Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a storm coming.

Aisha could tell, could feel it underneath her ribs, the deceitful sky above her and the calm waves lapping at her feet didn’t give it away.

But since she’d unlocked Enchantix she could always tell when tides would become treacherous.

She tilted her head as she drifted further into the ocean, letting the waves reach her calfs and then her knees, her cargo shorts just about to be drenched as she inspected the far-off tides, searching.

What exactly it was that she was searching for, she was yet to figure out.

But there was… something odd about the ocean lately… she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, half the time she nearly convinced herself that it was simply the fact that most of Andros was finally settling down again after the chaos of the past two years and she was no longer used to seeing the ocean so at peace…

But a part of her couldn’t help but wonder-

“Is there something out there?” The voice came from her right, Nereus emerging from the waves, following her gaze, “You look like an orca tracking a seal.”

Aisha rolled her eyes, “I was just… thinking I suppose.”

Nereus tilted his head as he inspected her, clearly not buying it, “Tri’s been antsy lately too, keeps looking at horizon and at the shadows like he expects to find something.”

She waved him off, “He’s probably just nervous and I’m… I don’t always understand my power anymore… but it doesn’t matter.”

Nereus just frowned, “You alright?”

Aisha sighed, “Yeah. It’s just… the after effects of Enchantix can be hard to understand sometimes…” she went to run her hands through her hair as she went to start walking backwards towards the shore, Nereus following, using his trident to keep himself upright, “But it’s nothing I’m not used to at this point. Besides, I’m finally off to Magix again!”

Nereus gave her a soft smile, “You excited?”

“Yes. It’s my last year… feels surreal, but I can’t wait.”

He stopped a few feet away from shore, tail smacking against the waves, “Well I wish you good luck, I’ll see you at the coronation.”

Aisha gave him a two-fingered mock salute, “See ya. Take care.”

“You too.” He let himself fall back into the water, submerging and going to swim away.

Aisha fully turned away, making her way out of the tides, running her hands through her hair as she felt sand stick to her bare feet, using an effortless wave of magic to wash it away as she reached the slope that took her up to the road next to the castle.

“There you are!” Nabu called out from the top of the slope, taking her hand and helping her up the last few feet, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her flush against him with a smile, letting their foreheads lean together, “Wanted to see the waves one last time?”

She let her hands cup his face, pressing a kiss against his lips, “Wanted to say goodbye to my cousins. Tressa texted though, apparently she’s wrapped up with some editions being made to her dress for the coronation and Tri is re-doing some trading document for the third time. Nereus managed to stop by though.”

“Mmm, I’m assuming your uncle still refuses to chose?”

“You’d be right.” She kissed him again, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, letting him dip her back.

They’d been… maybe a bit too clingy this summer, but if anyone dared say anything about it, Aisha would be launching them through a wall without even blinking.

Nearly every night, he snuck into her room by the balcony, since, nearly every night, she still had nightmares, still woke up reaching out, searching the sheets for his warmth, for reassurance that he’d survived, that he was alright.

Even with him holding her against his chest and murmuring against her neck that he was there her stomach still dropped in that space between sleep and awareness.

And he had nightmares too, sometimes waking up with words of protection and spells at the tip of his tongue, going to move to grab his staff before remembering that it was still on Earth, still being studied and guarded.

Her weight against him provided some comfort, as she gently reminded him that they’d made it out, that he’d contained the danger.

So yeah. They’d been a bit clingy this summer, but all things considered, she thought they were coping quite well.

Even if her first instinct was to nearly growl when a guard clearing their throat interrupted them.

Aisha turned, doing her best to not try to murder the guard with her eyes even as Nabu quietly chuckled, “I think that’s our cue.” He told her, taking her hand.

They went the rest of the way by the road and to the back of the castle, where their ship was waiting.

After their take off, Aisha went to stand by the window, watching the ocean flying past far beneath them.

The squad had spent two weeks of the summer traveling around together, visiting a few different beaches and places where they weren’t too known, where they could just be a group of friends enjoying the summer.

But at quite a few of the beaches, Aisha had had the same feeling curling up under her skin when surfing and letting her legs dip into the water.

Almost like being watched.

Almost like there was something in the water… waiting.

Aisha shook her head as she went to sit back down, taking Nabu’s hand.

There was a storm coming.

That was all it was, it was just getting under her skin for some reason.

***

Tecna smiled to herself as she watched the scene currently taking place a few feet past her back porch.

Naten had finally convinced Timmy to have a proper sparring session with him, the kid able to tell Timmy had been going easy on him.

Tecna could tell he still wasn’t using all of his skills but was still running circles around her little brother, whilst also of course correcting his stance and giving suggestions.

Naten didn’t mind being beaten, in fact, he’d confessed he didn’t expect to be able to beat any of the Specialists in a duel at least until his third or fourth year.

It was endearing, how her brother shifted on his feet, the slightest bounce to him as he watched Timmy, ready for an attack, Timmy was circling him, waiting for an opening.

Besides her, Zila settled down on the porch swing, offering a glass with apple juice, “How is this not painful to watch?” She asked quietly, even with a smile on her face.

“It’d be painful if Naten was a sore loser… or if Timmy wasn’t genuinely helping him.”

Timmy launched forwards, purposefully leaving his right exposed like he’d told Naten he’d do, letting him practice a certain maneuver to disarm him.

“So… it’s your last year.” Zila started, turning to her, “How’d you feel?”

Tecna sighed, looking down at her metallic hand, “…weird. I don’t want it to be over.”

Zila smiled compassionately, going to hold her metal hand, “Sometimes there are chapters in our lives that close before we’re ready… but that isn’t always a bad thing.”

“I’m just… I’m just not sure anymore what I want to do after. I mean I have a… vague idea but… that’s all it is.”

“You have time. And I’m sure you’ll have no problem getting to work wherever you want.”

“I know that… doesn’t make it any easier.”

Zila just squeezed her hand, “I know… but if you want to talk you know I’m always just a phone call away. And whatever you decide, you know we’ll support you.”

She smiled to her big sister, “Thank you Zila.” She set her glass to the side and rose up to her feet, climbing down the steps right as Timmy flung Naten over his shoulder.

“You’re moving too slow on that last step, putting too much weight on your left foot, that can be easily used against you, you have to keep that in mind.” Timmy told him.

Tecna placed her hands on her hips, “Are you done man-handling my baby brother?” She asked in mock anger.

He just smirked her way, “It’s called sparring honey.”

“I gotta get better somehow!” Naten added, making no effort to get up from the grass even as Timmy straightened up, opting instead to flop around to lay face-down in the dirt, “I am so screwed already this year.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m gonna suck at dragon training I just know it!” Naten whined dramatically, but Tecna could hear his genuine worry beneath his exaggerated mannerisms.

She sighed, kneeling next to him, reaching out to place a hand on his back, “You’ll be just fine. You’re gonna eventually struggle with something but that isn’t the end or anything. It won’t make you a bad Specialist.”

“Yeah kid, even all of us have something we’re not the best at. It took me way longer than I would’ve liked to get to where I am sparring-wise. And I’m still not good with a sword even after everything.” Timmy comforted him, “That’s why you’re part of a squad, you’re meant to complement one another, to be a part of a whole, not an expert at everything.”

Naten didn’t seem too convinced by that, but she and Timmy were relieved from their attempts to comfort him when Zila approached with an amused smile, Timmy taking her hand as they went to walk closer to the barn.

“Is he turning into an angsty teenager? Cause I don’t think I can handle an angsty teenager.” Timmy questioned low enough to not be overheard.

Tecna snorted, “It’s Naten, pretty sure he doesn’t have an angsty bone in his body. He’s just nervous that’s all, you know him, he wants to excel. And he doesn’t want to let his squad down.”

Timmy winced, “Damn does that sound familiar… it’s been a second since I felt that way but… I get it. I really do. I’ll keep an eye on him if you’d like.”

She smiled, “Thanks. But I’m not too worried. I’m pretty sure he’ll feel better once he actually starts training and he gets the hang of it, especially with the dragons.”

Timmy nodded along, taking out his phone and rolling his eyes.

“Thyler?” 

“Yep.” He shoved his phone back in his pocket, “We’re working on drafting up a potential project and he’s pestering me about ‘marketability’, I keep telling him that’s not part of my job, he says to ‘throw him a bone’ at least. He’s annoying.”

Tecna snorted, hip-checking him, “You just like giving him a hard time.”

“Maybe. I’ll get it done after getting settled down back at Red Fountain. Well- more like I’ll just give him some bullet points on what he can change or modify, let him deal with the rest, I’m not paid enough for that.”

Tecna laughed.

She glanced back, taking a moment to appreciate the barn, the house and the grass, a few of their chickens roaming about.

“We should get back, pretty sure my parents are already making breakfast.”

He nodded along, also glancing around the farm, he always seemed to have a certain weight lifted off his shoulders when he visited, “You ready to get back?”

She took a deep breath, “Yeah.”

***

Musa watched, guitar in her lap as Riven inspected the small notebook in his hand, “What do you think?”

He grinned, “I like these. How come I hadn’t seen them before?”

Musa shrugged, “The production is a lot more… experimental.”

She’d used most of the summer to work on her new album, Tecna’s mom -a part of Musa thought of her as her own mom, it was both sweet and painful, a strange betrayal she felt at times, but she couldn’t help it, how could she not think of her that way?- had found a small recording studio in town that she could use, the owner refusing to charge her for using it, not able to bear the thought of charging a Winx, Musa still found ways to pay, coffees and donuts and helping some of the other small Zenith artists that used the studio and stepping in to some of the owner’s music lessons to help their students.

It’d been a nice way to spend the summer.

Slowly but surely, she’d managed to wrangle her strange lyrics and changing experimental production into something starting to resemble a set-list, but she’d kept most of it to herself, wanting to wait until her songs had taken form before showing them to her friends, only Helia had been allowed to listen to the crude first versions, helping her out with them.

“You can listen to the whole thing on the way to Magix,” Musa offered, “But you know-”

“Honest opinions only, yes I’m aware.” Riven cut her off with an exasperated yet loving smile, “Do you have a tentative timeline for a release?”

She shrugged, “A month? Maybe two? Not the usual time required for promo and all but- I honestly cannot give a fuck about that right now. Besides, I’m a Winx! Might as well take advantage of it and just use that for promo.”

Riven grinned, “You’re not wrong.”

Timmy’s voice echoed through the house, “Hey! Get down here, breakfast is ready!”

Musa sighed, rising up from her seat, Riven already handing her her guitar case to put away her instrument carefully.

The rest of her bags and suitcases had already been taken to the Owl by the boys, her guitar and notebook the only things left.

She shut her red door behind them, her gaze lingering for a moment on the different painted doors as she and Riven made their way down the hall and to the staircase.

A part of her still couldn’t quite believe this was officially her home.

They climbed down the steps, she left her stuff on the couch and continued to the kitchen, where Musa quickly went to help Naten set the table while Riven went to help Zila serve everyone water and orange and apple juice, Timmy working on making coffee while Tecna helped her mom and dad hand out plates with omelets, homemade waffles, pancakes, hash browns, bacon, fruit and toast bread.

Usually, they helped prepare breakfast, Musa had become quite good at making waffles and pancakes, but the parents had insisted on doing everything themselves since they were leaving for Magix.

Musa sat between Riven and Tecna to eat, the chatter revolving around optatives, Naten’s upcoming dragon training, the boy they’d be hiring to help with farm work, Zila moving her bakery business to a new small building, she was ecstatic she would no longer be renting but owning the space and asking the boys how they felt about their final year at Red Fountain, since they’d already asked the girls plenty of times.

“I heard from Brandon’s mom that all of you have been getting a lot of letters inviting you to be part of guards?” Their mom asked, “Are you considering going that route?”

“Well honestly, I’m still not sure if I’ll go officially work full time with my brother after graduation or work at someplace else but, I personally don’t think I’ll be taking up the guard offer.” Timmy said easily.

Riven sighed, “I’m still thinking on it. Honestly I’m a bit… overwhelmed by the choices. I think I’d like to stay in Magix for a year or two after graduation but I’m still thinking about what I’d like to do for that time.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll do well with whatever you wind up choosing.” Her dad assured him, “You’re interested in mechanics right? Have you considered pursing that?”

“Yes sir. I’ve actually been researching a few shops that I might apply to work at. But I’m still thinking it over.”

Her dad snorted, “No need to call me sir Riven, come on son.”

Riven just nodded along, quietly blushing.

Musa smirked to herself, she remember him quietly confessing he now wanted to impress Tecna’s parents and be on their good side since they were hers now too in a sense.

Whilst in her head there was conflict and messiness when it came to thinking of Tecna’s mom as her own, there was no such thing when it came to their dad.

She had no issue thinking of the man who called her ‘pumpkin’ as her dad. And in all honesty, it was getting frighteningly easy to think of Tecna’s mom as their mom.

Maybe one day she might even manage to call them that out-loud.

Once they finished breakfast and had managed to weasel their way into helping out with the dishes, they said their goodbyes, and went to board the Owl, Naten regaining some of the skip in his step as he seemed to remember that his return to Red Fountain didn’t just mean new classes but reuniting with his friends.

“Cmon cmon cmon!” He hurried them along, taking Musa’s wrist and dragging her up the ramp since he deemed her ‘too slow’.

“Dude you’re gonna pull my arm out of my socket.” She laughed as she went along with him, reaching out to mess up his hair.

“Can you blame him? He’s just excited to get to see his girl again.” Riven half teased, snorting at the way Naten blushed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Riven rolled his eyes as he went to sit down at the console with Timmy, “Sure you don’t. Just word of advice, nothing delights a nature fairy more than a picnic.” 

“He’s right, we’ve heard Flora and Stella rant about picnic dates more than enough times to know.” Musa added.

Naten went silent for a minute, then- “Noted.”

Musa snorted as they took off.

***

Flora all but floated around her dad’s greenhouse, quietly checking that all the plants and trees and bushes were healthy one last time before she went to leave.

She felt more in tune than ever with the plants, she’d spent plenty of her time in Lynphea getting all of the greenhouse to thrive once more, her work was pretty much already done.

She could occasionally see Helia also roaming about the greenhouse, quietly sketching away.

“Well everything seems to be in order.” She finally spoke, going to join him at the ledge of a small fountain, leaning against his shoulder to take a peek at his sketch, which consisted of a few of the plants.

“You think it’ll last?”

“My dad is pretty good at keeping the plants healthy while I’m away. This is more preventative than anything.”

“So… what did you think of the Tress Forest?”

Flora smiled to herself, leaning further against him.

The time they’d spent together in Lynphea had fully cemented their future plans, they already knew they both wanted to move to Lynphea once they graduated.

Flora was still figuring out what lab she wanted to apply to work at and Helia was still deciding whether he wanted to jump straight into an art therapy or psychology degree or take a year to work on his art.

But they were set on living in Lynphea regardless of what they decided.

So… they’d used their last week of vacation to check out a few new developments, the Tress Forest being trees currently being treated to become homes much like Flora’s own, a hollowed out tree.

“Well I like the idea that we’d get to make a bunch of choices in the design when they start carving out certain parts… but…”

Helia grinned, “The cottage?”

“The cottage!”

There was one particular cottage they’d seen.

Only a few miles away from her childhood home, deep in the woods at the center of a clearing, a good distance away from other cottages in the area but close enough to a town square to not be overly inconvenient. Private but not isolated.

It was an older building, with a certain history to it clear with small scratches on the kitchen counters and a step in the staircase that needed to be replaced. It had a large garden, a small well and a porch swing.

It had captured her heart from the moment she’d laid eyes on it.

But…

“It’s… a bit over the budget I had in mind.” Flora quietly confessed.

Which made sense, considering it was a cottage that felt like a place to live for life, four bedrooms, a room with beautiful lighting that might serve as an art studio for Helia that had been the thing that had captured his heart, a room she might transform into a tea room to hold plants and guests.

It was probably not the best choice for two kids who were getting their first home… but it had her heart and she could tell Helia had been equally enchanted by the place.

He took her hand, a small smile tugging at his lip, “Flora, my love, I know you won’t like me saying this but… you don’t have to worry about the price-”

“Helia I can’t let you-”

“Yes you can.” He pressed a kiss against the back of her hand, “I’m not a rich man, but my grandfather and my parents set me up with an account a while back, said I could use it for whatever I wanted… I haven’t used it for much… but I’d like to use it for this. Combined with the money we got for our mission… it’s enough for the down payment and first few months.”

Flora smiled even as she hesitated, “I… I don’t know how I feel about you using that money. It’s supposed to be for you.”

“It’s meant for my future. You’re my future and this… this is something I want with all my heart.” He kissed her gently, leaning their foreheads together, “You’re not the only one with their heart set on that cottage. There’s something about it that just… feels right. Feels like it could be home.”

Flora took a deep breath, cupping his face as she considered, “We still have some stuff to figure out… but… I think that could work. If you’re absolutely sure about it.”

“I am. But let’s take a bit just to make sure it’s what we want.”

The old woman selling the cottage that’d belonged to her brother had assured them she wouldn’t be selling for a few months, and was willing to wait two months for them to decide whether they wanted it or not since she wanted to give the house to people who would take proper care of it.

It didn’t hurt that she seemed thrilled by the thought of a couple from the Winx buying the house.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence with her legs draped over his lap, they went back to the house, saying goodbye to her parents and Mielle before boarding a Crow to set off to Magix.

***

Stella sighed in relief, letting herself fall back.

She sat on the throne, delicate golden crown on her head as she took audiences from various citizens and politicians of Solaria one last time before she left for Magix.

“Oh I am so glad that’s over.” She said as she took a moment to slump back in the throne.

Her guard Lola, who was to her right, snorted, “Actually… you have one more audience for the day.”

“What?!” She quickly grabbed her list, checking through it, “Nothing is in here, who- what do you mean one more?”

Sua, who stood at her left, barely contained a smile as she spoke, “A certain sir Brandon Telfer from Eraklyon requested one.”

Stella froze for a second, “Oh… well I suppose I could grant one more audience.”

Lola snorted, Stella just sat up straight and readjusted her crown, as the doors opened and Brandon stepped through with some of his armor and a barely contained smile.

He bowed deep, “Your Highness.”

“Sir Telfer, I hope you won’t mind me asking why you requested an audience with such short notice?” 

He grinned, “I worried you might have need for an escort, I’m happy to offer my services.”

Stella contained herself for all of two seconds before flying off the throne, nearly colliding with Brandon, laughing as he spun her around, her crown nearly falling off.

“What are you doing here?” She asked genuinely as she pulled back to look at him.

He gave her a one-shouldered shrug, “Your parents invited me over to have lunch.”

“What about your family?”

“We had dinner with them last weekend when we got back from our vacation, I already said goodbye and, if you want we can always visit them next weekend.” 

Stella grinned, pulling him in for a chaste kiss.

“You two are disgusting, I hope you know that.” She laughed as she pulled away, seeing the doors had opened again to reveal a mockingly annoyed Alexa and a smiling Chimera, who elbowed Alexa.

“Oh leave them alone.”

Brandon rolled his eyes at his sister, taking Stella’s hand and going to throw an arm around Chimera’s shoulders as they started making their way down the hall and towards lunch, “Hey Chimera, I barely saw you in the summer.”

Chimera let him pull her along, “I spent sometime in the Moon Kingdom with Queen Luna again, I wanted to get a head start with Technical Incantations since they can be a bit… complicated with moon magic.”

“She’s a nerd and doesn’t know how to chill.” Alexa said, moving from her place where she’d been half hugging Stella to move to Chimera’s other side, interlacing their arms, “I keep telling you you’ll be fine!”

“Technical Incantations is on another level okay?” Chimera tried to justify, clearly not too bothered by Alexa’s half-teasing, “And it’s the subject I’m most looking forwards to. Besides, even if I wasn’t- it helped with my magic, you know I still don’t have much control over anything that isn’t illusions.”

“Are you forgetting you managed to transport us from Magix to Domino with little to no time to prepare?”

“Daphne’s spirit gave me the portal and most of the transportation spell came from the staff.” Chimera easily justified.

Alexa rolled her eyes, “You gotta learn to take some credit girl.”

“On that we can agree.” Stella said, “You’ve been doing great with your magic even without the staff. I’m sure you’ll be great, besides, Avalon is a great teacher, he knows pretty much all there is to know about Technical Incantations, anything you need just ask, he loves when students ask questions.”

Chimera didn’t reply, just half shrugging.

They reached the tea room, much less dramatic than the dinning room, Stella delighted to see her mom would actually be joining them, sitting next to Cassandra.

Stella liked Cassandra well enough, she could tell she was trying her best as Queen and she clearly had nothing but respect for her mom. They’d had some good conversations, she didn’t think she’d ever think of her as anything resembling a mom but she knew she was good for her dad. A calming presence who was willing to give advice if Stella sought it out.

And she was a good mom to Chimera, which was a lot more important to Stella than their own relationship.

“Ah, Brandon, Alexa, I’m glad you could join us.” Her dad quickly greeted, getting up to hug Brandon.

“I wouldn’t dare miss it.” Brandon joked as they went to sit down.

“So, do tell Alexa, how are you feeling about Dragon Training?” Her dad asked.

Alexa smiled as she settled down between Brandon and Chimera, “Oh I am thrilled- a bit nervous, but thrilled. I think us already having a bit of experience with Muffin will probably help us along.”

“I’m sure it will, what about you Brandon, anything you’re looking forward to specifically?” Her mom asked gently as their food was set out before them.

“Well I’ll be taking a class or two focused more on the strategy and inner workings of a royal guard squad. So that I’m interested in. And overall I’m just glad to be going back to Red Fountain, training with all my boys.”

“Same here.” Stella said, “I mean, we won’t be having a lot of classes together but still… I’m excited to go back with the girls.”

“I’m not quite sure I’ve heard you mention what optatives you’ll be taking Stella.” Cassandra spoke softly, turning to her.

“Oh I’ll be taking some royal courses, the final obligatory Source Magic class and a few fashion classes. I’m kinda looking forward to Source Magic, we’ve changed so much since we last took it.”

Their lunch went well, her dad reminiscing a bit on his days at Red Fountain, her mom explaining to Cassandra that Chimera had apparently undersold how well she’d done during her time staying in the Moon Kingdom, fully confident she’d excel at Technical Incantations.

Once they were done and said their goodbyes, she and Brandon walked hand in hand down the halls, Alexa and Chimera a few paces in front of them, talking about possible weekend plans.

She leaned her head against Brandon’s shoulder, “Are you really ready to go back?”

He seemed surprised at that, “Aren’t you?”

“I am, I’m… actually looking forward to it more than I thought I would but… I don’t know I just feel like you’re… sad.”

Brandon gave her a gentle smile, “I guess I’m just… still taking in the fact that it’s our last year. That’s all.”

She smiled back, “Okay… let’s get this show on the road.”

***

“Thanks for coming again.” He said yet again as they escaped the ballroom.

“You don’t have to thank me Sky.” Bloom repeated, weaving her arm through his.

A ball that had been meant to take place a week prior had been moved to the very last day of their vacations, and since Sky had insisted Brandon couldn’t turn down his future in-laws invitation to lunch, he’d reached out to see if Bloom could attend the ball to not be on his own since Diaspro had been busy as well.

“Honestly… it was very different from the last balls I’d come to in Eraklyon… you can really tell your hard work is starting to pay off.” Bloom told him genuinely, gently squeezing his arm.

Sky smiled, trying not to blush at that, “Yeah well… I made sure that everyone was invited, not just nobility, I’m trying to reintegrate all different sectors to lessen the social divide that was pushed during my father’s reign.”

“Well I think it’s working.”

“I hope I didn’t pull you away from any plans?”

Bloom waved him off, “I already spent most of the summer with my biological parents and…”

“And Valtor?” Sky provided.

Bloom sighed, “It’s weird. Having him just… be there. But… he just acts like… a normal guy. It kinda freaks me out sometimes.”

He snorted, “Well I’m glad he’s being normal… or as normal as he can be. How’s the Dragon?”

“…better. But…” she looked down, “I don’t know.”

“Hey,” he gently bumped his hip against hers, “what is it?”

Bloom hesitated, “It’s… weird… I kinda feel like it’s… waiting for something… or expecting something to happen… but I can’t figure out what.”

“Hmm.”

“It’s probably nothing.” Bloom quickly added, probably just wishing it meant nothing more than she believed it.

As they made their way to the courtyard where their ship was waiting to take them to Magix, Bloom sighed dramatically, “Goodbye vacations, you were good while you lasted.”

Sky snorted, “Please, as if you’re not thrilled to get back.”

“Let me be dramatic!”

They both chuckled.

“Oh, by the way, I overheard Timmy saying something about needing to check something with Codatorta? Is everything alright?”

Sky took a breath as he went to sit down, the guards already preparing for take-off, “Oh yeah we just uhh… we were checking with the teachers if it was alright for Nabu to stay with us in the dorms this year even though he’s not a student. He’ll be rooming with Timmy.”

Bloom blinked, slightly taken aback, “Really? What for?”

“Well you know- we just wanna be together. Besides, he’ll be taking some course or something at Cloud Tower and it’s easier to get there from Red Fountain than it is from his apartment in the city.”

She hummed, “Gosh this codependency thing is getting a little out of hand.”

“It’s our last year in Magix, we’re allowed to be glued at the hip for it.”

“That’d be fair, if we hadn’t already spent the last four years glued at the hip.” 

They both chuckled.

Once they’d taken-off and were stable, Sky got up, opening a compartment to drag out a pale blue duffle bag and handing it to Bloom, “You can change in the bathroom.”

Bloom, who’d gone all out for the gala, sighed in relief, she’d forgotten she’d packed a duffle bag, she’d left it at her guest room, Sky must’ve anticipated she’d forget about it.

She changed into a comfy pair of bell bottom jeans, a collared pale yellow top with embroidered stars and a pair of high tops, Sky also changing out of his King attire and into something more mundane.

When she got out, he was sitting in front of one of the windows, observing the empty space before them.

She went to stand at his side, taking in the view.

She hesitated before speaking, “You know… I’m glad you invited me.”

He slowly turned to her, “…I’m glad I invited you too… don’t tell Brandon this but you’re kinda my favorite bodyguard.”

She laughed, “Oh I am telling.”

