After so many months I have finally returned to the Winx Club end of fanfiction! This one took me a while to squeeze out for some reason - I had all of the inspiration but none of the drive and too much of the busy-with-RL stuff to finish it in a timely manner. This is, once again, part of my one-shot series, all published seperately, that revolve around the question "What if the male main characters in Winx Club were fairies too?"
I think about this a lot, probably a lot more than I should. I've developed an entire headcanon around this idea and part of that is what this series is: how I imagine the moment they first discover that they can do a fairy transformation. Each story is related by being in the same headcanon, occasionally they overlap and are more than likely to not be published in chronological order at all. But they are all self-contained stories.
I've already published stories for Nabu and Sky and Brandon, so if you like this one I highly recommend you read them too. :D
If you've already read that one, then at this point you've probably realised that I've largely copy-pasted the A/N from them over to this one.
In any case, I'll publish more stories as I finish them. I've got a start on Timmy and I now (finally) have an idea for how to work Riven into this series and then that will be all the boys I intend to write about.
Anywho, enough of the blather, read on my (new) friends. I welcome your feedback or comment so please review! :3
(Maybe if you think there's another male character in Winx Club who would look good/be awesome as a fairy we could talk about it and I may take a request).
Disclaimer: I don't own Winx Club and I don't do this so that I can claim to. We all have to thank Iginio Straffi and Rainbow s.r.l. for creating it (sometimes much in the same way that we thank Steven Moffat for writing Doctor Who but hey).
Helia
Breathe in. Breathe out.
"Meditation is absolute peace. Clear the mind of all the fog that clouds it from day to day. Open your mind and soul and let your energies free."
Breathe in… breathe out…
"Still your thoughts. Extend your spirit. Fear not that the world outside your body will contaminate it. Embrace the life outside your own. Allow the cosmos to channel through you like the waterfall. Bend yourself around the trees, around the animals."
Rumble…
"No!"
Breathe in. Breathe out.
"Don't panic, don't fear. The shaking won't rock your soul if you bend with it. Flow with the water, soar with the wind."
Rumble, rumble…
"NO!"
Breathe in, breathe out.
"Don't panic, don't fear, don't supress. Sway with the quake. Slip through the crevice and soothe the friction. Warm with the heat."
Rumble, rumble, CRACK!
"No, no, no, no, no!"
Breatheinbreathoutbreatheinbreatheoutbreatheinbreatheout!
The ground faulted beneath his yoga mat, sending a ridge right up underneath him. His meditative concentration broke with a high-pitched yelp as he was tossed a couple of inches into the air. He sat still, mind whirling and chest heaving as he began to realise that he had yet again failed at attaining spiritual harmony with nature. He turned to either side of him. Thankfully there was no severe damage this time but the fault was no laughing matter. It stretched for a hundred metres on both sides and even though it was only about twenty centimetres tall the frantic animal screeches and bird noises in the forest told him that he had caused a substantial disturbance.
The area around him was still and quiet. The forest creatures had all fled from the epicentre of the quake. Helia sighed depressively and reached for the pocket watch that he kept in his book bag. It was almost time for breakfast. He rolled up his yoga mat and shouldered his bag to make the short trek out of the forest and back to his dorm room. As he stepped out of the tree line and onto the meadow the pearly yellow walls of Red Fountain gleamed in the morning sun.
During the first half of the breakfast period the dining hall was always sparsely occupied. Helia crept into the room and made a beeline for the kitchens, holding a plastic container under his arm. As a school for strapping boys and young men aspiring to be heroes, soldiers and royalty, Red Fountain provided only the best nutritionally balanced and high protein breakfast choices. Helia bypassed all of the eggs and meat, taking only the hash browns, mushrooms, and tomatoes before seating himself near a corner and scooping the contents of his container onto his plate.
He chewed his meal slowly, trying not to dwell but the morning's failure was still too fresh. It was always like that; meditation was fine and great but any attempt at going deeper resulted in damage and destruction, even though that was what he was trying to prevent. That power that he still didn't understand gnawed at him from the inside out and he couldn't find any peace. No matter what he did, any attempt to reconcile with it was just met with more violence.
