A/N: AU, taking place during Season 6, Episode 1 "Inspiration of Sirenix", during Daphne's welcome home party after Daphne's dealt with the Beast of the Depths. The Darkar in this looks exactly the same as my Darkar in Dark Hearts. Another thing that influenced this one-shot is the Obsidian page of the Winx wiki, it states that "if someone who is not evil enters Obsidian, he or she is lost in the power of evil" and "they all, except for Bloom, get lost" – so a bit of personal interpretation going on, although that is interesting to note (at least to me). And it's just recently been added at Selina is an old friend of Bloom's... And she's one of the villains... This is either build-up or a coincidence. Me? I hope it's a build-up towards Dark Bloom. Doubtful with the way the series seems to be going but I can always keep my fingers crossed. Also contradicts the information from the rest of series unless we learn that Bloom had no clue that she was a witch. Although what about 'there is no magic left on Earth'? Last fairy, yeah I get that but now a witch has sprung up as well... Seriously?!
Also influenced by season 1, episode 10 of The Secret Circle – one of the conversations from that episode is paraphrased and used in this.
Another note, I'm currently planning chapter 6 of Dark Hearts ad my Dark Tecna one shot so they should be up sometime this month but I'm also editing a script and a manuscript as well as planning a group writing thing with a friend and drawing some sketches for DevaintART. So I'm not exactly sure when I'll manage to post everything and it's my sister's birthday this month so there is at least one day when I won't be making any progress what so ever.
I own nothing – as per usual.
'My secret side I keep,
Hid under lock and key.
I keep it caged,
But I can't control it.
Cause if I let him out,
He'll tear me up.
And break me down,
Why won't somebody come and save me from this?
Make it end!
I feel it deep within,
It's just beneath the skin.
I must confess that I feel like a monster,
I hate what I've become.
The nightmare's just begun,
I must confess that I feel like a monster.'
Monster by Skillet
'In this farewell,
There's no blood, there's no alibi.
Cuz I've drawn regret,
From the truth of a thousand lies.
So let mercy come and wash away,
What I've done.
I'll face myself,
To cross out what I've become.
Erase myself,
And let go of what I've done.'
What I've Done by Linkin Park
'I cannot find a way to describe it,
It's there, inside.
All I do is hide,
I wish that it would just go away,
What would you do,
You do if you knew.
What would you do?
All the pain I thought I knew,
All the thoughts led back to you.
Back to what is never said,
Back and forth inside my head.
I can't handle this confusion,
I'm unable.
Come and take me away.
I feel like I am all alone,
All by myself, I need to get around this.
My words are cold,
I don't want them to hurt you.
If I show you, I don't think you'd understand,
'Cuz no one understands.'
Take Me Away by Avril Lavigne
The party had been moved from the outer courtyard into the ballroom after the beast left, Daphne sighed; smoothing down the turquoise blue skirt of her ball-gown and rearranging the pale green, puffy bustle-like layers. She could practically feel the eyes burning into her back. She stared at the mountain of chocolates on one of the buffet tables, her stomach growled loudly. Half-closing her golden-brown eyes as she gripped the table; she was already hating being corporeal and it seemed to get worse with every passing second. She was struggling to walk properly, never mind opening doors and walking down steps. She was so hungry and was beginning to get so tired. If she could just stay here all night, then maybe everything would turn out okay.
"Tired?" A male voice asked from behind her. She turned around to see a man in his early twenties, dressed in a simple black and white suit and a gaudy looking ring that was inlaid with a black crystal on one his fingers. He had piercing blue eyes and collar length almost black hair that was styled in casual disarray.
"Yes. Surprisingly." She smiled. "I'm not used to this being corporeal thing."
"I can tell." He replied, holding out a pale hand. "May I have this dance?"
"Of course." She answered, taking his hand. He led her onto the dance floor; they waltzed calmly for a few moments before Daphne stood on his toes.
"Sorry." She apologised.
"It's fine. You have spent about seventeen years as a spirit, I can't imagine you spent any of that time practicing your slow dancing skills." He grinned. "So you're having trouble adjusting?"
She sighed. "Yes. I know everybody's happy about it but it was so easy being a spirit, you never got hungry, you didn't have to open doors or get tired."
"How does your sister feel about it?" He asked, grimacing as she stood on his toes again.
"Sorry." She said. "She's over the moon and she's trying to help but there's only so much she can do."