“No-”

“Actually- could you repeat that so I can record it?” She started taking out her phone, “C’mon say it.”

“No- he would hold that over my head for years-”

“C’mon!” She teased as he tried to grab the phone, nearly bending back to keep it out of his reach, “Just say I’m your favorite bodyguard!”

“No!”

He managed to wrap an arm around her, getting a hold of the phone as he pulled her against him, the two laughing at the mock struggle, Bloom going limp, knowing Sky wouldn’t let her hit the floor harshly, the two winding up on the floor, laughing.

Like they were just two nineteen year olds without the weight of several planets on their shoulders.

“Am I really your favorite bodyguard?” She finally asked as she fully laid down, uncaring of the fact that some of Sky’s guards were probably either amused or scandalized.

Sky considered, “You’re the most entertaining. I hate to be the one to tell you but you have to work on your poker face, I can tell every thought passing through your head whenever a politician talks to you, you fully looked ready to toss one or two of them out a window.”

She rolled her eyes, “That was on purpose, I want them to know how close they are to me snapping.”

He shook his head with a grin, going to also lay down opposite from her.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, seeing the stars and planets fly past the window above.

“Are you really excited to go back?” He eventually asked in a whisper.

She sighed, “I… I don’t know… I’m trying to be. You?”

“…I’m trying to be.”

Her hand found his.

And they stayed like that.

Chapter Text

Stella tossed her hair over her shoulder as she walked into the Alfea courtyard, an arm linked with Chimera’s.

The effect was instant, she could feel the eyes and heads turning her way, the whispers quickly breaking out and spreading.

The first of the Winx had arrived.

Chimera’s hand slipped to her own, gently squeezing, “Oh hey, I forgot to tell you, I might be getting a new dorm mate.”

Stella knew she was just trying to distract her, she allowed it, “How come?”

“Dana is transferring to a school on her home planet, she couldn’t stand being so homesick. And, since I traded my single room for a double for when Roxy comes over, it might be a royal. Any guesses who it might be?”

“Hmm… I’m not really sure. Most of the royals I know or know of are more in my age range or the current rulers. I’m blanking… but maybe-”

“Stel!”

She turned to see Musa and Tecna walking in together, masterfully ignoring the looks sent their way.

“Hey,” she went to give them both a quick hug, “where are the guys?”

“They’re already on the way to Red Fountain with Naten and- you know it’s breaking day tomorrow, so Riven and Timmy want him to get as much rest as they can.” Tecna answered.

Chimera frowned, “What’s breaking day?”

Musa snorted, “Basically, first day of second year, the Guardian goes a bit crazy on students, they do drills and exercises all day long, no one comes out unscathed. They go until they give up or collapse.”

“Why?”

“To make sure they didn’t slack off in the summer.” Stella explained, “And also to prepare them for Dragon Training, it’s a lot more grueling than you’d expect.”

“And also at this point it’s pretty much a rite of passage for any Red Fountain student.” Musa added with a smirk.

“What’s a rite of passage?” Bloom asked, having managed to get in without the girls seeing her, a small smile on her face.

“Breaking day.”

“Oh! I’d totally forgotten about that, poor Naten and Alexa, they don’t know what awaits them. The boys complained about it for months.”

Chimera winced, “Is it really that bad? I wouldn’t think-”

“Mera!” A blur of pink ran past the girls, all but slamming into Chimera, Roxy, followed closely by Arthur, wrapped around her neck like a scarf was Yuki,the kitsune.

The two girls hugged and laughed, nearly stumbling as they all but spun around.

Roxy turned to them, beaming, “Hi girls!” She went to give each of them a hug.

Chimera grabbed her hand, tugging at her, Yuki climbing effortlessly, using the joined hands as a bridge to curl up around Chimera’s neck, “Come on, you gotta see the dorms. We’re gonna room together!”

“Wait seriously?!”

“Yeah, come on!”

Just like that, the two girls were gone, all but running into the school.

The girls stayed quiet for a moment before Stella shook her head, “We weren’t that bad were we?”

Bloom chuckled, going to wrap an arm around her, “Let’s face it… we were probably so much worse. In fact-”

“Hey!” Aisha snuck between the two, going to throw an arm around each, “I missed you girls.”

“And we missed you.” Bloom squeezed against her, knowing they were still so much worse than Roxy and Chimera, “Hey- Nabu tell you about the dorm thing?”

“What dorm thing?” Tecna questioned as she succumbed to Aisha’s hug.

“Oh, the boys spoke to Codatorta, convinced him to let Nabu stay in the dorm with them this year.” Aisha explained away.

“Ugh the codependency is spreading!” Musa groaned dramatically.

“Pretty sure that happened a while back.” Flora’s voice came from behind, the girls all turning and going to greet her as the brunette laughed, “I’m honestly shocked we’re not sick of each other at this point.” She joked.

“Don’t think that will ever happen.” Bloom said as she laced one arm with Flora’s, “Let’s get to the dorm!”

They made their way to the dorms, the stares always felt less prominent when they were together, even if logically they knew that they drew more eyes the six of them together.

Reaching their rooms provided certain relief, shutting the door to outsiders and strangers and admirers and collapsing on the couches of the living room, chatter already filling the place as Flora made her way to the small kitchen, going to make strawberry lemonade before they unpacked their stuff, Tecna revealing a box of cookies her sister had sent their way.

Stella let herself fall over the empty coffee table, laughing at the way comfort seemed to settle like a blanket over them the moment they were alone together.

Bloom and Musa were already arguing as Musa played some melody that she wasn’t convinced by but that Bloom was drawn in by, Tecna was helping Flora cut up the fresh lemons and strawberries she’d brought from Lynphea as Aisha plated the cookies Tecna’s mom had sent as well as some pastries her own mother had bought for them.

Stella took a deep breath and smiled to herself even as Aisha approached to kick her off the coffee table and she dramatically rolled down to the floor.

It was good to be back.

***

Nabu stopped in front of the dorm door, sighing heavily.

He pushed the door open, seeing he was the last to arrive, the other boys sitting around the coffee table

Helia was the first to stand, weakly smiling, “Hey man.”

“…hey.”

Sky, who was in the kitchen, placed paper bags on the counter, “I passed by that hamburger place Riven adores.”

Nabu fully smiled, “Now that’s how you kick off a school year.”

They went to eat together, gathering around the coffee table, sitting on the floor around it as they split up hamburgers, fries and milkshakes.

They spoke quietly, chatting about optatives, their last breakfasts with their families and about possible plans for the weekend.

As Nabu dipped one of the fries into his milkshake, he took a deep breath, “You know guys… you didn’t have to talk Codatorta into letting me stay here, I could-”

“Nabu.” Brandon quickly interrupted, “We’re not letting you stay on your own all the way in the city. Not when…”

Not when they had no idea when or how his symptoms would start manifesting.

“It’s best if you stay with us.” Riven continued, “Should also be more fun.” He added, perhaps trying to lift some of the weight in the air.

Nabu smiled weakly, “Yeah… you’re probably right.”

Timmy went to stand up, “You know what? I say, tonight we take our mattresses and have a little sleepover in the living room, for old times sake. What do you guys say?”

“I can get behind that.” Sky shot up as well, “First one to fall asleep has to clean all the phanto blades!”

They all groaned at the prospect of that but went to get the place ready.

Nabu appreciated that the boys didn’t try to dissuade him from helping to move the furniture to make room for the mattresses.

It made him feel almost normal.

Like this was the start of just any year… and not his last one.

***

Roxy laughed as she and Chimera hurried through the halls, Chimera’s excitement contagious as they reached the dorms, stopping in front of a double set of green doors that were quickly pushed open.

Roxy took in the dorm, which consisted of a living room with a few comfortable couches and a coffee table, a kitchen with a fridge, small stove and a counter with a few stools. At either side of her a green door leading into what she assumed to be their rooms, a third door not too far from the kitchen probably containing the solo suite.

Standing near one of the doors, two girls turning to see them.

Chimera smiled, “Oh- hi girls! This is Roxy, our new roommate, Roxy, these are Amber and Mara.”

Roxy waved, “Nice to meet you.”

Amber had short blonde hair framing her jawline and warm honey eyes, Mara was taller, with bronze skin, dark long hair in curls and brown eyes, they both smiled her way.

“Nice to meet you too, you’re from Earth right?” Amber asked.

“Yes.”

“Who are your friends?” She asked, glancing down.

“Oh, this is Arthur, my service dog, and this cutie who seems to keep forgetting she’s not a scarf, is Yuki.” Roxy presented thrilled, gently patting the pocket of her jeans, “And in here is a kitten, Tiresias, but he’s asleep.”

Amber snorted, “They’re cute.”

“Chimera had mentioned something about you only being around occasionally?” Mara asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah I uh… I’ll be attending on Fridays and every two Mondays for a few classes. I am also being taught by the Earth Faries back home but I really wanted to take a few of the classes they offer here. I’ll stay pretty much all the weekends to hang out though.”

“Well if you’re staying this weekend we should totally go out together! Even if you’ll only be here a few days a week, we’re still roommates, I heard of this new cafe in town that sounds fun, we should go!” Amber quickly proposed with a smile, “Get to know each other- and our other new roommate.”

Roxy nodded along with a smile.

“Right-” Chimera turned to Mara, “Do you know who-”

The door behind them opened and in stepped another girl.

She had tan almost glistening skin, long pink hair falling to her calfs and pale yellow eyes that somehow reminded Roxy of a fox, shimmering with confidence.

“Oh, looks like I’m the last one here.” she said with a toss of hair, beaming as she went to stand before them, “Hi, I’m Princess Krystal, from Lynphea, pleasure to meet you all.”

They all did quick introductions with Krystal, who swiftly went to check out her solo suite, Roxy following Chimera to what would be their room.

Two beds, doors that led into a balcony, desks and nightstands and decoration that was somehow exactly what Roxy wanted and that she could easily imagine was the same for Chimera.

Roxy’s side of the room was painted in a pale lavender, with furniture and sheets in whites and pinks and golds. Posters of bands and figurines of animals scattered around, small beds and nests, meant for the animals under her protection. 

Yuki jumped down from her place curled around her neck, quickly claiming the biggest of the beds, Roxy quietly shaking her head as Arthur took one of the smaller beds without protest, licking his snout and barking once at her.

She knew what he wanted, gently taking Tiresias from her pocket, he wasn’t growing as quickly as the other kittens she’d fostered, but from what she could tell with her magic and from what Diana had said, that was normal for matagots.

She placed the small kitten over Arthur’s flank, the two had taken on a tendency of napping together.

She turned to Chimera’s side of the room, which was violet velvet, silvers, blacks, royal purples and deep blues, a dramatic canopy, crystals and quartz strewn about the place.

Roxy ran, throwing herself on Chimera’s bed, Chimera laughing before flopping down next to her, “You gonna stay until tomorrow?”

“Yeah, just to get acquainted with the teachers. Why?”

“After school we should head to Red Fountain, apparently tomorrow is… ‘breaking day’? Basically- Alexa and Naten are gonna need some food and comfort.”

“I’m in.”

Yuki jumped up on the bed, never one to miss the chance to be the center of attention, going to curl up over Chimera’s chest, who gladly gave her the pets she demanded with a dramatic yowl.

Roxy quietly rolled her eyes, but couldn’t quite wipe the smile from her face.

***

Helia was quiet. Observing.

He leaned against the kitchen counter, only a tiny flame from a candle illuminating the space.

They’d all fallen asleep a while back, but his eyes had flown open half an hour prior and sleep refused to come back to him.

So he’d made himself some tea as quietly as he could.

He’d started preparing a second mug as soon as he saw Sky starting to move around from his spot between Brandon and Riven.

The blonde snapped awake, sitting up and tensing on instinct, eyes drawn to the only light in the room- the candle.

His eyes landed on Helia, who just jerked his head to signal for him to join him.

Sky sighed heavily, the tension leaving his body.

He sat for a minute before rising slowly, careful to not move too abruptly to not accidentally wake anyone else.

They were all light sleepers.

He managed to step away from the mattress and make his way to the kitchen, accepting the tea Helia offered without a word, reaching for the bottle of honey Helia had left to the counter, pouring two spoonfuls into his tea instead of the usual single one he tended to.

That’s how Helia knew the nightmare must’ve been a bad one.

He didn’t pry yet though. 

He knew better than anyone how much good a bit of silence could do after a nightmare.

Sky took a few sips of tea, leaning forwards on the counter, dropping his head, “…how are we going to do this?”

Helia shook his head, “I don’t know.” He said in a hoarse voice, “I… Sky we… I have no idea what we’re doing… but we have to figure it out somehow… for all of our sakes.”

Sky took a moment to look at the other boys.

There was something of a silent agreement between the two that had formed at some point during the summer.

They were both very much aware that out of all the guys, they were the best at compartmentalizing and saving break-downs for later. So they’d found themselves quietly trying to guide, to watch over the others and make sure no one messed up.

Sky was still hoping that Riven might join them, but he’d been working so hard on precisely not doing all of that, that he wasn’t sure if he’d join them in their silent crusade to assure the others bore as little of the weight of this secret as possible.

Helia took a deep breath, taking a long sip of tea before speaking, “Musa knows we’re lying.”

Sky didn’t even tense up, instead just shaking his head, “How?”

“Her power… she can hear the tells of our lying. She knows we’re keeping a secret, but she doesn’t know what it is. Didn’t ask. But she will eventually.”

Sky just took another sip of tea, “You think we could convince her to lie if it comes to it?”

“…I honestly don’t know. I’d say maybe… if we make her see why Nabu wants to keep it under wraps… but I wouldn’t count on it.”

“How long do you reckon we have until she asks?”

“Until things start going wrong. Until our excuses and hiding start being noticeable. I think we’re good for two or three months at least.”

Sky leaned further into the kitchen counter, practically melting against it, leaning his forehead against the cold marble, “I am tired of lying.”

Helia placed a gentle hand against his back, “I know… believe me I know.”

Sky stayed like that for a long while before slowly going to stand up straight once more, “Do you think they’ll forgive us?”

“…I don’t know. Might take a while… but in the end… we’ll need each other for- for after.”

Sky nodded along. The two stayed in the kitchen for a while longer before finally going to try and fall back asleep.

***

Musa jerked awake in the middle of the night.

Not a nightmare… just… restlessness moved beneath her skin, gnawing at her consciousness.

Musa groaned as she slowly swung her legs over the edge of her bed, turning on her small nightlight to illuminate the room slightly, snorting when she saw Tecna half contorted in her own bed, hugging a big plushie that’d been a gift from Stella, metallic prosthetics resting against her nightstand.

She’d almost forgotten what Tecna’s stumps looked like, she only took off her prosthetics to sleep and to shower, a simple cane leaned against the wall, used for quick trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night, something she’d picked up a few months prior after having enough of putting on her prosthetic in the middle of the night with little lighting.

Musa slowly got out of bed, yawning as she moved towards the door, plucking a single string of her guzheng as she went, picking up the guitar she’d left next to the door as she slipped out of the room.

She raised an eyebrow when she saw a figure already sitting on the kitchen counter, Aisha turning to meet her gaze, the two girls starring for a moment before snorting, Musa going to join her.

“Nightmare?” She asked as she went to sit opposite from her.

“Nah, I just couldn’t sleep a lot.” Aisha told her, offering a sip of strawberry milk, Musa accepting, “The ocean has been… restless lately.”

“Any reason for it?” She asked as she played a simple quiet melody on the guitar, plucking strings like it was second nature.

Aisha hopped down from the counter, going to grab another glass to make Musa her own strawberry milk, “Not that I know of. But sometimes there are cycles in which the oceans get like that. Might be because of the stars or something. I just… didn’t feel it as much before.”

“Mmm.”

“You? Bad dreams? Late night inspiration?” 

“I’m just not that tired surprisingly enough. Fun fact… I feel I sleep the best when I’m in the farm, feel like I caught up on all the sleep I was missing in the year.”

Aisha snorted, “Glad to hear that… to be honest I think part of the reason I can’t sleep is because Nabu isn’t here… kinda got used to falling asleep next to him.”

“Got used to having him in your bed?” Musa asked in a teasing tone, waggling her eyebrows, plucking out a playful melody that somehow came across as teasing as well.

“I will throw this milk at you, do not test me.” Aisha jokingly threatened, the two chuckling.

“Jokes aside I get it.” Musa said as she set her guitar to the side to accept the glass Aisha offered before hoping on the counter in front of her, “There’s nothing quite like falling asleep in the arms of someone you love… I’ll be honest, I totally thought that was overrated, and then I experienced it and I was like- wow.”

Aisha snorted, “Yeah…”

Musa noticed the weight that seemed to settle over the moment, gently kicking at Aisha’s feet, “Hey… you good?”

She sighed, “I’m just… a bit worried I guess.”

“About Nabu?”

“Well yeah… but even beyond that… things in Andros have been a bit… tense.”

“The coronation thing?”

“Yep. I just hope my uncle can stop playing around soon and just announce the heir. We have more than enough problems without Nereus and Tritannus ripping out their hair in stress.”

Musa frowned, “I thought things were getting better.”

“They are! But… we still have a long way to go.”

Musa hesitating, mulling the question over in her head before daring to ask it, “…how you feel about the Valtor thing?”

Aisha took a few sips of milk to delay her answer, considering, “A part of me is pissed. I mean we’re still picking up the pieces of everything he broke and he’s already free… but… he has been helping with a few potions and spells and other stuff… and… after everything that happened on Earth.” A shadow crossed over her face, “I don’t know that I would’ve done anything differently from him if I’d been in his place.”

“…it’s weird… I don’t know even know what to think of him most days.”

“Hmm…” Aisha gently kicked at her feet, “Play something for me.”

Musa smirked, “Any requests?”

“Something that reminds you of the tides.”

“How very Princess of Andros of you.” 

Aisha snorted, rolling her eyes.

Musa took a moment as she pulled her guitar into her lap, silently going over her seemingly endless catalog of songs in her mind, before slowly smiling, “I’ll play you a tune that mimics the calls of some song whales back in Melody.”

She shut her eyes and leaned back against the cupboards behind her as she played the melody, nostalgia tugging at her stomach.

“Where’d you learn that?” Aisha asked gently.

Musa sighed, “My mom adored those whales… it was one of her favorite tunes to play.”

“Mmm… I can see why… play it again.”

Musa did.

Chapter Text

Bloom leaned her chin on her palm as she stared at the chalkboard before her.

She’d decided when making her schedule for fifth year to actually listen to everyone around her and not solely enroll royal courses.

She had the only obligatory class of the semester, Source Magic with the rest of the girls.

Of course, she had chosen three royal courses; Finances, Law and Interplanetary Relations.

But aside from that, her last two classes had been purely for fun.

History of the Magix Dimension.

And the class she was currently in; Mythology, Fairytales and Folklore in the Magix Dimension.

Since it was the first class, Faragonda was going over the material they’d be seeing during the semester, the planets they’d be taking a deeper look at and explaining the basic concepts for a refresher.

She looked down at her notebook, at the list of myths she hoped they’d look into, since Faragonda had asked them to write down the myths and fairytales they found most intriguing, regardless of their planet of origin.

She looked to her right, to the list Jaimie was working on, snorting.

“Fauns? How very predictable of you.” She said in a low tone teasingly.

He stuck his tongue out at her, “Fauns are the best, shut up.”

Before Bloom could reply, Faragonda rose from her desk, “Is everyone done with their lists? Any volunteers to read theirs?”

From her left, Lisa kicked at Bloom’s chair and Faragonda of course chose her.

Bloom was once again reminded why she pretty much only hung out with the Winx, she should’ve known Jaimie and Lisa would have it out for her after abandoning their history study group for a year.

She cleared her throat as she glanced down to her list, “Well I uh… I hope we’ll get a bit into a few myths from Earth, specifically Proteus and the Amabie, I don’t know I just find them interesting. From Solaria I wrote down the fairytale of the Crystal Forest and the Shimmering Pond. And in general Nereids since every planet seems to have a slightly different variation of them in their tales.”

Faragonda nodded along, “Nothing from Domino?”

Bloom laughed nervously, “I’ve researched more than enough about the myths and folklore of Domino- I honestly don’t think I could take one more look without imploding.”

“Well that’s a shame, I was hoping we could look into the Great Dragon-” Bloom gave Lisa a mocking glare.

Faragonda chuckled as Bloom went to sit down, “Well we won’t be studying the stories of the Great Dragon. We will however be taking a look at the various myths and tales that revolve around the Dragon and the Leviathan since that is a very interesting study of how reality can blend into myth.”

She wrote and underlined ‘The Dragon and The Leviathan’ on the chalkboard below the rest of the myths she’d already written down.

Bloom went to copy it in her notebook.

***

Sky was perhaps a bit too excited as he sat down at the long desk before him, pulling out a few of his supplies.

In a bold moment, he’d decided he would only take two Royal Courses; Law and Interplanetary Relations since, as he’d already been on the throne for over a year and had his own private tutors in Eraklyon helping him review the subjects he needed over the summer, he could take it easy on that front for his last year at Red Fountain.

For his other classes, he’d have the obligatory Squad Strategy and Sparring, the only obligatory class of the semester and aside from that, he’d chosen Architectural Design, Building Structures and Construction as well as Building Design.

After his internship on Earth giving him some actual experience with architecture, he wanted to just… enjoy these subjects.

It’d probably be his last chance to genuinely devote time to his hobby… unless he decided to go through with a vague idea he had for something of a passion project for Eraklyon.

But that would be getting ahead of himself.

For now, he just leaned back on his seat, smiling to himself as he got ready for his first class of Architectural Design.

***

Stella carefully got up, approaching the large table filled with cloths and accessories and shoes that the teacher had set up.

For her last year, she’d chosen three Royal Courses; Finances, Law and Business, forfeiting Interplanetary Relations since she was actually fully confident in that area and, for her other two optatives, she’d gone with Apparel Construction and Draping.

And her final class would be of course, Source Magic.

She hummed to herself as she inspected the clothes strewn about the table.

For their first class of Apparel Construction, the teacher had thought it might be a fun idea to let them just go at it and try and come up with the craziest yet cohesive outfit possible with the pile of clothes she’d brought along.

There was a mannequin for each of them waiting for their chosen outfits.

After a single moment of deliberation, Stella went into action, picking out a light green dress with a fluffy skirt that fell to the mannequin’s knees, an almost blazer-like jacket in soft orange going on top, yellow thick strings wrapping around the dress to serve as decoration around the waist and falling down the legs, ribbons of the same color being tied to the simple wedges of the same green tone to wrap around the calfs.

Golden accents; small earrings, three rings and an elegant necklace pulling the whole thing together.

She took a step back to inspect her quick creation.

Oh yeah. She was going to enjoy this.

***

Brandon was nervous as he went to sit down in his desk.

His first class of Captain Training was about to start and, despite all of his experience, Brandon knew that he had a long way to go when it came to leadership, there were plenty of times in which he’d taken charge during missions, but this wasn’t squad training, it was teaching with the thought that students would go on to eventually lead an entire guard.

Slightly intimidating stuff.

His other chosen classes were Royal Guard Breakdown, Advanced Guard Strategy, Advanced First Aid and Sword Technique, where he’d mostly be helping the teachers with the younger kids. And of course, SSS; Squad Strategy and Sparring, his only class with the other boys.

He was excited for all the classes, but if he were honest with himself, Captain Training was the one he’d been looking forward to the most, even if it was also the one he was most nervous for.

It felt like a step in the right direction, like an active step towards what hopefully awaited him in the future.

He just hoped he could excel in it.

***

Flora carefully smoothed over the guide she’d just been handed. It reminded her a bit of what on Earth they’d called a periodic table.

Potion Composition and Formulation was definitely going to be her most challenging subject, but it was a challenge she welcomed, she was thrilled to really get back into potionology and wrap up her education.

She didn’t expect to struggle much with Bioremediation or with Advanced Environmental Magic. Advanced Biochemistry worried her just a tad bit, same with Conservation Biology/Ecology, but she was sure she could handle it.

Her eyes went over the guide they’d all been handed, consisting of common and rare potion ingredients along with their general information.

She quietly smiled to herself.

***

Helia observed the three paintings being projected on to the chalkboard via hologram.

The teacher had asked them to write down and then give their opinion and breakdown of each painting.

He supposed it was an appropriate way to open up their first class of Art Theory and Criticism. 

In the end, Helia had decided to split his classes up, a bit of psychology and a bit of art.

Studio Art was his other art class, he then had Psychological Assesment as well as Pshychotherapy.

And his last optional class was Advanced Spell Structure. Along with the obligatory SSS, he felt it was a pretty well rounded selection of classes for his last year at Red Fountain.

He wasn’t sure if having classes about both art and psychology would actually help him make up his mind or if it’d just leave him more confused and conflicted about what he wanted but, for the time being, he felt like he’d made the right choice.

He just hoped that sentiment didn’t change.

***

Musa drummed her fingers on the cover of her notebook as she waited for class to start. 

She was quite curious how Ethnomusicology would go, seeing how different planets considered music and the different views on songwriting, melodies and a ton of other stuff.

She’d also chosen Music Performance, Advanced Music Production and Engineering, Advanced Music Theory and Advanced Songwriting.

Even Source Magic would revolve around music given its entire purpose.

Musa was excited for it. After this, sure, she might take the occasional course to refresh her memory and she’d never stop working to be a better musician but…

After this year she’d hopefully be a full time musician, an artist.

Musa was determined to give it her all, to better her skills as much as she could before she left Alfea.

***

Riven tossed a wrench from hand to hand as he leaned back against a cart, watching the Owl parked before them.

He hadn’t expected for Mechanical Engineering to be so hands-on right off the bat.

But he wasn’t about to complain.

It seemed like Advanced Mechatronics would be a lot of theory, Automotive Engineering would be half and half, Design and Development would probably be half and half as well, he wasn’t sure yet.

The only class Riven still wasn’t sure if he should’ve chosen was Natural Magic.

It was similar to Source Magic, just with a light focus on using magic to upgrade fighting skills, something Riven already attempted to do and what came most easily to him when it came to his magic.

He hoped it wouldn’t wind up being a class he hated.

And of course, SSS with the boys. 

It felt odd, having only one class with the other boys, but at least he was likely to team up with Timmy if their classes did joint projects like it seemed they might do.