Suddenly a hand clamped down on his shoulder and his stomach dropped, losing all appetite. "Well, well, well… what do we have here?"
Helia rolled his eyes but turned to the boys behind him with a smile on his face. "Good morning Rex, Tex, Lex." He politely acknowledged each boy in turn. The flame-haired one with his hand on Helia's shoulder grinned wide enough to show his sharpest teeth.
"I'll never understand how you eat meals that don't have any meat, you don't even have eggs. Does it even taste like anything?"
"Rex, even foods produced by non-animal means bear distinct flavours and textures. Perhaps you should try some before you dismiss it."
Rex scowled at him and clutched the back of his head. "Whatever, wimp." He shoved Helia's face into the plate of food. Tex and Lex guffawed, making Rex grin as he pulled Helia back up by the hair. "And get a haircut, you sissy. You couldn't be more of a girl if you tried."
"Hey! Stop that!" a firm voice cut across the table. They all looked up to the dark-skinned boy standing on the other side of the table with his own breakfast tray, who was glaring at them angrily.
"Uh-oh," Tex muttered, his pale face going paler. "It's the second year prefect."
Rex let go of Helia's hair abruptly, causing the pacifist to jerk forward. "Nabu! What's happening?" he said casually.
"A disciplinary strike is what's happening," Nabu replied, clicking his fingers. Magic flew out of them and struck Rex, Tex, and Lex in the badge medallions all students were required to wear, even when they weren't wearing their capes. The medallions changed from their personalised colour to black with the prefect's sigil marked in red.
The scowl was instantly back on Rex's face. "You can't do this!"
"It's my right as a prefect," Nabu stated simply. "You can go to the student office and try to appeal it if you want but I don't think that will get you very far."
"Come on, Rex, let's go," Lex said, putting a hand on his friend's arm but Rex didn't move. He was about to argue hotly until Nabu added:
"Listen to your friend, unless you want to make it a double strike."
Rex growled and yanked his arm out of his friend's hold, stomping away grumpily. His lackeys followed meekly, humbled by the authority of the prefect. Nabu put his tray down on the table and sat across from Helia.
"Are you alright?"
"I'll be fine," Helia replied, taking napkins out of the dispenser to wipe his face.
"You will be fine? I'm going to use that to presume that you're not fine as of this moment."
Helia sighed miserably and then looked at Nabu as sincerely as he could. "It's okay. I'm getting used to it."
"That is not good to hear," Nabu said, frowning slightly. "Bullying isn't something that you should have to get used to, especially since it's only your first year. Listen, since I'm a junior prefect it's my job to deal with those guys, so if they ever give you any trouble again, don't be afraid to come and talk to me or any of the teachers. Or you can come to me for a chat any time you want, I'm here to listen."
"I appreciate your kindness," Helia said, refusal on the tip of his tongue. However, it might also force him to reveal the other reason behind why he didn't want to mingle.
"Then do you mind if I hang with you while you finish your breakfast?"
Helia shrugged but he couldn't help but smile. High school hadn't been pleasant so far and sitting with someone as friendly as Nabu gave him a warm feeling inside. It was nice.
"So, uh, what does a vegan diet taste like? If you don't mind me asking?"
Helia's smile broadened. He lifted his plate to offer it. "You can try some if you want."
"Are you sure? I mean, Red Fountain doesn't cater for it so that is all you have."
"It's fine. I think it's great to be able to share my lifestyle with open-minded people. That way, many more people would get along, maybe even as friends."
"I couldn't agree more," Nabu grinned. "But I'd still feel bad about eating some of your breakfast."
"Taking a sample of my food isn't going to starve me. Besides, I'm not usually all that hungry by recess anyway…"
The class right before recess that day was one of the single most daunting classes for Helia. Even if he did eat a high protein meat diet, he didn't think he'd ever have enough energy to get through it without feeling drained by the end. In warriorship class the students had to be decked out in the school's full battle regalia, capes and all. They lined up in two rows in the middle of the packed-earth arena like soldiers, where Helia always felt small. Not only was he one of the shorter than average boys in the class, he was by far the leanest while all around him were broad shoulders and bulging biceps. Codatorta paced along the front of the class with his hands behind his back, addressing the class in his typical strong and enthusiastic manner:
"Boys, you have done well to come this far. You have all completed your advanced tutelage in the four introductory weapon classes: sword, shield, hammer, and quarterstaff. You still have many more weapon classes to explore and many more techniques and disciplines to study but today we're putting that aside to learn a different lesson. It is one thing to know how to wield a weapon and another to apply it in a real battle. So for today, we spar!
