VALTOR'S POV

"That's why I picked on him." The guy holding Bloom said. "I was testing him to see if he would get scared and run off."

"How did they meet?" Andy whispered to me.

"Let's see." I said, using my magic to conjure a viewing window. "They met 3 years ago."

Begin Viewing Window Scene

"Bye Andy!" Bloom waved as a slightly younger looking Andy boarded a plane, "Have fun in Italy!" As soon as he disappeared, the large grin on her face vanished.

Bloom started to walk back home. Halfway home, the black-haired girl pulled up in a scooter next to her and said, "Now that your precious boy-toy is gone, you have nothing else to live for. You should do us all a favor and kill yourself." Then she sped off, purposefully driving into the puddle so Bloom would be splashed by the dirty street water.

"Ugh!" she said.

Bloom walked over to the park and climbed up onto the ledge with the slide with tears pooling in her eyes.

"Upset, are we?" a voice asked out of nowhere. There stood a boy about Bloom's age. He had black hair and blue eyes. He wore street type clothes. Bloom pinched herself to force the tears to stop.

"I'm fine. It's not like you care. Just do what you always do and steal my starbursts and feed them to your dumb dog." She said, turning away from him.

"Haha. Nice try, Bloom. I have something I want to talk to you about. You won't be disappointed."

"What are you talking about?" she asked. "And since when do you look out for anyone outside of your group of gangsters? I see you every day with Mitzi, talking about me and acting like I don't exist!"

"Listen" he said, reaching out to touch her arm.

"Don't touch me!" she said, slapping his arm away.

"Bloom, just listen. You're going to want to see this."

"How do I know that I won't be found dead in some alleyway tomorrow?" She said.

"I give you my word that nothing will happen to you while you are with me," He said, raising his right hand, "Now come on." Reluctantly, she got up.

Bloom said, "Where are you going? The sidewalk is this way. I mean you would probably know that if you came to class more than 2 days a week."

"Pfft! Sidewalk?!" he laughed. "Sidewalks are for losers!" He took her hand despite her protests and started leading her towards the alley. They climbed a ladder and they were on the roof of a small two-story building. He went to the edge, which overlooked a shorter building.

"Now jump!" he said.

"If you want me to kill myself, there are more subtle ways of letting me know." She said, trying to leave.

"Just do it before I push you off. You won't die. I can almost guarantee it." He said, grabbing her wrist.

"Fine," she sighed before edging to the edge of the building. Looking down at the one-story drop, she gulped. Taking a deep breath, she dropped with a scream. "Oww! I scraped my elbow! This is your fault!"

"Blaming others for your own problems is not a good habit." The dark-haired boy looked down at her. "And that was a perfect way to demonstrate how to get hurt doing this. Form was terrible, no grace, and horrible landing. I give you a 1 out of 10."

"Ha! I'd like to see your reaction to jumping off a building!" she shouted from the other rooftop.

"I suggest you back up." He smirked. He took a few steps back before confidently running to the edge, leaping off, and pulling off a flip before landing gracefully next to Bloom.

"Show off," she grumbled.

"I can't help it if I'm absolutely stunning, now can I."

"Try to help it." She said.

"Jealous, are we?" he said with a smug grin on his face.

"Jealous? Why would I be jealous of a street monkey?"

"Ouch." He chuckled. "Since I know how much you love that rabbit of yours, I took the liberty of taking that thing from your room."

"You what?! I will punch you! Come here you fiend!"

"Just try and catch me. Oh and you can find him, stuffed, in my room. He's hanging off the wall now." He smirked. "See?" he said, showing her a picture of a stuffed rabbit that looked exactly like Kiko. With that he jumped onto the alley one story down.

"I hate you so much!" she shouted. She was losing control of her emotions. "How could you? You've always picked on me. You made my life living hell all throughout school, now this?" Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.

The tears streamed freely down her face and she sank to the ground, burying her face in her knees. It didn't take long for Darko to get back where she was and put his arms around her. She tried to shrug his arms off, but he held her tight, pulling her to his chest.

"Shh. It's okay, I was just joking, trying to get you to jump." He whispered in her ear. "I'm sorry."

"No. You're not. You never have been. You never will be." She said, pulling away from him with a sniffle. Her blue eyes shone with sadness.

"Harsh, sweetheart. What did I do to deserve this horror?" he said, keeping his distance.

"Let's see. You or Mitzi hit or trip me at least once a day, you steal my starbursts to feed your dog, and you have played pretty much any girl that looked at you twice... Oh God, am I one of those girls now, too?" she said, moving further away from him.

"Okay fine," he said, running a hand through his hair, "Truce?" He held his hand out to her.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she said, but still took his hand.