He also hoped going up against other squads in SSS wouldn’t feel awkward.

But before he could get ahead of himself, he had to figure out what was wrong with the Owl. He went to climb on board.

***

Tecna tapped away at the keyboard with ease, reading through lines of code swiftly.

She knew it might’ve sounded arrogant, but she knew she had Advanced Software Development in the bag. It was a class to let herself relax. 

It was also a class she’d be taking with Timmy, another reason why it’d be easy, if the teacher let them pair up for projects.

Magic and Technology might have a light challenge but it didn’t worry Tecna too much.

The rest of her classes; Advanced Robotics, Advanced Software Engineering and Computer Architecture might just be a tad bit harder, but she was looking forward to them, a part of her craved the challenge, given how in tune she felt with most technology.

She just truly hoped Advanced Robotics wasn’t purely theory, she was ready to get her hands dirty this semester.

***

Timmy was taking notes, already trying to come up with tentative ideas for what projects he might work on for his Advanced Engineering class, which apparently, might be doing a joint project with one of Riven’s classes.

He could already tell Advanced Software Development would be a relatively easy class, especially since he got to spend it with Tecna.

His other classes were Advanced Data Structure, Digital Logic Design and Operating Systems.

Thyler had suggested he take Digital Logic Design, but he had pulled back on Timmy’s work load, giving him pretty much a single project to approve of for the entirety of the month, since he didn’t want him to get overwhelmed in school.

Timmy wasn’t sure how to explain to his brother that if he’d managed to keep up with his work while simultaneously taking classes online and fighting Earth Fairies he could most certainly handle it now that he only had his classes to worry about.

However, if his brother wanted to take it easy on him for once, Timmy wasn’t going to complain about it.

He wanted to enjoy this last year after all… at least as much as he could all things considered.

***

Aisha slowly skimmed through the pages of her textbook.

This might’ve been a mistake.

Aisha had decided that she wouldn’t be taking only royal courses for her last year. She’d chosen Law, Buisness and Finances for her royal courses, but, for her other two optional classes, something had possessed her to go for Marine Biology and the class she found herself in at the moment; Physical Oceanography.

Part of it had been genuine curiosity, another part had been because she wanted to simply know more about the ocean and its magic, feeling like she might need it as Queen given that the oceans of Andros were still healing. 

She also just wanted something different.

She considered the index within the textbook, going over what subjects they’d be studying.

It all seemed interesting enough, and she had no doubt it would eventually turn out to be useful back on Andros.

She only hoped she would actually understand all of it, something told her she was going to hit the books with these two classes.

***

Nabu hadn’t originally planned to take yet another extra course in Cloud Tower, but alas… he wanted something to do while his friends were busy with classes.

He’d spoken to Griffin, quietly explaining that, while he was interested in taking another course, he wouldn’t be able to actually partake in the practical side of whatever course that was, due to everything on Earth affecting his magic, and the Earth Fairies suggesting he keep his magic usage to a minimum.

Griffin hadn’t had a problem with that and hadn’t seemed to suspect there was anything more to it.

So, Nabu would be taking Advanced Curse Structure.

Oh how ironic that his favorite hobby and the thing that had always interested him the most was at least somewhat connected to what would end his life.

But irony aside, he found it helped him feel… normal. 

Helped keep the too-deep thoughts away.

He didn’t know if he’d be able to complete the course, didn’t know if- when his symptoms began to fully manifest they’d make it difficult or even impossible to keep going to class… but for now… he could still enjoy it.

So he would.

***

The Winx walked with arms intertwined towards the courtyard for Source Magic, their last class of the very first day of fifth year and the only class all of them shared, talking about their optatives and how they felt about them.

Bloom wore a pair of black bell bottom jeans with a few sparks and tiny dragons she’d painted at the bottom, a collared pale yellow crop top and a light blue cropped cardigan over it. Half her hair held up in a small messy bun, the rest falling down her shoulders. Light blue high tops she’d painted with butterflies completing the look.

Stella wore a soft orange skirt and a matching blazer that had tiny golden decorations, suns and lines, beneath she wore a simple satin golden blouse, a chain belt hung around one of her hips dangling star charms, she wore white wedges and golden pins in her hair.

Flora wore a long strapless dress, the top having a sweetheart neckline and the skirt loose around her legs in an asymmetrical way, the entire thing was a pale green with colored swirls in pale pink and soft blue, a waterfall braid on either side of her head, pale pink wedges on her feet. Golden hoops and bangles decorating her ears and wrists.

Musa wore a scrappy band t-shirt on top of a long sleeved fishnet top, the t-shirt tied at her hip, a red leather pleated skirt with multiple hip chains and chunky platform boots. She had her red eyeliner and two long necklaces, one holding a long smoky black quartz and the other a blood red ruby heart, both gifts from Riven, half her hair up in twin space buns, the rest grazing her collarbone.

Tecna wore a pair of dark purple baggy cargo pants with silver pockets. A long-sleeved light green top with a patterned sweater vest, as well as a pair of silver slip-ons. Stella was incredibly proud because the outfit should’ve clashed but somehow didn’t, it just made sense for her.

Aisha wore a tan cut out long sleeved top, with a cut revealing a portion of skin below her collarbones, the bottom part of the top formed an X to hug her waist. She wore a short A-line dark green skirt and tan knee high socks, two sections of hair held up in pigtails, the rest tumbling down her back in waves and curls.

As soon as the girls stepped out into the courtyard Flora knew someone must’ve spread the word of what time they’d be there.

They had a bit of an audience, younger fairies trying to act like they were casually hanging out on the steps leading up to the school and on the picnic benches surrounding the courtyard.

She traded a glance with Bloom, but Griselda didn’t pay their audience any mind after making sure that they weren’t skipping class to be there and that the girls didn’t mind them watching.

“Well I don’t think I need to explain to you the purpose of Source Magic,” she started, “This class serves mostly to evaluate the progress you have made in your source magic since you started your journey here in Alfea. This class is also important because, plenty of you no longer have any other classes revolving around solely magic, you are all focusing on your respective careers, this class serves to make sure you have all the control you need, make sure that you haven’t forgotten what you learned up until now.”

Griselda tapped her foot against the floor, a ring of light slowly forming around the girls and the rest of their classmates, “For this first class, I simply want you to give a demonstration of your magic, whatever comes naturally to you. I hope you remember the drill from your first year.”

The Winx got comfortable, already knowing they’d go last. 

They watched the rest of their classmates stepping up for their turns with pride and amusement.

They weren’t the only ones who’d improved with the years, everyone in their generation had mastered their own magic, giving great and even impressive demonstrations, Griselda watching with pride and satisfaction, mostly just nodding in approval at the end of each of their demonstrations.

Lisa managed to darken almost half the courtyard with her shadows, Jaimie created a gentle spell that settled over his classmates, bringing to the forefront soft sentiments and memories.

Once all of them had finished, they cast glances their way, Jaimie jokingly rolling his eyes as Stella sprung to her feet, all of them getting comfortable to watch them.

Stella took a moment to drink in the audience.

She would’ve hated it if it were the press or something like that, but she could see the genuine anticipation and excitement in the younger girls, especially the first years, who were all but gently shaking each other as they traded whispers.

She smiled to herself, transforming into Enchantix.

They were just here to see the spectacle of the most powerful fairies in Alfea giving their demonstrations. To see what the best looked like.

She took a deep breath, gently reaching out her hands, spinning slowly as she called to her sun beams and rays, weaving them into strings, she sent them high up, using them to bend the light until an illusion of a single large golden butterfly formed, taking a lap around the courtyard, a combination of sun and moon magic, she guided the butterfly to fly into the ground, imploding into the strings of golden light, returning to her and swirling around her before Stella started plucking a few of them at a time, manipulating them between her hands, carefully pulling them together into a ball that at first resembled a ball of yarn.

Then, once she’d pulled together all the strings, she passed a hand over it, smoothing it out and then focusing, shutting her eyes as she carefully transformed it into moonlight, silver replacing golden.

Stella threw the sphere of moonlight up, letting it disintegrate into shimmer that fell over the courtyard, a lot of the younger kids gasping and watching in awe.

Griselda smiled, “I see you’ve been hard at work with your moon magic. Very well done Miss Hanlon.”

Stella smirked, giving a half courtesy and tossing her hair over her shoulder, “Why thank you Miss Griselda.”

Aisha snorted as she went to take her place, “Show-off.” She teased, Stella hip checking her.

Aisha chose her Believix form, shutting her eyes as she started swaying in place, arms making shapes as she summoned her Morphix to spread out beneath her, reaching the steps and starting to imitate the movement of waves.

She started moving, almost dancing as her Morphix moved around her, forming different shapes and crashing down only to become gentle in their decent, fracturing into an almost web-like structure.

She summoned the water from the fountain as well, letting it swirl around her and dance with the Morphix before returning it and letting the Morphix fade, a gentle applause and awed gasps following the end of her demonstration.

Aisha felt herself instantly blush, hurrying back to her seat much to Musa’s amusement, who snorted as sprang up to her feet, sauntering to the center of the golden ring confidently, twirling the flute she’d brought for the class in hand.

She played a single high note, holding it for a few seconds before pausing.

The wind itself seemed to answer, rustles picking up the note.

Musa played a few more notes, her spell falling over the courtyard, the wind flying past the columns, the water in the fountain, the crickets and bugs hidden in corners, pens left on top of notebooks, rustling pages of textbooks and button clicks of phones joining Musa’s orchestra, answering and joining in to her melody, filling the courtyard with melancholic and solemn music.

Musa let every part fall off one by one, until it was just her and the flute again, giving a few playful notes to uplift the mood before finishing.

Another round of applause rung out, Musa grinning and giving a bow before going back to the steps.

Flora stood slowly, dusting off her skirt before walking forward.

She didn’t transform, instead simply letting her arms rise up in front of her chest before letting them uncurl forward, her influence falling over the courtyard as she started taking careful deep breaths.

With every breath, blades of grass, stems of flowers and vines peaked out from in between the stones that made up the courtyard, the patch of grass that held picnic tables imploded into colorful flowers and the few trees that already stood tall seemed to straighten up, apples and oranges blooming in an instant and falling down. 

The flowers growing in between the stones lifted up, separating from their stems and floating around, spreading their sweet scent and pollen.

Flora let her arms fall, the flowers continuing a gentle path down all around the courtyard, grass blades shrinking back down, but the patch of grass with the picnic tables remained radiant.

Flora gave a small courtesy and a small smile at the applause that followed her, some of the flowers finding her hair and sticking to her skirt as she walked back to the stairs.

Tecna sighed as she went to get up, “Gee thanks for giving them high expectations.” 

The rest chuckled as she took her place, seeming to think for a moment about how to go about her own demonstration.

Tecna took a slow spin, hand extended as she felt the energy of every device carried around by the students, transforming into Believix. It didn’t look like she was doing anything, in reality, she was taking some of the power and energy from the technology all around it, calling it to her, feeling as the power started surrounding her body, making the hair in her arms stand up and buzzing in her ears.

Then, she dropped, slamming her hand against the ground and letting the power combine with her own, building up and shooting out in what very much looked like lightning, flying up into the sky with a thunderous clap, everyone jumping in surprise, feeling the residual power in the very air.

Tecna rose up, snorting at the shock and the few electrified hairs she saw, returning to the steps to a laughing Bloom, who was trying to tame her static hair.

“Did you really have to do that just before my turn?” She questioned, going to stand up, several hairs still standing up.

Tecna touched a finger to her nose, absorbing the residual energy, Bloom’s hair fully falling, “I’m not about to be outdone by all of you dramatic beings.”

Bloom rolled her eyes good naturedly as she sauntered on to her spot, taking a moment to tap her chin, “I wonder what I should do-”

“Stop stalling we wanna see the Dragon!” Jaimie called out.

“Mister Jain, keep quiet.” Griselda chastised.

Bloom just snorted, “So much pressure.”

She transformed into Enchantix, clapping her hands and creating a ring of blue flames around her. She reached out, closing a hand around it and tugging, making it expand into a ribbon, sending it to swirl around her before she concentrated, starting to summon the Dragon, who erupted from her chest, going to take laps around her in a golden outline, taking on a slightly smaller shape than usual.

Then Bloom took the ribbon of flames and shaped it into a ball, sending it flying up and following after it, letting it bounce in the air as the Dragon flew up in spirals, going for the ball.

This was something they’d done a few times over their summer in Domino after her father had told her the Dragon could be playful on occasion.

The Dragon easily snapped his jaws around the sphere of flames, Bloom summoning more ribbons and taking a lap around the courtyard, the Dragon following, chasing the ribbons that almost resembled snakes.

She landed back in the golden circle, letting the Dragon finish snapping up the ribbons before returning to her, fading into her chest.

Then she turned to Jaimie, “You happy?”

“He can play fetch?!” 

Bloom snorted.

Griselda cleared her throat, but smiled, “Very well done everyone, that was an exceptional set of demonstrations. That will be all for this class, I am very proud to say that you have all showed exemplary control and growth.”

Their classmates all smiled, all proud of themselves, even as Winter turned to the Winx, “Thank you Miss Griselda, I think we’re all quite proud of ourselves… but I think we all know a certain set of fairies that left us in the dust and need an extra round of applause!”

The rest of their classmates instantly started clapping and whooping their way, Lisa even throwing some candy their way, the girls all laughing and playing along, giving mock bows.

It was a pretty good class, and somehow, despite the extra attention, they didn’t feel like a spectacle.

Chapter Text

The first week of classes had gone quite well, it was about as mundane as it got.

It was amazing.

They’d discovered that on Tuesdays they all had a free hour before lunch, and thus had decided that on those days, they’d rush into the city to eat together before returning to classes, it was a bit of a scramble to get back to school on time but it was worth it, given that they’d all be a bit busy in no time.

On that Tuesday, Stella snorted as she told them about what Chimera told her, “Apparently Avalon is still doing the indestructible obelisk thing for the first class, she was freaking out yesterday until I told her it’s supposed to be impossible to destroy it without a Technical Incantation.”

Musa shook her head, “You’re not supposed to tell her! No one told us!”

“She was about to pull her hair out!” Stella tried to justify.

“I was actually pulling my hair out!” Bloom retorted, “Fuck- didn’t I stay in the rain for like three hours cause I couldn’t stand the thought of not managing to destroy that stupid rock?”

“That was just you being stubborn, I told you from the beginning it was a test we were meant to fail.” Tecna reminded her, receiving a fry chucked at her head for her troubles.

“How are Alexa and Naten holding up?” Aisha asked, snorting at the way Brandon and Sky winced.

“Oh those poor kids, I’d say James needs to cool it but… if we suffered, they get to suffer too.” Brandon said, “It’s part of the Specialist experience.”

“I’m surprised no parents have complained about Breaking Day yet.” Riven said.

“Oh they have.” Helia snorted, “Plenty of times over the years but, like Brandon said, it’s part of the experience.”

“Oh hey, by the way,” Nabu took a sip out of his milkshake before continuing, “the joint school party is going to be on Friday right? Where is it gonna be hosted this year?”

“It’s Red Fountain’s turn.” Sky answered, “Which means it’s Cloud Tower’s turn to bring a gift for all the first years.”

Musa grinned, “They asked me to do one of the sets for the party.”

“Really?” Riven smiled.

“Yep, I’ll be performing for almost an hour.”

“Damn, go get that bag!” Stella joked, going to high-five a laughing Musa.

Timmy frowned slowly, titling his head at Aisha, who was tapping away at her phone, “Hey Isha, everything alright?”

Aisha sighed, “Yeah sorry it’s just- Tressa says both Nereus and Tritannus are about two minutes away from having a meltdown and she’s starting to think her parents might get a divorce over this whole thing.”

Sky winced, “That bad?”

“That bad. My uncle is just toying with them at this point. I don’t know if he finds it funny or if he just refuses to admit that he can’t choose.” Aisha said, clearly frustrated.

“Is there a date for the coronation?” Flora asked.

“Apparently it’ll be in two weekends, if my uncle doesn’t find an excuse to postpone it.”

“You think he will?”

“…no I don’t think he will. He has got to know if he stalls one more time either Nereus is gonna runaway or Tritannus is gonna stab someone. Or Tressa will smother him in his sleep.”

“That’ll be an entertaining coronation then.” Brandon said, clearly not envious of her.

“Will you want some extra company bubbles?” Riven asked.

She scrunched up her nose, “You sure you wanna witness what is very likely to be a blow up of family drama?”

“Darling you don’t have to bribe us.” Stella joked, all of them chuckling before she sobered up, “But seriously, you know we got your back, if you want us to be a bit of a buffer we’re more than willing to do that.”

Aisha sighed again, “I’ll think on it. For now my mom already got me invitations for Nabu and Flora, I’ll ask Tressa if she thinks they might be enough buffer for the post-coronation dinner.”

“You hear that Flo? We’re the sacrifices!” Nabu joked with a grin, Flora chuckling along.

“Hey, you signed up for it!” 

“I know love, I’m just teasing you.” Nabu assured Aisha, taking her hand, “Though- how likely do you think it is that we will have to be blocking blows?”

She laughed, before her face dropped and she became dead serious, “A lot more likely than I’d like.”

They all traded glances for a moment, quietly hoping they’d all be able to go if only to have Aisha’s back during the family fight that was starting to sound inevitable.

***

Timmy had insisted the only thing he wanted for his twentieth birthday was to go bowling and take advantage of the endless buffet promo the bowling alley had.

Stella pursed her lips as she held threw the bowling ball, waiting and waiting and-

“Dang it!”

It was a gutter.

Timmy laughed, “Well at least it stayed in your lane this time.”

Stella pointed at him, “You zip it, I don’t care that you’re the birthday boy, I will hurt you if you keep making fun of my skills!”

“It’s alright buttercup, not all of us can be good at everything,” Riven said with a cocky smile as his own bowling ball hit the last pin perfectly on the second turn, managing a spare for himself, “It’s a burden I wouldn’t want you bearing.”

Stella shoved him away when he went to lean on her shoulder, trying to get him into a headlock, nearly jumping on his back, “Oh fuck off.”

“Children no fighting!” Sky called out with a snort.

Tecna leaned against Timmy’s shoulder as she shook her head in mock disapproval.

He gently took her hand, he knew that both her and Brandon had been a bit nervous about bowling between the metal hand and the injured arm, but they seemed to be doing well so far.

Better than Stella at least.

“You having fun?” She asked him gently.

“How could I not be with these bozos?” He only half joked as he watched Helia and Bloom compare increasingly ridiculous techniques at the side since it was Nabu’s turn.

Nabu smiled as he went to take his turn, “Keep running your mouth Riven, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

He threw the ball, managing a perfect strike, knocking down all ten pins.

“Wooo!” He threw his arms up as Riven rolled his eyes jokingly.

Then he instantly hunched over, starting to cough.

The boys all tensed up and stopped laughing instantly, leaning forward, ready to leap or do whatever was needed.

Aisha was already by his side, eyes a touch worried, “Hey you okay?”

Nabu tried to wave her off, throwing an arm around her shoulder, “Yeah, just swallowed some spit there- wrong way.”

Timmy forced himself to relax, seeing the other boys do the same.

Tecna sent him a knowing glance, perhaps assuming they were so quick to worry after seeing him sick in the summer.

Timmy took a deep breath, he knew the cake was about to be brought out by Flora.

He needed to chill.

***

Bloom grinned as she skimmed through the designs, “These are looking good!” She told Sky from where she leaned against his desk, holding his notebook, “Did you just make these this week?”

“Some I worked on over the summer, but the one at the top I started on Tuesday.” Sky explained as he finished pulling on a dark blue jacket with golden buttons over a button-up white shirt, “It’s nothing impressive yet but, we had to design something quick for next week just so the professor can evaluate our skill level, I should manage to finish it on the weekend.”

Bloom hummed, leaving the designs on his desk and going to follow him outside to the boy’s living room, where the others were waiting.

“Do you have an idea for what you’ll want to do for Interplanetary Relations?” Sky asked, given that they were a team in that class.

“Uhh… you know I thought maybe we could do a write-up about the alliance between Solaria, Eraklyon and Domino pre-Domino’s fall.”

“Could work.”

“I can start working on the intro tomorrow and-”

“Enough school talk!” Stella interrupted, throwing an arm over each of them, “It’s time to party!”

They all laughed as they went to leave the boy’s dorm to head on to the top floor of Red Fountain, where one of the biggest training rooms had been transformed for the party. 

Flora could feel the vague stress in the air, all of them unsure if their arrival would cause a commotion or it they’d be allowed to just enjoy the night.

The week hadn’t been as bad as it could’ve been, it seemed that their time away had done some good in regard to how they were seen by their younger classmates.

Even with their contribution to the revival of magic on Earth, it was still a lot less impactful than reviving an actual dead planet, the younger kids looked at them with admiration and some of them did seem to believe they were the most powerful Specialists and fairies of the century, but there was a different feel to it now.

Flora didn’t feel so much like a circus act anymore.

More… an aspirational figure the kids treated a little more like a legend than a celebrity.

Maybe part of it was that they’d all done a lot of work on themselves during their time away, maybe things really had cooled down now that Domino had been back for over a year.

They’d waited a bit before arriving to the improvised ball room, Flora walking in with an arm linked through Musa’s, the tense part of her forgetting itself for a moment when she saw the decorations.

Rainfall chandeliers with hundreds of delicate jewels, a dance floor consisting of glass panels that seemed to be constantly changing colors, dozens of tables with red velvet table cloths and silver metal chairs, and multiple tables filled with snacks and bowls of drinks.

She traded a happy glance with Musa before they hurried to one of the bigger tables, going to set down their purses.

It seemed their arrival drew looks, but no one tried to talk to them just yet, so she would count that as a win.

She easily let Helia take her to the dance floor for a waltz, Helia easily spinning and dipping her as they let themselves get lost in the moment.

“Are you nervous about going to the coronation?” He asked her as he drew her close, Flora easily wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“Mmm, not really. Mostly I just hope for Aisha’s sake that the drama is kept to a minimum.”

“Same here.” Helia gently squeezed her waist as the song ended and they headed for one of the tables, picking up plates to take some skewers of cold meat and cheese, “What do you say to a picnic next weekend before you leave for Andros? I need to work on some landscapes.”

“It sounds lovely. You know I actually-”

“Hi! I’m sorry to interrupt,” Flora turned to her left, finding a girl with brown-yellow eyes and bright pink hair, probably a second-year, “I’m Princess Krystal, of Lynphea.” She spoke gently, but beneath that, Flora could tell the girl expected a reaction.

Flora cleared her throat, “Right, it’s nice to meet you, your Highness.”

“Oh no need for titles please. I’d actually been hoping to talk to you for a while now, you see, I know this is… a lot, but you must know you are greatly admired all over Lynphea for the control and power you’ve managed to have over nature magic, and I was hoping that perhaps you could give me some private lessons on nature magic?” 

Flora did her best not to wince, smiling kindly, “Oh, well umm-”

“It’s just that…” she half-chuckled effortlessly, “I’m dorm-mates with Chimera and Roxy and, well, I overheard Roxy mention something about Chimera getting private lessons from Stella and that you’d been a great teacher to her during your time on Earth. I figured I’d ask.”

Flora sighed quietly, “Well, I’m pretty sure with Chimera it was actually the other way around but even then- she and Stella are sisters. And Roxy only learned under us due to… extenuating circumstances. I’d be happy to give you a few tips but to be honest… I just don’t think private lessons would be possible.”

For a long moment, Krystal just stared, the same small gentle smile frozen on her face, like she was running through a list of answers in her mind before titling her head, “Of course! Well, thank you anyway.” She spun around and took her leave.

Helia hummed, “I get a feeling she wasn’t expecting you to turn her down.”

“…no I don’t think she did.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder, taking the glass of punch Helia had poured for her, “Let’s get back to our table.”

***

Sky spun Stella around, letting her dramatically flare out her skirt before they went to circle one another, “Well you seem cheerful!” He told her.

Stella laughed, “I’m just trying to live in the moment, you should try it!”

Sky rolled his eyes, “I’m in the moment!” He complained.

“Yeah right, sorry to be the one to tell you but you don’t know how to relax darling!”

Sky went to retort that, but instead laughed, “Okay you- you got me there.”

They both chuckled.

“How’d you leave things in Eraklyon?”

“Things have been well, still got a long way to go but the economy is starting to stabilize fully and at this point, I’m mostly just trying to keep it that way and make things better. How’s Solaria?”

“Quite well, my dad’s already starting to talk about his retirement,” she snorted, “I think I might be crowned in some three years or so.”

“Really?” Sky smiled bright, “That’s awesome Stel!”

She tried to wave him off, “I just hope I don’t mess anything up too badly.”

“You’ll do great.” He assured her, “And you know I’m always here if you need a hand or a second opinion or something.”

“…dude… we’re both going to be the reigning royals in some years… that’s crazy…” she went sober all of a sudden, “I really wish you’d gotten more time before having to take the crown.”

Sky sighed, glancing down, “I think I was always going to start reigning young. Even if my dad had lived… I wasn’t going to let him keep running Eraklyon into the ground.”

They fell into a slower waltz, Stella gently squeezing his shoulder.

“I know… still wish things could’ve been different.”

Sky let his eyes drift away, trying not to let himself get too sentimental, his eyes flying over to Nabu and then Bloom on instinct, “Yeah… me too.” 

He took a moment as a server passed with glasses of bubbly with the slightest bit of alcohol, meant only for fourth and fifth years, taking two and offering one to Stella, “To a good final year?”

Stella smiled sadly, clinking the glasses together, “To the best final year.”

***

Brandon tried not to let any worry show as Aisha slid into the seat next to him to get some rest after dancing for a while with Flora, “Ugh- I think I had too many skewers, I feel like I’m about to implode.” She joked as she leaned back in her seat.

Brandon snorted, “In your defense, they got the expensive cheeses.”

“Right?! How could I resist?” They both chuckled.

He watched her for a moment, how happy she seemed, how her eyes inevitably drifted over the dance floor to find Nabu and Flora and the rest of the gang.

Brandon felt like they were all a bit of a solar system at this point, pulled to one another by gravity and the weight of their shared experiences and their secrets and rock bottom moments and the happiest days of their lives.