"As you would have all learned in your theory classes, sparring is an ancient practice for honing a warrior's skills; a combination of artistry with the weapon and sportsmanship of the wielder. These are honourable duels and as such proper respect must be observed by both participants, demonstrated in abiding by the set rules and facing your opponent humbly afterwards to reconcile. Of course, Red Fountain has its own prescribed code for sparring duels and it is those sets of rules that we will be observing today. I hope you have all done your homework and read up on those guidelines because I will only summarise them briefly here as a reminder."
Codatorta only spent about a minute reminding them of the official Red Fountain sparring rules before he looked at his clipboard. "Everyone has already been assigned a weapon at random to ensure that there are equal numbers of wielders in each of the four categories," he explained. The class groaned in response, many of them hoping to be assigned to the sword. Helia silently prayed for the shield.
The teacher lifted the paper on his board to glance at the digital screen under it. "The computer will match everyone up so that everyone gets a turn at fighting against each of the weapon classes. This isn't graded – yet – but I will be watching you all closely for your strength, technique, and judgment. Alright, I'll list off the assigned weapons…"
As Codatorta listed them all off the boys were dismissed to go and collect their weapon for the class. To Helia's dismay, he did not get the shield. He was drafted with the quarterstaff. He found a space for himself and swung it around experimentally. At the very least if he was against a sword user the staff could be used defensively but against the hammer or shield it wouldn't stand much of a chance.
The sparring commenced, with the class being gathered at the side of the arena while pairs were sent out to spar one after the other. All matches were limited to a maximum of three minutes and if no outcome was decided by then it was a draw but most only lasted a few seconds with a clear winner becoming apparent almost immediately. Eventually Helia was called up for his first sparring match and gulped when he heard who his opponent was going to be. He stepped into the ring and clutched his staff defensively. Across from him, Rex sneered.
"Why hello, girly boy. Get a good breakfast?" he goaded, smacking his battle hammer into one hand menacingly. He still had the prefect's sigil marring his badge. "Or does your rabbit diet make you as timid as one too?"
Helia kept his lips shut, closing his eyes and taking deep, measured breaths, only listening to Codatorta giving instructions. The battle began. Rex charged forward with his hammer to beat him down. Helia bided his time and ducked, holding the staff close to him but out of Rex's way. The redhead missed with his swipe and overbalanced, stumbling face first into the ground. The class laughed out aloud while Helia got up. Rex growled and stood, preparing his hammer to strike again but Helia threw his quarterstaff on the ground and raised his dominant hand.
"I surrender."
Murmurs ran through the class, some of them confused, most of them mocking.
"Are you sure?" Codatorta asked. "You've got a whole three minutes and I know you're quite talented with weaponry, Helia."
"I don't want to fight," Helia answered. Some of the boys in the class snickered. It made him flinch but he tried to ignore it. "Not if I have a choice. I don't like violence; it's wrong to inflict it on people willingly."
"Technically you don't have a choice. This lesson isn't marked but sparring is a necessary component of this subject and participation in all spars is a hurdle requirement. Since warriorship is compulsory, you could fail your first year just on this."
"I… think I can live with that. Technically, I haven't forgone participation – I did participate but chose to surrender."
"No way, girly boy!" Rex exclaimed, going in for a charge with his hammer raised. "I won't let you back out!"
"REX!" Codatorta yelled, drawing his own sword and leaping into the fray but he would be too late to stop Rex from smashing Helia.
Helia stared at Rex's figure, almost larger than life from his vantage point, wide-eyed in fear, both of the impending strike and the familiar feel of rumbling beneath his feet. "No!"
A huge pillar of earth and stone shot out of the ground at Helia's feet. It hit Rex in his torso and sent him arcing through the air to land heavily on his back, dropping his hammer. The class drew in a sharp breath. The closest students rushed over to him to exercise the first aid they were made to learn as part of their classes.
