Disclaimer: I don't own Winx Club obviously or the girls would be more mature and the plot better developed.

Summary: [Set roughly six months after season six] Musa's holiday with her friends is disturbed when the Princess of Melody goes missing. Hoping to avoid an interdimensional incident, Musa must turn to Riven for help. Will this mission and the threat of danger bring them closer together or push them further apart?

Chapter One

"I am so glad we chose to do this ladies."

Musa cast Stella a bemused look and sipped her pomegranate juice, studying the people passing by the sun drenched cobbled promenade of Lumina, Solaria's maiden city. Above them the suns were at their highest apex, bouncing off the arched windows on two story buildings across from them, though tucked under the gold and blue awning of a small cafe, the girls were safely shaded from the potent rays.

"I have to agree, Stella," Musa said, stretching out her legs to the vacant seat opposite her, "this was one of your better ideas."

"Well," Stella said, pushing her sunglasses up onto her carefully coiffed blonde hair, "sometimes after an exhausting day's shopping, one must treat oneself."

Musa rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile. This was what she enjoyed about hanging out with Stella. No pressure to think seriously, no touchy deep conversation, just friendly banter with a touch of sarcasm.

A cup was set down on the table between them and Stella gaped at the steam rising from it. Musa moved her feet so Tecna could sit down, settling back to wait for Stella's eruption. It didn't take long.

"Tecna, that's tea."

"Yes."

"Hot tea, and today is blisteringly warm and you decided to drink tea. Are you feeling sick? Why would you drink tea on a day like today? Today is a day for sweet things and fruit juices. I'm going to order you something more apt for the occasion."

Tecna carefully tucked a stray strand of pink hair behind her ear and raised her cup to her lips, taking a sip with a satisfied hum. "I like tea. It's soothing."

Musa ducked her head to hide her smile while Stella wrinkled her nose and spluttered out an indignant: "Don't come to me if you end up with heatstroke."

Tecna merely smiled and replied. "Of course not, I'll go to Flora. She's bound to have a nice healing tea to cure that."

Before Stella could snap back a retort, Musa leaned forward to catch her attention. "When are the others arriving?"

Stella paused and her golden eyes drifted to the side, as she held up her index finger. "Well, Brandon and Sky left this morning to pick everyone up, so I guess later on tonight. I'm so glad you could make it early, even you tea drinker. It made my day so much better."

Musa allowed their friendly bickering to fill the void while she stirred her own drink. So everyone would be here tonight. That would be good. It seemed like years since they'd had a break from saving the world. If it wasn't one thing trying to kill Bloom — and them by association — it was another. So Stella had declared that the Winx and Specialists were officially taking a holiday and the Magical Dimension would just have to do without them for two whole weeks of sunshine and swimming and shopping on Solaria. Of course, if something did come up that only they could fight, then their holiday would come to a natural conclusion. After all, they were Guardian Fairies and Heroes for a reason, but Musa hoped that just once people would play nice with each other.

Still there would be a tinge of bittersweetness that always came when the Winx and Specialists met up. That empty space that Riven once occupied. She'd have to get over that soon enough, she supposed. Not like she could pine forever because her idiot ex-boyfriend had decided he had to save the world and headed off to find his place. Why his place couldn't be with her, she didn't know. Whatever. She was better off without him.

"Stop."

Musa turned her head to meet Stella's gentle admonishment. "What? I was just waiting for you two to finish bickering over tea."

"Mmhmm," Stella murmured, sending a sidelong glance in Tecna's direction — but their friend was too busy reading her datapad and sipping said tea to pay heed to them — before leaning close. "Don't think I don't know what you were thinking about. Stop making yourself sad, Musa."

Musa opened her mouth to refute that, then sighed. Because Stella was right. "Easier said than done."

"I know." With a small smile, Stella patted her hand. "Everything in its own time."

"I just - I see Aisha and think, maybe I should just be moving on but I can't seem to do it."

Stella nodded but her expression was troubled. "I don't know. I think Aisha might not be dealing with it. I think she's doing the usual Aisha thing of attacking her misery head on. I just worry that it might backlash on her. That might be why Flora's keeping so close to her these days."

Musa pondered that for a moment before silently agreeing with Stella. Sometimes her friend could be eerily good at reading them.

Over head a flock of doves flew by and the breeze kicked up, catching the banners and making them flare out from the lampposts.

"Stella? Oh my god, Stella, I need your help."

Stella looked around to where a figure was running towards them. "What? Nova? What is she doing here? This is a trouble free zone!"

She stood up to waylay her friend and 'bodyguard/stunt-double/liaison and whatever else Nova did for her while Musa kicked back in her seat and shook her head. Things were never quiet and peaceful around Stella. However as Nova looked increasingly agitated to the point of tears and Stella's 'trouble-free' rage had dispersed under a mask of concern, Musa and Tecna exchanged a glance and got to their feet to join them just beyond the shade.

"She's not answering her phone and now she's gone!"

"Okay, Nova, you have to calm down and tell me what happened."

