"What do you think about trying out this spell?" Bloom asked Ruby, turning around in her chair to show her a spell she had found in a book. Ruby, who was lying on her back on the edge of the bed with Garry sleeping on her chest, looked up at the open book in front of her face. "It's a purification spell."
"I don't think it works." Ruby answered, petting Garry.
"How can you tell? You're looking at it upside down. Doesn't that hurt?" Bloom asked, leaning forward to get closer to her sister.
"Excuse me, I'm not moving." Ruby replied, gesturing to the peaceful Ghoul on her chest. "And also what could a purifying spell even do? We're trying to break a homesickness spell. We're not blessing them so they can go to Heaven."
"Well I'm out of ideas." Bloom huffed, placing the book back on the desk. "Why don't you help me look?"
"Huh, hello. Adorable Ghoul sleeping on me." Ruby said, once again gesturing to Garry. "And also, I'm tired."
"I wonder why." Bloom said, her voice filled with sarcasm.
"Don't even start, Piglet." Ruby said, rolling her eyes.
"Why would you exhaust yourself like that, Bea?" Bloom asked, taking her eyes off the book to look at her sister. "I'm glad you're taking school more seriously, but there are limits."
"First of all, I'm not taking school seriously. I never have and I never will. Second of all I was just training and I lost track of time." Ruby said and sighed loudly, scratching Garry behind his ear. "I was just kind of scared because my magic didn't work against the Trix yesterday."
"Yeah, I heard about that. But that doesn't mean you can simply train until you can't think anymore. Promise me you won't do it again?" Bloom said, looking at her sister's upside down face with worry.
"I promise." Ruby said, smiling softly. Bloom smiled and planted a kiss on her sister's forehead, making her cringe. "Ugh, you're lame."
"Love you too." Bloom said, giggling. "I'm just going to try out this spell. Just to see how it works out."
"Alright, whatever."
Bloom closed her eyes in concentration and said the spell in a foreign language. The dead plant she was trying out her spell came back to life, which was the goal, however it grew larger than normal and it turned into a monster. Bloom screamed in fear, waking up Garry, and grabbed the book, hitting the monstruous plant with it. It fell to the ground whimpering and defeated.
"Huh, that did not look like anything pure to me."Ruby said as she sat up and stroked Garry, who was grumpy after being awakened so abruptly.
"What's wrong with this book?" Bloom wondered, looking at it with a frown.
"Are you sure you simply didn't say it wrong?" Ruby asked, approaching her sister.
"Well then I must be really bad at pronounciation, because similar things happened the whole day." Bloom said, turning to look at Ruby. "Let's go see Faragonda."
"After you." Ruby said, gesturing to the door. Bloom walked out of the room and her sister followed her, however, before she closed the door she looked back at Garry who was sleeping again. "Goodnight, Gar." The Ghoul tiredly grumbled something making her laugh.
The two sisters walked towards Faragonda's office for the second time that night and, when they arrived, Ruby opened the door, forgetting to knock. Inside the office the sisters saw Faragonda sitting in her chair which was levitating a few feet above the ground and she was looking attentivaly at a magical hourglass, however when she noticed their presence in the room, she lowered her chair back to the floor and smiled at them.
"Bloom, Ruby. Come in." Faragonda said, dismissing Ruby's rude manners.
"Thank you ma'am." Bloom said, approaching the desk. "We've been working on our healing spells, but nothing seems to work."
"Basically they are all fucked up spells." Ruby added.
"Ruby, language." Bloom scolded, making Faragonda chuckle.
"I see and this is the book you've been using? Let me see." Faragonda said, taking the book from Bloom's hands. "Oh, my. Where did you get this book?"
"At the library." Bloom said, looking at the Headmistress confused while she threw the book to the ground, far away from them.
"It's not from our collection." Faragonda told them.
"I don't understand." Bloom said.
"Someone planted it there. Perhaps as a trap, you girls are lucky nothing serious happened." Faragonda said, grabbing a book from her shelf and handing it to Bloom. "Here, take this one and go check on the Pixies. Remember, they cannot be allowed to lead Darkaar to the Codex."
"Yes ma'am." Ruby said, smirking softly.
The two sisters walked out of the office and headed back to their appartment, however, on their way there, someone hugged Ruby from behind, stopping her in her tracks.
"Hi, Ru." Ebony shouted happily. "I've been looking for you."
"Peach, didn't Robin tell you what happened?" Ruby asked, turning around in her girlfriend's arms.
"Yeah they did, but what does that have to do with us spending time together? Like right now. I haven't seen you all day." Ebony said, pouting.
Ruby wasn't fazed at all by that, though. She frowned at her and removed herself from her grasp.
