Edit: Rewritten in July 2019; updated to match current chapter length, elaborated more on various parts of the story, added some Chekhov's Gun elements for later. No new content was added besides that.

Enjoy the story.


Lilliana walked slowly, almost lingering behind the other four girls save Tiara, as they trekked through the jungle, trying to locate where Raven had gone. Well, they were trying, but they were all walking in the same direction, and it wasn't just because Maho was leading them that way — something was telling them all to go that way, and they knew it was right, somehow. The dark blue-haired girl herself could see the signs in the wildlife around them, flowers that had grown on vines facing the direction they were walking in, fallen leaves on the ground with their ends pointed in the direction... She picked a fallen leaf from atop her pink beret and twirled it in her hands before she tossed it a few meters in front of her, letting it flutter softly to the ground.

It fell, the pointed end pointing right in front. A sign that they were going the right way.

Lilliana wished she had worn a shirt and pants instead of her favourite floral dress, though — as much as she loved this dress and it was appropriate for most functions, it wasn't suitable for walking through forests in. Then again, her pink pumps were a bad idea as well, even though their heel was relatively low compared to the ones her mother wore for court. Even so, though, she wasn't the last one — she was walking in front of Tiara, who was huffing and puffing and trying to catch up, while Harmony kept stopping to make sure neither she nor Lilliana got lost when she, Maho and Naida forged ahead. It had the chain effect of having Naida slow down to keep them in her line of sight, and Maho stopped as well when she realised she was leaving them behind.

How Maho's white attire was completely unmarred even as they walked through wet muddy ground, Lilliana didn't know.

But regardless of that, Lilliana hoped that they would be able to get back to Alfea College before their parents realised that something was amiss and that Maho would teach all of them whatever miraculous cleaning charm she was using because no cleaning charm Lilliana had been taught was that effective. She didn't want to know what would happen if her parents found out that she had run off into the forest with the other children of the original six members of the famed Winx Club. Well, actually, she already knew what would happen, and she really didn't want to have to see it through again.

Her mother — who was undoubtedly a lovely person, was also insanely strict when it came to her safety — would place her under temporary house arrest for one more year until she was old enough to attend Alfea full time, and then, her father would arrange for one of the palace guards to follow her around at all times until she went to Alfea. Being the Grand Duke and Duchess of Linphea had immense benefits that came with it — her father also directed the Linphean Royal Guard and her mother was the Queen's right-hand lady in all political matters, but that was secondary to their granted position — so she was already more than well-protected in and around Linphean borders, but that protection didn't extend to areas outside of her home planet. If she got hurt, it was safe to say that her parents would take on rather extreme measures to keep her safe.

She appreciated her parents' care for her, but that wasn't to say that it couldn't be a little smothering at times, because it was, and Lilliana wondered why her parents were so overprotective.

At any rate, Maho had continued taking the lead as she strode through the forest, stepping elegantly over protruding roots as they hunted down Raven's presence within the forest. Her shoulder-length silver hair and primarily white attire made her stand out in the greenery of the forest, which also led to her being very easy to keep track of as long as she wasn't going too far away, so Lilliana wasn't afraid of losing track of her.

Behind her was Naida, who was actively pushing her way through bushes in search for Raven, though it was clearly futile. Then, she stopped and hushed the rest of the girls, holding a hand up in the air and a finger up to her lips. "Listen," she started immediately. "Do you hear that sound? I think I'm hearing... breaking glass? Okay, hush for a moment and listen." She fell silent after, and lo and behold, there immediately followed up with the sound of what seemed to be a pane of glass shattering when a rock was flung at it, the crisp sound breaking the natural forest silence.

"Hey, get back here, you little pixie!" shouted a female voice, and immediately after, it was followed up by sounds of shattering glass overlapping with snapping tree branches, making Lilliana cringe. It was followed up by two more voices — also female — shouting something unintelligible over the sounds of explosions, breaking branches and shattering glass.

Lilliana strained her ears to try and pick up the rest of the conversation, pulling a leaf off an overhanging vine and tossing it to the ground to see where she should be looking at. Seeing an altered direction, she immediately frowned and continued to listen, trying to pick out voices from the din of the fight nearby. She gingerly tried to take a step forward to close the distance and help her hear better, but a rustling sound stopped her in her tracks. Almost as if in slow motion, she saw a flower droop downwards, and she tried not to yelp as she immediately dropped onto the ground, just in time to avoid a shard of glass that flew out from the bushes and right at her.