One month had passed and Bloom had started becoming closer with Darko and even talked to him at school. He really wasn't that bad, but Bloom was still a bit wary of him. She still called Andy, who was in Italy, almost every day. Andy said that he didn't trust him.

One day, he said, "Bloom. You know how I wanted you to meet a few people? Well, here they are. This is Marc and this is-"

She cut him off by saying, "Selina!" Bloom hugged the girl with dirty blonde hair and black outfit, "I missed you so much! Where were you?"

"Bloom! You don't know how much of a relief it is to see a friendly face." She said. "I can't tell you what I've been through but I can say that it is so much better back home."

Four months later she noticed something strange about Darko.

"You're slowing down. Don't tell me you've become an old man overnight," Bloom joked as they ran their usual lap above the lower buildings near the south side of Gardenia. The sun was beginning to set and the air was beginning to cool.

"Uh yeah," he said after a minute, tugging the sleeves of his black hoodie until they covered his hands. Bloom looked at him suspiciously before walking toward him and grabbing his arm while he tried his best not to flinch.

"What has gotten into you? You must be getting hot with your sleeves all the way down. Normally, you roll them up." She said as she pulled the sleeve of his hoodie back. Her eyes widened and she gasped while he yanked his arm back.

"It's nothing." He said.

"It's not nothing!" She said. "I know you know I care about you. I'm here for you even if you don't want to talk about it."

"I know, I have to go," he said before walking off.

"No, wait!" she shouted, but to no avail.

She ran after him but he was a lot faster than her. Plus, she was still scared of jumping off the buildings. She tried to catch up, but she lost him quickly.

"Just leave it. He went home and he never lets people come over." Marc said as he landed next to her.

"Where does he live?"

"Uhh… I'm afraid I can't tell you that-" Marc started before being cut off by the redhead.

"Tell me, or else…" She said.

"You don't scare me, ginger. We both know you won't do whatever empty threat you were about to make." He smirked before ruffling her hair, which earned him a scowl from her.

"Fine, if you won't tell me, I'll find out another way." She said before flipping her hair and walking off.

Two days later, she snuck into the school office.

Darko had skipped school that day. As soon as the bell chimed three and the students began to go home, Bloom went for the room where all the student files were kept. She leaned on the wall near the door and waited until the teacher on duty left. She caught the door right before it locked shut and went inside. She immediately opened the file cabinet that was labelled 'student files'.

"Alright, I'm looking for… ah, there he is." She whispered as she went through the various folders. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

The girl heard the sound of keys being twisted in the lock and she quickly closed the cabinet door and ducked under the desk.

"Oh Sam, your sexy Beatrice has arrived…" Bloom looked up only to see the middle-aged secretary at the door wearing only her undergarments, that showed off most of her wrinkly body. Bloom involuntarily shuddered, squeezing her eyes shut, trying desperately to erase what she had just seen from her mind.

"Oh, I guess he left." She said before leaving.

The redhead let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and opened the folder, looking at the address before placing the folder back where she found it and making her exit.

"I am going to bleach my eyeballs when I get home," she muttered before leaving.

Near sunset, she walked to the address, which was in the not so safe part of town. She treaded carefully, alert for any attackers. There were no lights on and she was about to leave before she saw movement from the car parked a little bit from the house. She looked inside and gasped when she saw Darko making out with another guy.

The next day, Darko came to school, acting as if everything was normal. He flirted with every girl that walked past him. He even tried it on Bloom.

"Darko. Stop. I know you aren't interested in girls."

He opened and closed his mouth a couple times before finally saying, "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess, plus I saw you with your boyfriend." He said nothing but ran his fingers through his hair, looking away from the redhead. "What's really funny is that Mitzi is convinced that you are head over heels for her."

That earned a small smile from the dark-haired boy.

"I've gotta go. See ya?"

"See ya." He said.

She went back home. Walking into her room, she picked up her phone. All sorts of art lined her walls and her desk was organized chaos.

Today was the day her parents were going on a trip. Bloom walked them to the cab.

"Remember, Ms. Abernathy is coming over to get those documents. When she comes, go into my study. The file you are looking for has a black cover and is in the top left drawer of my desk."

"Got it, dad." She said as they left.

Bloom spent an hour drawing before the doorbell rang. Mrs. Abernathy was not a patient woman and Bloom scrambled to get the documents. On her way towards the desk, Bloom tripped and knocked everything off of it.

"I'll clean that up later," she said to herself as she grabbed the correct document and raced to the door. She greeted the woman and asked her if she wanted to come inside. Mrs. Abernathy left after getting the folder from her.

She went back into her father's office to clean up the mess she had made. As she stacked the papers, one particular one caught her eye. Her eyes widened as she read 'Adoption Papers'. She placed everything onto the desk and left the study quickly.

