Chapter 15

Walking down the hall towards Saladines office Riven began to explain to Musa what had happened while she and Flora were healing. "After we got back to Redfountain with you and Flora you guys were immediately taken towards the medical bay and of course we stayed with you guys. Durring those first 3 days there wasn't much Saladine or Faragonda, or anyone, could say that could get our friends and I out of that waiting room. You were taken out of critical condition after the first day but Flora... we almost lost her a good number of times. Man Muse, Helia was a mess. I'm pretty sure he would have gone off the deep end if it wasn't for the fact that Flora's family was there- oh by the way your dad was there too."

"Is he still here?" Musa asked and when Riven looked at her he noticed she was rubbing her arms in an attempt to warm herself up.

"Here put this on" Riven demanded and began shrugging off his maroon hoodie.

"No it's fine! Im not cold"

"Shut up and wear it Musa, I can hear your teeth chattering."

Musa laughed and said "Not cold and not chattering! That sound is just my latest beat. Sick right?" but she shrugged that jacket on anyways, hugging herself and smelling Riven's scent off of it.

Riven just shook his head and chuckled "Sure Muse, whatever you say. Anyways! to answer your question, no, he left like a week ago."

"How come?" Musa pouted.

"Faragonda convinced him to continue on his tour, which he had put on hold to come sit in the waiting room with us. He didn't want to go because you were still unconscious but we convinced him that you would have rathered that he was off playing music, then rotting away with worry at your bedside."

Musa agreed and the Riven continued on with his story. "After we could all stand to leave your sides for more than an hour we went to talk to Saladine about going back to Kanuse and hunting down King Mikahl. What?! We were not about to just let the bastard get off scotch free" He added in response to Musa's incredulous stare. "Save the scolding Musa because Saladine was thinking the same thing. While we were all going crazy with worry, he and Faragonda and Griffin were actually being productive and discussing options for retaliation and the retrieval of all the.. bodies."

"They brought us on board as well and together we decided the best course of action. The plan we ultimately decided on was that our team would go back first to Kanuse and make sure that Mikahl had left the planet. Once we had successfully done that, we sent a group of senior fairies and witches into that fucking death chamber, with a group of specialists for backup; in case any of those soldier things showed up. Their job is to identify ever single fairy pinned to that wall."

"Good luck with that." Musa snorted, "Most of them were pretty much bones in Fairy form."

"Thats just it though; How was it possible for those bones to still have their wings and costumes? When they neared the end of their lives and the end of their magic, those fairies should have reverted back into their natural forms right?"

Musa though about it for a while and then said "Maybe even when their magic ran out there was still some other source of magic feeding their corpses."

"Bingo! Apparently that cave you were all in is a source of magic in itself. Tecna analyzed some remnants as we were fleeing and it's humming with magic."

"That makes sense then. While I was there I tried an attack on King Mikahl but it went out of control. My magic was crazy amplified. But how can that place be made of magic? It's just rock." Musa Asked and Riven replied "That's what we were all wondering too, so, when we went to clear Kanuse that first time Tecna and Timmy brought all their fucking toys and took samples like crazy, from the floor, from the walls, and even some from the surrounding tunnels. What they found was that the cave was powered by sunlight, but not just any sunlight, sunlight from the Second Sun of Solaria. We hadn't noticed when we got there but you can clearly see the Second Sun from Kanuse. I don't know the specific terms that Timmy used but the gist of it is that, the sun powers the cavern during the day, and then, when the sun sets, and the moon comes out, the magic in the cave craves more sun and fights back against the fading magic, sending its magic out to surround it and protect itself by stopping time; making it sort of like eternal night in the cave."

"Griffin came up with the idea to use that magic to help with an ancient witch curse that turns back time for a short period of time. It's a forbidden spell but they agreed that an exception can be made this one time to help identify all those Fairies and reach out to their loved ones. It's a long process though, since the spell has to be done on each fairy one at a time. As of last week they were a little over halfway done and its already been over a month. Bloom, Layla, Stella, Tecna, Helia, Timmy and Sky, all went to Kanuse a few days ago to see their progress and also to see if they can track down where King Mikahl might have ran off to. Roy, Brandon, and I stayed back to help train the students at Redfountain and any other volunteers for the final faze of the plan."

"Which iiiiiis?" Musa asked warily.