They all circled one another in the ballroom, just as they did everywhere they went, feeling that pull… but he’d noticed that Aisha was one of the ones that felt that pull the most.

Probably the consequence of having felt alone up until they’d met.

Seeing her so happy under the chandelier light and clearly ecstatic to get back to the dance floor even while claiming she probably wouldn’t be able to move after the snacks…

He knew he wouldn’t be the one to tell her.

He couldn’t be the one to take that from her, couldn’t be the one to send her world crashing down.

So instead of letting the weight of the lie get to him, he got up, offering an arm, “Come on, we’ll get some punch, walk around and then get right back to the dance floor.”

Aisha grinned, going to get up, “I apologize in advance if I throw up all over your dress shoes.”

“If you throw up all over my dress shoes you’re getting me new ones, you can afford it.”

She gave him a playful shove, and they headed towards the punch table.

***

Helia fidgeted with the box connected to the in-ear monitor currently placed in Musa’s ear, going to clip it to the edge of her skirt.

“Hold still woman.”

“I am holding still!” 

She very much wasn’t holding still.

“Sorry- it’s been a while since I performed for a bigger crowd.” Musa said excitedly.

“Just don’t go crowd-surfing or something like that, pretty sure Griselda would have a heart attack.”

Musa laughed, “Can’t promise anything.”

Helia shook his head mockingly, making sure the box was properly clipped on, “You ready?”

She hesitated, turning to look at him, “You doing okay? You’ve seemed… distracted.”

Helia hummed, hesitating, “You know… my grandpa and James asked me for help in making a list on who the next Guardian will be.”

“Really?”

“Yep. I mean, obviously James is the one who’ll chose his successor but, I’ve just been like… inspecting everyone from fifth year today trying to figure out who could make a good guardian. Guess maybe that’s made me a bit distracted.”

“Is it weird? Thinking of your classmates as potential guardians?” She asked as she slung her guitar over her shoulder, going to make sure it was properly tuned.

“Definitely. But also… you know I practically grew up here. I’ve seen what about… five or six guardians come and go… I think I have a good idea of what I’m looking for.”

Musa smirked, “Sometimes I forget you spent so much time here growing up.”

Helia smiled, glancing around at the walls, “It’s still weird sometimes… seeing how much the place changed after the Battle… but… in a good way now.”

“Are you including yourself on that list?” She asked gently.

He snorted, shaking his head, “No… I don’t think I have it in me. Besides, I already got plans.”

“Ah, right.” Musa grinned, “Flora told me about your little cottage, your dream home?” Her grin softened, after the tease, “Sounds like a pretty good plan.”

“I can’t wait for it to be honest… but enough of that, we gotta get you on stage!”

“Oh shoot right!” She laughed, going to run to the stage, “Thanks for the hand!”

Helia rolled his eyes fondly, going to return to the dance floor.

***

A bit later into the night, Riven and Flora approached one of the tables, going to make themselves a cup of coffee, “I’d forgotten how fun the joint parties are, I feel like it wasn’t this good last year.” Riven said as he poured both himself and Flora some coffee.

“That’s cause we hid for most of last year’s party.” Flora snorted, going to grab the sugar.

“We did?”

“We did.”

“Huh, I’d forgotten.” 

They both chuckled.

“It’s gotten better right?” Riven asked.

Flora nodded along, “Thank all the wind spirits. I don’t think I could’ve put up with another month of… all of that. Though…” she stepped closer, lowering her voice, “The Princess of Lynphea did try to ask me for private nature magic lessons.”

“Seriously? Damn Pipsqueak, you got royalty chasing you, now that’s something.” He looked down at his coffee, “We’ve gotten asked for an autograph or two but… it’s been in a more chill way than it was before, you know?”

“I know.” She glanced at the few first year Specialists watching Riven, smiling to herself, “Are you going to mention the fan club?”

Riven didn’t turn to the first years, just shaking his head exasperated, “One of the boys almost cried when I actually helped him out with a technique.”

Flora snorted, “How’d SSS go?”

“Probably the same way Source Magic went for you.” Riven said with a smirk and a half shrug, “We didn’t even mean to go all out but… well, we’re just used to needing air-tight strategies and to be fighting for something serious so…”

“So… you kinda forgot how to take it easy during practice?” Flora finished, having heard the rumors and talk of how the boys had been untouchable during that class, not a single squad managing to land a blow on any of them.

“Yeah pretty much.”

Flora laughed, gently tugging at his sleeve to signal to head out to one of the balconies for a bit of fresh air and a break from the music.

Riven stepped out to one of the balconies, following Flora, “Smells like rain.”

She smiled, “I hope it does rain. The forest could use it.”

He leaned forward against the railing, leaning his forearms on them as Flora turned to lean her back against it, letting her head tilt back, taking in the night air.

“How have you been? For real.” She asked, not prying, just curious.

Riven sighed as he tilted forward, laying his weight against his forearms, “Alright I guess. Maybe I’m… not as excited as you guys over this being our last year… I guess a part of me doesn’t really want it to end but… I think I’m starting to look forward to what comes next… just a little bit.”

Flora smiled, “I’m glad.”

They fell into a comfortable silence, watching the stars for a moment.

***

Timmy ran a hand through his hair as he slowly sat down next to Bloom, “Did you just have those ready to go?”

Bloom, who was trading her heels for a pair of sandals she’d taken out of Stella’s purse grinned, “Hey- I’ve been in these heels for three hours, you don’t get to judge me.”

“I’m not judging, I’m impressed. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

“Well you’ve clearly never been a woman at a long gala event.” Bloom teased, wrapping the heels in a plastic bag before placing them in Stella’s purse.

“Yeah uh- quick question, why did you pack them in Stella’s bag and not your own?”

Bloom snorted, “Because I refuse to carry anything bigger than a hand-purse, mini-backpacks? I’m all in. Purses? Clutch or nothing.”

Timmy just nodded along, “Oh yeah, I totally get you.” 

She gave him a playful shove.

They took a moment to just rest at their table, watching the couples and groups still up and dancing, witches and fairies and Specialists happily mingling as was the norm at the joint parties.

“Do you remember our first joint party?” Timmy asked with a small smile.

Bloom snorted, “First time I managed to achieve a full transformation… also the night the Trix nearly handed me my ass on a silver platter over Stella’s ring.”

“First time us boys met Tecna, Musa and Flora.”

“…holy shit you’re right. I don’t know why I forgot that’s where you met…” she smirked, “Were you instantly drawn to Tecna?”

“You know I was.” They both chuckled, “How could I not be? Come on. But… if I’m being entirely honest it wasn’t until the second time I saw her that my crush started to form.”

“That was at Black Mud Swamp right? Ah, the first time we saved your sorry asses. Good times.”

Timmy rolled his eyes, “Don’t go patting yourself on the back too bad-”

“And you kept trying to get rid of us-”

“I was actually against splitting up-”

“And Flora had to save you from the carnivorous vines.”

“And Musa nearly slapped Riven for being a bit mean to Flora!”

“You’re right I forgot about that!” 

They both laughed, wisely stopping their reminiscing there.

Neither wanted to reminisce on what had happened next, Flora and Riven and Brandon finding the troll’s body in the Swamp.

Bloom gently shook her head, “My god we were babies.”

“We were.” Timmy easily agreed, gently bumping his shoulder with his, “But I’d say we grew up pretty well wouldn’t you?”

She turned to him, returning his soft smile, “Yeah… I’d say we did.”

He stood up, pulling on her arm, “Now come on! The dance floor doesn’t wait for nobody!”

Bloom groaned dramatically as he dragged her up but easily went along.

***

Nabu gently elbowed Tecna, “Four o’clock, the pincers for the little cakes.”

She followed his gaze, squinting her eyes, “You’re on.”

They waited, watching as one of the first years approached, touched the metal pincers and-

The pincers imploded into glitter, first year fairies groaning as witches laughed.

Nabu clicked his tongue, “Told you.”

Tecna rolled her eyes, “Oh shut up.”

The two continued wandering the edges of the dance floor, “How has your course at Cloud Tower been? I heard that it could get a bit intense.”

“Nothing I can’t handle.” He easily assured her, “If anything I’m happy for a challenge.”

“Mm…” She hesitated before continuing, “I thought you didn’t want to take another course.”

Nabu did his best to just shrug, “I changed my mind. You know I figured why let yall have all the fun with your final year. I technically didn’t have one since I skipped a bunch of classes and was younger than most of my classmates… figured I might as well get in on the experience.”

Tecna nodded along, “Okay… but I don’t want to hear you complaining about your final project.”

“Oh you will absolutely be hearing me complain about my final project, it’s an essential part of the experience!”

She snorted.

Thunder sounded outside, both of them turning to the windows, “Lightning reminds me… didn’t you mention your dad was going to hire a farm hand? Did that wind up happening?”

“Yep. Apparently he just started this week, dad says he’s doing pretty well and he doesn’t ask for a lot of money, which, considering the amount of food he must be getting from my mom, he’d better not.”

Nabu laughed, “Your mom could have her own restaurant to compete with your sister’s bakery. Or they could combine into a family business.”

“Oh please, my mom a restaurant? She only enjoys cooking because of the peace she feels in the kitchen, she’d die if she had to cook for paying customers.”

They both chuckled.

“Do you think any of you will take over the farm eventually?” He asked suddenly.

He had a soft spot for the farm… he wanted to know what’d happen to it, even if he wasn’t there to see it.

Also… talking about her parents made him want to think about his own, and he’d been doing his best not to do that, he was almost sure they must’ve suspected something was up given how much time he’d insisted they spend together over the summer.

He tried to think of them just often enough to not have a breakdown.

“I… actually don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it. I mean Zila probably won’t want it, she’s absolutely in love with her apartment and she already lives on top of her bakery. Naten probably would want it…”

“Would you?”

“…I think I would… I mean, I plan to spend some time living either here in Magix or on the modern side of Zenith but… against all the beliefs of my younger self… I think I’ll want to go back home eventually.”

Nabu smiled, “You should. You’re different when you’re there.”

She titled her head slowly, “You sound nostalgic.”

He shrugged, “I am. Now come on, let’s get some dance moves in before the rain comes in!” He said as he grabbed her hand to drag her to the dance floor, Tecna going along as more thunder wrung out, reminding her of home.

***

Far into the night, way past midnight, the gang all stood at the bottom of Red Fountain, watching the rain.

Nabu and Musa traded a glance and a slow smirk.

He offered a hand slowly, Musa accepting it with a dramatic flare and a curtsy, Stella already smiling as she rolled her eyes, “You guys- don’t-”

They were already running from shelter, laughing as they let themselves get showered in the rain, going to kick up puddles towards the others.

Bloom and Aisha were the first ones to join them, not hesitating, it didn’t take long for them all to be running around in the rain like fools, not caring about their expensive suits and dresses.

Just a few twenty-somethings dancing and enjoying what was the start of their last year at school together.

And it wasn’t a bad start.

Not bad at all.

Chapter Text

Bloom fidgeted with her sleeves, feeling on edge as her eyes flew over the water.

“I was wrong,” she said quietly, trying to hide her frustration, “whatever I’ve been feeling… it’s not Daphne.”

Tecna frowned, inspecting the equipment she’d brought along with her own magic covering the lake like a net.

“What have you been feeling exactly?”

Bloom shrugged, “I’m not sure how to describe it really. For the most part when it comes to a threat or a worry the Dragon is pretty clear or at least persistent- but this time it’s almost… muddy.”

“Muddy?”

“Like- it’s almost… distant. I told you, I don’t know how to explain it.”

Tecna let her magic drop, “I’m not detecting anything… sorry.”

Bloom shrugged, “Not your fault.”

“Could you enter a light trance to communicate with the dragon?” Juliette suggested, who was standing on the opposite side of the lake with Jaimie, both of whom had done their own inspections of the lake.

“I don’t need trances anymore luckily but- I already tried getting more info but the Dragon either won’t show me or he himself isn’t even sure. I think- I think he might be trying to figure out what it is he senses.”

“But there is no focal point or place where the… feeling is coming from?” Tecna asked after a moment.

Bloom shook her head.

They started the walk back to Alfea, Bloom racking her head for ideas on what it was she could be sensing and coming up empty.

“How worried are you about this?” Tecna asked as they arrived at the gates.

Bloom sighed, “The dragon… this is something that’s somehow… looming. He’s not worried but… it’s almost like he’s… waiting to see if what he thinks will happen happens before giving me anything.”

“Mm… who knew dragons could be so complicated?”

“Oh I could’ve told you that a long while back.” Bloom laughed, eyes flashing golden and her pupils elongating for a split second before returning to normal, like it’d been a trick of the light.

***

Even knowing it wasn’t necessary, Aisha couldn’t help but take a deep breath before diving under the water, a bubble instantly forming around her to keep her dry and transport her safely through the underwater tunnel that would open up to the cavern where the coronation would take place.

She tried not to let the momentary darkness get to her, biting the inside of her cheek and telling herself over and over again that she was safe.

But the rocks flying past her and the water swirling around her ears seemed to taunt her, reminding her of her death.

She was more than relieved when the tunnel opened up and she could climb up a few steps to the dry stone platform where the land-dwellers would watch. 

Following a curve at the end of the platform, there was an underground lagoon, half of it shallow and the other half impossibly deep.

On the shallow end, there were mermaids and guards lounging about, and five thrones for the royal family.

Hovering above the deepest part, a single silver throne for the heir.

Aisha sighed internally as she walked across the platform with Flora and Nabu behind her parents, giving quick greetings to a few guests, searching the waters to find her cousins and her aunt.

They were also greeting guests. She could see the brothers were tense.

Aisha carefully stepped to the lower part of the stone platform, toeing off her shoes and stepping into the shallow water, Tressa quickly seeing her and going towards her, Aisha kneeled to properly speak to her, ignoring the bottom part of her dress getting soaked.

“How bad?” She asked in a whisper.

Tressa grimaced, “They still don’t know who it’ll be.” 

Aisha cursed under her breath, “How are they holding up?”

“About as well as you can expect. Just… help me get whoever isn’t the heir outta here quick after the coronation?”

“Of course.”

She didn’t get a chance to talk to Nereus or Tritannus before they were requested to take their seats, Aisha sitting between her mom and Nabu, her dad and Flora flanking them.

She watched her uncle, trying to decipher just by looking at him which son he’d chosen.

She couldn’t.

It didn’t take too long for everyone to get in their places, the ceremony beginning as one of King Neptune’s advisors approached one of the more shallow parts of the cavern, illuminated by the light crystals decorating the top part of the cavern.

“We are gathered here today for a monumental event. Today, we will witness the selection and coronation of the future King of the Andros oceans, King Neptune and Queen Ligea have spent the past few years carefully considering which of their children shall inherit the throne.”

Aisha exchanged a glance with Tressa. Everyone knew Queen Ligea had been very much against pitting her sons against each other so much and had had countless fights with her husband over how he’d chosen to go about the entire coronation thing.

The advisor swam back, allowing the King to take his place.

King Neptune smiled, the end of his trident disappearing under the water, “Thank you everyone for being here today, Queen Ligea and I are immensely grateful for your presence and support. I don’t believe it is necessary for me to say that these past couple of years have been challenging for our planet… for the oceans more so than for the land, though we have all had to work hard to move past the events that took place two years ago.”

“Every royal knows that one of the most important decisions they shall make… it who to make their heir. I have often been… at a loss on what to do regarding this subject, it has taken a lot of contemplating and evaluations to decide on who shall bear the weight of the crown, who shall have the honor of leading Andros into a new era… along with Princess Aisha.”

Aisha nearly rolled her eyes at the thoughtless add on, she knew he’d always considered the ocean kingdom much more significant than the land kingdom. Her mom caught her eye, sharing a knowing glance.

She often wondered how her mom had managed to get though childhood without murdering her pretentious older brother.

“But I shan’t delay this any further.” King Neptune turned towards his family, all of them rising up, Tritannus and Nereus swimming forward, Queen Ligea staying between them, holding each of their hands.

“My heir, is the son who I have seen has the morals and work ethic that makes a great King. My heir, is the son who puts our people above all else, and who knows how to connect with each of them. My heir, is the King that Andros will need in this new era.”

Aisha wanted to throttle him, she still couldn’t fucking tell!

She could tell Tressa and her aunt Ligea had similar feelings, Nereus and Tritannus both looked absolutely miserable, not daring to look at their father or at each other.

The King smiled, as though he wasn’t actively tormenting his sons, handing off his trident to one of the guards and taking a brand new trident he must’ve had made for the new heir, a beautiful silver trident with dark green gems, maybe jade.

He held the trident horizontally in his hands.

“It is to my great pride and joy to name my son… Nereus, as my heir.”

Aisha sighed internally.

She was gonna be partially devastated no matter who became the heir.

But Tritannus…

Damn it.

Nereus smiled for a split second, thrilled before remembering what it meant and casting Tritannus a glance, his younger brother was starring at the waves below him, jaw clenched as he clearly tried to keep his emotions in check, managing to give him a silent nod, silent permission to celebrate.

Queen Ligea gave a sad yet proud smile to Nereus, hugging him and whispering something before going to place a hand on Tritannus’s back, guiding him back to their simple thrones.

Nereus solemnly accepted the trident his father offered, a gentle wave of power resonating through the chamber as he touched the cool metal, applause and cheers surrounding him.

He took a moment to simply observe the trident, admiring the craftsmanship and smiling to himself, taking a second to be truly happy and proud for being chosen. Then, he turned to the audience.

“Thank you father. I realize that my journey has now just begun, I will truly do my best to do you all proud, to serve Andros to the very best of my abilities and do right by this honor that has been granted to me.” He half-bowed his head, everyone giving another round of applause, Nereus turning back to his father to accept the carefully crafted crown out of corals and shells.

Nereus bowed as his father carefully went to place the crown on his head.

“Nereus, I declare you as the Crown Prince of Andros!”

It was official, in just two years, Nereus would be king.

And Tritannus would forever stay the spare prince.

***

Aisha truly did her best to talk to any of her cousins during the reception, as servers brought out food and there was plenty of conversation.

However, everyone seemed determined to keep all three of her cousins occupied, she could already tell plenty of the politicians would be making their snarky, undercut comments towards Tritannus as he tried to stay polite, her aunt Ligeanot leaving his side for a moment thankfully.

Nabu gently squeezed her waist, lowering his head to almost whisper in her ear, “He doesn’t look too bad, I think he might be at least somewhat alright.”

“He might be if my uncle would shut the fuck up.” Aisha said through a gritted smile, barely managing to keep her voice quiet enough to not be overheard, Flora, who stood at her other side still coughed to ensure no one heard her.

King Neptune was boasting, quite loudly, about how his eldest had turned out to be the obvious choice, how he’d spent so long pondering it over in his head, all the challenges he’d set up, somehow making it sound as though they were solely his accomplishments.

He wasn’t necessarily bashing Tritannus but… well it wasn’t exactly good.

Finally, she saw her moment when a few politicians left Tritannus the second Nereus was available, hurrying to talk to the new Crown Prince, Tritannus looking down into his drink.

Aisha had to get into the water properly, letting her dress get drenched as she kneeled down on stones smoothed down by the water, placing a hand on her cousin’s shoulder.

“Hey.” 

He didn’t turn to look at her, “Hey.”

She lowered her voice, leaning in slightly, letting the rest of her skirt get wet, “It’ll be over soon.”

“Sure.”

She squeezed his shoulder, using him for balance as she properly sat down on the stone, settling her skirt beneath her so it wouldn’t float around her as she became determined to not leave Tritannus alone.

She couldn’t quite tell how long it took for the royal family to thank everyone for their presence there and to go retire from the party, following a tunnel with only a small stone path on the side for Aisha, her parents, Nabu and Flora to come along.

The dinner was awkward to say the least, mostly quiet except for her uncle Neptune, who couldn’t seem to be able to take the hint every time her aunt Ligea and her mom tried to steer away from the way he kept praising Nereus.

Even Nereus started wincing, “Dad… as honored as I am to be chosen… perhaps we could speak of something else?”

“Yes!” Nereus’s girlfriend, who Aisha knew might soon be his fiancé, Amphitrite, jumped in, “Aisha, you just started your last year right? You’d mentioned something about taking a few subjects relating to the oceans? How is that going, I’d been meaning to ask.”

Aisha smiled, “Well Marine Biology is going quite well, I find it very interesting but Physical Oceanography is a bit harder, I’m still fully wrapping my head around the concepts but I think I’ll enjoy it.”

“Nabu, I believe I heard Queen Niobe mention you’d be taking another course at Cloud Tower?” Her aunt Ligea continued.

Nabu gave a respectful, small smile, “That would be right. I’ll be taking a class on Advanced Curse Structure. I took something somewhat similar back in school but I could use a refresher and I believe the course in Cloud Tower is a lot more specific to dark magic.”

“What about you Flora? You have an interest in Potionology right?” Tressa asked.

“Yes, I got the chance to take Advanced Potionology early on so now I’ll be taking a few other classes recommended to me by Miss Twylla and Professor Palladium.”

The King snorted, “Ah, I remember Tritannus quite liked Potionology when he was younger, maybe he should’ve stuck with that.”

A muscle in Queen Ligea’s cheek twitched as Tritannus slumped further into his chair, “Neptune.”

“What? It’s just a joke.”

“It’s not funny.” Her mother told him.

“Oh come on-”

“May I be excused?” Tritannus’s voice was quiet, barely restrained, clenching his jaw.

King Neptune frowned, giving his son his full attention for the first time in the night, “We are celebrating your brother Tritannus.”

“You can go son.”

“It’s alright dad- it’s been a long day.”

Queen Ligea and Nereus inter-lapped with one another.

The King shook his head, shooting out a hand to signal Tritannus to not move when he went to leave after being given permission by his mom.

“None of that. Chin up Tritannus, I did not raise you to be a sore loser, you are yet to congratulate your brother.”

Nereus winced, “Father-”

“Don’t Nereus. This is important. It is a sign of disrespect to your future king to be moping about, you know that Tritannus.”

“My apologies sir.”

“Neptune stop it.” Her aunt Ligea was clearly getting truly angry now.

“No, he must learn. Do you want to know why you lost the throne Tritannus? You don’t know when to bend the knee-”

“I thought kings didn’t do that.” Tritannus all but spit out, eyes still glued to the table.

“Do not interrupt me-”

“Neptune that is enough.”

“Ligea remember your place!”

“Don’t talk to mom like that!” Nereus rose up from his chair, the water around them swirling with the movement.

Aisha sighed internally, tensing up, Nabu going to hold her hand under the table.

“I will no tolerate you interrupting-”

“SHUT UP!” Quite unexpectedly, it was Tressa who rose up, slamming her hands down on the table, furious as she turned towards her dad, “Can you just stop being an asshole for five seconds and shut up?!”

For a second no one moved, too shocked at the fact that the ever-calm and composed Tressa was the one screaming.

Then Neptune rose up, face quickly flushing red in anger, “How dare you-”

“How dare I?! How dare you?!” 

Nereus tried to interfere, going to stand by his sister, “Tressa-”

“NO! I am done with this! You don’t get to talk to Tri like that!”

Neptune all but snarled, “I am your King-”

“You are our father before that! Act like it!” Tressa all but screamed in his face as Ligea and Tritannus also went to leave their chairs.

“I am King before anything else, it is my duty to see which of my heirs is better fit to become the next ruler-”

“But you didn’t do that! You just pit Tri and Nereus against each other and toyed with them for months! I bet you just flipped a coin before the ceremony because you know they’d both make great kings! You’re acting like you are so wise and all your challenges were meant for a true king to reveal himself- admit it you just had them doing your paperwork because you couldn’t choose and you refused to admit it!”

“It is my right and duty to chose my heir in whatever way I see fit!”

“Yeah but you didn’t have to be such a bitch about it!”

Shock at Tressa’s surprising amount of rage didn’t get the chance to fully sink in before Neptune was raising a hand and-

Aisha acted on instinct, shooting a hand out, Morphix surrounding her uncle’s arm and immobilizing it.

Turned out she needn’t have bothered, Tritannus had already been going to grab his father’s arm, slamming it back on the table.

“THAT IS ENOUGH!” Ligea screamed, grabbing both Tressa and Tritannus’s arms to pull them behind her, “Children, leave, now!”

“Do not-”

Tritannus, Nereus and Tressa fled, Nereus dragging Amphitrite with them.

“Go with your cousins,” her mom told her under her breath, already going to stand up along with her dad for damage control.

Aisha didn’t need to be told twice, quickly rising to her feet, giving Flora and Nabu a glance, who signaled her to go without them, probably able to tell the cousins wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to have them there after such a shit show.

After Aisha summoned a bubble to help her breath and dove into the tunnel her cousins had escaped through, Nabu and Flora exchanged a glance as the screaming match began amongst the adults.

‘Therapy.’ Nabu mouthed as he took a long sip of champagne.

‘Lots of therapy.’ Flora mouthed back as she half sunk into her chair after picking up a slice of the uneaten cake.

***

Tritannus quickly shut the door to his room behind him, letting himself fall against it.

The tunnel led them to their underwater palace, he’d left his siblings behind as soon as he was sure Tressa was alright, unable to hear them try and say that none of it had been his fault.

Unable to keep looking at Nereus with Amphitrite’s hand in his and the crown on his head.

Unable to keep looking at the sheer anger and frustration in every single one of Tressa’s movements.

He’d only just heard Aisha’s voice reaching them when he’d turned and fled.

He locked the door behind him, knowing they’d be trying to talk to him.

He didn’t want to listen. Didn’t feel like listening.

He’d lost the crown. 

His father had chosen Nereus.

Even if he’d been an ass about how he chose his heir, Nereus had still won.

He got everything.

And Tritannus was just… the spare.

Years working to be seen as more than simply… the spare prince wasted.

He’d given it his all, countless sleepless nights and giving up pretty much every single hobby he’d ever had in an effort to show his father just how much he cared, how much he would do if he was just given the chance…

Tritannus shook his head, trying to will himself not to cry as he swam away from his door.

Then it came, what almost seemed to be movement at the corner of his room, shadows swirling with no rhyme or reason.

‘The spare prince… what a pity.’

Tritannus tensed up, picking up his old trident from where it rested against the wall beside his bed.

It wasn’t like the newer one Nereus had just received, made instead of reinforced coral and with a few gems he’d collected over the years.

