Flora groaned, an immense ache coming from her head and slowly reached her hand onto it, to check how hot she was at the moment, but instead, she was awfully cold. So cold she couldn't even feel her skin because it was numb.
“Argh, why does it hurt so much--” She gasped once she saw her hand slightly covered in blood. “I'm... bleeding?” She weakly whispered and gave an exasperated sigh.
Footsteps, slowly, were reaching closer and the nature fairy assumed as someone who was humming a song deliberately; But they were humming so peacefully it almost scared Flora because there was no way someone could have started humming a song out of nowhere in this circumstance - unless you're a sociopath who enjoys keeping fairies imprisoned and torment until their very last breath.
Sounds like something the Trix would do.
Yet, it was Valiana controlling everything around.
Flora shoved herself into the corner, to stay away as much as possible from whoever was approaching because every time it was either one of the Trix torturing her or Valiana emotionally abusing her. She thought they must have been treating the same way the other Winx.
Then, the footsteps stopped and the silence took over once again. Not even a single sound except for Flora uncontrollably increased heartbeat.
The brunette felt she could finally breathe and her pulse rate would slow down. She closed her eyes to focus on her breathing but once she opened them again, a white figure was standing outside her cell.
Flora screamed.
~~~
“Okay, what are you suggesting?” Helia grabbed a chair and made himself comfortable while conversing with Timmy and Nabu.
“Nabu was the first one to intercept a strange presence of negative energy at the front of the castle, where Aisha was possibly taken away during the fight,” Timmy explained while his fingers were running on the keyboard quickly, knowing there was no more time to waste.
Nabu crossed his arms, sighing. “Yeah, it was uncomfortable so I had a check done and I got similar results to what you also got.”
“About that... What do you exactly think it is?” Helia raised the question to both the men.
Timmy turned around to the dark-haired as he collected a few things. “If our hypothesis is right, this could be what's keeping us one foot away from our girls.”
“If the others have found something similar, then I think we have a possibility to rescue the girls and punish whoever took them once and for all.” Nabu also suggested as he went on his own to sit down and cool off. He was also struggling to survive without Aisha, the female figure he had.
The other Specialists were also mourning but their love for them was what made them be strong no matter how hard it can be and to never give up on finding the Winx. And why should they? They were the fairies who bothered the save the Magic Universe over and over again with no hesitation many countless times, though they disappear once with almost no traces, and most people don't seem to care as it is not their problem to solve.
It was unfair because they didn't deserve such treatment.
Helia noticed his friends typing quickly without a few breaks to calm down so he placed his hand on Timmy's shoulder, offering a small smile. “How are things going for you? Is Theodore doing okay?”
Even though they should be busy looking for their partners, they should at least check and support each other's mental well-being.
“Theodore...” Timmy snorted. “He's.. sad. He wanted Tecna to sleep with him last night. It's hard, y'know? He doesn't understand the situation. I wish we can find them soon and go back to our normal lifestyles. Three days is too much.”
“You're right.”
“Thank you for asking.”
“No problem.” Helia stood up. “I'll check on Nabu, he's very quiet.”
Timmy's fingers started sprinting over the keyboard and his eyes fixed on the screen. “Yes, do that. I might be done in a couple of minutes to get the prints.”
Helia was able to give away a small smile but Timmy didn't notice it because he was too concentrated on working and analysing graphs, maps and diagrams from three different computers.
If Tecna saw him, she would complain Timmy shouldn't stress himself out and to work calmly at a steady rate. But she wasn't there to remind him.
So, working without resting was all he could think to do so Timmy would feel assured he's on wasting any time any longer.
Whoever took Tecna away from his family must pay, even though he was the greatest fighter, he knew he'll make them pay if - worst vase scenario - he lost her forever.
That's what all the Specialists feared the most. To lose the love of their lives.
“Nabu?”
“Right here.”
Helia found his friend sat on a chair in the lounge, with all the lights off except a lamp, facing the window and staring at the garden outside in calmness. He quite expected Nabu to be throwing stuff around until he gets what he wanted but he was just... speechless.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“At this point, shall I grieve with you?” Helia joined his friend as he grabbed another chair to stay next to him.
“Go on, man. It's gloomy anyways. This annoys me, a lot. It hurts,” Nabu patted his chest with his fist. “It hurts. But she's alive, that should be a... relief?” He took a deep breath.
He faced him with a questionable look, rather in disbelief; there wasn't any proof yet any of the Winx Club were still alive. He couldn't help it, Helia tried to be positive and think about the possibility that no one died but it was not promised.
Nothing is promised in this case when the Trix were angry with the fairies and sought revenge for the past five years - what else would have they done except eliminate them?
Helia scoffed. “How do you know that?”
Nabu stared at his blue eyes with his violet ones, forming a smirk on his lips. “When I was in a coma, for the entire time, I felt her presence and I'm sure she felt mine; The reason why she never moved on. She knew I was alive.”
Helia shook his head, running his hands across his face before placing them on his knees as his leg was bouncing up and down of nervousness. “Right. But I don't feel that with Flora, right now. Which scares me.”
“...”