"I'm okay," Rex croaked, trying to wave them away. He moved to sit up but winced and fell back down again. Definitely a cracked or broken rib or two, perhaps some internal bleeding, was the diagnosis from the two boys kneeling beside him.
"Good," Codatorta said in acknowledgement of the boys' skills. "You just keep making him comfortable, you," he pointed to a random student standing around and not doing anything, "fetch a stretcher so these boys can take him to the medical bay." While the student was doing that, the teacher turned to Rex, ready to angrily reprimand. "Attacking an unarmed opponent and continuing a battle after your opponent has surrendered are both direct violations of the Red Fountain Sparring Code! You can be sure there will be disciplinary actions taken for this after you've recovered."
He shot magic at Rex's badge, a golden teacher's sigil joining the prefect's. "That's a prefect strike and a teacher strike. You'll have to report directly to the deputy headmaster."
The class slightly crowded the wounded boy. Helia made his way through the crowd, noticing how they stepped out of his way as soon as they saw him. Rex glared up at him in disgust.
"I'm so sorry," Helia muttered.
"There's nothing to be sorry for, boy," Codatorta assured him. "This is not your fault."
"But it is! You saw what happened! You saw what I did…" Helia looked down at the ground in shame. "I'll just… leave."
"You didn't do anything you could have prevented," Codatorta told him, firmly grasping his shoulder. "And you're not leaving, you still have the rest of class. Afterwards I would like you to stay back for a few minutes."
Helia just nodded, turning around to dejectedly pick up his staff. The rest of the class dispersed at Codatorta's order as Rex was carted away for medical attention.
At the end of the class the boys were dismissed to change out of their sweaty uniforms before recess but Helia was held back. He was nowhere near as sweaty as the others were for lack of trying. Codatorta took him to the side where they wouldn't be overheard by the boys in the showers.
"Helia, what you demonstrated back there was a magical talent," the instructor said, leaving no room for interpretation. "I didn't see that in your record. Does your grandfather know about this ability?"
"No…" Helia replied truthfully, looking down guiltily.
"What about your parents?"
"No. This is my secret. It's…" His voice cracked. "It's terrible. It's violent and destructive and I don't know what to do about it," he sobbed.
"There, there." Codatorta patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. "The first step is to let people know. We could help you with this gift."
"Gift? This is a curse!"
"That's not true. We can do something about this. If you had told the school about this from the beginning, being in the Roccaluce Trinity means that we could arrange for you to do exchange classes or correspondence with a teacher from another school. I'm sure that Headmistress Faragonda or Professor Palladium would gladly help you to get a grasp of this power."
"Or we could ask Headmistress Griffin for a curse reversal," Helia moaned.
"Look, you just think about it but I can't just let this go unreported. You understand, don't you?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Then get showered and dressed," Codatorta ordered good-naturedly, slapping Helia on the back so hard that the boy winced. "And eat something! You're as skinny as a twig."
Helia rubbed his shoulder as close as he could to where Codatorta slapped him, giving the instructor a strained grin in lieu of a response.
During lunch break Lex and Tex paid a visit to the medical bay, grinning and waving sheepishly at the sight of Rex scowling in one of the cots.
"Hey Rex," Tex said awkwardly, scratching the side of his chin. "We just came to see how you were doing."
"How does it look like I'm doing?" Rex snapped.
"The hospital's paramedics had a look at him earlier," the school nurse answered for him in an irritated tone, giving him a disapproving look. "They said it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with first aid magic but he'll need to take it easy for the next couple of days."
She ignored Rex's grumbling as she turned to leave the room and enter her private office. The paperwork one had to go through whenever there was an incident was nothing short of a nightmare. Rex crossed his arms tightly but then winced at the pressure that put on his sore ribs. He put his arms down at his side.
"The nerve of that rabbit," he hissed through clenched teeth.
"I know, right?" said Lex, rubbing the stubble of his close buzz cut. "First he surrenders and then uses magic to kick your ass." He gulped when he caught sight of the vicious glare Rex gave him.
"I bet he was trying to embarrass you," Tex added. "Getting us railed on by the prefect wasn't enough for him so he decided to mess with you in warriorship class."
