In the Heavens

Chapter twenty-eight

Skipping episodes 14-16

After midterms, the students were granted a week off from school, and like always, the girls could never catch a break. Bloom returned to Gardenia to spend time with Mike and Vanessa, but thanks to a pair of shady businessmen, she'd learn far more than she bargained for. 

Apparently, she was adopted after being found in a burning building. But the strange part was that even after being in the blazed building, she was still unharmed, almost as if the fire was shielding her. 

Which actually made sense nearly two decades later. But after two weeks of being on Earth, Bloom was back and the second semester of the first year at Alfea was in full swing. 

On their first day back, Professor Wizgiz decided to give them a test that nearly none of his students passed. However, after dropping the answer sheet to said test, the girls had the perfect opportunity to cheat and get the perfect score. 

But honesty prevailed and the girls returned the paper to Wizgiz all without taking a peek at the contents inside. They even managed to pass the test. But their issues didn't stop there. 

After a few weeks of radio silence from the Trix, the Winx's dreams were plagued by a creepy monster that would feed on their fears. But with the help of Headmistress Faragonda, the girls were able to defeat the monster and send it back to Cloud tower. 

But while Bloom's dreams were growing far more frequent and easier to understand, Kalani's encounters with Eli were quickly becoming fewer and far between with the last visit being Musa's attempt at running away.

Now, the girls were granted a day off to spend time for themselves, which was how Kalani wound up in the forest a few miles from Alfea's campus. 

The trees allowed a feeling of serenity to wash over her which was something that she'd been needing after the past few weeks of revelation after revelation.

Eventually, she stumbled across the clearing that she'd met Andreas' friend Helia- who evidently sat propped up on the branch of a tree, seemingly not taking notice of her. Kalani quickly noticed the sketch pad that he held in his hands, and it didn't take long for her to put two and two together. 

She tried to creep away not wanting to disturb his peace, but when she stepped on a twig, the possibility of that happening quickly flew out the window. Upon hearing the startling sound, Helia's head jerked in the direction that he'd heard the sound with his fist clenched, prepared to fire his ropes if need be. 

But when he noticed the white clad teenager, he lowered his fist and hopped down from the tree all while keeping his sketchbook and pencil in his hand. Once he was balanced on solid ground, he directed his attention to the brunette who stood still like a deer caught in headlights. 

"Kalani, may I ask why you're so far out in the forest?" Helia questioned with an unreadable expression on his face. "Came out here to clear my head. A lot has been happening since the midterms and I just needed a break." She fiddled with curl that fell free from one of her buns. 

He gestured to an empty spot next to him, a silent tell that he was here if she needed to talk- and at the moment, that was what she needed more than anything. Quickly, she walked over to Helia- keeping cautious as to not walk into any soft spots in the ground with her boots. 

A few seconds later, the two began walking, falling into a steady rhythm that neither cared to break. "So, what's on your mind that caused to walk in the forest where any evil witched could be lurking?" He wiggled his fingers, a rather pathetic attempt as imitating magic as sly smirk etched itself on his face, catching Kalani off guard as his smile dazzled in the sunlight- simply a trick of the light. 

"The midterms were a relentless ordeal, but the real shock came afterwards when Bloom discovered she was adopted. It made sense given her magical abilities, which neither Mike nor Vanessa shared."

"In school, Professor Wizgiz gave us a test that looked impossible. But then, luck threw us a curveball with an answer sheet that just fell into our path, promising an easy perfect score. We stood firm, picked integrity over trickery, and guess what? We still nailed it with grades over 70 percent."

She rattled off events that'd taken place over the course of a few weeks, and during it all, Helia never once interrupted her, instead choosing to listen to her intently. 

"Well for starters, congratulations on passing Professor wish-wash's exam without cheating. And secondly, it didn't click any earlier that she might've been adopted? After all, neither of her parents are magic." 

Kalani just shrugged as she understood their reasoning behind it. "Nine times out of ten, they couldn't find her biological parents and just assumed that she was abandoned there." 

After that, the two spend the next few minutes in a comfortable silence, allowing the sounds of birds chirping amongst the earthy scent of the forest to flood their senses and wash over them a feeling of calmness. 

But that calmness was quickly washed away when she was hit with a pounding headache. Kalani doubled over in pain as she vision swam in and out. Helia's cries of panic were drowned out as she clutched her head. 

And then complete darkness. 

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When she woke up again, instead of being in the forest with Helia, she was in an abyss surrounded by complete black. Tendrils of black shadows slowly inched towards her before she could take note of it. 

Suddenly, ethereal chains entwined around her boots, but with equal swiftness, she summoned twin orbs of energy and hurled them at the chains, only to find they didn't leave a mark.

Endlessly, more chains wound around her, some looping around her waist to pull her down to the ground beneath her, while others laced through her fingers and coiled tightly around her throat, cutting off her air supply.

Kalani pulled her hands as far as they would go in a pathetic attempt to grab at the chains slithering around her throat, wounding themselves tighter as her body slowly crumbled to the ground in exhaustion. 

 But when all seemed lost, she felt the bindings around her neck loosen, the chains around the rest of her body following suit until they were nonexistent. Kalani inhaled and exhaled as she felt her chest rise and fall at a rapid pace. 

She gingerly held her throat, rubbing what was no doubt bruises that were wrapped around the entirety of her throat. 

Once she was finally able to lift her head, she was met with metal clad feet— armor she quickly realized. She craned her neck higher, looking over the bloodied metal that covered their chest until she stopped at their helmet covered face. 

 "This place is meant to be magic resistant. It took your mother two and a half decades to gather enough strength to bring you here." A man's voice echoed through the otherwise silent abyss. He scanned the area— almost as if he was looking for someone before he looked back down to Kalani exhausted form before offering a hand. 

And while she wasn't entirely sure whether she could trust him or not, he was her best bet to figuring out where she was, so she grabbed onto his hand and he hauled her onto her hand, using his arm as a crutch to keep her standing upright.

 "I guess Lucian wound up with his mother. We must join them for this to make sense." Before she could argue that he had the wrong person, he began tugging her further into the darkness. 

For what felt like a millennium, they walked, and it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere. But just as she prepared to say something, a familiar head of white hair came into view, much to her confusion. 

"Lucian, allow me to introduce Isadora. Your twin sister."