“Are you also having weird dreams?”
Nabu was nearly startled by the sudden change of topic and almost found Helia as the weird one. “Dreams? Are you talking about good ones or? Do nightmares count?”
“You don't have dreams about a girl? She's quite young, older than Lilian. Her eyes are... empty. There is no life within her, I know that. I am sure of that.”
Nabu scratched his head in confusion, staring at Helia to understand what he's attempting to suggest to him. He almost thought he must have gone crazy because he missed Flora so much.
“I feel like I already heard this story before.”
“No, Nabu. Listen. Three days ago, just a few minutes before Flora was... abducted, I heard a voice-- her voice, in my head.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me not to let Flora out of my sight. Looks like I failed and haven't got any more updates now coming from that girl. This is why I'm scared I can not feel Flora's presence. One moment she's in my head, then she's gone.”
“So, this girl warned you something was gonna happen and right then, Flora was already taken away, right?” Nabu watched Helia look down on the floor before nodding unhurriedly, quite ashamed he wasn't rapidly enough to save his wife. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
Helia stared at his hands, agitated as to what to gaze at the moment. “This girl kept trying to tell me things through dreams but it was the first time, ever, she communicated with me while I was awake.”
“You sure are complicated.”
“Maybe, if I try to draw her face...” Helia took a piece of wrapped paper he had in his pocket, which he was not even aware of until now, then he also locates a pen on Tecna's desk near them. “My memory is quite blurry, but I'll try.”
“Try what you can. There must be a connection between this mysterious girl and the Winx. If she knew what would have happened, why didn't she warn us sooner? Whoever she is, maybe it could be helpful.”
“Helia! Nabu! Come here! You gotta see what I just found out!” Timmy yelled precipitously from his office room, which was across the hall from where the lounge was, with Helia and Nabu.
“C'mon let's go, Timmy probably found something.”
“Alright.”
The two Specialists rushed back to Timmy, who still had his eyes glued on each screen in front of him. As soon as he noticed his friend at the entrance, he hurries them to come closer and dig into his latest discoveries.
“Check this out.” He indicated, as his fingers were still running across the keyboard and a pattern emerged and Nabu and Helia gawked at it closer.
“Wait, so those--”
“Those are fragments of a specific rare used magic portal. It is so complicated it'll be extremely hard to put these pieces together but I'll make an effort.” Timmy disclosed, waiting on the guys’ thoughts.
Helia seemed to agree with the idea as he nodded his head and had an urge to scratch the side of his nose. “Okay, how long will that take?”
“Can't make promises but maybe three or four days? Ugh, if Tecna were here, it would take much less.”
“Three to four days?! That's too long!” Nabu disagreed as he bumped his fist next to Timmy's keyboard. “This is useless. Is there no other way to make a shortcut?”
Timmy sighed in annoyance. He is trying his best but he couldn't handle impatient people. “Bro, this stuff is nowhere near as a simple puzzle you can work out. All of those fragments came from six different portals which destination was the equivalent. This is all we can do is at least, not my fault!”
“Alright, alright. It's okay. Thanks, Timmy.” Helia soothed the tension as he grabbed Nabu out of the room because he had to calm down his nerves. “Dude, you gotta chill. He's doing the best he can do with the situation right now. We're all frustrated, okay?!”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay. I'm stressed out.” Nabu admitted as he turned to the wall and positioned his hands against it whilst his head hanged low.
“Let's try and go through this. Our girls are strong. All we can do is assist Timmy and help with all we can to fasten the process. Heard me?”
“Yeah.”
~~~
In the dark lair.
Valiana cried that night.
For the first time in a thousand years, she whimpered like a miserable dog. Why? She remembered someone. Who she tried to forget this whole time but it seems to fail over and over again. She couldn't get it off her mind.
That night, she felt at her lowest and locked herself up on a lower floor of the castle because she would have been even more dangerous if her ego got the advantage of her body. But, even it did happen, the only pro was that Valiana would not recall her mental breakdown so she would be fine again and focus on other things.
Though, that same night, her ego neglected to show up that day so she wasn't immune to emotions - human emotions. Valiana was angry she let herself get to this point. Not when she was so close to winning what she has been planning for so long. She should not waste time.
But her mind betrayed Valiana by thinking about the past. About her mistakes. About the bad memories. Everything she worked so hard to erase from her mind backfired and were much clearer to her head.
Her ego seemed to admire observing Valiana in pain, the reason why she didn't intervene to interrupt her. Because then Valiana would have turned for help to get a grip of herself.
She opened her hands, an old wound imprinted across them in a straight line. That must have come from a sharp weapon that cut through her skin.
The thing was... she couldn't remember.
She couldn't remember how she got that scar but every time she looked at it, she felt she was about to collapse.
There was a dark story behind it.
Valiana refused to discover what was the story. If she was able to at least erase that memory from her head, she should not try to recover it back because she must have done it for a reason.
But it broke her.
So, she kept crying.
“A scar I can't reverse.”
°°°°°°°°°
END OF CHAPTER 32!
Sorry, it's shorter than the previous chapter but it is something at least considering I didn't update in a LONG time.
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