She risks everything.

And in the end, none of it's necessary. Baltor's apartment is in such shambles there's no discernible information to gather. Bloom takes shifting through the pages of books that have been destroyed so Riven can't tell they're spells, and the single picture Baltor has of them together - on Roxy's insistence, from Halloween - is gone, the frame in pieces on the floor. Tecna calls before they get too deep into anything to say she's pinged Selina's phone. Cloud Tower is exactly where it's always been, at the edge of Roccaluce's swamps.

Bloom wonders how long Selina and the Trix have had it there, quietly watching over the other schools. But in a way she's thankful, because it means she can sneak in through the old underground caverns.

"Doesn't this bring back memories?"

Bloom looks back at Riven and manages a small smile. She's flying slightly ahead, a fire in her palm lighting the way. "Kind of surprised they're so abandoned. I feel like I was down here every other week as a freshman."

"Most girls don't sneak into Cloud Tower on a weekly basis like you guys did."

She smirks lightly. "And there's no Red Fountain to connect to anymore."

"Double whammy."

Bloom stops and lets her feet touch the ground. They've come to a familiar fork in the tunnels. She looks down the path on the right, which will take her to Cloud Tower's west hallway. "Look, Riven -"

"You'll need all your magic for this showdown with Selina," he interrupts, not meeting her eyes. "Which means not wasting it on a second cloaking spell for me."

"Riven -" Bloom starts, and stops because she realizes she's about to cry.

He smiles, but there's a hint of sadness. "I get it. You don't really want me going in with you."

She closes her eyes, trying to think of a way to explain things that will make sense, but not be a complete lie. "Selina's my friend. And it's my...family, in there. I should be the one to fix things."

There's no response. When Bloom opens her eyes, Riven's gaze is on her. It isn't one of pity, necessarily, but there's a sad acceptance. "Selina doesn't have your cousin, does she?"

A few tears slip from her eyes before she can stop them. "...No. She doesn't."

He sighs, and in a very un-Riven move, puts an arm around her and pulls her to his side. Bloom rests her head on his shoulder and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself. She doesn't have time to break down, but she's tired of this. "Damn it," she mutters, swiping at her eyes.

"Sorry."

"No," Bloom takes another stuttering breath. "No, I just...how'd you know?"

"Stella wanted me to ask; if you had a boyfriend back on Earth. She said you seemed happier lately."

"Why you?"

She feels Riven shrug. "She says I get you best."

Bloom smiles at that, thinking back to when Riven flew them to Eraklyon after the Millennium Ball. I just don't want you to get there and then be disappointed if things don't turn out for you. "I can see why she thinks that."

"Better not be an insult," Riven says lightly, then trails off. "But really, Bloom. When this is over, you should bring him around."

"...Maybe. I'll be surprised if he wants to step foot in Magix after this."

"Then make everyone come to you. We didn't spend a year on Earth just for fun."

"I guess not." Bloom finally straightens up and forces her emotions on the back burner. "But I need to worry about it later."

Riven lets her go. "Later," he agrees. "You sure you can handle this alone?"

"Yeah."

"And you know that even though you told them to stay behind, the girls are going to show up the minute Cloud Tower goes visible?"

"I know. I'll be fast."

"Okay," Riven gives her an uncomfortable look. "Bloom, you should know...I mean, that's...I…"

Bloom smiles, and reaches out to squeeze his hand. Even with the strides he'd made over the years, Riven was still bad at discussing his feelings. But that didn't mean they couldn't be deciphered. "Take care of yourself, okay? And don't be a stranger."

He gives her a half smile and squeezes back. "Same to you."

If there were witches in Cloud Tower at one point, they've decided Selina and the Trix's antics aren't worth their lives. As Bloom flies through the hallways she's prepared to fight anyone stupid enough to stand in her way. But no one's around. She wonders at first if the cloaking spell has anything to do with it, but when she pokes her head into a dorm room she finds it just as empty. Things are strewn about on the floor, as if whoever lived there packed in a hurry.

She tries on multiple occasions to sense Baltor's Dragon Fire. She feels nothing.

The further Bloom moves through the castle, the less careful she is. She drops the cloaking spell entirely and starts blasting through doors instead of opening them (while making a mental note to apologize to Griffin for the damages later). Zipping through hallways, she stops checking them beforehand for signs of life. It doesn't matter. No one appears.

"Selina! Icy! Show yourselves!"

But even as she says it, Bloom knows neither Icy nor the Trix are here. It's too warm, and they aren't dumb enough to stick around if the other students are gone. Bloom starts to get the feeling they left first.

"It's not possible!"

Bloom throws herself against the wall between two columns. She recognizes Selina's voice, coming from a room down the hall. Carefully, she flies forward and peeks her head through the slightly open door.