"Hello fabulous." Darko said as he climbed in through Bloom's window. She turned away from him. "Come on now, don't be sad. All we need is a little bit of glitter to turn that frown upside down" he stated as he titled Bloom's chin, turning her face from side to side.

"Leave me alone." She said, turning away from him again.

"Fine, fine. Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"No! Get out!" she shouted.

"Okay, okay. I'll leave if it really makes you feel better." He said.

The day after Bloom's parents came back, Andy came back to Gardenia from Italy for vacation. He showed up at their door around 7.

"Hello Vanessa and Mike. I wanted to know if Bloom was home."

"Yes. She went to go sleep."

"Can I see her? I brought gifts." He said, holding up a bag. The couple trusted Andy as he had been with Bloom since elementary, so they let him go up to her room, knowing that he would behave himself.

"Go ahead. We are off to sleep. Holler if you need anything and once you're done, you can let yourself out." Mike told him. Andy headed towards Bloom's room.

Bloom's lights were off and some of her red hair hung off the side of her loft bed. Since she was higher up, he couldn't see her face, but he knew she was there. He sat down, suddenly feeling the jet lag. About ten minutes later, the window to Bloom's room opened and Andy was startled. He moved further into the shadows, ready to attack if necessary. Instead, he saw Bloom climb in along with a guy that was nothing but trouble- Darko. He was known for playing girls and feared that Bloom was his next target. He left after blowing Bloom a kiss.

"Bloom." He spoke in a low voice, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards him, "I just want to thank you for everything. You are the most incredible and understanding person I have ever met. You were the first to show compassion to me when you found out, hell, you were the first to find out. I could not ask for a better partner in crime." Bloom didn't say anything, she just hugged him.

"Bye babe." Andy didn't know it, but Darko had developed a bad habit of calling everyone 'babe' which confused many people. To humor him, she would occasionally call him babe as well, but they both knew it didn't mean anything but friendship since there was no attraction between them.

Once he left, Bloom laid down on the sofa under her bed. Andy found himself drifting off to sleep. He was brought back into reality by the sound of a phone being dialed. Bloom didn't look too well as she called someone. Andy listened intently and grit his teeth when he heard the voice on the other end.

'What's up?' he said.

"Babe, how far are you? I changed my mind, can you pick me up?" she said.

'Yeah, I'll be there in 5 minutes. We are going to have so much fun, I even booked us a place for the night. With me, you can forget about anything else.'

"I'm still unsure about this. I don't know if it is right that I sneak out behind my parents' backs and spend the night with you in a hotel." She said.

"What the hell is he trying to pull?" Andy thought angrily.

'Relax darling. It won't hurt. I'll make sure of it.' He said. After a moment, 'I'm here. The bike is out front.'

"Okay, I'm coming down." Bloom said as she hung up.

"Who is she and what has she done to Bloom?" Andy thought. "I am going to punch this bastard for taking advantage of Bloom."

He watched with a disgusted look on his face as Bloom put on a helmet and got on to his bike, clinging to him from behind. "Who knows how many other girls he has taken out on that bike" he thought. "Where was she going at this time?"

He couldn't keep his eyes open for any more time, so he fell asleep. He woke up near sunrise and started pacing around Bloom's room. He was worried sick about his best friend and what Darko could be doing to her.

Meanwhile, Bloom and Darko sat at the edge of the serene lake.

"Sometimes I feel like I need to punch the shit out of something." Bloom said.

"Try me." Darko replied, holding his palm out to her. She punched him as hard as she could, but didn't manage to do any damage.

"No. Not like that. Don't put your thumb there and punch with this part of your hand." He said, using his hands to fix Bloom's punching posture. Once she was done, she just broke down. He hugged her, trying to comfort her.

About an hour later, the window opened again. This time, only Bloom came through the window. He was itching to talk to her, but he decided not to and hid inside her closet, leaving the door open just a crack to see what was going on. There was something… off about Bloom. She didn't seem responsive. She just stood there, looking deep in thought. Seemingly out of nowhere, though, she burst out crying. Bloom slowly crumpled to the ground in tears. "I am going to kill him!" Andy thought.

The next day at school, Bloom walked in, looking like she had been crying. Mitzi teased her like usual, but today her insults stung more. She walked right past Andy as he waved hello. She didn't even talk to Darko. She didn't eat lunch and started cutting to give herself the pain she deserved.

A couple of days later, she was walking home when her frenzied rabbit Kiko pulled at the hem of her jeans.

"Not now, Kiko. I'm not in the mood." When the rabbit did not stop, the redhead relented and got up. What she saw stole her breath away. There was an ogre fighting a blonde girl in orange with wings. They threw orbs of light at each other. At first the teenager thought it was all part of a movie, but realized that it was too real and that there were no wires even though the girl was clearly flying. What was more, was that she was losing. Seeing it, something inside of Bloom snapped, and with newfound bravery, she leaped in between the two.

