloud Tower!” Bloom cheered, helping Sky to his feet as Stella and Brandon made it down a lot more safely given the sun fairy had seen the other two’s plight and simply carried the brunette away from Knut’s crash site.

“I think this is the garbage dump” Sky remarked, examining their surroundings.

Bloom oohed, “So the slide was a garbage chute then! That makes more sense! I thought maybe the witches just really liked slides! Of course, I wouldn't have argued-Hey! Do you think Alfea has a garbage chute we can use as a slide too?!”

“Not the time,” Brandon scolded, making the redhead pout. “I think Knut is stuck.”

The group all hurried to help the ogre out of the gunky ground. But since this was them, things obviously had to go awry yet again as the ground began to move. Stella whined, “Now what?!”

“Beetle-Roaches! They’re giant garbage eating bugs!”

“Lovely!” Stella shivered in disgust.

Bloom grinned, brandishing her flamethrower, “Time to light things up then!”

“Wait! No!” Sky refuted, as he and Brandon took out their plasma blades. “If you start a fire, the Trix will definitely realize we’re here!”

“Damn it!” Bloom whined. He was right. Especially as the witches now had the Dragon Flame. Fire was easy to sense for the keeper of that magic. They may not be the natural holders, but they still were in possession of it.

So basically, her flamethrower was a bust until their cover was blown.

“Bloom! Catch!” Stella grabbed a busted pipe from a garbage pile and tossed it over to the redhead. 

Bloom caught the pipe and passed it between her hands to get used to the weight. Just like those baseball games with her dad’s firefighter buddies. Except instead of a bat, it was a broken pipe. Should work the same.

Speaking of…

Bloom scurried towards Knut, who had been tripped over by a roach. Using as much strength as she could, she swung the pipe into the roach’s head. The creature let out a mechanical screech and retreated.

“For a powerless fairy, you sure pack a punch,” Knut complimented. Bloom twirled her pipe proudly.

“Sky!” Brandon exclaimed, when the prince was dragged by the leg to a much larger and effeminate Beetle-Roach.

“It’s the Queen!” Knut cried. Usually the Queen Beetle-Roach hid away in the nest when danger lurked, having her workers take care of the problem. Unless the hive was being destroyed. Their nest must have been disturbed to the point of driving the Queen out. Brandon aimed his weapon, but hesitated. “What are you waiting for?!”

“It's moving too much. I might hit Sky!”

It was then that another leapt on top of the Queen. The beetle-roach screeched, dropping Sky and staggering away. The cloaked man wrangled the queen further away, steadying enough to use his blaster, shooting the queen in the head.

It didn’t seem to harm the metal bug, but it was enough to make her retreat, guiding her hive away from the group after finally bucking the man off her.

“Hey. Thanks, um, whoever you are.” Sky said, getting to his feet.

Bloom, however, grinned and leapt forward, hugging the man tightly, “Welcome back, Riven!”

“Hey Psycho,” he couldn’t help but chuckle. Of course the crazy girl would recognize him. And be so excited at seeing him despite all the trouble he caused them.

“Riven!” Brandon exclaimed in surprise.

“No time for reunions,” he said, casually dropping Bloom. She simply snickered. “This way. I know how we can get us to the dungeons. The witches are trapped there.”

“So, like, you finally realize how much of a bitch Darcy is?” Stella asked hesitantly, as the began to follow him back into the tunnel system.

“If, by that, you mean her spell wore off?” He retorted with a snort, “Then yeah. I’d been locked away with the rest of the witches. Her spell started to fade away a couple weeks ago. It was weird, like everything was being filtered through literal rose-tinted glasses until it wasn’t. I was starting to see things that didn’t make sense with what I remembered. Like all their attacks on your guys.”

“Geez. Her spell must’ve been powerful to last so long,” Sky hissed out, feeling bad for his friend. Riven may have denied it, but the others had thought of him as part of their group. Until Darcy, at least.

“Yeah,” Riven replied softly. It was an odd sight for all of them. Even before Darcy’s spell, he had been a brash and gruff man. “Griffin said it was meant to manipulate and draw out insecurities of the mind. Heighten them and make the victim see everything with that light. For a while, it looked like you all were the ones harassing and attacking the witches. And me. So I thought I was protecting us from you.”

Sky furrowed his eyebrows, piecing together the information. If it was based in insecurity, then….they teased each other a lot. But it wasn't supposed to be hurtful. Just good-natured ribbing. He always thought Riven knew that, and was just being his usual gruff self. “Dude, I’m so sorry.”

“No, man. I’m the one who should be sorry. For more than just the whole time I was spelled. Turns out being locked in a dungeon is good for self-reflection. I lashed out at you guys for a long of things that didn’t really warrant it. Even if your jokes made me upset, I probably should’ve reacted better.”

“Aw, Riven,” Bloom cooed, jumping onto the man’s back. He grumbled under his breath, “We may tease you, but we do it out of love! I make fun of all my friends! But next time, let us know if it’s too far. We don’t wanna hurt you.”

“Yeah yeah,” he groaned, shoving her off him. The two fairies giggled, while the two specialists clasped their hands onto his shoulders.

And Riven just couldn’t help but smile, finally allowing himself to feel a sense of belonging.