Rex grunted in agreement. "It just shits me, you know? He doesn't fight and when he's forced to he has no honour in battle. Seriously! Surrendering immediately? Does he just live to humiliate people?"
"I heard a rumour that the only reason he got in is because his granddad's the headmaster."
"He doesn't uphold the ethos of this school and then he gets all of the good grades to flaunt. Someone needs to put bunny-boy back in his place. Wait!" Rex grinned wickedly. "I think I've got an idea but the nurse isn't letting me leave so I'm going to need your help."
"Oh, yeah? What is it?" Lex asked. Tex got an excited gleam in his eye as Rex gestured for them to come closer so that he could whisper his plan to them. At the end of it, Lex and Tex glanced at each other uneasily but left the infirmary to carry it out.
When the bell rang at the end of the class before lunch period Helia couldn't get out of his seat fast enough. Keeping his head down, he slipped out the door ahead of the rest of the class but the whispering behind him was only replaced with whispering in front of him and then around him as he hastened down the hall to the dormitories. At the door to his room, someone reached out and tried to talk to him. He only got the first syllable out before Helia was behind the door and shutting it in his face.
Helia dropped his bag on the floor by the door and slid down. He hung his head between his knees, thankful for the blissful silence. The door muted the sounds behind it and he didn't have a roommate. There was trembling deep in his chest, vibrating down his bones to the tips of his toes and fingers but when he lifted his head and looked at his hands they were perfectly still. Warily, he glanced around the room. It was barely perceptible but the books on the shelves were shaking and the things he had stuck to the wall with Temp Tack were rattling or fluttering quietly with the rumbling in the walls. He squeezed his hands and his eyes shut, trying to tamp it down – still the movement in his body but with every push it pushed him back even harder until the floor felt like it was shaking too. The door barrier kept gossip and whispering away but when the voices of other students rose to exclamations of alarm they still reached his ears.
He gasped as his eyelashes began to get wet and suddenly opened his eyes. Even though he'd stopped the tears coming on prematurely and the shaking had subsided a bit, the quake hadn't ceased. It came in rhythmic bursts that got steadily stronger as the cries of alarm and panicked shouts got louder. He sat up abruptly. The shuddering wasn't coming in synch with his sobs as his quakes would have. He stood up and turned to open the door.
Out in the hallway boys were running up and down, banging on friends' doors and alerting roommates. Some of them were tearing down the hall fumbling with weapons and armour or the school uniform. Helia caught a boy running past knocking on closed doors and asked:
"What's going on?"
"There's a golem in the arena!"
"A golem?"
He let the other student go and thought. A golem was already inside the school? How did nobody see it coming? Red Fountain was a fortress of heroes and knights in training, there was always someone on sentry or guard duty – that was a duty for older students. Was this a prank from a witch or… his eyes widened.
"Oh no…" he muttered, dashing out of his room and down the corridor. He weaved around students running this way and that. Some of them were smiling, yelling about how this was a chance to prove themselves. They were foolish, Helia thought. They'd never even seen a berserk golem let alone fought one; they didn't know how serious this was.
From where he began it was quickest to get to the viewing balcony above the stands for the general audience. It was where the most important guests at Red Fountain showcases were seated. Other students were running to get to the arena proper, raring to fight the beast that had appeared. Helia found his way onto the balcony and ran up to the rail, clutching it in horror as he stared at the mess below.
The stone golem was gigantic and towered above the boys before it. Its head and neck stretched out of its shoulders like a ferocious gargoyle and a single, shining purple gem poked out of its face like an eye. It roared and flecks of dust and tiny, jagged stones flew out of its jaws. Each stomp of its feet caused little quakes and sent students scattering to escape being trampled. The boys were trying to force it back to a large hole behind it, approximately where Helia's stone had risen earlier.
"This really is a curse," Helia moaned, watching with a sense of helplessness as several students were pushed away like mere petals with one mighty sweep of the golem's arm. In each hand it had a student hostage, screaming for someone to help them.
A mighty screech and a shadow passed over the arena from the wings of a dragon as Codatorta rode in. "Boys! Return to your classrooms or dormitories!" his voice boomed, amplified by magic to be heard from the sky over the entire arena. "This situation is too dangerous! The teachers and the headmaster will arrive shortly!"