Nova sucked in a breath, released it slowly and caught sight of Musa. "Galatea's missing," she blurted out, stepping around Stella. "I think she might be in danger."

The hairs on Musa's neck stood on end. "What?"

"I was talking to her on the phone and we heard laser shots and screams and she was only going to have a look and then her phone went dead and then she sent this message," Nova babbled, shoving her phone in Musa's direction.

Taking the phone, Musa stared at the screen, then rocked back on her heels.

Galatea13:55

Girls kidnapped. Send help.

"What girls? Where is she?" The words swam in front of Musa's eyes, curt and to the point. She couldn't say Galatea was one of her besties, but she certainly couldn't say she was merely an acquaintance either. She was a fellow student at Alfea and she was the princess of her planet, but more than that, Musa had earned her Enchantix by sacrificing herself to save Galatea. She'd given Galatea her wings back and through that bond forged in fire, Musa felt protective of her. And now she might very well be in danger.

"I don't know." Nova pressed the back of her fingers to her mouth and closed her red rimmed eyes. "I don't know where she is or how to find her and what if she's hurt?"

"Did you try phoning her again?" Stella asked.

"Yes! Of course I did. I phoned and I phoned but her phone is switched off. It just goes straight to holomail. What will I do?"

Stella grabbed her shoulder and briskly marched her to their previous table, forcing Nova to sit down. "First take a few sips of this—" she helped Nova sip the tea— "and breathe, okay. You're no good to anyone if you're just blubbering all over the place."

Musa nodded and moved to take the seat beside Nova, clasping her hand to offer some comfort. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Tecna working on her datapad, obviously looking for any mentions of Galatea on the interweb.

"Where was Galatea when she phoned you?"

"New Eden."

Stella paled and Tecna sucked in a breath, her tapping movements turning frantic.

Musa's blood ran cold. "What? What's New Eden?"

Stella shook her head sharply, then dropped into the empty seat. "It's the capital city of Eden, a small satellite planet. It's isolated, it's mostly desert and nobody really goes there."

So why had Galatea? Stella met her gaze with a pointed look, but Nova's trembling grip in hers forced her to focus on the topic at hand. "So you two were talking and then what?"

"I think I heard guns, like lasers being shot and there was screaming. Galatea said she was going to check it out. She must have been hiding because she started whispering something about men and girls, it was too hard to hear. I asked her to repeat what she said but her phone went dead. I thought about ringing her, but then I thought that if she's hiding and her phone rang, she'd be found, so I didn't. And then I got the message and I tried ringing but her phone's off."

Stella rubbed her hands over her face and groaned. "This is bad."

"Please, you have to help her. We have to go to your father, get an army or something."

"We can't," Stella muttered. "It would cause an inter-dimensional incident and what proof do you have other than a text message? A scouting party would have to be sent in to make sure she's actually in danger and then negotiations would have to start." Sounded jaded and tired, Stella simply covered her face.

"I'm trying to do some facial recognition searches but Eden is a place with very little technological advancement. I could try setting up a droid to go and look for her, but that will take a lot of time."

"We don't have time. She could be tortured or —"

"Nova, stop. Panicking won't solve anything. We need to think about this." With Nova's song a jagged melody of discord in her head, she rubbed her temples and tried to think logically. Solaria wouldn't enter into a fight without all the details, and why would they put themselves into such a situation for one girl who wasn't even an inhabitant of their planet. She frowned. Melody did technically have an alliance with Solaria and the other planets involved in the attack on Tritannus, but did it extend to this kind of mission? Musa thought not. And certainly not without an extreme amount of discussion, intelligence gathering, and negotiation.

Which would only endanger Galatea more if the people who had her discovered who she was. Right now she might have some semblance of anonymity. If they found out her identity, they'd ransom her. Musa wasn't sure if Melody would pay. It certainly wasn't a military power so her planet could not extract Galatea by themselves. They needed help. They needed someone who would break the rules and who had no political leanings to hide behind.

Musa froze. She knew exactly who they needed.

"I've found something. It's really fuzzy and I think I may have hacked into some kind of archaic form of image capturing but —" Tecna turned her datapad and the girls found themselves faced with a blurred rendition of Galatea's frozen face. It was hard to make out her surroundings. Her body crouched amongst a box, face turned towards the camera, iconic plait thrown over one shoulder. Her eyes, darkened in the picture, were wide, lips parted in surprise.

Musa's stomach dropped. Had they caught Galatea?

"This was taken in New Eden roughly twenty minutes ago."

Nova crumbled and her head dropped, orange hair spilling down to curtain her face, while Stella averted her gaze and blew out a breath. Musa knew what they were thinking. Whatever Galatea had gotten into, it wasn't good and her future wasn't bright.

Standing up, Musa's expression frozen in cold fury, she pulled her phone from the pocket of her denim shorts, and tapped in a number from memory she never thought she'd phone again.

"Who are you phoning?" Stella asked.

"Someone who can help us. Someone who owes me a very big favour."

"Okay that was beautifully cryptic but who is it?"

"Riven."

TBC

A.N. Just a little something to fix the mess of the new seasons. Want more?