"After we determine where he ran off to, we are going to hunt this bitch down and send an entire army raining down on his ass. He wont get away again Musa, I promise you that."

"Wow Riven... i just... this is crazy... like freshman year all over again"

"Yeah, but hopefully we find him and end this quickly. I wanna to be able to sleep soundly knowing that bastard is gone." Riven said with a sigh and lazily draped his arm on top of Musa's shoulder. She leaned her head into his chest and for the rest of the walk they just remained quite, contemplating a million things they couldn't verbalize.

Upon reaching the door Musa looked at Riven as he reached for the handle and asked "Babe... after this can we go see Flora? I... I wanna see her."

Riven said "Yeah we'll go" and opened the door to Saladine's office.

After they landed at the Redfountain hangar, they opened up the ship doors to see Roy scandalously posed on a worktable amoungst some dirty tools.

"What the hell are you doing? Your getting grease on your clothes!" Stella complained and stopped at the mouth of the ship, while the others walked around her laughing.

"Hey Layla! Draw me like one of your french girls" Roy said with a drawl, ignoring Stella, and tossed his head back.

"Haha! Your the best looking french girl i've ever seen but too bad I aint got a lick of artistic ability." she said and pushed him playfully off the worktable, Roy landing with a heavy thud. "Ask Helia, hes the artist here."

"No way Layla! I don't want to stare at him in any compromising poses. Hes all yours." Helia laughed and held his hands up.

Roy picked himself up off of the ground and brushed off his jeans and sweater. "Whatever guys! You both know you want a piece of this" he said with a wink. "Anyways, how was your trip?"

"Well, there are still a bunch of unanswered questions, like why King Mikahl hasn't returned for anything from the cave and why his entire village is still unaccounted for, but at least Timmy and Tecna were able to trace his current whereabouts" Sky stated.

"Well thats progress! Where is our boy?" Roy said with raised brows as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

It was Timmy who answered with a tentative glance at Tecna. "Zenith".

Tecna added with a huff and crossed her arms. "I am unaware as to why that creature is on my planet but by scanning the world database from that freaky cavern, it was discovered that he boarded a bus headed towards Zenith."

"Well we may not know what he wants Tecna, but at least we know where he is." Bloom stated

"Exactly Bloom! Now, I think we should ask Saladine first, but before we send the army after him, we should take our team first to evaluate the situation, we don't want any surprises with this guy." Sky continued, ever the strategist.

"Sounds cool with me, we can ask Saladine right now when you go debrief with him." Roy said and began walking out the hangar towards Saladine's office.

"Hey! Blondie! Not so fast! Why the hell isnt my boyfriend here to welcome me home?" Stella complained as she ran up to block Roy's path.

"Chill out,Blondie, Brandon is already in Saladine's office with Riven and Musa." Roy retorted and smiled at Stella's stunned expression.

It was quiet until Layla came up next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, turning him slightly towards her. "Musa?" she asked.

"Yup." he replied happily and added. "She was discharged this morning; despite being in love with Riven the girl is perfectly fine."

"Oh my!" Tecna exclaimed and ran towards Saladine's office, Layla following right behind her.

"Why didn't anyone tell us she was conscious?!" Bloom yelled.

"Whoa Bloom she just woke up yesterday! We figured it would be a nice surprise to welcome you guys back!" Roy explained and then glanced sadly at Helia's hopeful face. "I wish it was both of them i was suprising you with, sorry man."

Helia's face fell but he replied "Flora is out of danger. She just... she will wake up when shes ready to." and then he quickly caught himself and added with a smile "Now lets go welcome our friend back from the dead!"

"Woo Hoo! MUUUUUSSAAAAAAAAAA!" Stella cheered as she booked it down the hall leaving the rest of her group trailing behind her.

When Musa stepped into Saladine's office she felt embarrassed as all eyes in the room stared at her, so she looked towards the ground and mumbled a quick "hi"

"'Hi'?! Thats literally the best you can do?" Brandon chided her with a laugh as he walked across the room and picked her up in a hug. "Welcome back Musa!"

Musa laughed "Put me down Brandon! I'm happy to see you too but with this bear of a hug your gonna send me straight back to the ICU!"

"Nah you clearly aren't that breakable." He replied and ruffled her hair as he set her down. "What took you guys so long anyways? This brute drag you to a hidden closet or something?" jerking his thumb at Riven.