The whisper in his head chuckled.

This had been… happening for a while now… but it was usually when he was asleep.

Some kind of whisper or voice speaking to him, taunting him in the back of his mind.

Its tone was strange, he could never tell if it was a man or a woman, if it was teasing or genuine. 

He just knew it sounded more real than ever now.

“Who is there?”

‘Merely a friend… a friend who sees the injustice of your situation. Poor Tritannus, always tossed to the side whilst his brother gets to have it all… the girl, the throne, the pride. The perfect first born, the golden son. I imagine you must be enraged.’

“No.” He harshly shook his head, “Nereus… my brother worked just as hard as I did…”

The voice darkened ever so slightly, ‘…did he?’

“Where are you?” Tritannus demanded, the grip on his trident tightening.

‘Everywhere… and nowhere… at least when under the tides.’

“Stop with the riddles.”

‘…come closer… in the mirror…’

Tritannus took a shaky breath, swimming towards his mirror.

There, his reflection rippled, but it wasn’t replaced, instead his features simply smiled back.

“…what are you?”

‘I told you… a friend.’

“Show yourself.”

‘I cannot. I am… too far for such a thing.’

Tritannu’s frowned deepened, his reflection didn’t follow suit, “What do you want?”

‘To help.’

“I don’t believe you.”

His reflection tilted its head slowly.

‘Do you not think it unfair? What they have denied you? I am… connected to Andros… I can tell your people need a leader who will not be distracted by romance and balance. They need someone who will do what is needed to get back the planet’s former glory. Andros… needs… you.’

His reflection slowly lifted the trident, going to hold it horizontally as it shifted, the coral flaking off to reveal a mirror to his brother’s new trident. Made of shimmering gold with blood red rubies for decoration.

The reflection offered the trident, somehow passing through the mirror, the trident becoming real as it was offered to him.

The reflection’s hands changed, no longer his own but instead impossibly pale hands with jagged bones and claws.

He couldn’t tear his gaze away from the trident.

But he didn’t reach for it, instead slowly going to meet his reflection’s eyes.

“What do you mean when you say you want to help me?”

The reflection further tilted its head.

‘I can help you become… what you need to become for the sake of the oceans… can you not feel the call? There is a threat… growing… festering… you are needed to keep it at bay. I would help you… if you would help me keep the oceans… the Infinite Ocean… safe.’

“The Infinite Ocean? I- how? I’m not a Nymph.” He was confused, he knew the stories of the Infinite Ocean, that it was real and that it’d once been reachable, before the fall of Domino and the curse of Sirenix.

He knew the importance of the Infinite Oceans, that any lack of balance in that separate dimension could cause catastrophe in their own.

But-

“Tri? Tri I know you’re in there.” Nereus’s voice came from the door, somehow he knew Amphitrite and Aisha were probably comforting Tressa, who had probably started crying as soon as she’d processed just what had happened.

Tritannus watched the door for a long minute.

“Look… dad is an ass okay? And… I’m sorry about all of this… could you just talk to me?”

Tritannus sighed heavily, “What’s there to talk about Nereus? You’re the heir… you deserve it.”

“Tri… can you just come out please?”

Tritannus’s eyes went back to the trident, it was still there, waiting for him to take it.

“Is Tressa okay?”

“…bit shaken up, but she’s fine. Tri… I’m more worried about you.”

‘Do you not want to be the solution for once? You know they fought because of you… you can’t win… so your mother and your siblings try to protect you from failure and shame… do you not want that to change?’ His reflection questioned, an eyebrow raising ever so slightly.

Tritannus clenched his jaw.

Maybe… maybe he didn’t have to be the heir to make his mark… maybe… maybe he could help protect the Infinite Ocean, it sounded important, and he could feel the power seeping through the mirror… perhaps this creature was one of the Leviathan’s champions, he knew of tales of past champions, how they’d been summoned by the Leviathan.

Was it perhaps his turn now?

“I’m alright Nereus. I just need a minute alone.”

“…are you sure?”

“…I’m sure.”

“…okay.”

Tritannus took a deep breath, slowly raising his hands, taking the trident and-

He felt the power in the metal, going to course through him, sinking into his skin, he remembered the tales of the Leviathan’s champions, how they were blessed with magic and strength and courage and then-

He gasped.

There was something else, gripping onto him.

Like claws digging in.

‘You know what I have found to be both a problem and… unexpected source of power?’ 

The voice questioned, slowly becoming sinister.

Not a champion, it couldn’t be, not truly, something else, something that was just revealing its nature, something that had baited him.

He tried to let go, but it was like his skin was fused to the metal.

Stupid- stupid- stupid-

Why would the Leviathan ever chose a spare for a champion?

‘Pollution… with just a drop of dark magic.’

Darkness combined with swirls of green and purple emerged from the mirror, flying at him, enveloping him in a cocoon, nearly choking him as he tried and failed to scream, the darkness crawling over his skin and entering through his mouth.

The reflection laughed cruelly as he was slowly consumed.

***

Aisha felt it, deep in her bones, the second something shifted in the very air- or, water.

She turned to where Nereus was returning from his attempt to talk to Tritannus.

She straightened up from where she’d been sitting on the floor next to Tressa, Amphitrite at the princess’s other side.

“What did you do?” She quickly demanded.

Nereus just frowned, “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t feel that?”

“Feel what?”

Amphitrite slowly rose to her feet, seeing the way Aisha was tensing up.

“…dark magic. A lot of dark magic.” Aisha was already moving, going to swim past him as quickly as she could and-

“WATCH OUT!” Amphitrite screamed, going to throw herself over Tressa as Nereus all but tackled Aisha to the side, the two cousins hitting the wall as a figure flew past them, snarling.

Aisha quickly untangled herself from Nereus, transforming into Believix on instinct, preparing a spell and-

It was Tritannus.

Only… not quite.

He was sickly pale, breathing heavily, dark veins running all over his body, his eyes glowing an unnatural shade of green, pupils blown wide.

“Tritannus?” Aisha hesitated, still holding her attack ready.

Tritannus lunged at her.

She raised a shield as Amphitrite yelled for guards.

“Wait! Don’t hurt him!” Tressa cried out.

“Nereus help me hold him down!” Aisha screamed, sending out ringlets of Morphix, trying to tie him down.

“Don’t hurt him!” Tressa repeated, Amphitrite trying to drag her away as guards appeared from down the hall.

“Use minimal force!” Nereus commanded as he tried to grab Tritannus, who was obviously not thinking clearly.

“Hold him down! I want to try my fairy dust!” Aisha shifted into Enchantix, she was too slow underwater, her wings functional but not used to the tides.

“Tritannus, stop it!” Nereus tried to reason as Tritannus thrashed, trying to claw at him, before going to try and stab him with a golden trident, Aisha summoning Morphix spheres to cover the spears.

“Hold on!” Aisha took a deep breath, taking off her necklace, carefully popping it open before swimming as quickly as she could, getting as close as she could the second Nereus and two guards managed to somewhat immobilize Tritannus.

She poured down some of her fairy dust over him, whispering a spell under her breath for extra measure.

For a moment, Tritannus slumped down, going limp.

Aisha held her breath, watching him, bottle still in hand.

Then Tritannus moved, slamming his elbow against the nose of one of the guards and throwing Nereus towards Aisha with inhuman strength, the two slamming against the wall as Tritannus went to flee, using his trident to disperse some kind of dark magic towards the guards that tried to stop him, the guards screaming in pain, as though the dark mist that left Tritannus’s trident burned them.

Aisha shoved Nereus off him, hurrying after Tritannus.

Tritannus escaped through a stone arch that opened into the ocean, Aisha swimming after him, cursing her wings as she pushed herself to keep going using some Morphix waves.

“Tritannus!”

She tried to send out Morphix ropes, but they disintegrated as soon as they made contact with the dark mist surrounding Tritannus.

Then her wings failed her, being unable to keep fluttering in the water, and her own swimming wasn’t enough.

She could do nothing but watch as Tritannus vanished in the distance.

She turned around, breathless as Amphitrite swam after her, going to join her, sword in hand.

Aisha looked at her, “What the fuck just happened?”

Chapter Text

Aisha paced in the boys room, arms tightly crossed to keep herself from biting her nails.

“Okay hold on- what color did you say his eyes were?” Musa questioned, notebook in hand, legs over Riven’s lap.

“A bright green.”

“That wouldn’t fit with a few of the curses I have in mind.” Nabu sighed, shaking his head, frowning at the whiteboard he’d set up, crossing out a curse or two.

“Okay- I hate to be the one to say this but- are we even sure this is a curse?” Stella questioned from where she stood behind he kitchen counter, “I know you don’t want to consider this Aisha but… maybe he snapped?”

“…I don’t think so. You didn’t see him, he didn’t look… natural. Something happened.” 

“You said Nereus tried to talk to him right before he attacked you right?” Riven asked, “Did he notice anything weird?”

“I mean he said he sounded frustrated, but that was to be expected.”

“And he didn’t say anything when he attacked you right?” Sky questioned.

“Nope.”

“Did he react at all to your fairy dust?” Flora half frowned.

“Not really, he slumped down a bit but I think he might’ve faked it, I’m not sure.”

Nabu wrote down something at that.

“Have they managed to get some sense of where he is?” Tecna asked.

“Nothing, it’s like he vanished.” 

“Or he’s using advanced cloaking magic. Was he trained in that kind of stuff?” Timmy continued.

“Not that I know of.”

“Was there anything weird about his room?” Brandon asked.

“…the mirror was broken. But aside from that, no, nothing.”

Musa groaned, running her hands through her hair as she stood up, “Okay, let’s just- we’re running through our options way too quickly. I saw we split up, we look into different stuff and then we brainstorm together. We keep an eye out for any alert in case Andros guards find him.”

Bloom nodded along, “I agree, we’re going through everything too quickly, we already know what happened so… let’s just look into options separately, keep our minds as fresh as we can.”

Helia stood up, “Some of us should take a look at the Company of Light libraries, see if we find any rare curses that could fit the bill.”

As Aisha agreed and they all started trading notes to decide who would look into what, Brandon went to place a gentle hand on her shoulder, “Hey, we’ll figure this out.”

She nodded along, not fully convinced, “I hope so.”

***

Stella shook her head as she inspected a book on common Andros curses, glancing up to catch Bloom’s gaze becoming lost as she read her own book.

She considered her for a long moment before speaking, “You know something don’t you?” 

Bloom slowly looked up, “What?”

“You’re being a bit weird babe. Spill.” 

Bloom hesitated before closing the book, “Do you remember what I told you about the Dragon behaving… a bit strange lately?”

“I recall.”

“Well… a few hours after Aisha told us about Tritannus… it’s like it’s getting really nervous now. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Do you think this is connected to the Dragon?”

“I mean- not really?” Bloom sighed, shaking her head, “It wouldn’t make sense, Tritannus has nothing to do with the Dragon or the flame and he’s definitely not a threat nearly big enough to make the Dragon nervous.”

Stella sighed, “…I don’t think it might all be Tritannus.”

“You think he was cursed?”

“I don’t know… I’ve only met him once or twice but… he just doesn’t seem the type to lose it over something like this… at least not like this, maybe if it was a brawl with his brother, that I could believe, but just… attacking everyone and vanishing... it doesn’t sit right with me.”

Bloom watched as she went to fidget with one of her bracelets, a pretty golden chain with a sun pendant. She knew of a certain someone who had a matching silver chain with a moon pendant.

“This reminds you of Chimera.” It wasn’t a question.

Stella pursed her lips, “Kind of? I just think… Aisha said she sensed dark magic, not a straight up curse and yet… I just think we should keep our minds open.”

Bloom blew a raspberry as she turned on to a new chapter, “On that we can agree.”

Stella tilted her head, “Just how bothered is the Dragon?”

“Hard to tell. But I think it’s starting to get anxious.”

“…well that can’t be good.”

“Nope.”

***

Sky inspected the copies of documents sprawled over his desk, “I don’t think this is gonna pan out. Out of all the creatures and beings we know to reside around the palace in Andros, there’s not one of them whose attack or influence would fit what Aisha described.”

Brandon, who was taking laps around the room and occasionally dropping to do push-ups since moving helped him think, hummed, “But you think there was definitely an outside influence?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense to me. What Aisha said about how he moved, his eyes, the dark magic she sensed… you think it could be something else?”

“Maybe it’s more along the lines of an artifact, or maybe he made a deal with something.” Brandon took a moment to breath, going to lean against the desk, looking down at where Sky was drilling holes into the documents with his gaze, “Aisha also said he had some gold trident no one had ever seen before. That could be a clue, or the source of… whatever this is.”

“She also said he didn’t do much with the trident. It looked strange but he used it as any regular weapon. I don’t think that fits the bill for a source of power or a trading chip. Besides, with who would he make a deal? And for what?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Brandon sighed, “Helia went through the records of everyone who’d been in the palace that day and the day before, so far that seems to be a dead end but… I don’t know. It’s the only thing that I can think of other than a curse.”

Sky groaned as he let himself sink into his chair, covering his face with his hands.

“This’d be easier if we were officially in on the investigation.”

King Neptune had profusely turned down both Aisha’s and the Company of Light’s offer to help, Aisha had been more than ready to send her uncle through a window.

And, since it was an internal affair and there seemed to be no major threat, the Company couldn’t pull rank to get in on the investigation.

Which meant they just had what Aisha had seen and the information Nereus and Amphitrite had managed to get them.

Aisha mostly just wanted to figure out what had actually gone down.

Brandon clapped Sky on the back as he went to keep taking laps around the room, “We’ve made due with less.”

***

Flora dropped a scale into a vial of viscous purple liquid, setting it on a stand and going to wait.

Aisha, who was sitting on her bed, watched, tilting her head, “Walk me through it again?”

Flora spun in her chair to face her, “If this is really a scale from Tritannus’s tail that came off mid-fight, then I can use it for a test or two. This potion is used to detect mind-control spells. It’s traditionally used with blood or a clump of hair but a scale should do for this purpose since we just want to know if there is mind control not the exact type.”

Aisha nodded along, before letting herself fully fall back on the mattress.

Flora rose up from her chair, going to lay down at her side, propped up on her bent elbow, “You okay?”

“I’m just worried. If this isn’t a curse or a spell then it might just be Tri being stupid which just- I can’t blame him because of that shit show that went down but… I just hope he didn’t get hurt or something.”

“…and if it isn’t him being stupid or reacting to the shit show?”

Aisha shook her head, “I can’t think of anyone who might have it out for him. And- why him? If the purpose of whatever this is, is to hurt Andros why not go after Nereus? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe the purpose isn’t to hurt Andros.”

“Tressa and Nereus both said Tri doesn’t have any enemies, sure a few councilors don’t like him but that’s far from enough motive to pull a stunt like this. And there wasn’t any interplanetary action around the palace that day so it couldn’t have been an outsider sneaking in.”

Flora sighed, considering.

She knew the worst part of it was the not knowing.

“How are Tressa and Nereus holding up?”

“Alright I guess. Nereus is trying to get his dad to take more action and has managed to get a few guards to help him with a larger search. Tressa got a bit more spooked, but she’s writing to a few nereids who might be able to figure out what happened.”

“And the Queen?”

“…I think there might be a divorce in the horizon.”

Flora quietly shook her head.

Then a tiny wisp of smoke caught her attention, quickly getting up to lift the test tube with the potion and…

“So?” Aisha asked, watching her inspect the color.

“No mind control.”

Aisha groaned and fell back on the bed.

***

Riven and Helia were deep in the depths of the Red Fountain secret library, looking through totems and volumes on spells that affected behavior.

Riven shook his head as he shut one of the totems, “There’s one thing that keeps bothering me.”

“What?”

“The mirror. What’s up with that?”

“What mirror?” Helia questioned, finally looking up from the book in his hands.

“Aisha said that the only thing wrong in Tritannus’s room was that the mirror was broken. Why? We’ve seen people try to fight off curses, that’s usually a lot more chaotic than just shattering a mirror. And if he had a crash-out bad enough to attack his siblings, then why only break the mirror? It doesn’t make sense to me.”

“I see where you’re coming from.”

“Any thoughts on what’s up with that?”

Helia considered it, “Well… if it’s a curse it may be possible it happened so quickly that in trying to fight it off there was only time to break the mirror and not cause any other damage. If it’s phycological it actually makes sense to me that it might only be the mirror what he took his anger out on. But…”

“You’re not convinced?” Riven easily guessed, able to read him.

“It’s not that I’m not convinced it’s that…” Helia set down the book, mulling it over in his head, leaning against one of the bookshelves, “I fully think that it’s not just possible but… likely that once he was alone he lost it a bit… or a lot. I can buy him breaking the mirror and then leaving the room to maybe give his the King a piece of his mind…”

“But…”

“It just doesn’t make sense to me that he’d attack his siblings. Or at least… I could maybe- maybe see him throwing a punch at Nereus but Aisha and Tressa? The guards? No way.”

“So we both agree there’s something else at play here?”

“Yeah… I just don’t think it’s a curse.”

Riven glanced at the notes he’d taken about the only possible curses, none of which he was convinced of.

“On that… we can agree.”

***

Musa sat on the floor of the secret Alfea library, “What about malevolent pixies?”

Tecna instantly shook her head, “They could’ve gotten in undetected but they can’t live underwater.”

“Well- that was the last thing here.” Musa went to toss the book to the side, stopping herself and carefully placing it back on the shelf.

“Maybe we should take another look at sirens?” 

“Tritannus is immune to them, you know that.” Musa groaned, going to lay down, “Even if it was a rare kind of siren it still wouldn’t have been able to have that much influence over him without having to be within the palace walls.”

Tecna sighed heavily, going to sit down, “Well I’m out of ideas then.”

Musa pursed her lips, “You think we could go? Maybe we could see something?”

“Neptune already pretty much shut the door in our faces. He doesn’t want outside help. Look- I’m sure he’ll turn up soon. This might be a… confusing situation but we have no reason to believe this is either life-threatening or a big threat to Andros. It sucks but… there really isn’t much we can do either way.”

Musa considered that, “I suppose sometimes I forget that curses that don’t wind up putting entire planets in danger are a thing.”

Tecna snorted, “Maybe instead of trying to look at a bigger picture, we should search for a smaller one.”

“…that’s… not a bad idea. But… let’s take a break first.”

They sat on the floor together, taking a moment to munch on granola bars and talk about their classes.

They were worried of course, and they’d do what they could to help Aisha and figure out what had happened to her cousin.

But, for once, this felt like a somewhat minor crisis. There were full squads of guards searching for him and all the curse breakers in Andros were more than ready to jump in and help as well.

This was more… for Aisha’s peace of mind than for anything else.

It was intriguing though.

***

Nabu let his head thump back against the bookshelf.

“I just don’t get this. It doesn’t make any sense.” He said.

Timmy, who was sitting on one of the desks, hologram screen before him flashing several texts that Nabu had no idea how he could read and process simultaneously.

They were in the Cloud Tower secret library, Timmy scanning and downloading at least a quarter of the curses and technical incantations section once they realized they weren’t finding much, trying to search more efficiently.

“What don’t you get?”

Nabu sighed, “This doesn’t follow the usual structure of a curse with this much power over a person. Think back to Sky and Chimera, yes it was instantaneous and they became violent or at least they followed their worst instincts or were influenced to be at their worst but- one, they had a curse mark-”

“Tritannus might have one, we don’t know.” Timmy interjected.

Nabu just kept going, “Two, Aisha has felt that kind of curse before, both from being close to Chimera right before hers was broken and from her own blinding curse. If it were something similar she would’ve been able to sense it. But that’s not what she described.”

“Well, you know better than anyone how complex and varying curses can be, maybe something was added or modified in a way that Aisha wouldn’t recognize.”

“You have a point there.” Nabu easily admitted, “That’s a possibility.”

“But…”

“But… I sensed something. I… I don’t know if I may have imagined it but when we were in the palace, I could’ve sworn that I felt… a presence. I don’t even know of what kind… but I think there was something there.”

“Well… couldn’t that something have cursed Tritannus?” Timmy set his holograms to the side, inspecting Nabu’s face.

“Maybe… but… there was just something about the presence that was… deeply, deeply wrong.”

Timmy frowned, “Why?”

“I don’t know. But I know dark magic Timmy, and whatever that was? It was… bad.”

Timmy sighed, “But what could it be?”

“…I don’t know… I don’t know.”

***

Chimera sighed as she titled her head, inspecting the blackboard, wondering, not for the first time, why exactly she’d let Queen Luna talk her into signing up for an extra class, a royal course to be exact.

At least she only had it once a week.

It wasn’t even that she didn’t like it or that she didn’t get it, she was just realizing it would be… tedious.

“Alright now, let’s open up the floor a bit.” Professor DuFour said as she smiled gently at her students. 

It was a small class, just six students.

“I want to know your opinions on this, what do you think is the most important thing a royal must never forget?” She asked them.

Chimera found the professor liked closing out the class with a question each of them had to answer.

The first answers were to be expected; put their people above themselves, give budgeting the respect it deserved, remember they weren’t above the law and lead by example when it came to principles amongst councilors.

Then Krystal smiled as her turn came, “Well I believe the most important thing is to continue and better the legacy that has been passed down to us, always remembering the core founding values of our respective planets.”

DuFour gave a nod at that, before turning to her, “What about you Princess Chimera?”

Chimera took a moment to think it over, “I think… I think royals must always strive for peace and prosperity… but they must also be prepared for war and chaos. Not forget that it doesn’t take much for chaos to be set off, so we must always be prepared. Strive for peace but be ready for war.”

DuFour smiled, pleased, “That is a very good answer Princess Chimera. Yes, one of the most important things as royals is to not fall into complacency and always remember that, even if your planet is thriving, you must still do everything in your power to keep it that way.”

Chimera felt herself blush at the approval dripping off DuFour’s voice, “I hope you’ll all take a moment to think on that. Well then, I’ll see you next week.”

Chimera looked out the window as the class ended and her classmates instantly started shoving textbooks and notebooks into their school bags.

She took her time, since this was her last class of the day.

She checked the tiny notebook in which she wrote down any assignments or things to do, writing down a reminder on the requirements of the homework they’d just been assigned earlier in Potionology.

“That was an… interesting thought.” She looked up to find Krystal standing over her desk, head tilted, school bag slung over her shoulder, holding a textbook in her arm.

She shrugged, “Queen Luna once told me something of the sort, I guess it really stuck out to me.” 

She carefully put away her textbook and her pencil case, since, deep in her school bag, Yuki was taking a nap, the kitsunehaving refused to leave with Roxy when she’d returned to Earth, Chimera suspected the kitsune could sense the shift in the magical environment, just being there seemed to be helping her grow a third tail. She also suspected the kitsuneregretted not leaving with Roxy given she’d been glued to Chimera’s side.

Krystal chuckled lightly, “Ah I see, it makes sense then.”

“What makes sense?” 

Krystal considered her for a moment, “Nothing I just… thought it odd that you would say something like that.”

Chimera slowed down as she carefully slung her school bag over her arm, fully turning to her, “Why?”

Krystal glanced back at their last classmate leaving the room, hesitating, “I don’t want you to take it the wrong way.”

“…take what the wrong way?”

“Well… it just didn’t sound to me like the thought of an outsider.”

Chimera drew back at that, “An outsider?”

Krystal half winced, “It’s just… you’ve held a royal title for what? A year?” She hurried to continue, “I’m not saying you don’t belong here it’s just that… well we’ve all been studying this stuff our whole lives and… you haven’t. But DuFourseems to like you… I just worry about you.”

She frowned, “Why are you worried about me?”

Krystal seemed to be a gentle girl, she was friendly, always willing to help her dormmates or classmates and apparently, she’d been involved with several campaigns in Lynphea for the betterment of nature and for her people.

But now…

Krystal stepped closer, tilting her head, “Between Avalon and DuFour… I just… hope the praise doesn’t go to your head…” her eyes dropped to Chimera’s neck, “we wouldn’t want a repeat of what happened two years ago now would we?”

Chimera froze, her stomach dropping to the floor, her hand shot up to her neck on instinct, finding her ever-present scarf secured and in place.

At this point she had an entire collection of scarves; silk, half-transparent, chiffon and wool, in blood reds and blacks and deep blues and royal purples, in silver and off-whites and ivory.

But even covered in makeup and with a delicate half-translucent violet scarf on top of it… she could still feel the mark on the side of her neck in that moment, burning with her shame.

Krystal sighed, “I knew you’d take it the wrong way… I just mean… I don’t doubt you’re doing your best to understand all the royal stuff but just… be careful.” She reached out, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, eyes filled with compassion and softness, Chimera couldn’t quite see the rotten thing hidden beneath, the only reason Chimera didn’t pull away was because she was still frozen, a hand clutching her scarf, “I would hate for you to embarrass yourself… I’m here if you want to talk.”

Then, she slipped away, casually going to leave the classroom, leaving her alone.

Chimera all but fell back to her desk, breathing heavily as she let her school bag fall.

A yelp emerged from it, Yuki quickly scampering out.

“S-sorry.” Chimera apologized on autopilot, both hands at her scarf, as if to keep it in place, as though someone would come in at any moment to rip it away.

She couldn’t breathe.

Yuki quickly jumped up on her lap, shoving her nose into Chimera’s face, trying to get her attention.

Chimera drew the fox into her arms, hugging it, the soft fur helping her draw herself back from the precipice. 

She had to breathe.

Chimera led herself through a breathing exercise Brandon had taught her, grounding herself.

She just… hadn’t expected the… situation… to be brought up.

She’d been caught off guard.

After a long minute, she rose up to her feet, shakily picking up her schoolbag as Yuki curled around her neck, yet another layer to keep the mark hidden from sight.

She drew her phone out, trying not to drop it as she left the classroom, thankful that the hall wasn’t too full.

She acted on impulse, pressing the call button before she’d even fully thought it out and-

“Hey Mera! What’s up?” Naten’s voice came through.

Chimera took a deep breath, leaning against the wall, his voice somehow instantly taking the tension from her, “…hey Naten.” She cleared her throat, willing her voice to not break, “How are you feeling?”

“Better, my bones no longer feel like molten lava with every step.” He laughed.

A smile tugged at the corner of her lip, “That’s good.”