"My grandfather…" Helia thought. "Codatorta has probably already told him. He'll realise that I did this."
Power rumbled in his bones. Some students tried to be brave and defied the teacher's commands while others scrambled to get away with varying degrees of success. Codatorta's dragon breathed fire over the golem but there was only so much it could do with two students in harm's way whenever it lifted its arms to defend. The rumbling in Helia's body grew more powerful as he willed it to return somewhere deep inside him.
"No, no, no," he begged himself. "Please don't make this worse."
But the power didn't obey and it flooded his entire being so much that it began to overflow onto his skin as a bright glow. It engulfed and cocooned him, holding him tight and stiff until the casing blew away. It felt so strange, like he had been scrubbed clean on the inside. He blinked and shook his head until the flashes in his eyes went away and then looked at himself. His uniform had been replaced with an outfit the colour of a lion's coat that sparkled like stars. Something delicate began to flutter against his back and his feet rose off the floor.
"Whoa… is this… did I… am I flying?"
He looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened at the sight of a small pair of wings beating fast. In his alarm, they suddenly stopped and he dropped to the floor ungracefully. He got up, using the balcony rail as an aid.
"I turned into a fairy…" he whispered, staring into space, absolutely dumbstruck. "Is this why I've always had this power? If so, why this power specifically?"
He stared at his hands like he'd been cheated but then another roar from the golem vibrated the air. Most of the students who weren't stupid had already cleared the arena and those who were left were starting to attempt to do the same. Codatorta's dragon rammed the golem in the back, knocking off one arm. Its eye glowed brighter and before the arm even hit the ground it rose and reconnected with the golem, held by the force of magic. Another dragon with longer whiskers and some white and silver scales among its shiny blue ones flew onto the scene. Helia's eyes widened as he recognised the steed even before he could get a good look at the old man riding him: the headmaster.
Saladin raised his staff and fired his magic but not as a beam as Helia expected. The magic coming from the dragon staff's eyes took the form of a hand and reached for the gem in its face. The golem batted the arm away but the magic then changed form, wrapping around the golem's arm and exploding. The forearm fell but like its other arm, it merely rose back into place. Saladin tried again but this time a force field shot up around the gem, protecting it from attack.
"That gem is an animatrix!" Helia gasped. He'd heard about such things, having such an esteemed grandfather (and an esteemed family generally). They weren't uncommon nor were they typically dangerous on their own. Something must have gone horribly awry in the creation of this golem.
"I'm partially responsible for this so I should help," Helia told himself. "Come on, wings! Help me fly. There might be at least one good thing I can do with this stupid power."
Just by him wanting to fly, his wings fluttered again and took his feet off the floor. He was a little unsteady on direction but found that it was rather like riding a wind rider – it was mostly down to weight control, which made going down easy but going up hard. In any case, he could figure out the finer points of fairy flying some other time. Right now he needed to get closer to the battle. He flew off the balcony and down to the battlefield, coming up next to Saladin.
"Grandfather!" he called out. He'd spent enough time with the old man that he'd know his grandson by voice alone.
Saladin turned to him, ready to reprimand his grandson but his eyes widened at the sight. "Helia? What in the worlds…?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure myself but let me fix this."
"No! This is too dangerous. I don't know what these foolish boys did to the animatrix to create such a terrible golem but this is no fight for mere students."
Helia blinked. "Wait, did grandfather just imply that this wasn't my fault? But I…"
He didn't finish that thought before Saladin's dragon screeched and beat his old wings. He swerved so quickly it even surprised his rider. Helia looked up. The golem's arm was only a split second away from bearing down. He threw a hand up, for the first time willing his magic to come to him. With it, he grabbed a hold of the stone and pushed back. The arm held suspended above him but it was still pushing down. He added his other hand, channelling magic through both arms at once. It pushed the arm back at first but the golem began to gain ground again. With dismay, Helia relented to the idea that the only way to protect himself was to damage it.
He cracked the wrist in half above him. Its hand fell, zooming close beside him, as did the panicked screams of the student it had held captive. Just like all of its other body parts, it simply returned to where it belonged. Helia huffed in frustration. There would be no end at this rate. The animatrix kept putting up a force field every time someone tried to remove it.
