SECRETS | Fate: The Winx Saga ~ Alternate Season 2

Chapter 30

Huddled together in bed, Farah and Saul couldn't sleep. They had noticed that no security agent had been watching the house for many hours, and no one had come to take the Specialist back to prison. The couple had suspected something, and the media had confirmed their fear: something had happened to the Queen, she was missing, and the fairy was almost certain that Rosalind had something to do with it. She must have realised her betrayal. She shivered. If Luna was in danger, so was Ben, and they were safe from nothing.

"Saul, we need to get out of here as soon as possible," she declared on the alert.

Troubled by her words, he held her a little closer and placed a kiss on her forehead. Leaving meant staying in the forest at the mercy of the Burned Ones, because no one would dare to come to their aid, as Rosalind was so dangerous. And they had to stay alive if they wanted to help their friend to take back control of Alfea and reveal the truth to Bloom and Beatrix.

"To go where, love? We have nowhere to go, and outside, danger is everywhere."

She intertwined her fingers with her husband's, to signify that she knew how he felt.

"I know, but we're not safe here anymore," she insisted, looking serious. "Rosalind is going to arrive sooner or later, and if she is indeed behind the Queen's disappearance as I think she is, it does not bode well."

"Okay, in that case, we have no choice. I just hope she doesn't go after Ben, Sky or the students, and that she didn't kill Luna, knowing Ben and from what you've told me about them, he'd never recover from her death...not a second time."

His wife sighed, pained for their friend, who had not deserved such a fate. Sky's parents got up and gathered some supplies and blankets before storming off the property, with no real purpose. They knew that from now on they would have to rely on themselves to survive in the wilderness until they could contact Ben to devise a plan to get rid of the evil headmistress.

With her teleportation ability, the evil headmistress quickly arrived at the house where the couple were hiding. She quietly made her way to the bedroom, eager to take her enemy by surprise. She was quickly dismayed to see that the bed was completely empty. Furious, she went down the stairs, and her attention was caught by the mess on the dining room table, seeming to indicate a hasty departure.

"Shit! She's gone! That fool Ben must have warned her and he'll pay dearly for it... His sweetheart won't stay alive much longer," she roared.

A dark sneer twisted her mouth. Luna was going to suffer before she died, and there was nothing he could do about it.

***

That morning, having not been able to sleep, too obsessed with Luna's fate, Ben got up at dawn. After thinking all night about where his beloved might have been kept prisoner, he decided to go for a walk in the school's underground passages before classes started. It was indeed the place where Rosalind had been locked up for so many years, and she could have trapped her victim there, allowing her to stay nearby at all times. Sometimes the truth is right under your nose while you're looking everywhere.
The botany professor walked along the walls, looking for doors that might lead to a secret room, but also for groans that might reveal a human presence within these cold, damp walls. He shivered. If she was trapped here, she might freeze to death. Refusing to give credit to this possibility, he quickened his pace. He had to find her.

At the same time, Rosalind appeared before Luna, furious. The poor fairy was prostrate in a corner, exhausted, hungry and dehydrated. The bottle of water and the packet of biscuits had been empty for two days. Now, still tied up, the slightest movement required a major effort. At the sight of her enemy, she froze. Ben had betrayed Farah so that Rosalind would stop hurting her, but from her attitude she was not ready to calm down. Quite the opposite.
The mind fairy got closer, threatening, before untying her through her magic. Weakened, the Queen cowered, now unable to defend herself.

"Dowling is not at your place, you and your little darling lied to me," she growled, her fists clenched. "Apparently I'm not going to get the truth from you, I'll have to fend for myself, and since you're no longer of any use to me, I have to get rid of you."

Stella's frightened mother began to mutter some almost inaudible pleas, but Rosalind sent a powerful blast of magic through her body, making her writhe in pain. Her brain was no longer in control of her body, which was draining itself from its fluids in a foul smell. Under her skin, purple spots began to appear, internal bleedings. In a sudden burst of life, the light fairy screamed in pain.

Her cries eventually reached Ben's ears, who was not far from her prison. Skinned alive by the suffering of the one he loved, he began to run for her life, determined to save her from the clutches of this freak. When he finally found the armoured door that merged with the wall, the screams had stopped. Immediately, a terrible panic fell upon him and he imagined the worst. If no more sound was coming from her mouth, she might be passing away.
With all his strength due to adrenaline, he focused. He had to use his powers to break down the door or move it because, unlike his son, he did not have the ability to walk through walls. He began to move the ground and grow vines in an attempt to break down the door.

Let's hope it was not too late...