It's a small library - for advanced spellbooks only upperclassmen have access to, if Bloom remembers correctly. Selina is inside, the Legendarium floating open in front of her instead of chained on her skirt. "Selina," a deep voice coos from the book, and Bloom shivers at it - she's never heard Acheron before. "It doesn't matter anymore. You don't need them."

"But they couldn't have known!" She snaps, her voice rising in pitch. "I was careful! I had it all planned -"

Bloom chooses that moment to slip fully inside. "Maybe you weren't as careful as you thought."

Selina's head snaps in her direction. Her eyes are wild. "You! How did you even -"

"Oh come on, if an emergency operator on Earth can track a cell phone, so can Tecna. You weren't exactly discreet."

"But they should have stopped you! They were supposed to be guarding everywhere -" Selina stops, then rolls her eyes and summons a ball of energy in her palm. "It doesn't matter. I'll show them myself."

Bloom knows she should be mad - part of her is still mad. But now, the anger is accompanied by a sense of pity. She sees Selina, so full of pride and yet so ignorant of the world around her. In a way, it reminds Bloom of herself, back when she was a sophomore and thought she knew everything after defeating the Army of Decay. She had been so stupid.

And she thinks of Baltor, telling her that his proudest heist was the Magix Museum - not because of the Agador Box, but because he'd played his best mental battle instead of physical. Bloom had always thought that, too. She's terrified of what's happened to Baltor, but before she focuses on that she knows she has to stop Selina. So instead of summoning a ball of magic into her own hand, Bloom takes a deep breath and forces herself into a neutral-looking stance. "Selina, the castle is empty."

Selina scoffs, but pauses when she sees Bloom is serious. "N-No. That's impossible."

"I came up from an underground tunnel in the west hall. No one stopped me."

"No!"

"Selina!" Acheron snaps from the book. "Focus! That doesn't matter!"

But Selina doesn't listen. She stares at Bloom, who sees the shift on her former friend's face as she realizes what Bloom already has. "You're lying."

"I don't have anything to gain by lying. And I don't lie to you."

"...You don't lie to anyone." She replies after a moment. "You're terrible at it."

Bloom nods, and takes a small step forward. "Everyone's gone. The Cloud Tower students, and the Trix. And if you open that book, there will be no one to save you from Acheron."

Selina doesn't even pretend she needs Bloom to open it. "But they said...they said they'd follow me."

"They said they'd follow the Trix."

"But I'm more important than they are!"

"Are you? Selina, you were going to betray everyone at Cloud Tower after freeing Acheron. Are you really so surprised they beat you to the punch? The Trix look out for themselves before anyone else, and every witch here has been following their lead for the last seven months. Even you."

Selina's hands start shaking. "I-I don't need them."

"Really? Are you sure you don't want some kind of connection in life? Your family? Friends? It sounds like a lonely road without them."

"I have Acheron."

Bloom raises an eyebrow. "Do you honestly think after what Acheron's done, he's going to let you live after getting what he wants?"

The look on Selina's face tells Bloom she's been thinking that, too. "I thought that too, once, you know." Bloom continues slowly, partially to make Selina listen to her and partially because even now, years later, thinking about it makes her physically ill. "There was this man, and he convinced me that with his help, he could unlock the full potential of my powers. I believed him, and ignored every cautionary thing I heard. Even the voices in my own head."

The way Selina looks to be hanging on her every word would be pitiful if it didn't give Bloom such a depressed pang in her stomach. "What happened?"

"He kidnapped me and let his master use me to open a portal to another dimension."

"She's lying to you!" Acheron's voice bellows from the Legendarium. Bloom gives the book a pointed look as he continues. "Selina, I've done nothing but help since you found me. Use the Dragon Fire to set me free, and I can show you myself."

"It doesn't have to be like this," Bloom says, and Selina turns back to her. "The Legendarium is so much more powerful than people first thought. They won't think of you as weak for breaking free of it. And it'll give you a chance to start over again, if you want. You don't even have to come back if you don't want to."

She shakes her head. Tears are starting to form in her eyes. "The Trix -"

"Who are people going to believe? A band of witches who keep trying to take over the universe and cause massive amounts of destruction, or a fairy with powers from Earth who accidentally became corrupted by a powerful entity through no fault of her own? Eldora hasn't told anyone what we know, Selina. Not even Faragonda."

"Selina!"

Selina looks from the Legendarium to Bloom and back again. There's a visible struggle on her face, but Bloom doesn't say anything out of fear she'll sway things out of her favor.

"I'm," Selina says after a minute, then shakes her head and turns to look at Bloom head on. "I'm not sorry for what I did to you."

