The Parting Glass

The first thing Baltor noticed when he woke was the heavy smell of smoke and ash. It was everywhere in the air, close to the point of suffocating him. Being the wizard of the Dark Dragon's Flame, he wasn't unfamiliar with it; however, this much was strange.

Despite the ache that emanated from every bone in his body, he managed to sit up. His burgundy coat was singed in numerous places, but he seemed to only sustain minor burns aside from the massive wound in his chest. His vest seemed to take the brunt of whatever attacked him, the fabric blackened.

What happened?

"All of this is my fault."

"This is not your fault."

"Yes, it is."

Baltor put a hand to his head to dull the voices raging in his subconscious. He knew they were familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd heard them.

Standing up, he brushed the ash adorning his clothes away and looked around. He easily recognized the underwater caverns of Tides under all the destruction that lay about them. The specific one he was in was completely empty, not a single soul aside from his residing there.

The pieces slowly started to come back. The Ancestresses had stolen his human form and the annoying fairies had come to rescue their precious boyfriends. He remembered that much, but nothing else was recurring.

If the Ancestresses had regained control of him, though, how did he get it back? And where were said fairies?

Taking his time in evaluating the cavern from his standpoint, he determined that if the fairies had managed to find him, they must've run off when everything literally came tumbling down. Many of the exits were blocked by pieces of fallen rock. If they planned on coming into the cavern, they'd have to find another way in. At least that would give him enough time to escape.

"Get out."

"I'm staying."

"Go!"

"No! I'm not leaving you!"

Baltor stopped in his tracks, images of a familiar redheaded girl flashing through his mind. He silently prayed, hoping that the Great Dragon had given her some sense to listen to what he'd said. Baltor knew it was stupid to think she actually had. If there was one thing Bloom was good at, not listening to simple commands was it.

He could barely remember their fight. His demonic self had brutally beaten her senseless, that much he could recall. That and Fairy Dust.

Calling his Dragon Fire, he tried to locate her Flame. He'd used it plenty of times before to track where she was; this time shouldn't be any different.

Nothing.

A cold sense of dread came over him. He'd always felt anything come from her. Even if she was trying adamantly to block him out, he could sense her doing it. Now, there wasn't even a twitch of life.

Baltor immediately began walking towards the blocked main entrance to the cavern. Maybe she was just out of range. He was on Tides, she could be back on Magix already. Although something deep down in him told him that was highly unlikely.

He was close to the exit, when something in the pile of destroyed rock in the corner caught his eye. Baltor couldn't make out what it was, but he was drawn to it. His Fire was telling him he needed to go to it. Changing his direction, he made his way towards the rubble.

Approaching the mass of broken stone, he waved a hand over one of the larger rocks, throwing it to the side. Immediately he froze.

Red hair.

The ash-ridden air was still around him as he continued to stare. He was conflicted. Every inch of him was screaming to not dig through the debris. He knew what he was going to find. If he didn't pursue it, he could always tell himself that his thoughts were lies. He could deny it till the end of time.

But he knew he couldn't.

Kneeling down, he hesitantly pushed more of the rubble aside, layers of soot flung behind him. More red was uncovered piece by piece. Dread grew in the pit of his stomach.

After what seemed like hours of moving stone and ash, Baltor's heart nearly stopped at his discovery. The redheaded girl laying on the floor before him was limp on the stone floor. Her Enchantix form was gone, leaving her in a striped sweater and skirt that he'd come to know all too well. Her body was riddled with deep scratches and cuts, and her leg was twisted into an unnatural position. The usual paleness of her skin had been drained to a lifeless grey; a startling contrast to the dried blood on her face. A painful horror crept into Baltor's mind as a voice in his head spoke the question: How much of this was me?

Baltor's hands shook as he gently pulled the girl's body out of the debris, cradling her in his arms. His fingers brushed against her cheek, feeling how cold she was.

"Well, that got heated fast."

His heart pounded madly when he saw her eyes flutter open. She wasn't able to hold them open for long periods of time, but it was enough to relax him a bit.