"Wait…" he mused, squinting at the gem thoughtfully. "Perhaps if instead of trying to displace it, I just try to displace everything around it…"
He flew to higher airspace that would be more difficult for the golem to attack and spread his arms, calling all of the power that rumbled within him to the outside. But this time he had a target for it. The effort it took to reign in the power and concentrate it on the golem was like trying to shift one ton boulders and Helia could barely bench-press his own weight. He began to sweat. The golem's body shook violently. Large fissures appeared on its body, tearing open violently with loud cracks and bursts of dust. As the pieces fell away Helia grabbed onto them with his magic, holding them in place.
The golem's head split in half. Sensing the danger the animatrix threw up its force field but it was suspended alone as Helia winched the pieces apart. Saladin's magic hand grabbed it around the shield and then melted to mould itself completely around it. The headmaster's stronger magic dissolved whatever power was fuelling the gem and its defences fell. It was now under his command. Saladin clicked his fingers and the gem deactivated.
Loud cheering erupted from the small crowd that was still around to watch. Helia thought he heard someone saying something that had his name in it somewhere but he was still concentrating hard on keeping his magic working. It was almost over. All he had to do was let all of this rock down gently to ensure everyone's safety.
Something snapped inside him and he suddenly went weak. His wings weren't holding him up anymore but he couldn't summon his power back. The world was fading to black but he felt an impact and warm scales and the beat of a dragon's wings close by.
He woke up and moaned. He looked around at the familiar layout and decorations throughout his room and then turned over to face the clock. His eyes widened. It was almost midday! He was late for school! He tried to get up but his head pounded and he flopped back down again.
"Great! You're awake!"
Helia groaned in response and turned to the upbeat voice. The deputy headmaster and his grandfather were in his dorm room. Saladin had taken a seat on his desk chair while the deputy headmaster was standing over him excitedly. It was him who had spoken.
"It's almost been a full day. The nurse treated you and said to call her back if it took longer than that for you to recover but I suppose we won't be needing to do that now, will we?"
"I guess not," Helia replied to the overly chipper deputy and turned to his grandfather. The old man was smiling gently, which only discouraged Helia further. "I'm sorry. Yesterday wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me."
"Perhaps not but you're not the one to blame," Saladin said wisely, taking the animatrix out of his pocket and studying it.
"What do you mean?" Helia asked, sitting up slowly even though his head hurt and his muscles were as wobbly as jelly. "I created that thing during warriorship class. It was an accident but it was still by my hand."
Saladin chuckled. "If you're going to use such roundabout logic, then you might as well blame us for not deconstructing your magic work sooner. While you did lift the bedrock from under the school – an incredible feat, I must say – you did not create the golem. It was those two boys it managed to capture."
"Lex and Tex, I believe," the deputy headmaster added. He smiled reassuringly at Helia. "You can be sure there's going to be a round of expulsions. Not just for them, it turns out that another student was involved with this scheme as well. It seems the plan was to cause trouble by bringing that monolith you summoned to life with an animatrix they stole from the school's stores. Then they were going to blame you for the resulting chaos but I don't think they expected things to turn out like this."
"These animatrixes are used by the school to bring training dummies to life," Saladin explained. "In an exercise we use for the third year students and the dummies are easily defeated by simply removing the animatrix. I was surprised to see that this one resisted but when Codatorta gave me the full story about what happened in warriorship I began to understand how this situation got so out of control."
He paused. His brow creased in a way that Helia knew meant things were not okay, even if he wasn't being blamed for the golem. "Your magic was still woven into the monolith and the bedrock beneath it, magic that was created out of fear and in your own defence. That magic mixed with the programming of the animatrix, causing it to do what you had originally commanded: protect itself at any cost. But it was the fear that was the truly dangerous ingredient. Without a mind for it to know what to fear the animatrix simply embodied fear and used the very powerful magic you'd left in the bedrock to protect itself from everything it feared, which was everything."
"This doesn't happen in class," the deputy clarified, "since the dummies aren't infused with any magic before the animatrix is applied."