"And how is Bloom? I haven't seen her in four years. Is she doing okay?" He asked, leaning forward. A shiver went down Daphne's spine.
"Er, erm... Yes. She seems fine." She paused, feeling flustered. "So you're a friend of Bloom's?"
"Not really." He replied. "We met in her second year, our relationship really ends there."
"Do you think she would be happy to see you?"
He shook his head. "We didn't really get along." He paused as he leaned closer to her so his mouth hovered centimetres from her ear. "You should be careful about who you talk to, Daphne. Another suggestion, check on your sister. We wouldn't want any harm to come to her." He let go off her, stepping backwards and she gasped. The whites of his eyes glowed black, the blue of his eyes turned a blood red before returning to normal. He vanished in a flash of light.
She turned and ran, as she weaved through the crowd and occasionally tripped on the dress until she gathered the long blue material in her hands but then she still tripped over her own feet. She pushed through the crowd until she found her parents.
"W-we have to c-check on Bloom." She gasped, clutching at a pain in her side.
The three of them burst into Bloom's room. She was asleep, looked fine and nothing looked out of place. Daphne ran to her sister and shook her awake.
"Bloom." She said, beginning to shake her again when the red-head didn't wake up. "Bloom."
"Five more minutes." She mumbled before groaning and weakly waving a hand, as she attempted to turn but Daphne tightened her grip and shook her once more.
"What?" She groaned, her blue eyes slowly peeling open. "I'm tired."
"Are you okay?" Daphne asking, peering over her sister's body. Bloom waved her off, impatiently.
"Yeah, yes. 'M fine." She replied, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Is that all you wanted?"
"Erm... There was a man here just now-" She started as her little sister rolled her eyes and fell back onto her bed. "He was filled with dark energy. He mentioned you personally a-and that you met in your second year."
Bloom jolted up, her eyes wide. "What?!" She demanded but instead of waiting for answer, she ran out for the room and down the hall, disappearing from view.
"Where you there in her second year?" Her father asked. Daphne jumped, having forgotten her parent's presence. She shook her head as she headed out after her little sister.
Bloom ran into the ballroom, not caring that she was in her pyjama's and everyone was staring at her. They could kiss her ass for all she cared. Daphne skidded into the room, crashing into a young royal from some planet Bloom couldn't care less about right now. Her parents helped her up and steadied her.
"Where are you?!" She yelled, summoning two fireballs in her hands. "Show yourself!"
A loud, evil laugh filled the room, thick black shadows erupted from the ceiling and swarming around. People screamed, Stella ran up to her (closely followed by the other Winx). Her hazel eyes were urgent.
"What's going on?" She asked above the screaming crowd.
"Darkar." She replied.
"B-but we killed him." Tecna countered. Bloom shook her head, if only. You couldn't kill something as powerful as Darkar, especially when he was the ying to the Great Dragon's yang. The scales needed to be balanced.
"We didn't. We just put him into a sleep and I didn't exactly know for how long, I prayed it was forever. Turns out, it wasn't." She replied as they all ducked, collapsing onto the floor as a shadowy tendril took a shot at them. Bloom blasted it, nothing. Then a moment later, the shadows retreated forming a thick hurricane of darkness. It dissipated a moment later, leaving Darkar hovering above them. She let out a frustrated growl and formed a large fireball, sending it at him. He absorbed it.
"You'll have to do better than that." He called.
Anger pumped through her veins, he absorbed every blast she sent. Fire burned through her, through every vein, rising from her feet to her palms. Her hair flew up in an invisible wind and unleashing the energy, she let out a scream of rage.
Darkar glowed with a brilliant fiery light for a moment before absorbing the attack once more.
"What?!" She yelled in rage and Darkar laughed.
"You should know that no attack works on me by now. Or have you forgotten that conversation we had? Even your little convergence did nothing. I've been slowly binding my time, watching you and your little friends, waiting for somebody to push the wrong button and for you to reveal your dark secret."
Bloom's mind whirled as she transformed, the second-long blast of peaceful light gave her moment to think. He's been alive and waiting all this time... Is that why- No! Stop thinking about it!
She unleashed another fiery bolt, her anger flooding her veins. No surprise that that one was absorbed as well. Black fire licked at his fingers as he sent a huge ball of dark energy back at them. Everyone was sent sprawling onto the floor. Bloom groaned, gripping her side where it had hit the stone floor. Fuck!