“…you okay?”

“…I’m not sure.” She bit her lip, willing herself not to cry.

What had happened was a stain in her history, it would inevitably be brought up occasionally for the rest of her life. She couldn’t break down at the mere mention of it.

She’d give Krystal the benefit of the doubt, that she’d senselessly brought it up maybe thinking Chimera was completely over it.

“I just got out of practice, I’m gonna shower and then I’ll come pick you up, we can go get a coffee. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Naten told her quickly.

“You don’t have to-”

“Hey, none of that.” Alexa’s voice came, “Sorry for eavesdropping but you sound sad and we’re not letting that slide, we’ll be there in twenty.”

Chimera closed her eyes, quiet relief washing over her, “…okay.”

Chapter Text

Aisha all but ran into the tech room with Musa, quickly finding Timmy and Sky, already working at one of the computers.

Timmy turned to her, “Got your message, what is it?”

Aisha sighed, “Tressa just texted me, apparently a selkie guardian was attacked… they think Tritannus did it.”

Musa went to lean forward against Timmy’s chair, inspecting the screen he already had up, “Apparently he took the selkie’s skin.”

“Her skin?!” Sky’s eyes widened.

“Her seal-skin not her skin-skin.” Aisha quickly clarified, “Which means the selkie can’t transform back into her seal form and, that whoever took the skin whether or not it was Tritannus or not, has the power to open the gate the selkie was protecting.”

“Wait hold up- an ocean gate?” Timmy question, already tapping away at the computers, sensors and radars and satellites at the very top of Red Fountain already searching.

“Yes. The gate was definitely used… it’s not a very powerful portal so there are only a few planets it could’ve opened up to, that’s what we need to figure out.”

Sky half winced, “Did your uncle approve of us helping?”

“Nereus, the Crown Prince approved, I am quite sure he must’ve run it by the King before texting me.” Aisha easily answered.

Sky nodded in approval. They had possible deniability if the King freaked out about them helping.

“Zeroing in on the magic pulse of the gate…” Timmy frowned, the screens and holograms around them focusing on Andros and the specific coordinates Aisha had texted him on the way over, “This might take a bit, but I think I could probably narrow it down to three possible planets based on the amount of energy used and the timing of the gate opening since some portals to certain planets can be opened more easily at specific times of the day, then I’ll cross-reference to confirm where Tritannus went-”

“We still don’t know that it was Tri.” Aisha said, fidgeting with one of her braids, “The selkie hasn’t been able to identify her attacker just yet.”

Musa and Sky traded a glance but said nothing.

It took Timmy about half an hour to get all the information he needed and then as he cross referenced with possible planets…

“Oh… fuck-”

***

Roxy giggled as she carefully let her hand touch the back of the whale that had surfaced for a split moment, swimming only inches apart from the small boat she was in.

“Roxanne.” She turned to see Diana standing with one of her spears, giving her a raised eyebrow, but she could see the amusement hidden beneath, “Focus.”

“Right- sorry.” Roxy went to stand up.

She wasn’t quite sure how she’d wound up floating in a small boat in the middle of the North Sea off the coast of Scotland.

She was with Diana and a few of her Amazonian fairies, a more modern boat holding the scientists Diana had been working with close by, all of them taking samples, the biologists on on board the fairies more rustic boat using a pair of binoculars to watch the animals that’d emerged to greet Roxy after her Call of Nature.

The marine biologist in their boat, Jenna, was trying and failing to speak, “That- that- that was a North Atlantic right whale! There are less than four-hundred of them left how- how- how-”

Peter, the other biologist shook his head, “She’s an animal fairy Jenna, get it through your head!”

“Oh- like you didn’t freak out when we caught a glimpse of a beaked whale a minute ago!”

“That’s different! They’re deep sea dwellers, we never see them just like that!”

“And we see the North Atlantic right whales everyday?!”

Diana ignored the bickering, at this point used to the scientists, still watching Roxy.

She smiled apologetically, “Sorry- sorry, got a bit excited there, I’d never seen whales up close before.”

Diana gave her a small smile, “It’s quite alright. It’d be cruel to bring you all the way out here and not allow you to admire some of the beautiful creatures of the deep. However, I must still know…”

Roxy cleared her throat, “Well, from what condition the animals are in, I would say that the pollution cleanup is going very well, I’m honestly more worried about the coral reefs closer to the shore. Those will need a more delicate hand from what the crabs have to say- or well- what I sensed from them.”

Diana nodded along, approaching the open deck, her staff thumping against the wooden floor, “What of… the creature?”

Roxy sighed, “I’ll be honest… I’m not sure about that. I know there’s been a bunch of reports but… the animals are telling a different story. Either whatever is being spotted isn’t a predator, or it’s a bunch of small creatures instead of a Kraken or something like that.”

Diana considered that, slowly nodding, “Very well, we shall keep an eye on the issue, just in case. And we will take a more careful look at the coral reefs.”

Roxy followed when the Arc Fairy went to head towards the bow of the ship as they started moving again.

“Queen Nebula tells me you have begun your classes at Alfea. Do tell child, how has it been?” 

Roxy smiled, “Good honestly. I think Source Magic will help me a lot. According to Griselda, the professor, she thinks that if I work on it I could get animals to actually talk in a year or two! I think that’s gonna be one of my main goals for now.”

Diana smiled gently, “That is a good goal. Back in the day it was something every animal fairy worked towards. Though from what I know, it may be easier to get an animal you already have an emotional connection with to speak than one you do not know. So whenever you are prepared to attempt it I would recommend you try with Sir Arthur.”

Roxy snorted at that. For as serious as Diana seemed, she loved that she called Artu, Sir Arthur, she could swear her dog recognized the title, he almost seemed to sit up straighter before them from where he’d been sniffing at the water. Diana indulging in giving him a gentle pet on the head.

“Thanks, I’ll keep it in mind.”

She went to crouch down, Arthur climbing into her lap as she pet him, watching the waves rolling by, Tiresias jumping down from where he’d been sitting on her shoulder to curl up over Arthur’s flank.

Diana sighed as she seemed to take in the sea breeze, “I fear your help will be required more often now that our efforts are starting to bear fruit. The process of healing our planet will be a slow one… but we will need constant updates, and given our… lack… of animal fairies…” she trialed off for a moment, looking down, Roxy knew she was thinking of all the animal fairies that’d been eradicated by the Wizards, “Never fear to tell me or any of the other Arc Fairies if you cannot or simply do not wish to help. We know you have duties elsewhere, normal school and Alfea and your lessons with us. Not to mention your duties to your father and your friends. You are young, this is not your burden to carry, if you ever cannot help we shall make do with the technology the scientists can provide and the nature magic we already have.”

Roxy slowed in her indulgent pets of Arthur, looking up at her, a sad yet gentle smile tugging at her lip, “I don’t mind it… I actually look forward to it... I want to help. But I’ll keep it in mind.”

Diana finally turned to her, inspecting her for a moment before giving her a slow nod.

They fell into a comfortable silence, Arthur just barely starting to nod off curled up in her lap, Tiresias on his flank when Roxy heard the static of radio and panicked chatter.

She glanced back, seeing the scientists on their separate boat and on their own boat speaking into their devices, clicking away on tablets and starting to trade glances.

Diana frowned as she also noticed, Peter hurrying to approach her, “Lady Diana, something is wrong, there’s an oil rig not too far from here, there’s seem to be a failure of some kind… there’s a risk of an oil spill.”

Diana tensed up, Roxy quickly rising to her feet, “Where?”

Their boat quickly changed direction, Diana shouting out orders to her fairies, ready to provide transport to any workers there and to do everything they could to prevent an oil spill.

“Roxanne, send the animals away, make sure they put some distance as a precaution, try and get a few birds to keep an eye out for possible jumpers.” Roxy transformed. 

“Odysseus!” The griffin, who’d been taking laps around the boat, quickly came to her, he’d grown over the summer, now nearly the size of a horse, “Come on boy!”

She hurried to fly up, the griffin at her side.

The moment she saw the rig, she knew the situation was worse than anything she could’ve imagined.

The entire rig was engulfed in flames, the fire so potent Roxy could feel it even at a distance, her heart skipping a beat. 

The Amazonian fairies showed no hesitation, diving close to the fire the moment they saw workers trying to climb as high as possible in an attempt to escape the heat.

Diana and her most trusted fairies were searching, probably looking for what the failure had been, where the oil might spill out from in order to stop it.

Roxy flew close to the water, sending out a signal to all the animals beneath the water, plenty of them were already evacuating, but Roxy made sure there were no stragglers.

Odysseus chirped a few times suddenly, drawing her attention, some of his feathers puffing out, the griffin all but hissing at a lower part of the rig.

Roxy frowned, “What is it boy? Is someone there?”

A portal opened close to Diana, Cerridwen stepping through, standing in a cloud of mist, eyes wide and panicked, “Retreat! Everyone retreat at once!”

“What? Why?!” Diana frowned, quickly scanning, “We must stop the oil-”

“There is something else at play here.”

Roxy flew to where Odysseus was starring, the griffin trying to grab at her, to stop her, she could see a shadow amongst the flames, “I see someone down here!” She called out, starting to summon a platform like the ones the other Amazonian fairies had been creating to transport workers to the boats.

Cerridwen caught sight of her, Roxy couldn’t see her eyes widening with panic as she sensed a pulse of dark energy, the same pulse that’d drawn her to the rig in the first place.

She knew their animal fairy was young, not able to fully understand what it was she’d seen, what it was she’d likely sensed subconsciously.

“Roxanne don’t!”

Roxy hesitated, but did indeed stop, flying in place for a moment.

Then-

Roxy screamed as a figure leaped out at her, Odysseus flying to intercept the figure, sending it back, hitting the metal of the rig harshly.

“Roxanne!”

It was… a man… but not quite.

A mermaid, with jade scales and long dark purple hair, running over his arms were black veins, his hands ending in what seemed to be growing claws, covered in-

Oil.

He was in the middle of barrels of the stuff, many of them having been punctured with a golden trident the man pulled from one of them.

He was heaving in harsh breaths, eyes wild and animalistic as he sunk the trident into another barrel and…

He seemed to almost… absorb the oil, grunting and screaming as he did so, the dark veins in his arms starting to bulge.

Then his eyes locked on hers, flashing between a soft gray and an unnatural furious green.

“R-run.” He managed to get out through gritted teeth before throwing the trident and-

Roxy summoned a butterfly shield, nearly screaming as the trident hit it, nearly shattering it, in an instant a stronger shield joined hers, a hand grabbing at her elbow, pulling her back.

Cerridwen, screaming as she all but threw her towards Diana, “Get Roxanne out of here! Get her out!”

“Wait-” 

Amazonian fairies were already fluttering around where oil had indeed spilled, the same area where the mermaid had thrown himself, clearly going to absorb more oil and strange green energy.

Diana placed a hand against Odysseus’s beak, “Take her away.” She commanded before all but throwing Roxy on to his flank.

“Wait-”

Odysseus flew off, Roxy gripping his fur and feathers as they hurried away from the fight, Roxy glancing back to see the fairies trying to contain the oil and whatever that man was.

She shut her eyes and hid her face against Odysseus’s feathers.

The griffin didn’t stop until they’d reached the coast, quickly laying down in exhaustion, taking a moment before going to hunt for fish as Roxy stared at the water.

It didn’t take long for two of the warrior fairies to find her, gently telling her they’d sent reinforcements to the rig.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, she hadn’t even realized she’d dropped her transformation, she slowly took it out, seeing the name flashing on screen.

‘Tims’

She slowly went to pick up.

***

The Winx sat together, at the end of a long table, a meeting of the Company of Light having just begun.

With Tritannus staging an attack on a different planet that was under the protection of the Company of Light, King Neptune no longer had a choice on whether or not they got involved, the only thing he could do was cooperate.

Faragonda slowly approached the holograms that’d been set up, “Here is what we know. A few days ago, during the coronation in Andros in which Prince Nereus was named heir to the throne, Prince Tritannus attacked his siblings as well as guards and vanished into thin air. There were signs he might’ve been cursed or under some kind of influence but we were unable to determine anything specific. Griffin?”

Griffin rose up, “Since we were allowed to enter Andros territory, the few tests we’ve been able to do have provided no concrete evidence that Tritannus is under any common curse, my witches and curse breakers are still investigating this route.”

Saladin sighed, “Yesterday, whilst searching for Prince Tritannus, Crown Guard Amphitrite came across one of the portal selkies that reside in almost every ocean of every planet, the selkie Lemmy, testified to being attacked by a shadow whilst she was in her human form resting on a rock formation, her selkie skin was taken, her power tampered with. We believe this was Tritannus, stealing her skin so he could open the portal.”

“Given that he doesn’t have the full power of a selkie, he was only able to open the portal once.” Hagen continued, “He decided to head for Earth, where we believe he emerged in a previously dead ocean gate in their North Sea.”

They all fell silent for a moment, turning to Queen Nebula, who sat flanked by Diana and Cerridwen.

Nebula slowly rose up to her feet, “The Arc Fairy of Nature, Diana, was out on the North Sea, inspecting progress on efforts to clean up the ocean… an oil rig not too far from her location was attacked, we do not know the specifics but there was a massive fire, there were two casualties.”

Diana looked down, “One of our own, the young Roxanne believed she saw a worker in need of assistance. As she has been able to confirm once she saw an image of him, this was Prince Tritannus, who we believe attacked the rig with the purpose of getting to the oil barrels kept there, he seemed to be…. absorbing them in a way.”

“We also detected that, once he jumped into the water where oil did indeed spill, he seemed to be able to absorb… contamination in general, pollution.” Cerridwen frowned, shaking her head slightly, “But there was something wrong. Both Roxanne and I can testify that the absorption seemed… corrosive… corrupting, he seemed to be in pain.”

Nebula hesitated before adding on, “Roxanne insisted that I tell you, the Prince told her to run before attacking her, she said he seemed to be… conflicted. But there is no doubt in our minds that whatever is happening to the Prince… he is dangerous.”

“He was able to escape the Earth Fairies by diving into the depths… we are unsure of where he is currently.” Codatorta finished.

“He is still on Earth.” Diana said, “I believe I might be able to detect him if I have a general sense of where he is and if he goes after pollution again but… it is searching for a… what is the expression Roxanne used? A needle in a haystack. For the time being my Amazonian fairies are patrolling along with some of Cerridwen’s witches, the Arc Fairy Aurora is also keeping an eye out with her Tower.”

Faragonda nodded along before slowly turning to her right, where, at the corner of the room sat a single velvet chair, separated from everyone else, “Anything you could contribute?”

Valtor sighed, taking a moment to look at the holograms before turning to Queen Nebula, “Your Majesty, I believe it was mentioned that Prince Tritannus seemed to gain power from the pollution?”

“Yes.”

“Mmm… that’s what I feared.” He slowly stood up, Bloom could just barely make out the chain the ran around his neck and under his shirt, a magic block, “Princess Aisha, does Prince Tritannus have a proficiency with magic?”

“No. He liked Potionology when he was younger, but spells… he never showed interest in anything related to them.” Aisha answered, only slightly tense as she reminded herself that Valtor was there to help.

He nodded along, “In that case, the only thing I can be absolutely certain of is that this isn’t Prince Tritannus. Either he is cursed, under someone’s influence… or he is working with someone else.”

“How can you be certain?” Hagen questioned.

“The portal.” Valtor signaled to one of the holograms that depicted the stone structure, “Ocean gates are fickle things, even Nymphs require extensive practice and study to be able to open them. Selkies may have a natural proficiency with gates but that doesn’t transfer on to their skins. Maybe if Tritannus had opened a portal to Magix or Zenith I might believe he was on his own, but Earth? To a gate not only abandoned and nearly devoid of magic but several planets away? Even if he had multiple selkie skins he shouldn’t have been able to do it. He would need someone with experience telling him what to do… or controlling him.”

Aisha all but collapsed in her chair out of sheer relief.

It wasn’t Tritannus. 

At least not entirely.

“The thing that intrigues me though…” Valtor half frowned, “The pollution… it simply makes no sense to me that he should open such a complex portal for oil and pollution… they hold no magic… they are not things that would usually power dark magic… but you say he seemed to become stronger with it- unstable yet stronger… I cannot make sense of that part.”

“We will look into reasons why he might’ve done it.” Saladin said, “Queen Nebula, do we have your permission to enter Earth to search for Tritannus and to inspect the gate he used?”

“Of course, we do not need him in our oceans.”

“Then we will-”

“Actually,” Timmy cut him off, shaking his head as he looked at the holographic message circling his wrist, eyes inspecting and taking in the information in a split second, “that won’t be necessary. Tritannus just left Earth. Roxy says that, according to the Arc Fairy Aurora, while patrolling the North Ocean on her Tower, she detected a blast of power, when investigating she realized that Tritannus activated a different ocean gate after attacking another selkie, they didn’t know any of the earth selkies had survived the Wizards… he took her seal skin. He’s gone.”

Aisha cursed under her breath, letting herself fall back on her chair, covering her face with her hands.

“And we have no way of knowing where he went…” Griffin shook her head.

“This changes things.” Avalon spoke up for the first time, going to stand up, “Faragonda, Tritannus attacking and stealing a selkie’s skin already made this situation more serious than we’d thought, but if Tritannus is willing to put civilians lives at risk to acquire oil or whatever it is he is after and he attacked the Earth Fairies on sight, not to mention stealing yet another seal-skin…” he cast an apologetic glance towards Aisha before continuing, “We must treat him as an active dimensional threat. Whether or not he is cursed or being controlled must take a back seat to figuring out where he is before he can cause more harm.”

“I agree.” Saladin said, “I will have the satellites and scanners on Red Fountain trying to narrow down possibilities.”

“Queen Nebula, if you will allow it, I would still like to go to Earth to investigate both gates that Tritannus used, as well as to speak to the selkie he attacked if possible.” Griffin said, Nebula quietly nodding in approval.

“So it would seem he’s after selkies…” Valtor frowned, “That can only mean an active interest in ocean gates.”

“He’s jumping between planets… be it to look for more pollution or something else is to be seen but… that makes him unpredictable.” Faragonda went to pinch the bridge of her nose, “Princess Aisha, I would like to speak to your cousin’s parents and siblings if possible, we must get a full picture of this situation.”

Aisha nodded along, Nabu going to take her hand under the table.

As the meeting wrapped up, and the members of the Company went to leave with Queen Nebula, Faragonda talking to the Arc fairies, Bloom and the others slowly rose up, being left alone with Valtor.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help little one.” He said as he rose up from his seat, approaching with caution, clearly not sure of how a few of them might react to him getting too close.

“Have you ever heard of something like this before?” Aisha questioned.

“I have read of residue of old magic and old curses used to take power… but oil and pollution, as I said, I simply cannot make sense of it. At least not yet, but I will investigate the matter further, now that I know what he seemed to be after I might be able to find something.”

Aisha nodded along, “Thank you.”

They left the room after that, frustration practically dripping off Aisha.

Tecna went to take her hand, “We’ll find something soon.”

Aisha sighed, “I hope you’re right.”

Chapter Text

Nabu slowly set down the bowl of yogurt with apple bits, granola and honey, taking a deep breath.

He’d gotten nauseous all of a sudden.

Flora half frowned, watching him, “You okay?”

He cleared his throat, “I’m fine, just… thinking I suppose.”

She set aside her own bowl, glancing at the notes strewn on the counter, “You don’t have to help me with this you know?”

“Don’t start Flo. You know I’m happy to help.”

She’d asked him for help with the formulation of a potion for one of her classes, since it had to be one that proved the presence of a curse.

He passed her his phone, “I found an article that you could use as a reference for why you chose Gorgon blood as the final ingredient.”

Flora’s eyes took in the article, nodding along, going to copy the title of the article, “And… that should do it I think. Thanks.”

He gave her a playful wink, “Anytime… how’s Aisha?”

Flora sighed, “Worried. She’s been talking with Nereus and Tressa everyday. I think that’s helping but… not much.”

Nabu shook his head.

It’d been three days. 

They still didn’t know where Tritannus was.

“I’ll see if I can take her out, try and get her mind off of things.” Nabu said after a moment.

“Take her to a beach, or on a hike.” She suggested as she started writing down the key points for her assignment.

“I think a hike will be better, if it’s in the weekend we could even go camping, have a nice little bonfire, roast marshmallows… could make her feel a bit better, or at least get her mind off of this entire mess.”

“Yeah well, you’re marrying into that mess so you’d better get used to it.” Flora joked.

Nabu fought not to tense up at that, looking down, quickly scrambling to change the topic, “Hey by the way- what’s going on with your cottage? Helia will not stop talking about it, are you two finally going for it?”

Flora’s smile could’ve lit up the room by itself as she looked down bashfully, “I- I’m still mulling it over.”

“Flora. Come on, you literally have stars in your eyes just thinking about it, why are you hesitating?”

She sighed, shaking her head, “You don’t get it I…” she trailed off for a moment, looking down at her hands, “I know I don’t talk about it a lot but… I didn’t exactly grow up with a lot of money you know? And I mean even now- we make do and we live well but… well I never exactly pictured myself being able to afford such a beautiful place at twenty… I just… I guess I don’t love the idea of Helia paying for most of it…”

Nabu leaned back on his chair, “Look… I won’t say I get it, because I know I don’t. But… Flora you deserve the world, and it is very clear to me that you’re in love with that cottage… have you spoken to Helia about this?”

“A bit… he said that the fund he has was always meant for his future and a home. And I can see he wants the cottage as badly as I do… I guess I’m just letting it get to me a bit, the thought of… not owing him but… him doing that.”

Nabu pursed his lips for a moment, “Are you… scared… it won’t work out?”

Flora tilted her head, considering it, “It’s a big step. And I want to take that step with Helia… but at the same time… it’s just a bit daunting isn’t it?”

He snorted, “It is.”

“But I want it… and I know that we’d be so happy there.” she glanced down again, “I feel like I just need to know that he’s sure he wants it too- but- I already know he does, my brain just refuses to accept it for some reason ugh!”

Nabu chuckled at the clear contradiction in her emotions, “It’s a lot… but… it’s kind of your house of dreams isn’t it?”

Flora smiled slowly, nodding along, “Yes, that’s exactly it. It’s my house of dreams… I… I could see our children growing up in that cottage.” She saw his eyebrows shoot up and laughed as she blushed, fanning her face, “Now I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.”

“A bit?” 

They both laughed.

Nabu grew serene, meeting her gaze, “You two will make great parents someday.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. Your kids will be lucky to have you as a mom… and to have that cottage of dreams to grow up in.”

Flora suppressed a smile for a moment, finishing up her main points for her assignment before setting down her pen, looking towards the balcony and then meeting his gaze, “…I’m gonna call Helia… we’re going for it.”

Nabu threw a fist up in the air, “Yes!” Flora laughed as she accepted a high-five from him, “That’s what I’m talking about!”

It was almost as comforting as it was devastating, seeing a piece of his friends lives fall perfectly into place.

He just wished he could be there to see the results.

But he would be happy for them while he could.

He wanted them to be as happy as they could be.

Nabu just hoped that, when little kids with Helia’s heart and Flora’s softness wandered the halls of their house of dreams, that they’d eventually be told stories of the uncle they never got to meet.

***

Bloom placed her paintbrush in the glass of water she’d left on the nightstand, inspecting the small canvas she’d just finished up.

It was a dream she’d had a few nights before, she wasn’t sure if the Dragon had shown her something or if her own mind had simply decided to have a nonsensical dream.

The scene she’d painted out was almost peaceful.

It was an underwater scene, only a few rays making it through the water.

Soft pale sand decorated the bottom, corals and different flora growing around a single stone pillar that was carved out to form some kind of throne that had been crumbled with age, moss and seaweed growing over it.

Sea creatures and monsters swam behind the structure.

Musa, who sat against the headboard, several music sheets and a journal containing half-done lyrics and small poems scattered in the duvet before her, tilted her head as Bloom turned the canvas to show her.

They were having a little creative session in Musa’s room.

“I like it, the lighting especially is really good, I know Helia would have something to say about that.” Musa told her.

“Thanks. I was going to do it with oil paints at first but- Helia just got me this new set of watercolors and, you know I haven’t used watercolors in a hot second so I thought, might as well go for it.”

“Well it turned out great.”

She carefully closed the set of watercolors she’d used, placing the canvas near the window to dry.

She glanced at the music sheets, “Are you working on production for your class or is that for your album?”

“Bit of both. Mostly I just want to figure out a melody that’s bothering me.”

Bloom returned to the bed to sit down next to Musa, leaning against Musa as she sighed, closing her eyes.

Musa frowned, “You okay?”

“I don’t know… I’m tired.”

“How come? You’re not sleeping well?”

“It’s not that. It’s the Dragon. It keeps… hovering, but I still can’t figure out what’s wrong.”

Musa raised an eyebrow as Bloom rolled over her side, going to lay down across her legs, not minding that she rolled over one or two of her music sheets.

“Have you talked to Oritel and Marion?”

“Okay first- I find it so weird that you can just call them by their first name- second- I talked with my father, he said that it could just be that certain planets are starting to align and that kinda stuff can cause the Dragon to get a bit… antsy, it was the only thing he could think of that could be causing this other than some kind of threat coming our way, but if that was it I think the Dragon would let me know… at least it’d better let me know.”

Musa hummed, “Has it… gotten worse since the Tritannus thing?”

Bloom already knew what was on her mind, “I know Tritannus is seeming to be a bigger threat than we’d thought at first… but I don’t think he’s the reason the Dragon is like this, he’s been like this for like a month or so, sure it’s gotten a bit worse since then but… I don’t think it’s him.”

“Could it be whatever is controlling or cursing him?” Musa questioned.

Bloom considered, tilting her head against Musa’s legs, “…maybe. But… I don’t know.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

Bloom pouted, “Play something? The Dragon relaxes a tiny bit with music.”

Musa grinned, “With pleasure.”

She cast a spell so her guitar would float to her, carefully arranging it to not accidentally hit Bloom on the head.

She started playing a small melody, adapted from another instrument, then sang a bit.

‘And will he let the fire go out?

Is this the end of him now?

Dying king with a crumbling crown?

Will he let the fire-’

Predictably, she was interrupted by Bloom throwing a pillow in her face as she laughed.

