Disclaimer: I do not own Winx Club. I do not profit from this work in any way, as it is only written for entertainment purposes.

Prologue: The Times We've Left Behind

They were scattered and broken, after only a single spell. A single fairy looked around herself, searching for even a hint of one of her allies. In the whirlwind of confusion her mind wandered. Am I still alive? Are the others? How could one being possess such great power? All she could see were the ruins of the city she was sworn to protect, and a ring of flame which trapped her.

Beneath a red and black sky, yet there was nary a cloud in sight. The air was filled with the screams of the living, and the dead. The lone fairy stood, and stepped through the fires. Underfoot were the bodies of unusual creatures, made of shining darkness, lacking skin, appearing as bones held together by tenuous sinew. They took many shapes; of animals or men, but there was a lifeless glow to their eyes, and in the end, they were nothing but crude imitations of nature.

The fairy looked down upon the bodies, and observed the wounds which had ended their false existence. One was shredded to pieces. Another was charred and melted. One had its skull crushed. She recognized them as the monsters which were felled by her friends. But where were they now? Could they really have been sent so far away? She steeled her nerves, and ran down the streets. On her way, she passed by those people who she had failed; the ones to whom she made a promise she couldn't keep. She fought against tears and continued to run.

As hopelessness grew in her heart, she yearned more and more to see a familiar face.

Her wish was granted.

It was the last face she had wanted to see. She fell back when she was confronted, and tried to crawl away. As if to mock her, the person spoke.

"Tell me friend, how did it come to this?"

A rather petite girl, with long, straight peach-blonde hair that curled up at the tips, fair skin, and fiery brown eyes was sitting at the base of a strong tree trunk, with a small box in her hands. The box was elegantly designed, and appeared to have been made of bright blue suede. With her, were two other girls, each holding an identical box. One girl had long mahogany red hair, lightly tanned skin, and pale blue eyes. The other had short black hair, green eyes, and light olive skin.

"Alfie... when can we open these?" The blonde girl asked, as she looked over to the black-haired girl.

"Right now," Alfea, the black-haired girl replied, with a wide smile on her face. The other two girls opened their boxes, and inside of each, there was a gold necklace. The mouths of the two girls were agape at the splendour.

"These are really something," The mahogany-haired girl said.

"I'm glad you like it Ekini," Alfea replied. "Mirsia, try yours on. I know your neck is smaller than mine, but I want to see if the size I asked for was too small."

The blonde haired girl, Mirsia, eagerly placed the necklace around her head, and slipped it on. "It's perfect!" She exclaimed. She lifted the trinket at the end of the chain up, and stared at it. It was a small golden heart, with a bright yellow jewel in the centre.

"Hey, mine's a dragon," the mahogany-haired girl, Ekini, remarked. The trinket was a flat serpentine dragon, with a red jewel for an eye. "Nice touch."

"And mine is a rainbow," Alfea said, as she showed the trinket off to the other girls. In the centre, there was a bright blue gem. "I got these custom-made, so there aren't any others in the entire universe. Don't lose them!"

"We won't," Mirsia said reassuringly.

"Good," Alfea said. "I got them because... I'm going away soon. I'll still be here on Magix, but I won't get to see you a lot. Think of it as a going away present."

"I'm going back to Domino in a while too," Ekini said bitterly. "I'll be back next year, but it's still miserable."

"I don't want us to forget about each other," Alfea said. The three girls pulled each other into a group hug, before saying their goodbyes.

While Ekini and Mirsia would meet again in but a short time, they would both have to wait longer, until the day they would be reunited with their third friend, Alfea.

"Cyrus." A boy slowly crawled his way over his friend, who had his face planted in the soft grass. "Cyrus... are you still alive?" He shook Cyrus from his shoulder.

"Yeah," Cyrus responded. He was a boy with black hair kept in a ponytail. His skin was rather fair, but he often found himself caked in blood and dirt. He took hold of a sword with a shattered blade, and used it to support his weight as he tried to stand. "I think we might be the only ones Lucius." The two boys had yet to reach the prime of their youth, but they had managed to survive their battle. They were surrounded by the corpses of their allies and enemies; stretching out over hundreds of yards of battlefield. "I've never seen men and monsters fight alongside each other like that before." His exposed body was covered in bite marks, and his armour had been brutalized from the cuts of blades and the force of blunt weaponry. He chuckled to himself. "In the end of days the dead will walk again..."

"...And march in the clouds with the living, alongside the Great Dragon."

The two boys managed to laugh despite their grim situation. "It's been the end of days for the last million years." Cyrus said impassively. The smiles quickly vanished when their minds returned to the present.

"It's insane." Lucius coughed out a tiny amount of blood. "I don't think we'll be any help to this war effort."

"There's something bigger behind all of this." Cyrus replied. "And I intend to find out, no matter what it takes. Even if I have to spend the rest of my life fighting." He snapped a dislocated finger back into place. If he had clenched his teeth any harder, they'd have shattered.

"I'm not sure you're thinking straight."

"Don't you want to avenge the friends you lost today?"

"Of course I do. You're right about there being something bigger here," Lucius said as he stood up. "But I don't think fighting is the answer right now."

"I see. How about this? You go and help in the 'paladin-y' way you think you'll be most useful, and I'll do what I do best." The two boys nodded at one another.

"And if we ever find the truth..."

"...We meet again, and face it."

"Author's" notes:

That's the beginning to this little prequel story. This takes place well over a thousand years before the beginning of the actual series, but far enough after the creation of the universe for there to be some relevant back story. Sadly going to have to use a lot of OCs, but I'll try to link as much to the original series as I can.

This story was originally going to be a fan comic, but I was too lazy to go through with it. Oh well. I'll be trying to do a fan comic with canon characters in the future.

This story is highly inspired by Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas. Those of you who read the manga or watched the anime will definitely see some similarities. When the original prologue chapter was posted, I was a much bigger fangirl over Lost Canvas than I am now (I still love it though). It'll be more evident in earlier chapters than later ones.