She felt the familiar energy of a transformation as she heard her friends call out.Everyone slowly got to their feet, Bloom was shaking with anger as Darkar teleported in front of her.
"Dark Magic lesson number one, the power is drawn from the users hate and anger. Guess what you're radiating right now?" He told her. "I'm guessing nobody told you that. That's dangerous." He smirked. Rage, hate and pure anger began to bubble inside her, even fiercer than before. How she ached to wipe that smug smile right off of his face.
A cocoon of fire formed around her, she gritted her teeth as her hair fell up in an invisible wind once more. She crossed her arms over her chest and flexed outwards. A large, dragon made of fire roared and headed for Darkar. But that wasn't her concern; it was the shimmering purple aura the blast had... Dark magic. No, no... No! She'd managed to keep herself control for long! NO!
He absorbed the blast once more as whispers broke out in the hall. Darkar grabbed her and turned her around, she could see the fearful faces of her family, of Sky, of her friends. Oh, God! She fought against his grasp but he wasn't letting go.
"Lesson number two, if you're not evil and you enter Obsidian, the dark powers there will cause you to become lost forever. You were the only one who didn't get lost. I wonder why." He said loudly as he moved her ponytail round and smeared the make-up on her neck. NO! NO!
"NO!" She screamed, separating herself from him with a fire wall. She flew up into the air as the barrier died down. Darkar smirked at her, his blue eyes glittering.
"Relax, I'm done." He said, vanishing into huge and disappearing. Bloom's wings fluttered slightly as she saw every single person's eyes on her, burning her as their accusing whispers met her ears. She flew out of the hall, to her room and detransformed, slamming the door behind her loudly. She flung herself down to her large bed and sobbed into her pillow.
They would know her secret now...
The bedroom door crashed open and the Winx ran in. Stella and Flora sat down on her bed while the others hovered. Flora was the first to speak.
"I don't care, you know." She told her. Bloom raised her head from the pillow, snivelling. Her blue eyes shone with hope.
"Really?" She asked, wiping a tear away.
"Yeah." Stella added. "You're still Bloom, still our friend. You're not dark and evil. Well, apart from those two times but-"
"Stella." Tecna warned her. "Time and a place, can't you see how upset she is?"
She laughed and hugged the two friends either side of her. "I love you guys... So you really don't care?"
"Of course we don't." Flora smiled. "We're best friends."
It quickly became a group hug that was crushing Bloom's lungs but she was too happy to care.
"Where's Sky?" She asked, suddenly noticing his absence. Worry and fear began to cling at her heart, suffocating her. Her knees felt weak with sadness and dread as she imagined the look of abhorrence on Sky's face.
"Relax." Flora's soothing voice tickled her eardrums. "It's not like you're imagining."
"You shouldn't jump to conclusions." Tecna scolded her. Bloom rolled her eyes.
"Sky looked like he didn't know how to handle it." Layla told her.
"Yeah, his parents were having some unpleasant sounding words with him – we didn't exactly stick around to find out what they were." Musa added.
Her bedroom door opened, hitting one of her walls with a loud clatter.
"Bloom?" Daphne asked, pushing her way through the group to her and immediately wrapping he arms around her in a tight hug before letting her go and she wiped away some of Bloom's stray tears. "How are you?"
"I'm ... better now." She struggled to find the words, her tongue refusing to co-operate with her. Daphne smiled before letting out a loud sound of frustration, throwing her hands down and hugging her tightly again.
Her father cleared her throat. Daphne and Bloom jumped apart.
"Daphne, could please escort Bloom's friends out, please? I think we need to talk to Bloom. Alone."
Daphne muttered an 'okay' before turning to the Winx. "Come on guys."
Oritel paused when everybody had left, staring at Bloom with an unreadable expression. She swallowed, looked down at her fidgeting fingers.
"That magic scares you." He finally stated.
She swallowed once more, not looking at her father. "People keep saying that it's dark magic but I really don't know what that means."
She didn't look to see the reaction on her parents faces as she tucked a long red curl behind her ear. She heard her mother sigh. Butterflies, filled with worry and fear, fluttered around in her stomach.
"The darkness will slowly take you over, bit by bit until you become evil." Her mother finally spoke and Bloom shook her head.
"I don't want to hurt anyone." She told them firmly. "Can I stop it? Can I get rid of it? That's all I've wanted to do!"
Her parents looked at each other for a moment some silent, unknown agreement passing between them before her mother looked at her.