“I knew I should’ve never showed you that movie!”

“Well now you gotta live with the consequences!”

They both laughed, and Musa went to play a different, longer melody

***

Aisha slowly set down her pen as her phone started dinging and buzzing.

For a long moment, she ignored it.

She already knew in her gut it couldn’t be good news.

Then the door to her room opened and Stella stepped in, dread on her face.

Aisha sighed heavily, “What happened?”

Stella pressed her lips together for a moment, “They found him for a moment… in Isis. Sky and I already got some details from Diaspro, there was some problem at some fabric that had part of its equipment installed in a beach, Tritannus was hiding out in a storage unit, feeding or absorbing trash and contaminants that’d been stored there for recycling. He attacked the security guards that found him and… he escaped through another gate, attacked another selkie. He didn’t manage to steal her skin but he did force her to open the gate. He got away.”

Aisha took a shaky breath, “Do we know where he went?”

“No.”

She slammed a hand against her desk as she went to stand up, “Damn it!”

“Timmy and Tecna are setting up a few scans on the planets that are closest to Isis and the ones that have proper portals to it. And the Company is planning out new spells to try and track him down.”

Stella kept going, talking about the texts Helia was sending from Saladin’s office as Saladin argued with Faragonda and Griffin, but Aisha couldn’t focus, couldn’t hear.

Not when something was tugging at her gut and she was getting light-headed, the room starting to spin, her legs weakening as something called to her.

She fell, just barely making out Stella throwing herself to catch her as-

Aisha gasped as she rose up, breaking through water.

She was in an underground cave, shining crystals emerging from the ceiling.

A part of her knew this wasn’t real, that it was just her subconsciousness here, that her body was still out there, probably being let down on the floor by Stella.

But the water was still cold and her magic didn’t work as she swam for a rock formation, coughing as she went to climb on to it.

The rock formation was just big enough that some might’ve called it a small island.

As Aisha got a sense of her bearings, she realized a few things.

The water was impossibly clear, and at the very bottom, she could just make out more glowing blue crystals, and the quiet power in the air…

She knew where she was even before a voice came from behind.

“Our apologies for such an abrupt summoning child. But it was imperative.”

Aisha felt her stomach turn to stone as she slowly turned towards the soft, serene voice.

Laying across the rock formation, was the mermaid.

The mermaid that formed part of the Council of Elders.

Aisha was back in the Golden Kingdom.

Or at least her subconscious spirit was.

“What am I doing here?”

“Something is amiss.” She turned yet again, this time finding Arcadia floating just above the water, slowly landing on the rock formation, approaching slowly, “A threat is slowly gathering strength, deep beneath the waves.”

“What are you talking about? Are you- are you talking about Tritannus?”

The mermaid slowly shook her head, “Your cousin is but a puppet in all of this. No, there is something more… sinister pulling the strings… Princess of Andros, you have been called upon because the Council of Elders has agreed that you and your Winx warriors are perhaps the best suited… the only suited to deal with this threat…”

“And what threat is that?”

Arcadia and the mermaid exchanged a glance before Arcadia stepped closer, “We do not know.”

Aisha fought not to scoff, “How do you not know?”

“Our duty, is to protect the Magical Dimension, you must know… the Dragon’s sole equal… the Leviathan fell into a slumber when the Magical Dimension was created by the Dragon and the Leviathan created his own dimension. If it were to fully wake… it could be disastrous. No the Leviathan… stirs… something has disturbed it, he senses, a threat to it… thus… he summoned us… we are unable to help out there… but we are able to select champions for him.”

Aisha slowly frowned, shaking her head slightly, “Wait- the Leviathan is in danger? This is a threat big enough for him to act for the first time in- fuck in centuries? What are you saying what- what is this threat?”

“We do not know child.” The mermaid spoke again, “The Leviathan does not think as we do, it only sensed a threat he believed had been imprisoned before.”

“But now that threat is back?”

“Not quite,” Arcadia considered for a moment before continuing, “the threat is… a puppet master, hidden in shadows, deep in the ocean… it has not escaped whatever prison the Leviathan left them in… but it’s influence has reached the Magical Dimension. We believe your cousin may be being used to free this threat.”

Aisha gritted her teeth together, determination setting in, “What do we have to do? Stop Tritannus?”

“That is not all.” The mermaid sighed, “This quest that we ask you to embark in… it is dangerous.”

“Yeah well… we’re familiar with dangerous.” 

Arcadia went to stand next to the mermaid, eyes filled with worry and what Aisha thought might’ve been guilt, “Twenty years ago, any and all contact between the Dragon and the Levaithan’s dimensions was abruptly cut off. Do you know of the Levaithan’s dimension?”

She was from Andros, of course she knew.

“The Infinite Ocean.”

“Yes.” The mermaid looked down, “Once long ago, Nymphs and a few select fairies could gain access to the Infinite Oceans by unlocking a specific transformation.” She met Aisha’s gaze, already knowing what was about to make click in the young fairy’s head.

Aisha shut her eyes, “Sirenix… you want us to gain a cursed transformation.”

“We want you to break the curse.” Arcadia said.

Her eyes shot open, “What? No it- the curse can’t be broken. Everyone has tried and failed to do it- how do you expect us to break the curse?!”

“You must protect the Infinite Oceans, you cannot do that without Sirenix.” The mermaid slowly returned her gaze to the water, letting one of her hands dip in to start making figures, “The curse placed over the transformation is a complex one. But it is not unbreakable… not with certain… aid.”

Arcadia extended her hands, light gathering in her hands to form a book with a crystalline cover and a glass lock, wings carved into the delicate cover.

“This, is what we call the Book of Sirenix. The Council of Elders gathered their strength to create it. Once you and the Winx warriors open the book, you shall be placed under our protection and you shall unlock a rare transformation that will give you immunity to the Sirenix curse, this transformation is Harmonix, and will reveal to you new spells and wings that will work better underwater. The book will guide you to challenges and trials that you must overcome. To gain Sirenix despite it being blocked by dark magic and break the curse, you must retrieve special gems that have formed in the Magic Dimension as a result of the cut off communication with the Infinite Ocean.”

“Whatever wells or pools of the essence of the Leviathan’s dimension remained in our own after the severance of Sirenix, became compounded into gems that represent the different faces of the seas.” The mermaid explained, the water raising up to form different colored gems, “You must retrieve these gems and free the wells of the Infinite Ocean’s power that remains in our dimension. If you do this, and bring the gems to a special Convergance point… you shall be able to break the curse, gain Sirenix, and enter the Infinite Ocean to protect the slumbering Leviathan.”

Aisha took it all in slowly.

She looked at the book again, able to sense the sheer power emanating from it, the magic of every member of the Council of Elders apparently.

When she went to take it though, Arcadia pulled back.

“You must be warned… our protection will only be able to keep you safe for four moon cycles. That is how long you shall have to retrieve all of the gems and free the wells. If you cannot achieve your goal before the fourth moon cycle is over… you shall fall to the curse of Sirenix due to your connection to Harmonix. Do you understand this?”

Aisha wanted to scream.

Of course their protection had a deadline.

Of course the consequence of failing this new mission would be to fall victims to what was perhaps the worst curse the Magic Dimension had ever witnessed.

She gritted her teeth together, “I understand.” But she still didn’t take the book, “Do you truly expect us to do this with nothing but a book and our wits?”

The mermaid splashed some of the water up with her tail, “We understand what we ask of you is far too much… but we were able to get assurance from the Leviathan that he shall gift you… a guide.”

“A guide? What guide?”

“You shall see soon enough.” Arcadia said, lifting the book once more, “Do you accept this quest? Will you help protect the Leviathan?”

Aisha sighed heavily.

She already knew there wasn’t much choice, not really.

She went to take the book, “I accept.”

Then she jerked awake yet again, feeling like her spirit had been slammed back into her body, clutching at her chest.

The girls and the boys were surrounding her, Flora’s hands covered by a healing glow, Brandon and Nabu already helping her sit up while Stella fanned her.

“Are you alright love?” Nabu asked, brushing her hair away from her face.

Aisha looked down, it only took a second of concentration for the book to materialize in her hands.

“…we got a problem.”

And if that wasn’t the understatement of the century.

***

Chimera felt herself blush as Naten turned to look at her incredulously, “Wait- wait- you don’t know how to swim?!”

Chimera smiled helplessly as she shrugged, her feet just barely submerged in the water, threading the muddy bank, “I just- my mom never thought it was necessary-”

“Necessary?! Mera it’s a basic survival skill! What happens if you fall off a boat?!”

“Why would I be on a boat?! Besides, I can fly!”

“Well- what if you’re unconscious? Or dizzy? Or I don’t know something! No this is- this is unacceptable.” He shook his head in exaggerated disapproval, “I cannot believe this. I’m teaching you how to swim.” He declared.

Chimera laughed, “Yeah- I’m good.”

“Oh come on, if you don’t let me teach you it’ll haunt me for the rest of my days! Anytime you take more than an hour in answering a text I’ll be convincing myself that you’re drowning!” His eyes softened slightly, as he stepped deeper into the bank, the water reaching his calfs, “You know, there’s a swimming hole close to the farm, pretty calm, not a lot of people ever really. I could teach you there.”

Chimera sighed, glancing back to the picnic blanket laid on the grass under a tree, “I don’t know… something tells me it’d take a while for me to really get it, I’m not exactly the most coordinated person around.”

He shrugged, “Neither am I.” 

She winced internally. 

Right, his dyspraxia. She might’ve been able to forget he had it if it weren’t for the fact that she knew he practiced twice as much as most of his classmates just to be sure his coordination was up to par.

Naten snorted at the guilt in her face, “I didn’t mean it like that Mera. I’m just saying, if I learned how to swim you can too! Even if it takes a second. Here, you teach me how to ride a dragon, I teach you how to swim, that’s a fair deal isn’t it?”

She smiled, “The difference is that you actually want to learn to ride a dragon properly and I am not really interested in swimming.”

“Won’t you do it for me and my peace of mind?”

She laughed, “Well that would just be a win-win for you, what’s in it for me?”

He stepped closer, careful to go slow so the sloshing water around his ankles wouldn’t splash her long skirt that was dangerously close to dipping in, his voice softening, “What do you want?”

She felt herself blush at the sudden closeness and how soft his eyes and voice had become in an instant.

He also seemed genuine, like whatever she said she wanted he would find someway to get for her.

She swallowed, “I uh… I…”

A sudden burst of water drew both of their attention, Naten instantly throwing an arm in front of her as a figure emerged from the lake and-

It was someone- someone thrashing and very clearly trying not to drown.

It took a split second for them to process that it wasn’t a threat, and the second it clicked, Naten didn’t hesitate, already going to dive under the water fully clothed to go help.

Chimera quickly got out of the bank of the lake, running to where Naten was trying to drag the person to the shallow part of the lake, right in front of their picnic blanket.

As soon as he was close enough, Chimera reached out, helping him drag the coughing, panicking figure out of the water.

“Breathe, breathe! You’re alright, we got you!” Naten quickly said as he carried the figure to the grass, Chimera rushing to grab the towels she’d packed into their picnic basket just in case and throwing it over the trembling figure.

It was a young woman.

She had golden blonde hair that clung to her skin, bright blue eyes wide with panic and confusion, soft pink lips and a button nose.

The beautiful gala dress she wore explained why she’d struggled to swim so much, it had a jade green top with a sweetheart neckline and a dark blue asymmetrical skirt, a golden necklace with a dragon pendant rested on the hollow of her collarbone, a beautiful ruby engagement ring decorated her hand.

She wasn’t dragging in breaths the way Chimera would’ve expected after nearly drowning though. In fact, she barely seemed to be breathing at all.

The girl stumbled to her feet, whipping around as though she was searching for something.

“Whoa, hey, easy, are you hurt?” Naten asked as he tried to placate the girl.

Something clicked in Chimera’s mind as the girl clearly tried and failed to transform, looking down at her hands frustrated.

She reached out, placing a hand on Naten’s elbow and dragging him closer to her, “Naten… that’s… that’s…”

The girl turned to them, fear mixing with anger in her eyes, “Where am I? What- what happened? Where’s Millie?! Where’s Valtor?!”

Naten gasped, confirmation of what she already knew cutting through him, but the whisper of realization still escaped Chimera, “…that’s Daphne.”

Chapter Text

Bloom felt the commotion deep in her gut before she even reached the courtyard.

She knew Tecna had gotten a call from Naten, in which he’d been rambling and trying to explain… something as he rode his Windriders towards Alfea, so panicked and confused something must’ve clearly gone wrong.

Stella had received a singular text from Chimera and had instantly started dragging Bloom towards the courtyard, as soon as they made it there, she’d barked out an order to all the students there to leave, holding such authority everyone had all but vanished in an instant.

She still wasn’t quite sure what exactly was going on when a shimmering light appeared before them and Chimera appeared with her staff in hand and wide eyes.

Stella quickly went to place her hands on her sister’s shoulders, “Are you sure? Are you absolutely, a hundred and ten percent sure?”

“Yes, I- I don’t know how or why or how but-” Chimera ran her hands through her hair, clearly trying to figure out how to explain, “We were just- one second we were just hanging out near the lake and then all of a sudden she just- boom!” she imitated an explosion with her hands, “She just- showed up! We managed to calm her down a bit when Naten told her we’d give her a ride over here but- Stella- I- I- I- I don’t think she remembers everything.”

Tecna was tapping away at her tablet, summoning electronic holographic ladybugs, “I’m already sending out my bugs to scan the lake, get more information-”

“Whoa, wait, slow down what are we even talking about?” Brandon questioned, glancing between Tecna and Stella, who were both tense and kept trading looks.

“Yeah, who showed up in the lake? What happened?” Flora asked.

For a long moment, neither answered, then Stella turned to her, “Bloom… I don’t know how but-”

She was cut off by the sound of a Windrider engine quickly approaching, Bloom recognizing Naten’s bright helmet as he went to park right in front of them, soaking wet, taking off his helmet to look at his sister with panicked eyes.

The figure behind him stumbled off the Windrider, glancing around in a haze and-

No…

No it- it couldn’t be- 

There was no way.

But the Dragon roaring in recognition and tugging at her gut confirmed what Bloom had dared believe for a split second as soon as she’d spotted that golden hair, and soft blue eyes.

The face that haunted every hall in the Domino palace and that Bloom had traced in far too many history books and photos to possibly be able to ever confuse.

Daphne stood before them, in the very flesh, soaking wet as she glanced around wildly.

Then her eyes fell on Bloom and she froze.

The Dragon might as well have been throwing his body at the bars of a cage, the way it thrashed within her, desperate to reach out to its former Guardian and friend.

Bloom herself was in shock, unable to fully process what was happening, a whisper just barely escaping her, “Daphne?”

Years of failure in breaking the curse, years of wishing she could’ve met her big sister properly, that they could hold each other and go shopping and talk like normal sisters.

Years of seeing Zila and Tecna sitting on the porch swing of the farm, Tecna quietly getting advice over mugs of hot vanilla while Bloom stood inside trying to stifle her jealousy.

Years of seeing Flora beam with pride anytime she spoke of Mielle, of seeing Mielle try to imitate Flora, similar skirts and ways of walking, Flora clearly being her biggest inspiration, knowing she and Daphne might’ve been just like that in another life.

Years of seeing Alexa and the twins and Ginger running around together, every interaction filled with fake annoyance and protectiveness and sisterly chaos.

And two summers of conversations with Stella being quietly interrupted by Chimera stepping into the room to ask for opinions on an outfit, beaming at Stella’s approval, of watching Stella patiently doing her makeup and teaching her what her best colors were while Bloom tried to ignore the yearning pangs in her chest.

And now… she was here…

Daphne was standing right there. Not as a spirit, not as a golden ghostly presence… no.

She was just… there, flesh and blood, rosy cheeks… alive.

But when Bloom took a step forward-

Daphne took a step back, shaking her head, “No… no no no no… this isn’t- it wasn’t real- it wasn’t- I didn’t- what… what-”

Bloom pressed her lips together for a moment, “Daphne-”

“No! No! It didn’t- it wasn’t real!” She clutched and pulled at her hair, clearly panicking before-

“Daphne?”

Bloom turned to see some of the professors emerging from the building, plenty of them freezing in shock when they saw her, the one who kept going, who’d called her name-

Daphne blinked once, then twice, tears spilling down her cheeks, “Avalon? Avalon what- what-”

Avalon rushed forwards, all but swooping Daphne up into his arms, the blonde breaking down in sobs as she clung to him.

Bloom could feel her own cheeks growing wet as tears escaped her as well, Stella carefully placing a hand on Bloom’s shoulder, gently pulling her back.

***

It took a second to figure out or at least get some sense of just what had happened.

Aisha told them what the Council of Elders had said about a guide being sent their way.

They had to have meant Daphne, there was no other explanation.

Avalon slowly stepped out of his office, where he’d taken Daphne to get her away and give her a moment to understand and process what had just happened.

He met Bloom’s eyes, Bloom felt like her heart was in her throat, the Dragon was a lion wandering her ribcage, trying to get closer, trying to figure out what had happened just as much as she was.

“She doesn’t remember everything.” Avalon told her gently, glancing to Stella and Flora, who quickly went to either side of Bloom to offer silent support, the rest of the squad was sitting in the hall, having been waiting with the redhead, “The fall of Domino, sending you to Earth, she remembers all of that perfectly. But her time as a spirit is… blurry. Which is to be expected, you remember how she’d trail off or loose track of what was going on when you spoke to her in Lake Roccaluce.”

“Does… does she remember meeting me?” Bloom asked, suddenly terrified that she’d be walking in to greet a Daphne who didn’t know her at all.

“She remembers bits and pieces of your conversations. She seems to remember a bit more clearly when you went to her for help in getting the Dragon Flame back. She remembers Valtor going to see her. And she somewhat remembers giving almost all her energy and life force to Valtor last year to save his life… but… well she’s confused. She didn’t remember Domino was brought back. And she thinks you’re seventeen.”

Bloom nodded along, fidgeting with her sleeves, tears building up in her eyes, “Can I… should I… go in?”

“I think you should… it’ll help her remember everything… but only if you’re ready Millie. This is… this is a lot.”

Flora gently wrapped an arm around her, “You can take a second if you want, or we can-”

“No… no I- I have to see her.”

Flora watched her for a long moment before slowly nodding, “Okay, we’ll be right outside if you need us.”

Bloom nodded along, the words barely registering through the fog in her mind as she slowly went to turn the knob on the door.

She passed the threshold slowly, her stomach slowly turning to lead with her nerves and uncertainty on what to expect as she carefully shut the door behind her.

Daphne stood behind the desk, inspecting some of the pictures on one of Avalon’s shelves, some of which contained figures from her past, now twenty years older.

Daphne whirled around as soon as the door clicked shut. 

She’d somewhat managed to dry her hair with a towel, her dress still half wet but they hadn’t had time yet to get her something else to wear, too focused on just figuring out what she remembered and how she was here in the first place.

They stood frozen for a long minute, simply watching each other, both afraid to move, perhaps believing that, the second either shifted, the other would vanish, that this would be yet another cruel dream, fate yet again taunting them with the sister that’d always been unreachable, so close yet so far.

Then Daphne spoke, her voice breaking as tears filled her eyes, “Millie-”

Bloom practically dove over the desk, the two crashing into each other in a desperate embrace, clutching and sobbing and breaking.

“You’re- you’re here- you’re real-” Bloom managed to get out through her sobs, going to hide her face against Daphne’s neck.

She was warm.

The spirit had always been cold.

She was warm.

“Millie- Millie-” Daphne clung back with just as much fervor, gasping for air.

She’d forgotten what it was to be held, to be warm… to be alive. She’d forgotten that there’d been a time in which she wasn’t in pain, that the dull ache of the curse pressing down on her and trying to tear her apart from the inside out hadn’t always been there.

Bloom wasn’t quite sure how long they clung to each other, knees failing and crumbling to the ground together in a tangle of limbs, just soaking in the contact and the fact that she was there.

The Dragon seemed to at least somewhat settle down at the closeness to Daphne, curling up in the pit of her stomach.

Eventually, she managed to speak again through the knot in her throat, “What- what happened? How are- how are you here?”

“I don’t know.” Daphne said, sniffing, “I just… I remember… I remember you and Val… in Domino… I remember I had to save him… and then… nothing. Nothing for a long time… and then… just… light… breaking through the water.”

Bloom carefully pulled away just enough to inspect her face, “You didn’t… do you sense any reason why it might’ve happened?”

Daphne shook her head, “I… I can barely think at all to be honest… I don’t think I even fully believe it yet.”

“…yeah, same here.”

“…we need to get you out of those wet clothes, come on.”

Bloom carefully coaxed her into getting up and letting her guide her to the dorms, where she managed to talk her into taking a shower to help her take a moment to process, finding her an oversized shirt and a comfy pair of sweatpants to wear.

Then she gathered with the others in the living room to wait, quickly looking at Aisha.

“Tell me exactly what the Council of Elders said.”

Aisha walked them through the conversation she’d had with Arcadia and the mermaid yet again. The Book, the quest, the Infinite Ocean, the fact that they wanted them to break the curse over Sirenix.

…and the guide.

“So hold on.” Musa interrupted, running her hands through her hair, “…the curse is still on, it hasn’t been broken… so how the fuck…”

“I don’t know. The Council said the Leviathan would send us a guide, that’s it but- they had to meant Daphne.”

Sky frowned going to stand up, “You said the book would give you girls protection for four moon cycles right? Maybe the Leviathan did something similar for Daphne. He’s temporarily shielding her from the curse so she can serve as your guide.”

“It’s not impossible.” Nabu conceded, “The Leviathan would be strong enough to grant a reprieve even from such a powerful curse for a bit. Especially for something that he clearly needs done.”

“So what- she’s our guide for a few months and then she falls back under the curse?” Stella questioned, clearly outraged.

“Not if we succeed.” Tecna said under her breath, “If we break the curse… she stays free.”

They all fell silent at that. 

Thinking.

Then Riven stood up, “This is ridiculous- I mean- what happens if you fail? Do they even realize what they’re asking you to risk?!”

“We don’t have much choice,” Aisha said in a grave tone, “If the Leviathan is in danger… we have to do this. If something bad happens in the Infinite Ocean, the effects could ripple throughout the entirety of the Magic Dimension. This is… this is too important.”

“You girls are important too.” Helia stood up, clearly frustrated, “I mean- we don’t even know what or who the threat is! This is-” he cut himself off, shaking his head.

Flora gently went to take his hand from where she was still sitting, “We can’t ignore this calling, even if we wanted to. We already know what we have to do… we’ll figure it out.”

Before they could continue their discussion, Daphne emerged from Bloom’s room, slowing down slightly when she saw everyone there.

“…hello.”

The way the others awkwardly waved or said hi as Daphne stood, clearly not sure of what to do made it click.

It hit Bloom like a slap across the face.

Daphne didn’t know who these people were.

Bloom might’ve talked to her about her friends, but she’d never seen them in person. Not really.

She quickly stood up, going to join her sister, “Here uh… you knew Stella and Sky before, and I think you also knew Aisha.” The royals waved awkwardly, Daphne giving an acknowledging nod, “Then there’s Flora, Musa and Tecna, and the boys; Brandon, Helia, Riven, Timmy and Nabu.”

“It’s nice to finally put faces to the names.” Daphne said gently.

“Likewise.” Musa winked.

Daphne weakly chuckled.

Then, before anything else could happen, the door to the dorm suddenly burst open, the Winx all jumping, ready for an attack and-

It was Valtor.

His eyes were already on Daphne, frozen in shock, one hand still holding the door open, like all his breath had been knocked out of his chest the moment he saw her with his own two eyes.

He’d been staying in Cloud Tower, helping Tabitha and Thea with attempts at finding Tritannus, Bloom imagined Avalon must’ve told him what had happened.

Daphne had also frozen, eyes widening in disbelief as Valtor carefully took a few steps into the room until he was only a few feet in front of her.

No one dared move, watching the reunion that’d waited twenty years to take place.

Valtor let out a shaky breath in disbelief, “…it’s you.”

“…it’s me.” She inspected his face, her voice breaking as his presence fully sank in, “Valtor-”

“Daphne-” He surged forwards, sweeping her up in his arms, her feet leaving the ground as she sobbed, hiding her face in his hair, the two desperately clinging to one another, terrified to let go. That it would be yet another cruel dream. 

Bloom and the others quietly shuffled their way out of the room.

They deserved a bit of privacy. It definitely wasn’t to control their own tears at the sight of their reunion.

In their defense, even if a few of them still hated Valtor’s guts… it was impossible to not be moved by the way they’d looked at each other, like they were witnessing a miracle, the creation of a universe, like they’d finally found what they’d been searching for their entire lives.

Or well… almost twenty years.

Daphne could barely believe what was happening.

When she’d emerged from the lake, she had no idea what was happening. For a few terrifying minutes, the last thing she’d remembered had been sending Millie to earth and her final stand against the witches.

The pain of falling to the Sirenix curse.

Other vague memories had slowly began dripping into her mind. 

The way she’d gained strength over a decade under the lake.

The pull she’d felt when Bloom had started attending Alfea.

Conversations with Bloom in the middle of the night after a nightmare, her sister reaching for comfort.

Being asked to help stop Valtor. Refusing to do such a thing.

Valtor going to see her and giving back what little remained of the Dragon blessing she’d given him before the fall.

Feeling across planets the moment Valtor’s heart had stopped beating, pouring everything she had into him, into keeping him alive, into saving him.

Avalon had told her she’d been successful in saving Valtor.

But seeing him in person, being able to hold him.

That was something else entirely.

That was everything.

Daphne felt like she might shake apart, his arms the only thing holding her together as she found herself re-learning the shape of him, running her hands over his shoulder and down his arms and over his chest before carefully pulling back just enough for them to lean their foreheads together, cupping his face, inspecting his face, a part of her still not fully believing that he was truly there.

He squeezed at her waist, somehow managing to drag her closer, “Daphne- Daphne you’re here.” He was crying, they both were.

“Val- Val… I missed you-”

She pulled him in, kissing him, lips sliding together with desperation and longing and yearning that had had two decades to build up.

It felt like coming home, falling apart in his arms, Valtor kissing her with passion, dipping her back, they almost stumbled back until she was up against a counter and still pulling him closer.