Baltor didn't fully comprehend how she could still be alive after not having a heartbeat only moments earlier, but he wasn't going to question it. He was just thankful she was awake and breathing.

"Hey," she mumbled when her eyes landed on him. He could barely hear her; her voice lower than a whisper.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" he scoffed, holding her tight to his chest. "You're the most idiotic fairy I've ever met in my entire existence! I told you to run!"

She gave him a weak smile. "I'm incapable of listening to simple commands." Her eyes shut for a moment, temporarily worrying him. "Did it work?"

He nodded. "I don't know how you managed to do it, but you did."

"Good, because I was getting really sick of looking at you. Demon isn't very flattering on you."

Baltor chuckled under his breath, in awe of how she could still crack a joke in this condition.

Glancing down at herself, a fearful look crossed her face.

"Don't worry," he assured her. "I can use my Dragon Fire to heal you. You'll be fine."

Focusing his magic into his hand, he hovered over an especially nasty cut across her stomach. A few seconds passed. Then a minute. But nothing happened. The wound didn't even try to close.

"Why isn't this working?" he muttered, an angry frustration rising in him.

A pale hand suddenly came into his view and gently pushed it away. He looked up at the fire fairy, confused.

"You're half of the Flame is dark." she reminded him. "Darkness can't heal."

Fear struck him. "What about your magic? I can tap into your powers and use them to –"

"It's a waste of time," she interrupted, shaking her head. "When I created the explosion, I exhausted too much of my magic. Who knows what shape I'll be in by the time they rejuvenate to a decent point."

By shape, Baltor knew she meant something neither of them wanted to hear.

His mind started to race, trying to think of ideas to save her. He was lucky she woke up after her first dose of unconsciousness. Based on the state she was in then, he was near positive that she wouldn't get that lucky again.

"When you turned, I tried to imagine what it would be like," she quietly mumbled, "to have a future with you; a future where we could really be together."

Anger blossomed in his chest. "No, don't do that." Baltor demanded. "Don't make last minute admittances like this is the last time we're going to talk. Don't do it, Bloom."

"Baltor, we both know I'm not going to make it by the time my powers rejuvenate, so will you please shut up and just talk to me?"

She was being stubborn. She was making it clear that she wanted to talk about anything else aside from the fact that she was dying. Just thinking the word made Baltor cringe. But if it kept her mind here, he was willing to try it. Squeezing her hand, Baltor gave in. "What was this future like?"

"We'd live on Sparx," she started. "It'd take a while to revive it, but we would, and that's where we would stay." She paused, and she smiled to herself. "After a year or two, you'd finally stop pissing me off with waiting and propose. Then we'd rule Sparx together."

"I don't think they'd be very accepting of me as their king." Baltor remarked.

"They'd adjust. Besides, you'd make a great king."

Baltor hadn't noticed the stinging sensation in his eyes till then.

"We'd have kids," she continued. "And they'd look just like you."

"You're using it in the plural form," Baltor commented with a smirk. "You seem to have a number in mind."

"Two," she replied. "Both girls." Her sentences were shorter, and her bottom lip was beginning to tremble. "They'd be perfect. And, Baltor, you'd be such an awesome father to them." Her pauses were starting to become more frequent. "But I can't give you that future."

"Don't say that," he refuted. Baltor wasn't sure when it happened, but his face was wet with tears. "We can find your friends. We can try to –"

"Baltor," she cut him off. "I'm ready."

He grabbed her hand, frantically. Every second that passed, the colder she became. "No, just hold on a bit longer. I'm sure if we just wait for a few more minutes, one of your friends will find you and everything will be fine. Just hold on."

"I'm okay," she whispered, weakly smiling up at him. He felt her body twitch with what little life it had left. "Magic like this always comes with a price." Her voice cracked. "And if it means that you're free from the Ancestresses," a pause, "I'm more than happy to pay that price."

Baltor shook his head. A ball of panic began rising in his chest as he saw her eyes roll back slightly. She only had minutes. "Bloom, look at me," he said, loudly, trying to bring her attention back to him. "You're not dying. Not here; not now." He felt his throat tighten. "Bloom, you can't do this."

