Category: Winx Club

Rating: T

Couples: none

Warnings: AU (which will become MAJOR should the fic continue)

Chapter: One-shot (or maybe not)

Copyright: © characters and places by Iginio; © Plot and OC by me

Author's Note: Inspired by the drawing 'Old Adversary' of the wonderful Shimizuggi (although that name is a bitch to spell XD) over at Deviantart. If enough want it, I'll make it a nice Faragonda/Darkar friendship-fic displaying my view of the guy as well as a version of his & the Dragon's history I just can't get out of my head after watching Avatar. Ps: sorry I didn't include your quote, Shimi.

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The feast had lasted well into the night, both headmistresses present feeling reluctant to spoil their students' fun. Darkar was dead, having fallen to the combined might of the Winx. It had cost them their Charmix, the limited power of the jewels being exhausted in that final blast. After a few hours, Faragonda had excused herself, allowing the students to celebrate as long as they liked, giving them the next day off. She had cited age, but her true reasons had been less forward: knowledge.

Darkar was not dead and never would be for as long as the Dragonfire burned in the Magical Dimension and the Red Tower held the Waterstars. There was a delicate balance between these three powers, each sustaining the others.

A hand closed around her wrist, pulling her from her musings. She turned, expecting Griffin, but came face to face with flaming eyes. Her eyes widened, but before she could say a word, a red claw closed around her neck.

The cold metal cut of her air, shock leaving her unable to do anything about it.

"A wonderful celebration is going on outside, my dear Faragonda." Darkar said, growling as the fairy headmistress fought to remove the hand around her neck. "I can certainly imagine why. Did you truly believe my defeat to be permanent?"

"No." She managed to ground out.

"Wise. Wiser than your students." He loosened his hold enough for her to breathe freely. "Perhaps I should show them the price of their folly?" He smashed the struggling woman against the wall. "What would they do if you suddenly got blasted out of that window, broken and defeated?"

She did not answer the question, glaring at him.

A red aura overtook him. "You should be more worried, fairy. Who would oppose me now? You and Griffin, while being a powerful pair, are no match to my wrath." His claw tightened again, drawing blood. "And your precious fairies used the last of their Charmix to 'defeat' me."

His sneer became a grin at the widening of her eyes. "I feed on power, dear Faragonda, and as such, I can sense it." He face came closer to hers. "Theirs' dropped quite a bit after that blast of pure goodness." Dark-red goo poured from the floorboards, sticking her to the wall.

"Why are you here?" Her voice was calm, in an awful threatening way. He clearly remembered one of the few battles he had had with her; it had been at the beginning of the Company of Light, before Griffin had joined them and he had wished to see it destroyed before it was fully formed. Something had been destroyed that day, but it had not been Faragonda. Neither him, though… Rather a scenic village in the mountains, where he had ambushed her.

"I am merely wondering." His claw drew more blood from her neck. "How could I possibly ruin those fairies' evening?"

"You will do no such thing." Her own glow overtook her body. "You are not a personification of Evil, you are one of Darkness. I hope you remember the difference."

The stone wall was no match for his fist, bits of it falling on her shoulder. "I certainly do, but it is you humans who forget all the time."

"You took my student!" She countered. "Do you expect me to sit back and have you do with her as you wish?"

"Several decades in sleep do give you quite a hunger, and a thirst for vengeance." He answered her. "Realix would have quenched both."

"So what now?" The green glow around her body crumbled the goo holding her up. "Leave my school, now."

"The 'Evil' way would be to kill you, or at the very least kick you around your own school and then leave." He stepped back to give her room. "The 'Dark' way… mmmh… I can't really say."

"Because Dark is neither Good nor Evil." A faint smile appeared on her face. "So it depends on what you want to do."

"I still want to ruin their evening." He stepped up to the window, looking outside towards where the Winx Club were taking a photo. "That hurt quite a bit."

Any who would have seen them would have found it quite surreal; Faragonda standing next to Lord Darkar, having a calm conversation.

"You do realize that 'ruining their evening' the evil way would only make them hunt you, possibly earning their Enchantix on the way only to 'defeat' you again?"

"It wouldn't matter that much. People do tend to say that 'Phoenixes rise from their ashes' after all." He stepped back from the window, wishing none to see him there. "You have always puzzled me, Faragonda."

"How come?" She barely glanced at him, remaining at the window, smiling at the antics of her students.

"You are the first who sees the truth: Light and Dark do NOT equal Good and Evil." He studied her openly now. "Who are you, Headmistress? Why do you see so much more than others?"

"What we lose in youth, we gain in wisdom, if we paid attention along the way." Her voice was soft. "And I'm quite old, Darkar, older than many could dream of becoming."

"I recall: you appeared out of nowhere when the call came for members of the Company of Light, revealing nothing of what transpired before that." He mulled it over. "I do believe you never even mentioned your age."

"It amounts in the thousands." She smiled at his obvious shock. "I can go toe-to-toe with you, and you're surprised I know a spell to make me look young?"

"You do realize you should have died several times already?" He deadpanned. "Five times a millennium to be exact."

"Long story. What are you going to do now? Stay here, or leave for Shadowhaunt." She quickly changed the subject.

"Shadowhaunt was destroyed, and I'm not looking forward to rebuilding it at the moment."