"We can draw it out of you." She informed her. "We can get rid of it before it gets a hold of you, before you hurt anyone."
'Again.' Bloom added in her head, thinking back to her second year. "How?" She asked.
"There's a ritual." Her father replied.
"Please. You have to do it! I don't want to hurt anyone again. I'll do anything." The words came rushing out before she could stop them. Her parents looked at her.
"Again?" Her mother asked.
The next day, the sun shone bright in the sky; ignorant of the ritual happening in the back of the palace grounds – hidden from everybody's view. Bloom stood in the middle of a fiery circle, her mother in front of her and her father behind her. Their hands glowed with fierce power.
"Are you sure this will work?" She asked her mother.
"It has to." Her mother replied distantly, a strange look in her eyes.
"Mundetet perversitátibus expiátos,tolle detenebris. Intenebris estusque admortem, mors esteiusmodi navis!" They chanted. "Mundetet perversitátibus expiátos,tolle detenebris. Intenebris estusque admortem, mors esteiusmodi navis!"
The ground beneath her feet began to move, crawling up along her feet. She forced herself to not cringe, to just close her eyes and get on with it.
"Mundetet perversitátibus expiátos,tolle detenebris. Intenebris estusque admortem, mors esteiusmodi navis!"
The earth crawled up towards her knees and dragged her down beneath the ground – darkness closed in on her as the ground literally swallowed her whole. A thick, endless mass of blackness and dirt. Claustrophobia immediately set in and she began to hyperventilate. Then she just stopped, yelling and arguing coming from above her. She focused on it.
" – I can't believe you! Your own daughter! How HEARTLESS can you be?!" She recognised that voice. Daphne... Wait... What had they done to her?! Was this a purifying ritual? Was Daphne mad because they couldn't have accepted her how she was?
"We had to." A deeper voice replied. Oritel.
"No, you didn't have to." Daphne screamed back. "How could you kill your own daughter?! Am I next? You are not my parents! You're monsters! My parents would never kill their own daughter, no matter what!"
Kill?! This is what this was?! They were killing her?!
A mix of rage, hate, sadness and betrayal swirled in her chest, making it even more difficult for her to breath, never mind cry. She grabbed a handful of the dirt walls.
"Let me out." She said. Nothing. "Let me out! Let me out! Help! LET ME OUT! HELP ME PLEASE!" She started to scream hysterically, her heart pounding violently in her chest as the claustrophobia set in once more. She began to cry and scream as she tried to beat against the endless earthy walls of her prison. No, she had to concentrate, she had put her energy into it – she couldn't freak out, couldn't be hysterical. She closed her eyes, swallowed and grabbed another handful of the dirt. Rage and hate at her parents swirled through her veins, the sadness and betrayal became nothing more than a little voice whispering in the back of her head.
Concentrate. Put belief behind it. Put anger and hate behind it. It's the only way.
She opened her eyes, focusing on those feelings. "Let. Me. OUT!" She yelled and the hole where she was buried erupted in a mass of Dragon Fire, golden and purple sparks. Gasping at the air and wincing at the bright sunlight, she scrambled out of the opening.
Daphne ran up and hugged her tightly, tears running down her face. "Oh my god." She whispered over and over again. "I thought I'd lost you! Are you alright?"
Bloom struggled to speak for a moment, cast her eyes down her dirt covered jeans. "I- I don't know." She said hoarsely, forcing the words past her lips. Then, as the sad realisation set in, she began to cry. My parents hate me for being dark and light... My parents hate me!
Then another realisation hit. She wasn't just dark or light – she was both, she accepted it. Bloom turned to her parents.
"I don't ever want to see you again." She told them before turning back to Daphne. "I think it will best for everyone, if- if I leave."
Without waiting for a reply, she transported herself to Magix. Her own magic was pushing her there. Her instincts and magic pushed to through the dark thick forest that she had landed in to a very familiar cave, with a very familiar man waiting at the entrance.
"My parents tried to kill me." She told him, he turned towards her. "They didn't accept me but Daphne did and I accept myself."
Darkar opened his mouth to reply but it was lost somewhere as he took in what she had seen in the lake. Her one blue eye and her own golden cat eye.
A/N: 'Mundetet perversitátibus expiátos,tolle detenebris. Intenebris estusque admortem, mors esteiusmodi navis' actually means 'cleanse, purify. Rid the darkness. Death to the darkness. Death to the impure'.