Riven,with a sneer on his face, knocked away Brandon's hand. "Don't be making up something indecent just because your missing your 'skilled' little sun fairy."

Brandon was about to reply but he was cut off by an "ahem!" from behind him.

"Now thats quite enough gentleman! I don't think myself or either of my colleagues want to hear about your exploits." Mrs.F chastised. Brandon quickly apologized and riven just nodded his head.

"I believe we had a purpose to this meeting did we not?" asked from her seat where she lazily examined her fingernails.

"Yes! Yes!" Mrs.F fretted and then ushered Musa over "Come here dear. We need to debrief you from your mission to Kanuse."

She hesitated but then grabbed Riven's hand and dragged him with her towards Saladine's desk. Due to lack of space, Professor Saladine conjured up a sofa to the immediate left of his desk, just big enough for Musa, Riven, and Brandon to squeeze into.

"Now Musa, tell us everything that you can remember from your mission. Its only protocol at this point, I'm sure we are all very painfully aware of the events that transpired, so don't worry just tell us what you can." Saladine instructed.

Musa told her story from begining to end, recalling every little detail that she could remember. She Began with their landing at Kanuse and continued on, there were times when the memories became painful and overpowering but she just paused for a few seconds and then kept going with her story, until she reached the last thing she could remember: Riven prying her off of the wall in the cavern. "... and then i blanked out, waking up yesterday in the Redfountain hospital wing."

There was an awkward pause, well awkward for Musa anyways, while everyone got their emotions in order.

"My... its still hard to wrap my head around the atrocities that occurred on that planet." sighed.

"Indeed. I myself hate you little fairies but this crosses a line." agreed.

It was quite again until Saladine spoke up. "While I'm glad to finally know what occurred in the cavern with Musa and Flora, that information doesn't help us in any way."

"Sorry... i told you everything i could." Musa said sadly.

"My apologies Musa! I did not mean to offend. I'm sure Riven has already gotten you up to speed about what you've missed while you were recuperating."

"Yeah he did."

"Well then you know our retaliation is at a standstill currently. It unnerves me to see us floundering." Saladine concluded.

Brandon held a thumbs up and smiled at the headmaster "No worries, I'm sure Sky and the rest of 'em brought back some info for us. We'll get that bastard in no time."

"Yes hopefully..." Saladine replied "Thank you Musa for telling us what you could, i am truly sorry for what happened but also very thankful. Flora is very special to my nephew and you saved her from certain death. Because of your brave actions she is alive today and I thank you."

"You showed great courage and selflessness on this mission dear Musa, I am very proud of you." Faragonda added.

Musa was overwhelmed "I... I... can i be excused?!" She stammered and then bolted for the door, Riven and then Brandon following right behind.

Musa stopped just a little ways outside of Saladines office and leaned against the wall, steadying her uneven breath. When she saw Riven next to her she closed her eyes, wrapped herself around his waist, and clung on to him tightly. She took a few deep breaths, listening to the beat of Riven's heart, calming herself.

"Whoa Musa, your okay right?" Brandon asked worriedly

After she gave Riven one last squeeze she turned to Brandon and replied "Yeah I just needed a moment, remembering bad things and stuff... not all that fun ya know" and tried to laugh it off.

"Oh I though you might be freaking out about the baby thing." Brandon shrugged

Riven punched him on the arm "Good going moron!"

"You knew too?!" Musa asked him incredulously

"Nah Riven just told me yesterday... so it's true?"

Musa conceded that it was true and Brandon swore. "And your sure she lost it? Like did you ask the doctors anything?"

Riven answered with "Well the nurse that was with Musa read the chart and said that there was no sign of her being pregnant but now that I think about it... is it possible to tell if she WAS?"

"I don't know Riven but trust me, she was, no question about it. She went to a doctor in Magix to confirm it and everything." Musa argued

"This mission just keeps getting more and more awful. I think we all deserve a vacation after Flora wakes up." Brandon complained just as Stella came running up, pushing him aside and barreling into Musa.

"MUSA DARLING I MIIIIISSED YOU!" Stella crooned and clung onto her like a leech.

"I missed you too Stella." Musa laughed and then felt two more pairs of arms and heard a British accent from behind her. "Musa!"

"Hey Tec, hey Layla! ahahaha you guys are gonna crush me to death!"

"No way! No waaaaay! No more near death shit for you Missy! I wont allow it!" Stella said and released Musa to wipe some tears from her eyes.