"I wanted us to be happy." Her voice was low, turning into a rasp. Baltor wasn't sure if she'd even heard him. "But this is okay. That's all I've ever really wanted for you." A tear fell from her eye, slowly sliding down her cheek. "To be happy."

His hold on her grew tighter, a futile attempt to keep her with him. "Just look at me, darling," he begged. The more he begged, the more he could tell she was slipping away. Her grip on his hand was becoming looser. Soon, there would be no grip at all. "Keep looking at me."

"I've never regretted a single moment that we spent together," she said. "Even when we were yelling at each other. And if I had the chance to endure every demon-filled second of the last year all over again, I'd do it in a heartbeat, because I'm never going to regret meeting you."

Baltor brought a shaky hand up to cup the fairy's cheek as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you, Bloom."

Her head fell against his chest. "I love you, too."

Bloom's body went still. Her breathing ceased. Her heartbeat silenced. And the hand she had entwined with Baltor's loosened in his grip.

Baltor froze, drawing her back so he could look at her. Those smiling blue eyes he desperately wished to see were closed.

"Bloom?"

She didn't speak.

His vision blurred. "Bloom, please."

She was gone.

Baltor could feel the sanity slip from his mind. He clutched her body to his chest, burying his face in her hair. The dark wizard's shoulders shook violently as he broke down. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so much pain. Even during the years of servitude under the Ancestresses, none of their torture compared to the knife buried deep in his chest.

Amidst the agony, for the first time in his life, he felt helplessness. There she was, lifeless in his arms, and there was nothing he could do. Nothing could be done to save her. His greatest rival and his greatest love was forever lost.

Guilt wormed its way into his gut. She would still be alive if she had been able to let him go. If he hadn't been so persistent in pursuing her, she wouldn't be laying dead in his arms. She'd still be the bubbly, annoying, stubborn, technical princess he'd fallen in love with.

In the endless silence, Baltor heard distant voices. They were quiet at first, but gradually grew louder.

"Bloom?" a familiar shrill voice ripped through the air. "Bloom, where are you?"

The Winx girls. He'd forgotten about them. Briefly, he considered staying there. Who knew how long it would take for those girls to find where they were in this huge network of tunnels and caverns. He didn't want to leave Bloom there.

Getting caught wouldn't help her, though. If they found him holding her like that, he would just get the blame for it, and more trouble would be caused. Bloom didn't deserve to have so much drama attached to her passing. That was the last thing he wanted for her.

It took every ounce of strength in him to lay her back on the ground. Bringing her hand up to his lips, he pressed a final kiss to it. It pained him to know it was the last kiss he'd ever get to give her.

Standing up, he wiped the wetness from his cheeks and forced himself to turn away from his pain. And with what little courage he could muster, he teleported off of Tides, and far away from the only one who'd ever taken the broken pieces of his life and managed to piece them back together.

If you expect me to tell you how Bloom was revived for the epilogue of Broken Pieces, I will never tell you. No matter how much you try to bribe me, you will never get it out of me, because I am evil and I am selfish with my plot details.

This is a oneshot that has been in the works for literally years. I knew how Broken Pieces was going to end a long time ago, and I also knew that I wanted to add in a oneshot about Baltor finding Bloom after the battle just because I'm an asshole who revels in angst filled shit. I really wanted to get this piece out before I updated Chapter 2 of Break In, mainly since I'm not as done with it as I should be and because this oneshot was supposed to be completed in December. But, as we all know, I absolutely suck at deadlines; which is why I could never make being an actual author a career.

I haven't really had a lot of time to update lately, but I really am trying to get shit done for you guys. I just don't want to spout out a bunch of crap chapters just to update steadily. I want Break In to actually be good. I don't want it to be a failed sequel like so many sequels tend to be.

I'm also not sure if I'm 100% happy with this. But, of course, I'm never 100% happy with anything I put out. So it's going to stay anyway.

Right now, this is the only oneshot that I have for this story. I may make more. I may not. It all just depends. However, I am tired and this particular oneshot has emotionally exhausted me.

Until next time.

~Bloom