Bloom looks at Selina, standing there with tears welling up in her eyes like a toddler that had lost a stuffed toy. Her tone doesn't match the words, and while Bloom thinks she means them, she also knows she doesn't. She doesn't question her, though. Instead she nods. "I know. But I am."

This seems to be the right response. Selina straightens up and wipes the tears before they fall. "He's in Griffin's office."

She vanishes.

The Legendarium drops to the ground, still open.

Bloom rushes for it before Selina changes her mind and comes back. The moment her fingers touch it, she feels a wave of darkness press in, almost examining her. The sheer force of it makes her wince.

How curious, Acheron's voice is inside her head now. You're certainly more powerful than that pathetic girl was. And able to wield darkness yourself? Perhaps it's a good thing you sent her running. If the two of us -

"Oh shut up," Bloom mutters, and snaps the book closed. She doesn't have time to dwell on how powerful Selina must've been to not fully lose herself to a being like that.

She has something much more important to worry about.

Griffin's office is down the hall, and that's almost more worrying because this whole time Bloom hasn't felt anything akin to Baltor's Dragon Fire reaching out. She almost hopes Selina was lying, and he's somewhere else in the castle, or even escaped with the mass exodus of students.

It's not the case. Bloom sees him immediately when she enters Griffin's office, suspended in a mess of metal chains a few inches off the ground. The chains around his wrists are frozen, with frostbite creeping down his arms. There are multiple wounds on his left leg, blood soaked into the fabric of his pants. There's a crackling noise like a spell that's run out of power - likely the one that kept his magic drained.

But there's also the slightest movement of his chest, rising and falling with breath.

"Oh my god," Bloom rushes over and disintegrates the chains with a spell, while using another to float him down to the ground, maneuvering so his head is in her lap. She starts running her hands along his arms, chasing away the ice burns with her own Dragon Fire. Everywhere she touches is cold. It's only at this point she can feel Baltor's Dragon Fire, a whisper in the back of her own mind as her hand rests over his heart.

"Baltor? Can you hear me?"

There's no response.

She starts transferring energy to him as fast as it can leave her body. Bloom remembers Roxy telling her Baltor did something similar at the Vortex of Flame. Even further back in her memory is an image of Sky, laying lifeless at Red Fountain after the Trix stole a piece of the Codex. To this day, Bloom doesn't know what she did to resurrect him. But she focuses on the same emotions - on the determination and the sheer desire to make things right.

"Please," she whispers to the universe, knowing it's in the shadows watching them both. "Not like this. Not after everything that's happened. Don't take him from me."

I love him, please I love him.

Her hair doesn't glow and lift into the air like it once did. Bloom feels tears of frustration welling up in her eyes.

There's a low rumble of a ship from outside. Bloom turns and launches a spell to distort the view from the windows. She's run out of time. She needs a plan to get out of Cloud Tower before -

"I told you to let me die."

Bloom's head snaps back, tears going down her cheeks. She's done so much crying the last few days, her eyes will be swollen for weeks. None of it matters because Baltor's head is up, face pale, but conscious. His ice blue eyes look more like a dull grey as they lock onto hers. In truth, he looks like hell.

To Bloom he looks like Christmas morning.

There are so many things she wants to say, but what comes out of her mouth is: "After three years, you haven't figured out I don't listen to you?"

The corner of his mouth lifts up. "Had that coming, I guess."

Bloom bites her lip to keep it from wobbling, but it does little to help her when Baltor reaches up and cups her cheek, wiping her tear stains with his thumb. She closes her hand over his, fighting to keep her voice steady. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"Trust me, it wasn't on purpose." His eyes slip past her, scanning the room. "Where's Selina?"

"Gone. She didn't take too kindly to the Trix deserting her. Though it looks like Icy stuck around to give you her regards."

For a moment, she sees legitimate fear flash across his face. "She was," Baltor starts to say, then shakes his head. "She was Icy. She did a number on me, I'll give her that."

Bloom looks back at his leg, and starts to channel her magic into closing the wounds. It's not the best - she only knows basic healing - but it's better than nothing. "We need to get you to a hospital. Or maybe Sibylla. But somewhere safe."

He slowly sits up, Bloom helping to lift his upper body and keep him steady. "Then you should probably stop giving me all your Dragon Fire so you can use a teleportation spell. Something tells me we can't just walk to a transportus station in Magix without drawing attention."

Bloom shakes her head incredulously. "How are you so okay?"

"Adrenaline," he smirks, though it fades quickly. "And the Ancestresses did much worse when they...infused me with darkness. Not by much, but...women as pathetic as the Icy don't scare me."

She laughs, just a little. It seems to put him at ease, and he brushes a bit of hair behind her ear, a familiar gesture. Bloom closes her eyes for a moment and allows herself to relish in it. "Baltor, I -" She starts to say, then stops as fear clenches her heart. It's the same fear she felt when waking up in his bed, snuggled into his sheets, realizing how utterly in love she was.