Brandon held his arms out to Stella "Wheres my tearful reunion?"

"Oh Snookums I missed you too but this is MUSA were talking about. My girls get priority." she said with a wink towards Musa and Brandon pretended to look hurt and covered his heart. "You wound me woman!"

Musa and everyone else laughed at their antics and then were joined by the rest of the gang.

Everyone got to hug Musa and welcome her back from the dead. It was such a happy and joyous moment for Musa to see all her friends again that she wasn't all too aware of who exactly was touching her at what time. When Helia hugged her however, her happy mood dissipated and everyone became quiet.

"Thank you Musa" Helia cried onto her soldier. "Thank you... Thank you for saving her."

She didn't reply and just held on to him tighter. After a deep breath she whispered so only he could hear. "We need to talk later, there's something you should know"

Helia pulled back and, looking at her sad expression, he was confused, but he just nodded for now and let her go. Riven laid his hand on Musa's waist and then asked how their mission went.

"Great actually. We know he just recently went to Zenith." Sky reported.

"Zenith? What the hell for?" Riven grumbled

"We don't know. Tecna picked up some surveillance footage of him boarding a bus towards zenith; that's all we know." Bloom answered.

"Whelp thats better than nothing I guess." Brandon stated "I think you guys should go and tell Saladine what you found. Hes kinda stressing over our lack of info at the moment."

"Arent we all." Layla sighed. "I hope he isn't too impatient and at least gives us a day of rest before were sent to retrieve that psycho."

"im sure we will get more than a day. Saladine isn't stupid and we just got some new recruits, two Paladines from Linphea College. They will need some training, but i think they would make a great addition to our scouting team." Roy said.

Riven snorted a laugh "You mean Sky's cousin and the blue haired freak?"

"Wait, Thoren is here?!" Sky asked; shocked.

"Yeah hes seems cool, though that friend of his is gonna meet my fist pretty soon." Roy grumbled and shook his fist in Sky's face for a laugh.

"Well while your at it get Thoren too, he could use a good punch to the face." Sky replied and then said to the rest of the group "Welcome back Musa, why don't you, Brandon, Riven, and Roy head back to our dorms and we will meet you there when were all done checking in with Saladine."

"Sounds like a plan Sky!" Roy answered for her.

As everyone went into Saladine's office, Helia and Tecna hung back a bit. Helia to see what she had to tell him, and Tecna to give her one last bone crushing hug. "I've really missed you, you know."

"I know Tec, I've missed you too." and with a laugh Musa added "Sorry for leaving you alone with Stella!"

Tecna smiled "She actually was not all that terrible but your here now! That's what matters!" and then turned into Saladine's office, shutting the door behind her.

"Musa-" Helia began but was cut off by Musa.

"Hold up. Brandon? Roy? Do you think you can go ahead to the dorms? You too Riven. I just want to talk to Helia real quick."

Everyone nodded, all of them knowing what she was about to tell him, and realizing that Helia would want the privacy.

When all of them had turned the corner she turned back towards Helia and sadness crept its way onto her face.

"Oh goddess... Musa what is?" Helia asked knowing that he wasn't going to like whatever it is she was about to say to him.

"HeliaI... I'm sorry. I didn't protect Flora. at least not completely. I'm really sorry. i knew and didn't say anything. I knew and I still let her go on the mission with us. I should have told someone... I'm really really sorry." Musa had tears rolling down her face but at least she was no longer sobbing or in hysterics.

"Musa what are you talking about? What did you know?" Helia was getting worried now and he let his panic show on his face. "Please! Just tell me!"

"Flora was pregnant!" Musa yelled and then covered her face.

Helia stared at her in shock "... what?"

"She was pregnant. She lost the baby while we were on the mission."

"I... I don't understand. why didn't she tell me she was.. that we were... oh god" he was rambling trying to form his thoughts into words.

"I'm sorry Helia! I've been trying to get her to tell you, she was just scared, and..."

"How long did you know?!" Helia asked showing a little anger

Musa cowered back a little, pointing her gaze to the floor "Over three months ago" she whispered "after we defeated Tritanus. We went back to our apartment and that's when she found out."

Helia had too much running through his head. He was shaking with anger and he needed to get away before he blew up at Musa. Pushing her aside he ran down the hall not aware of where exactly he was going, just knowing that he had to get away.