"So you see, it's not your fault that all of this happened. What I don't understand is why you didn't tell us about this power of yours and the trouble you were having with controlling it. We're family, Helia. And the teachers here would have gladly done anything to help you. Though it is much more common for girls, being a fairy is a rare gift yet it doesn't come easily for everyone. The first thing to do about it is to speak to us."
Helia shook his head and pushed his bedsheets aside. "You don't get it, grandfather. This power suited me ill. I tried so many things to be able to reconcile with it and every single time I would just end up destroying things and causing harm. That's all this magic in me is good for, it seems. It's evil stuff."
"That isn't true and you know it," Saladin boomed, standing up and slamming end of his staff on the floor with a loud bang. "Magic itself cannot be evil. The people who wield it can be evil, the spells it is woven into can be evil but magical power itself has no alignment. That's why you should have told the school and your family about these powers of yours. This gift can be moulded to do the deeds you want to do but only if you train and understand it."
"That's always your answer to everything!" Helia retorted, throwing his hands up in exasperation. He got out of bed and strode over to his cupboard. "Train! Study! If that doesn't work? Train harder! Study more! You think only like a warrior with that one-track mind and doing the same thing over and over just makes you repeat the same mistakes. I've already done all that I know I can. I did extra study about all forms of magic and control techniques to try to get a handle on this magic but it didn't work. Anything I do that accesses it will just end with destruction."
"And in your self-study did it occur to you that you may have been born with the gift of a fairy's power?"
Helia pursed his lips and threw his cupboard doors open harder than necessary. It hadn't but he was on a roll and too angry to admit his fault. He took his suitcase down from the top shelf and dumped it on his bed, unzipping it.
"And what are you doing now?" Saladin demanded. The deputy headmaster had started to back away awkwardly.
"I'm packing my things. This school isn't any good for me. I told you and I told my parents several times that I would not be a warrior like you or them. I don't want to live the life of violence, of breaking and killing. Incidentally, that's all my power seems to be good for and if I let you train me that's what you'd teach me to use my power for. Because that's what this school is about—it's about fighting! Fighting, fighting, hurting and fighting! I don't want to do this! I don't want to be that kind of person. So I'm going to leave. I'm going to do what I want to do for a change, go where I want to go and be who I want to be and stop following in these horrid footprints that you and my parents have left for me to fill."
Tense silence filled the room. Saladin stared at him stonily yet there were cracks in his façade that were threatening to let his feelings on the matter explode into the open. Helia braced himself for it, matching that look with his defiant glare. Instead Saladin sighed and deflated. He hung his head in resignation.
"Very well, then," he said, picking up his staff and trudging to the door where the deputy headmaster had been just about to make a cautious escape. "You follow your own path."
The deputy headmaster opened the door ahead of him and then followed him out, shutting Helia's door behind him. The halls were empty as all of the students were in class at this time so the two men started to make their way to their offices unimpeded.
"Saladin, do you think this is wise?" the deputy asked curiously and without accusation. "His magic is evidently very powerful. He may inadvertently cause more trouble along this path of inactivity than he prevents."
"He may or he may not," Saladin shrugged. "But perhaps I was wrong. Still, a part of the journey of life is being your own man and carving a path that is uniquely your own is a mark of a great person, whether they be good or bad. In creating that path we must all be free to forge our own successes and make our own mistakes."
They exited the dormitory onto a terrace. Saladin looked out to the forests surrounding Lake Roccaluce, with Alfea daintily perched low in the east and Cloud Tower spiralling ominously to the sky in the west.
"I'm sure that Helia will find the right direction for him eventually." He sighed heavily and continued on his way.
A/N: Um? I'm pretty sure that this is too open-ended for a one-shot? Although, this is supposed to be an origin story, implying later character development (this statement implying that I probably won't write more on this... at least not in the near future). The deputy headmaster has no name because I don't know who he is. Does anybody know who he is? Do Saladin and Codatorta know who he is? Does he even exist? I'm almost certain that nobody has actually been officially named the deputy headmaster of Red Fountain but as far as admin goes there most certainly should be one.
Also note that I'm pretty sure that "animatrix" isn't a real item in Winx Club but it's a thing here now. No relation or correlation to 'The Animatrix' animated prologues of The Matrix. At all.
If you think it was cool/lame/meh, drop me a review! :3