It only took her a moment to realize his lips were still familiar, the taste of peaches and vague magic was still there, combined with the salt of their mixed tears but it was still him.

She sobbed as she broke the kiss, Valtor wrapping his arms around her, kissing her temple, kisses trailing down her face, her tear-tracks, her jawline and her neck, ending at her collarbone as he pulled her closer, letting her hide her face in his neck.

She shut her eyes against him, “Val…”

“You’re here- you’re here.” He muttered against her skin.

Daphne felt a mournful pang as she pulled back enough to look at him, Valtor reaching up to gently cup her face.

“Valtor… I- I don’t think I’m fully here- not really.”

“Don’t say that.” He begged as he pressed their foreheads together, “Don’t- don’t- you’re here my heart- you’re finally here don’t-”

Daphne shook her head, “Something is missing. I can feel it- deep down. I’m still tied to the lake- I don’t know how but- Val- I’m scared-”

“No my heart- no- I will figure something out. You’re not going back- I won’t allow it. I’m not letting you go my heart- my love- Daphne, I will figure something out.” Valtor promised without hesitation.

Daphne sniffed before kissing him again, “I don’t think I can- I- I don’t- I don’t want to get my hopes up- what if-”

“You are not going back Daphne.” He spoke with such finality that she couldn’t help but sigh in relief, somehow believing him.

“My… my parents?”

“They still don’t know. I told Avalon perhaps it might be best if the news came from me… or if we went to Domino to show them…”

Daphne nodded along. He’d made the right call.

She carefully cast a glance to the door Millie and her friends had disappeared through.

“Now… let’s figure out exactly what happened.”

***

Aisha explained everything all over again, in front of a few of the members of the Company of Light as well as Valtor and Daphne, who still hadn’t let go of each other.

Not that she could blame them for that.

“If I’m right about what the Council of Elders meant…” Aisha turned to Daphne, who’d only tensed up more and more with every word out of her mouth, “The Leviathan extended some kind of protection to you so you can be our guide to Sirenix.”

A vein in Daphne’s throat throbbed, she almost snarled, “No.”

Avalon shut his eyes for a moment, “Daphne-”

“No- no- no!” She rose up, half laughing in disbelief or maybe shock, “I am not- are you fucking- are they fucking insane?!” She half yelled, running her hands roughly through her hair, Valtor trying to reach for her, “I am not-” she shook her head, “I am not doing this- if this is what they want me to do to stay alive then- send me back to the fucking lake because I am not doing this!”

Bloom shot up, seeing that Daphne was very quickly spiraling, “Daphne, we need you-”

“NO!” Daphne screamed, her rage fully coming to the surface, “I will not- I will not guide you and your friends to your own fucking doom! I won’t do it!”

Stella stepped in, trying to help, “We have four months to break the curse, and we have the protection of the Council of Elders and the Leviathan-”

“Oh really?! Well then, where the fuck has that protection been for the past twenty fucking years?!” Daphne questioned, gesturing wildly, “I served to protect the Leviathan’s dimension for years and yet- it isn’t until now that I- that I…” she trailed off for a moment, her shoulder dropping as the rage left her, replaced by sheer fear for the girls, slowly starting to hyperventilate, “I can’t- I can’t do this. I can’t guide you when it could end up with you sharing this curse. I- I can’t- I won’t do it. I won’t- do you not understand the danger?”

“We know the danger Daphne but…” Bloom shook her head helplessly, “It’s not like we can stand by and do nothing, not when the Infinite Ocean could be at risk.”

“You can’t ask me to do this- the- the Council and the Leviathan can’t ask this of me- I can’t- I can’t-”

Daphne turned and ran, half crashing into the doorframe since she clearly wasn’t used to having a physical body, but kept going, running down the hall.

“Daphne!” Valtor quickly went to follow after giving Bloom a look to tell her to stay there.

Bloom shut her eyes, going to run her hands through her hair. 

She agreed with Daphne.

How dare they ask even more of her? After everything she’d given to protect not only the Infinite Ocean as a Nymph and Sirenix fairy but also the Magic Dimension and the Dragon Flame her entire life.

She’d given up everything and the very universe itself seemed to still want more.

But… she also knew, deep in her gut where the Dragon had curled up, mirroring Daphne’s emotional state, that they couldn’t do this without Daphne.

…but how could she try to convince her without feeling sick to her stomach for being yet another voice asking for more?

Daphne’s last act before the curse had taken over had been to give Millie not just the Dragon, but also a massive portion of her own power… sending her to Earth had been the last thing she’d done before her final encounter with the witches, where she’d bound them to the death of Domino to protect all other planets.

How could Bloom ask her sister to now guide her towards the same transformation that’d wound up being her own downfall?

She didn’t think she could.

***

Daphne was out of breath, her legs felt uncoordinated and clumsy, all of her really.

It was a strange thing, to have a physical form again, she nearly tripped and fell down the stairs as she ran past the back gates of Alfea, stopping only a few feet after the line of trees that marked the beginning of the forest.

She was breathless, falling to the ground, leaning her head against the bark of the tree, sobs breaking free as she hugged herself, trying to hold herself together.

It was all too much.

Coming back, seeing Avalon, seeing her sister, seeing Valtor, seeing so many faces she’d once known in the meeting of the Company…

And being told why she’d been (at least partially) brought back… the Leviathan had thought she’d be the ideal guide for the Winx to… to unlock Sirenix and maybe break the curse.

Ignoring the very real possibility that, if the Winx failed, they’d be doomed, victims to a curse worse than death that took different shapes for every victim.

Daphne thought back to when the curse had first started claiming victims, her fairy friends and fellow Nymphs falling like dominoes in the month that led up to the fall of her planet.

At first, she’d kept a record of how the curse took each of her friends.

Lacy, her very body had collapsed, every bone breaking, every organ becoming mush, what remained of her body, if it could even be called that had sunk in between the cracks of a cave.

Megan had said she felt heavier, constantly losing her balance and sometimes struggling to breath. No one knew what to make of it until her body seemed to become a weighted statue, falling down into the depths of the Infinite Ocean, beyond the bounds of what even the strongest Nymph wouldn’t dare to venture past.

The other Nymphs had quietly told her of Megan’s terrified screams as she tried to swim and as the Nymphs lost their grip on her one by one.

Christine had started hearing noises and voices, feeling ants crawling under her skin. She’d stabbed through her own ears and had tried to chop her own head off, the last Daphne knew, she’d just barely survived and had been confined to a mental institution, strapped down to keep her from hurting herself, her screams were bad enough she’d permanently injured her vocal cords.

When Bianca had woken up to scales slowly spreading over her skin…

Daphne had stopped asking. Had stopped keeping up with the other Sirenix fairies and Sirenix Nymphs.

She heard rumors, bits and pieces of harrowing tales and fates that befell each one of them. But she stopped seeking out the whole story.

And then- well- she’d become one of the tragedies fairies and Nymphs whispered about.

And now… she was here.

Why her?

Why not Christine if she was still alive or Judith or anyone- anyone else?

Did the Leviathan think she’d be easier to convince? Or maybe that she simply would have better advice?

Maybe it was simply that the Leviathan could sense the remnants of the Dragon in Daphne, the remnants of the Dragon Blessing Valtor had given back, maybe that made it easier for the Leviathan to offer her a temporary reprieve from the curse.

She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Leaves rustled to her right, she didn’t move as Valtor carefully settled down beside her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her against his chest, Daphne letting him.

He pressed a kiss against the top of her head, “I’m sorry my heart.”

She just cried for a long moment, “Val… I’m so tired.”

“I know… I know.”

She took a deep breath, settling further into his arms, trying to make sense of all the thoughts whirling in her mind.

Some vague sense of calm settled over her in the safety of Valtor’s arms, he knew she needed the pressure of being held tight to properly think sometimes.

As her thoughts settled and she went over the information in her head… she knew.

“Say it,” she told Valtor, who she knew must’ve already reached the same conclusion as her, “I need to hear it said out loud.”

Valtor sighed heavily, “If it’s the Council of Elders and the Leviathan themselves who wish for the Winx to go on this journey… then they don’t have a choice… not really. They are going to do this… they will attempt to break the curse of Sirenix and gain access to the Infinite Ocean to protect the Leviathan… with or without your help… but… you and I both know their chances of success would be far greater with you at their side.”

Daphne covered her face with her hands, “I just- if they fail-”

“They are more capable than you know my love.” He carefully took one of her hands, drawing it away from her face to press a kiss against her knuckles, “You’ve heard a story or two of them from Millie, but I’ve seen them in combat. They are the most powerful group of fairies I have ever seen. There is a reason the Council and the Leviathan wants them specifically. If anyone can manage such a feat, it is them.”

Daphne leaned further against him, pressing a kiss against his coat-covered shoulder, “I just… I’m afraid for them.”

“…I am too. But right now, the best thing we can do… is provide as much help and advice as we can to ensure they succeed.”

Daphne sighed, hidding her face against his neck as she made her way into his lap.

She knew he was right, she knew that, whether or not the Winx attempted this madness wasn’t up to her.

The only thing that was up to her was whether or not she’d help.

And as much as she hated the idea of it… she had to do it.

But before any of that… she had to go back home.

She had to see her parents.

For the first time since the fall…

Daphne had to return to Domino.

Chapter Text

The girls sat around the coffee table, watching as Daphne slowly sat down before them.

The crystalline Sirenix book sat on the center of the table, a weighted presence in the room.

Daphne watched the book for a long moment, before going to meet the girls eyes, “If you’re going to do this… I know you’re aware of the danger. And I know there is little choice here with the Infinite Ocean apparently in danger. But… if this goes wrong… I need you to promise me that you will try to transfer the curse on to me. Lock it to my spirit so that- so that maybe there is a chance that it won’t take you as well.”

Bloom’s eyes widened, the other girls drawing back in horror at the request, “Daphne-”

“It’s the only way I can help you.” Daphne pushed through, having already talked it over with Valtor, who most certainly didn’t approve, but understood why she needed this, “I… I have watched… too many fairies… too many friends… fall to this curse… I’m done just… watching the horror. I don’t even know if it would work… but if there’s a chance that I could keep you from being taken as well…” she shut her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, the thought of it petrified her… but it frightened her even more to imagine all six bright fairies being doomed along with her, “If this goes wrong… we try to tie the curse to me. Understood?”

The girls slowly traded troubled glances.

But they knew from the look in Daphne’s eyes that she needed this.

One by one, they nodded in agreement.

Daphne sighed before leaning back, still starring at the book, “Whose going to open it? If this goes wrong… whoever opens it will be the first taken by the curse.”

Before the girls could start arguing or trying to volunteer, Musa quickly leaned forward, dragging the book into her lap and flipping the heavy cover open before they could stop her.

“Musa!” Flora protested.

Musa just shrugged, clearly not about to apologize as she inspected a blank page starting to become… stained. Ink appearing and starting to form words, elegant cursive letters stringing together.

She read what appeared out loud, “From the Leviathan’s need, a new form born, to be found for trial, a key of nature, a path to Harmony. Where the bond began sinking, first tears shed, beyond the choking vines, never reached before, find the wings.”

Musa slowly frowned, biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from cursing out the book.

Stella rolled her eyes, “Riddles? Really? What does that even mean?”

Helia leaned over the couch to look over Musa’s shoulder, humming before turning to Daphne, “Does any of that mean anything to you?”

Daphne tilted her head as she considered it, “The first part… there’s a form that is very rarely unlocked, it serves as… almost a stepping stone to Sirenix, I think the first part references that. ‘Found for trial, a path to Harmony’. This first riddle is for you to unlock Harmonix. The second half though… I don’t know.”

Bloom went to sit at Daphne’s armchair, opposite Valtor, wrapping an arm around her, “The girls can brainstorm for the day, we have time… and… meanwhile… we can head to Domino.”

Daphne sucked in a nervous breath, “Should I… should I even see them when I’m not sure that I’ll get to stay? Isn’t it cruel to them?”

Valtor gently took her hand, pressing a kiss against her knuckles, “They would trade the world for even a second more with you my heart. We should go.”

Daphne sighed heavily, shutting her eyes for a moment, “…okay… you’re right.”

Stella watched her, hesitating before going to stand up, approaching, “Come on, I got something that might help the nerves.”

Daphne didn’t question her, a part of her craved to put off the moment she began the journey back to Domino.

Stella threw open the doors of her closet, thinking back to all the portraits she’d ever seen of Daphne and the pictures that decorated Domino’s palace walls and Bloom’s cork board.

Stella just wanted to do something for the nervous blonde.

She could barely stomach it when she stopped to think about all she’d been through, all she’d given up. And now… all she was willing to risk for just the chance of protecting them despite hardly knowing them.

Stella strongly believed clothing to be armor. 

Even beyond that, it was a mark, prove of who you were. What someone’s identity was like.

She had a feeling Daphne would be needing every possible reminder of who she’d once been. She was too pale, too scared, too… empty.

Maybe it was the curse, maybe it was twenty years in the lake. 

Daphne’s eyes quietly traveled over the rack of clothes as Stella began her search, silent understanding filling her as Stella started setting aside the pieces that somewhat reminded her of what she’d ever seen Daphne wearing in portraits and pictures.

Daphne carefully traced a lavender top, Stella handing over a long black tulle skirt.

She hesitated for a long moment before going to change, squeezing Stella’s shoulder in gratitude.

***

Daphne stayed glued to the window as they began their descent to Domino, the Owl being piloted by Helia and Timmy. 

A part of her felt like a shadow of herself, fidgeting with the tulle of the skirt Stella had lent her.

Valtor took her hand.

She could barely breath as they landed, Bloom being the first to hurry off the ramp, running to where her parents were surely waiting, unsure of why Bloom was visiting.

Daphne’s legs shook as she made her way down the ramp, Valtor’s hand supporting her lower back, his lips brushing her ear as he whispered reassurances.

As soon as she started descending the ramp, she looked up at the vast courtyard where they landed, the fountain where she’d walked the ledge, nearly losing her balance countless times in her childhood, the plants and flowers growing all over the perimeters, vines hanging from the walls.

Everything brought back to life but slightly changed after twenty years frozen in time.

Then-

A choked gasp.

She slowly let her gaze fall to the stone arch that served as one of the many entrances to the palace.

Her parents stood there, eyes glued to her in shock.

She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

The last time she’d seen them had been only a few rooms away, her parents crying as they told her to take Millie and run, hoping the portal to Eraklyon would be their salvation while they stayed behind to stall the Ancestral Witches.

And… after massive deviations to that plan due to Erendor’s betrayal… here she was again.

“…mom… dad…” her vision filled with tears as she managed to take a few steps forwards, her parents frozen, perhaps terrified that this was a dream, a cruel illusion, “…I’m home-”

They all crumbled at that, all but jumping into each other’s arms and, in an instant, she was surrounded by them, sobbing into her mom’s shoulder, as her dad kept whispering ‘you’re here’ against her hair in disbelief. 

They all went down, clutching each other on the floor.

Oh how she’d forgotten the warmth of her parents arms.

After a long moment, she sensed Bloom approaching with some hesitation, tears streaming down her own cheeks.

Daphne pulled her down into the hug.

For the first time in nearly twenty years…

The whole family was back together.

***

Tecna quietly watched as her cork board was slowly taken over by the few pieces of information Stella, Nabu and Sky were writing down and pinning up, Aisha sitting at her side on the bed, squinting as if it might make everything come together.

“Alright!” Aisha went to stand up, tossing a ball of blue yarn from hand to hand, which she’d taken from Stella’s room since she’d taken up crocheting, “So, when it comes to Selkies, we know of three that have been attacked. One in Andros, one on Earth and one in Isis. He took the skins of the first two, but couldn’t quite manage the same with the third.”

“The skins are what allow them to change form right?” Sky questioned.

“No. Selkies have two forms, seal forms and more humanoid forms. The skin only exists when they’re in their human forms, but if it’s taken, it locks them in that form, they can’t transform without it but it isn’t necessarily what allows them to transform, if that makes sense. In old myths, it was said that if a man took a Selkie’s skin, she was forced to marry him, basically it… it’s kind of their freedom I suppose.”

“And it holds a lot of their power.” Nabu contributed, “Specifically, the power that ties them to their ocean. Selkie skin’s are natural sources of ocean magic, and Selkie’s have been known to have a natural proficiency with portal magic, it’s why many of them became guardians of the gates in the oceans.”

“Can it be… accumulated? Like- the more skins Tritannus has the more power over the gates?” Stella asked, tapping a pen against her chin.

“Technically, yes.”

“Okay hold on-” Tecna set her screen aside, going to hop up, “Valtor said that whatever is controlling or influencing or working with Tritannus would have to have at least some knowledge on ocean magic and how to use the selkie skins right?”

“Yes. That’s probably one of our main clues about who could be behind all of this.” Sky told her.

“Then let’s get our ideas in order.”

On the cork board, they pinned up maps of the spots where Tritannus had attacked the Selkies and opened ocean gates, as well as the spots where he’d gone after contaminants.

On a smaller portable whiteboard, they wrote down the main things they might be able to use to narrow down who might be pulling the strings.

‘Knowledge of ocean magic/portal magic’

‘Ability to use or knowledge about selkie skins’

‘Powerful mind magic? Knowledge of complex/undetectable curses?’

‘After contaminants for some reason’

‘Big enough risk to impact the Infinite Ocean’

‘Trapped in the Infinite Ocean? Imprisoned by the Leviathan?’

Sky and Nabu also tried to brainstorm routes and leads they might follow to find out more.

‘Possibly a past Leviathan champion?’

‘Knowledge on mirror magic?’

‘Myths from the Infinite Ocean’

‘What is the oil for?’

‘How did they reach Tritannus from the Infinite Ocean if they are imprisoned there?’

‘What are they?’

‘How far does their influence go?’

‘Are the planets specific targets or convenient places to go?’

Sky sighed as he wrote the final possible lead.

“How are we gonna go about this?” Aisha asked.

There so many possible routes to take, so many unanswered questioned.

Sky took a moment before answering, “You girls need to focus on Sirenix. You know we can’t risk you getting distracted from your missing, we are not letting you get close to the deadline. And us Specialists… we’ll figure out who is behind all this.”

“Yeah, you girls break the curse… and we’ll figure out who our Puppet master is.” Nabu said as he wrote at the top of the whiteboard.

Who’s the Puppet Master?

***

Musa groaned as she shut the book again, leaving it on the kitchen counter, “That’s it- I don’t get it!”

She saw the way Riven didn’t meet her gaze even as he quietly agreed, going to take a drink from the fridge.

She frowned, “What is it?”

He sighed, hesitating, “Did you have to be the one to open the book?”

Right. That.

She glanced down, going to take his hand, “I did… and I think we both know you would’ve tried to do it if you could. It’ll be alright… we… we have time.”

He pulled her into a hug, Musa easily accepting the embrace, resting her cheek against his chest, shutting her eyes for a moment, taking in his warmth.

“I’m worried Musa… this… this is a lot bigger than we thought… and… if something goes wrong-”

“Hey,” she pulled back slightly, going to cup his face, “I… I know this is… a lot. I’m… I’m scared… but we’ve already done so much, and, with Daphne helping us, I think we can make it.”

“But even if you do-” he sighed heavily, “who knows if we’ll even be able to go into the Infinite Ocean with you girls… that thought… it kills me.” 

She pulled him back into her arms, “I know. But we’ll figure something out, we always do… and you boys… you’re too stubborn to not figure out a way to follow us even if it goes against the rules of nature.”

He chuckled, the sound muffled against her shoulder, “That we are… I really need you to promise me that you can do this… break the curse.”

She shut her eyes against him, feeling the full weight of this mission… the consequences of failing would be like a sword looming over all of their heads.

“Riven-”

She was interrupted when the door to  Flora and Aisha’s room opened and Brandon strolled out with a frown, “Tell me the lines of the second part again.” 

Flora was right behind him, holding a botany journal.

Musa rolled her eyes, untangling herself from Riven, and flipping the book open, “Where the bond began sinking, first tears shed, beyond the choking vines, never reached before, find the wings.”

Brandon’s frown deepened, “Okay so- Daphne said the first half is telling us this is for the stepping stone transformation, the second half has to be the place- ‘find the wings’ and all.”

“Yes.”

“I was thinking-” he turned to Flora, “Flora started looking into ‘choking vines’ and I just had a thought… the riddle- this is about you girls. A place you already know.”

Musa shook her head, “It can’t be though; ‘never reached before-’”

“I think, ‘where the bond began sinking’ trumps that. That insinuates it’s a place you do know.” Brandon kept going, taking Flora’s journal, “So I started thinking, ‘first tears shed’ when was the first time you girls ever saw one of you cry? Then it hit me- we were also there when one of you cried in front of the others for the first time- it was Flora. We saw Flora cry at-”

“Black Mud Swamp.” Riven finished in a whisper, turning to the brunette, “You cried when we found the troll’s body.”

“After she got those… choking vines to let you go.” Musa finished, looking at the page of the journal Brandon had stopped on, depicting slender violet vines dangling from trees, realization washing over her.

“‘Where the bond began sinking’.” Flora said, “Us girls were starting to get close… but you boys… that’s when webecame friends.”

“You were supposed to guide yourselves out by listening to nature right?” Brandon asked, “Sure, you did it but technically speaking, the exercise was cut short after we found the troll. The pond we were going to break through, where Flora wanted to go that we found the troll in?”

Riven nodded along, “‘Never reached before’. We never made it there.”

Flora hurried to her room, quickly coming back with another notebook that contained a simple map she’d made of Black Mud Swamp during their first year, back when she kept a few experiments there before having full access to the greenhouse and the lab, pointing to the general area she somewhat remembered being called to that day.

Musa felt anticipation and caution fighting for room in her chest, “Harmonix is in Black Mud Swamp.”

***

Helia leaned against the doorframe for a moment.

Inside, was one of the many tea rooms of the Domino palace.

Daphne sat on a couch, squished between her parents, who still hadn’t let go of her hands. Bloom sat on the floor on top of a cushion, not too far from Valtor, who sat on a love-seat, the pastries, tea and coffee on the short table before them sat mostly ignored.

He slowly drew back, returning to the side room where Timmy had four holographic screens going at once, doing research.

Not on Tritannus or on Selkie’s, no, what they were researching was more… for the immediate future.

And it was being drawn from an old project the Company of Light had tried to push through with Red Fountain that Helia remembered vaguely, Timmy currently trying to find the old archives.

Timmy frowned, he needed to get more specific with his search, “Tell me… exactly what this project was.”

Helia went to sit down, “I remember it must’ve been about… eight or ten years ago, the Company started getting worried about the lack of contact with the Infinite Ocean, they had no idea if the situation there had changed since the fall of Domino. So, my grandfather, Codatorta and the current Guardian of Red Fountain, Hwan, proposed a project. They wanted to experiment with- some kind of magic based in water currents and portals but- that’s not what’s important.”

“What’s important is that, since there was no Sirenix, if they somehow managed to open a portal to the Infinite Ocean, they weren’t planning on sending fairies through, they were planning to send in Specialist with special training for underwater missions and gear made specifically to withstand the pressure and conditions of that Dimension. Things that-”

“Would be coming in handy just about now.” Timmy finished, “You said the Guardian at the time was named Hwan?”

“Yes. Lim Hwan.”

Timmy used key words for his search as well as going back to the specific three years Hwan had been Guardian of Red Fountain.

After some digging, there it was.

A project that’d been abandoned after, despite plenty of investigation and experimenting, the Company of Light had realized there was simply no way of opening a portal to the Infinite Ocean without Sirenix.

There were plenty of potential blueprints for the gear that’d been in development for the few squads of Specialists that’d been meant to recieve training to try and protect the Infinite Ocean in place of the Sirenix fairies and Nymphs.

One or two pieces of equipment had gotten prototypes, but most of them had fallen to obscurity once the project had been unsuccessful.

“What do you think?” Helia asked as he went to lean over the back of Timmy’s chair, “I can see the gears turning.”

“I see a few things that could be helpful, and a few of these with a couple of modifications could fit with the weapons we’re used to. But mostly, I think that what wasn’t completed could serve nicely for what we have in mind, these propellers and gear were all going to be designed with the intention of better and quicker movement underwater.”

Helia nodded along as Timmy pointed out designs and notes on the logistics of ideas never realized.

They turned to the sound of small footsteps, Bloom stepping through followed by one of the butlers of the palace, who carried and delivered a tray filled with snacks and tea, the boys quietly thanking him as Bloom let herself fall into a chair.

“How are they?” Helia asked, going to sit on her armchair.

“…in shock. Fuck- I think I’m still in shock. I still can’t fully believe that she’s just… here.”

“I’m surprised Valtor still hasn’t tried wrapping her up in bubble wrap and hiding her away.” Timmy said, the words could’ve been a joke, but his tone left it clear that he meant what he said.

“I think a part of him is tempted.” Bloom muttered under her breath, “It’s so… weird. You know for so long she was this… being of mythical proportion in my head, she impacted so much and so many people and now that she’s here… she’s just… a girl with messy curls who’s just barely taller than me… it’s weird.”

Timmy tilted his head, an idea forming in his head, “Hey… if you girls manage to do this and break the curse… you do realize what Daphne being here means right?”

“That I get to actually have a big sister?”

“Aside from that…”

Helia smiled as he caught on to what Timmy was thinking, “It means you’d both be free. Her from the curse… and you from the crown.”

Bloom stayed completely still for a second before her eyes widened in realization, “Wait-”

“I mean- if she still wants the throne after everything she’s been through…. that’d mean you wouldn’t be the Crown Princess anymore.” Timmy continued.

Bloom let out a startled breath before slowly smiling, “Holy shit you’re right… does it make me awful that that gives me so much joy just to think about?”

“I mean, it’s not like you’re going to risk your life and try to break the curse just to rid yourself of the crown, so I’d say you’re good.” Helia assured her, messing up her hair.

Bloom smacked his hand away, but her tentative smile didn’t diminish.

“So… we just gotta figure out where these gems are, how to obtain Harmonix, break the curse over Sirenix, get Sirenix, protect the Infinite Ocean and figure out who the fuck is even behind all of this…” Bloom summarized with a small frown.

Timmy shrugged, “Sounds like a regular Tuesday to me.”

They all chuckled.