"Ebony, the Pixies are in danger. Their village is in danger. I can't... I won't spend time with you right now." Ruby said, making Ebony's smile drop. "I've got to go. We'll talk tomorrow."
"No, wait, Ruby." Ebony called out, but the redhead ignored her.
"What was all that?" Bloom asked her sister, walking beside her. "Why are you so mad?"
"She's been overly clingy the whole week, I need a break." Ruby said, sighing while her sister tried to hold back a happy smile.
The two entered their dorm on the appartment and immediately began searching for a spell to break the hex on the Pixies. After a while of going through numerous useless spells, Ruby got a message from Tecna on her phone.
"Fuck." She said, typing a response to her friend.
"What? What happened?" Bloom asked, looking up from the pages.
"We have to hurry." Ruby said, flipping the pages of the book, trying to find the right spell as fast as she could. "The Pixies escaped and are now heading towards Pixie Village."
"What? Oh, no." Bloom gasped, joining her sister on their desperate search for a counterspell. "Wait, how about this one here. This spell will cure magic-enduced sadness and longing."
"It has to be casted by two people." Ruby said while her sister stood up from the chair.
"That's got to work, but there's no time to try it out." Bloom said, running out of the room along with her sister. "We have to hurrry and hope we'll pronounce it right."
"I don't promise anything. Magic Winx."
The sisters transformed and flew as fast as they could above the forest. They looked below them, trying to find their friends and Pixies or even just a glimpse of glitter that could lead them to the small runaways, but they didn't see anything for a while.
"Hey, over there." Bloom shouted, pointing donwards where they saw the rest of the Winx covered in a weird substance. "Let's go."
They dove in their direction and landed in front of them, bringing relieved smiles to their faces.
"Bloom, Ruby?" They asked at the same time.
"We got here... as fast as... we could." Bloom said, panting.
"I feel like someone... who's got... asthma." Ruby said, breathing has heavily has her sister.
"Did you girls find a counter spell?" Stella asked, standing up.
"I hope so." Ruby sighed.
"Here, take this and go." Tecna said, handing Bloom a comunicator which she places in her thigh right bellow her skirt.
"The trees are talking." Flora announced, holding her head with both hands. "The Pixies are almost home."
"What are you waiting for?" Layla impatiently asked Ruby and Bloom.
"Relax woman, we just flew four miles in two minutes. I can't feel my wings." Ruby complained, straightening her back.
"Well, prepare yourself to fly some more, Bea." Bloom said, grabbing her sisters hand and taking off.
"Why must everything be so hard?" Ruby complained, forcing her wings to beat as fast as they could.
"Maybe this exercise might just make you more pleasant." Bloom joked, smirking playfully.
"Fuck you too."
Bloom giggled before focusing back on their mission. "Flora where are they?"
"Straight ahead." Flora said, her voice coming from the comunicator on Bloom's leg.
"There they are, I see them." Bloom said once they reached a clearing. The Pixies were standing there, apparently waiting for something. "I sure hope this works."
"I just hope I can say it right. What kind of language even was that?" Ruby said grabbing her sisters hands as the book instructed it should be done.
"We can do this." Bloom said positively.
"Medico desiderio incolumius" The sisters said and a powerful energy came out of their joined hands and surrounded the Pixies. They fell to their knees exhausted. "It worked."
"What are we doing?" Chatta suddenly asked, stopping in her tracks.
"We must get back to our bonded Fairies and lend them a hand." Tune said.
"B-Bloom. I-I don't feel so good." Ruby stuttered.
Bloom looked at her and her relived smile turned into an horrified and worried expression. Ruby was as white as snow and the white of her eye had turned completely red indicating a major hemorrhage in it. She passed out and once her eyes closed a single red tear ran down her cheek.
"Ruby, Ruby, wake up." Bloom shouted, desperatly shaking her sister by her shoulders, but she didn't respond.
"Bloom what happened?" Stella asked from the comunicator.
"Ruby passed out and her eyes are bleading. We have to get her to the infirmary." Bloom said, her voice craking.
"We'll use our magic to carry her." Kaylus said, flying as fast as she could towards her bonded Fairy. "Pixies, come on."
The Pixies levitated Ruby's motionless body from the ground and immediately flew away with her. Bloom followed close behind, wiping the tears off her cheeks.
"We'll meet you at Alfea." Musa said, turning off the comunication.
Bloom and the Pixies flew as fast as they could towards Alfea and once they arrived they were immediately met by Girselda's concerned expression.
"Follow me, quickly. Tecna informed me of what happened" The woman said, leading them through the halls of Alfea in a quickened step.