"Leave her alone!" she shouted angrily. To her absolute shock, a red shield formed around her and destroyed one of the monsters. She stared at her open palms in awe.

"You've got some major winx, girl!" the blonde girl said from behind her. "Now, let's kick this ogre's butt!"

End Viewing Window Scene

"It's okay. Think about this, I knew Andy before I left and he hardly seems like the guy to write something like that. Your memories show you being perfectly fine before you came to that restaurant. I think that the chef is behind this all, but why would he have motive is the real question." Selina, the ever intelligent one, said. It had taken her 10 minutes to put the whole thing together. I needed to get to the restaurant to clean up my tracks.

BLOOM'S POV

Selina was right. What motive did Andy have to something so cruel? I felt Darko's hold on me tighten. Everyone needed a gay friend like Darko who could hold you like this and not make it awkward. Once you got through his seemingly tough exterior, he was the world's biggest softie. It was a shame that he didn't open up to anyone else except us.

"Legendarium! The Legendarium can show us what really happened!" she said and conjured the book.

"That waiter!" Darko growled. "Let me go beat the crap out of him!"

"No. Darko. It's okay, I don't want revenge, I am just so happy to know that my best friend would not do that to me." I said.

"Do you guys see that?" Selina asked.

"Yeah, is that…" I said, slowly walking toward the figure.

VALTOR'S POV

"Oh no, she is coming this way. If I get caught here, she won't help me anymore." I thought. She was too close now, and if we ran, we would surely be caught. I quickly whispered an invisibility spell and cast it on both me and that boy.

"Mark!" she squealed, running towards a figure a little way off.

"Baby!" Darko said, chasing after her, enveloping both of them in a hug.

I suddenly felt arms go around me and almost punched the unfortunate soul.

"For what it's worth, thank you, Valtor." Andy whispered before backing away. I froze.

How did he know my name? This has Bloom written all over it.

I decided to go back to the caverns to try to get some rest, which was a good thing since she came in a few minutes after me.

"She finally rolls in," I said sarcastically.

BLOOM'S POV

"She finally rolls in," Valtor's voice breaks me out of my thoughts.

"Shut up," I retort, earning myself a smirk. He's as Valtor as ever, with his nose buried in a spell book. His long hair is in a low ponytail, which accentuates his sharp features.

"Where are we going first? Zenith or Linphea?" I asked.

"Linphea." He replied.

"Cool. Goodnight." I said, walking towards my bed, whispering the usual silencing spell on myself.

"Goodnight princess." He said, looking back at his book.

A couple hours later, I woke up again, screaming silently. This time, the laughing face of Darkar standing over me haunted my mind, leaving me shaking underneath the covers. Taking deep breaths, I tried to get to sleep.

…

I woke up in the morning, thankfully without any more nightmares. Valtor was already gone off to who-knows-where. He had laid out the clothes I was supposed to wear for this heist.

It was a green miniskirt and a floral shirt with a denim jacket, perfectly blending in with the Linphean people. About an hour later, he came back, wearing his usual clothes, but of course, I knew that it was an illusion.

"Ready? He asked?" I nodded as he teleported us. My stomach lurched while he seemed unfazed by the instant teleportation.

Turns out that we were going to a museum that housed the Winds of Truth, which was the power source for the majority of Linpheans. It was hot during this time of year so I rolled up the sleeves of the jacket, unwilling to take it off and carry it.

"That's actually clever to hide such a powerful spell on the realm of mostly pacifists." He said. "Once we take it, many Linpheans and the planets that they support will be weakened."

"I guess that's good for us, at least," I said, looking at the beautiful scenery that surrounded us.

"All you have to do is keep an eye on the guard as I go in." He said.

"Why can't I go in?" I asked, wanting to make sure he only took the one thing we were after, not draining the entire planet.

"You? Steal something? Very funny, princess, now stay here." He said with a smirk.

"Fine, whatever."

What was I, his puppy?

I decided to look around. One artifact especially caught my eye.

The Ancestral Eye:

Housed in the Agador Box

Known for its large amounts of power. Is linked to the Ancestral witches themselves.

Wait, wasn't this in Magix? I remember seeing it at the Magix museum when I went with the girls.

As soon as Valtor stepped into the holding place of the power source, loud alarms stated to blare as all the guards rushed to one place.

That's funny, how do they all know where to go right off the bat? I hope Valtor is okay.

"Bring it down!" Someone yelled and the entire building began to crumble. All hell broke loose as everyone stampeded towards the exits. I could barely see over the myriad of people. I was nearly to the exit, and just in time, I might add when I heard a little girl crying from inside the museum. If I ran, I would get out safe and sound… but the girl wouldn't. Turning on my heel, I ran back inside, transforming just in case.