In the end, she stays weak, at least for a bit longer. "I heard a Red Fountain ship before you woke up. We have to get out of here before someone finds us."

"I can help with that."

Bloom's head snaps around to the door of Griffin's office. She summons a fireball in her free hand, half expecting to see Selina back and ready to fight for the Legendarium.

Stella is standing in the doorway, untransformed but in a black battle suit, staring at them with an unreadable expression.

Bloom opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She feels Baltor's hand, currently wrapped around her to keep himself upright, grip the flesh of her hip. The fireball dissipates.

"Stella," another muffled voice calls. Bloom watches her lift a hand to a communication device on her ear. Tecna's voice comes through, now much louder. "Stella did you find Bloom?"

She raises a perfectly manicured eyebrow, and looks pointedly at the girl in question.

It seems to take all of her strength to shake her head. "Please," Bloom finally finds her voice, though it ends up coming out as more of a hoarse whisper.

"Stella?"

It feels like ages, but more than likely it's just a few seconds before Stella presses something on the comm. "She's not here, Tec." Stella says, and Bloom can't believe how normal her voice sounds. "I'm up at Griffin's office. There are restraints like someone was held here, and I'm picking up a magic trail. Pretty sure it's Bloom's."

"She's gone already?" Layla's voice comes through the device this time.

"I wonder if her cousin's hurt," Musa chimes in.

"I'm betting that's the case," Stella's eyes lazily scan the heaps of metal chains on the ground. "Looks like Icy was involved."

Bloom recognizes Tecna's aggravated sigh. "We're still securing the lower levels and crypt. Can you lock down Griffin's office and try to get in touch with Bloom?"

"Way ahead of you." Stella takes her hand away from her ear, and the static from the comm shuts off.

Bloom lets out a breath, and tension she didn't realize she was carrying falls from her shoulders. "Thank you."

Stella doesn't say anything. She closes the door to the office and takes slow, calculated steps until she's a few feet away from the both of them. "Where's Selina?" she asks, her voice so neutral Bloom knows it's not neutral at all, but thinly veiled rage.

"She left. But I do have this." Bloom takes the Legendarium from the ground next to her, and uses a spell to float it over to Stella. "The Trix are gone, too. As well as the Cloud Tower student body."

"Hmm. About half of them showed up at the Magix Council to surrender half an hour ago. Another quarter were captured in the city causing mischief. And the other quarter will have wanted ads broadcast on every major network by the end of the day." Stella carefully examines the Legendarium, but doesn't open it. "And Riven?"

"He left before I came here. He...figured I wanted to go in alone."

"I can see that." Stella's gaze finally slides to Baltor. Bloom feels him tense. "You okay?"

"...I've been better," he finally replies. His tone is cautious. "Thank you. For not saying anything."

Instead of responding, Stella reaches into her pocket and comes back with a small silver object. She tosses it to Bloom, who barely manages to catch it.

"You can get a few teleportation jumps out of that," Stella says as Bloom stares at the Ring of Solaria. "It should get you to wherever you need to go, and I can hide the trail from here."

Bloom closes her eyes, feeling dangerously close to tears again. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. I'm very close to strangling you." Stella's blasé tone is like a knife in Bloom's chest. "I've known you for six years Bloom, of course you don't have a second cousin in Canada or wherever it is you said. I would've known. I expected something strange when I got here. But this...this is something else."

"I know. I'll explain everything, I promise."

"I know you will," Stella says, and Bloom sees a crack form in her armor. A worried look comes over her. "You're okay though?"

Bloom smiles and nods. "I'm okay."

Stella straightens up and swipes at her eyes, even though they're dry from Bloom's perspective. So much crying. "Good. Get out of here then, both of you. Before I do something I regret."

With a few words, the Ring of Solaria extends into a familiar scepter. Though the power coursing through it isn't the same as the Dragon Fire, it's familiar enough to Bloom to feel comforting. She turns back to Baltor. "So - Sibylla, or a hospital?"

"Even though Sibylla will ask far more deeply personal questions, she can heal faster than a non-magical doctor."

"The Caves it is, then."

Bloom uses her own energy to start powering up the scepter, which then takes over the rest of the spell. At the height of its power, she lets it go, and it twirls in the air of its own accord. Magical sunlight rains down on her and Baltor, wrapping around them like a cocoon. She feels Baltor shift closer to her, and without hesitation she rests her head on his shoulder. For the first time in what feels like a very long time, Bloom feels like things are going to be okay.

She catches the scepter as it falls, and the two of them vanish.

Lol remember when this was gonna stick to the cannon plot? I lasted for almost 3 seasons though! Brownie points!

Stella is wearing her World of Winx spy outfit.