They arrived at the infirmary and, not even greeting Nurse Ofelia or telling her what happened, placed Ruby on a bed.
"She's going to be ok, right Miss Griselda?" Bloom asked, looking at the woman with glossy eyes.
"I hope so Bloom." Griselda said, sighing sadly. "I'm getting Headmistress Faragonda."
Bloom sat next to her sister and held her hand while the Pixies flew next to her, except for Kaylus, who sat on Ruby's chest which was happily going up and down steadily. Bloom began having flashbacks of Ruby's coma the previous year and her heart grew tighter and so did her grip on her sister'a hand.
"It's nothing, she'll be fine. It's nothing, she'll be fine." She kept repeating to herslef as if it was a mantra while tears started pooling out of her eyes once again.
After a few minutes the door opened revealing Girselda, Faragonda, the Ghouls, the Winx, Robin and, much to Bloom, Kaylus and Amore's displeasure, Ebony.
"Baby." The latter shouted trying to run to her unconscious girlfriend, however she was stopped by Bloom who grabbed her wrists and stared at her with flames dancing in her irises.
"Don't shout." She hissed venomously, shocking everyone in the room. "My sister doens't need your annoying high-pitched voice murdering her eardrums so. Zip. It."
"Bloom." Flora said, slowly approaching the two girls and pulling them apart. "What are you doing?"
"Tecna, would you so kindly scan Ruby, so we know what happened?" Faragonda requested, breaking the tension between the Fairies.
"Of course, Headmistress." Tecna said, taking her phone from her pocket and standing next to Ruby. She took a quick scan of her body and then looked at her phone, studying the results. "Her vitals are perfectly fine and I don't believe they'll lower. However, she is showing a lot of signs of pure exhaustion which is what might've caused her to faint."
"I knew that her training like that the whole day wouldn't come to anything good." Robin commented, sighing.
"The excessive use of magical energy Ruby displayed today raised the pressure of the blood in her eye vessels and they broke, so it's nothing to be concerened over." Tecna concluded bringing relief to everyone. "We can all relax now."
"Thank God." Bloom said, breaking down into happy tears. "I thought something awful happened."
"So is it ok if I kick her ass when she wakes up?" Phython asked. "Someone needs to teach her not to train into exhaustion."
"How about I kick your ass." Greg threatened, growling at him.
"I want to see you try, Bitch."
"Watch you language." Tune shouted, scaring the two. "You're in the presence of ladies, show some class. Now apologize to each other."
"Sorry Python." Greg mumbled, looking down ashamed.
"Sorry, Garry."
"Good, now run along." Tune said, flying towards Musa while the Ghouls got out of the room making the Fairies and Pixies laugh.
"Come on then, let's leave Ruby to rest." Faragonda said, hurrying them out of the room.
"Miss Faragonda, if I could speak to you in private, I'd like to ask you a question." Tecna said, approaching the older woman after closing the door behind her.
"Why, of course Tecna. Tell me what's on your mind." Faragonda said, smiling at the pink haired Fairy.
"I didn't want to say this in front of the others because it migth've caused unnecessary distress, but there's something else I got from my scan on Ruby." Tecna began, showing Faragonda a complicated graphic on her phone. "Do you see these red and black spots on my diagram? It's Ruby's magic. It's spread across her body, but the light and the dark are not even with each other like they should be considering the fact Ruby possess the Balance Magic. There's more light than shadow, however I noticed some concentration of dark magic in her head. It's stuck there which means it might be a reason Ruby felt so weak."
"Very well observed, Tecna." Faragonda praised. "But I hardly believe that's the case. The method Professor Avalon is using to help Ruby contain her dark magic is perfectly safe."
"I don't mean to contradict you Headmistress, but I don't believe containing dark magic is safe at all." Tecna said, worriedly.
"Believe me when I tell you this Tecna, Avalon knows what he's doing and I trust him completely. You should too." Faragonda said, placing a hand on the Fairy's shoulder. Tecna nodded with a barely visible smile playing on her lips. "Now, please, go out and relax. You girls had a very stressful night. Enjoy the weekend."
"Will do, Headmistress Faragonda." Tecna said, running out of the infirmary. "Bye."
Faragonda waved at the girl smiling her usual grandma smile, but once she was out of sight her expression turned more severe. She couldn't help but think about the girl's words. She had made a good point, one that the Headmistress would take into consideration.
Perhaps locking up a dark power as powerful as Ruby's hadn't been a good idea at all.
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This is the last chapter I publish before Christmas so Merry Christmas everybody. I hope you have a great time.
Lots of cheer and happiness.🎄❄️🎅☃️✝️✨