The glass shard skimmed the top of her beret and shattered against the bark of a tree and Lilliana squeaked as she covered her head, her beret sliding down further over her eyes as if that would protect her from further projectiles if she couldn't see them. She heard more rustling and the dark blue-haired girl just flattened herself on the forest floor as well as she could, not caring if her floral dress got dirty — considering the accumulated dirt on the forest ground, it would anyway — and she could think about how to hide this from her parents later. Right now, her primary consideration was on how to make herself as small of a target as possible to avoid getting hurt.

"Incoming!" Harmony exclaimed. "Everyone hit the deck!" The petite girl quickly tumbled onto the ground, pulling down Tiara with her, just in the nick of time to avoid a barrage of glass and stones that shot out from the greenery. A dried leaf had somehow gotten into one of her pigtails and a twig stuck out of another, but Lilliana doubted anyone cared right now about what state their hair was in.

All the dirt that had gotten onto them would no doubt be a clue to their parents that they had gone into the forest, or at least, that they had left Alfea, but saving their hide was the main priority right now. As long as they were physically intact, they could find a way to clean off their clothes so they were less conspicuous. Maybe Maho could teach them whatever charm she was using to keep her white clothes pristine.

With all five of the girls stomach-first on the ground, they managed to avoid the projectiles that were escaping the greenery and smashing into the trees behind them. More shards of glass were fired through the thick cover of the trees — the poor things were suffering irreparable damage to their trunks from the sharp edges — and the group was appropriately alarmed when a large shard shot right over Tiara's head and landed in the ground barely a few finger-widths from her ankle. Glass exploded outwards in their direction, and all around, the loud bangs of explosions masked the crisp sound of shattering glass. Just as Lilliana raised her head timidly to see if it was over, a rock shot out from the trees and nearly smashed right into her face, between her eyes.

Naida's hand shot right out, snatching the fist-sized rock from the air and tossing it back down towards the floor. She immediately drew in a breath through grit teeth, flexing her wrist a little like she was trying to shake off the pain from the projectile. "Oh, that hurt," she mumbled. "It's going to leave a mark for sure. You okay, Lilliana?" she asked as she carefully flexed her fingers, staring down at her hand. Even though her skin was quite dark, as was the case for most of the Androsi population due to their beach biomes, a dark blue and purple bruise could be seen outlined on her palm from the force of the rock's impact. "Oh, ow."

Lilliana just paled further and nodded quietly in response to Naida's question, thankful for the save. "Y-yes," she stammered quietly, staring at the other girl's bruising hand. "I'm fine, just a little, um, a little shaken. Thank you for that... are you... are you alright?" she asked timidly in a soft voice, making a slight gesture towards Naida's hand. She kept her head low, just in case more stones came flying their way — it would just hit her head instead of her face.

Before the dark blue-haired Linphean could get a response, though, Maho cut in with her louder — and certainly more regal and intimidating — voice as she pushed herself up. "That's it," she said sharply, her blue eyes narrowed as she brushed off invisible dust from her star and moon-patterned clothing — which, mind you, was still eerily pristine white and blue — and removed something from her hand. "I'll deal with this." The Solarian tossed what she had taken from her hand, likely a ring, up into the air, a faint silver glow encasing it and dropping a stave in her hand, with a long light blue shaft and a silver crescent moon at the top. "Stay here, stay safe," she instructed.

The girls nodded, and then from the forest, the female voice they'd first head suddenly roared out, "Gotcha, you little pixie! You're done for now! Take this!"

A sound of alarm — somewhere between a cry of surprise and a choked back scream — was then heard, and Lilliana knew that Raven was in trouble. She cringed when she heard the sound of something heavy hitting a tree, followed by glass shards shattering against the tree trunk, rustling the leaves of the tree and dropping several leaves, all of which pointed at the bushes. Oh, poor thing, that has to hurt, she thought to herself, and then she realised that Raven was right there in front of them, and she looked over at Maho, who already seemed to have gotten the message as well.

"Guess we've found her," the silver-haired Solarian commented. She took her sunglasses off the top of her head, folding them and tucking them into her pocket. She ran a hand through her shoulder-length hair and tossed it over her shoulder as she began to move into the woods, light on her feet and looking completely in control of the situation. "If someone attacks you, turn and run straight back to Alfea," she added as she was just about to walk through the bushes. "Don't do anything foolish."

"O-oh, be careful!" Lilliana called out after the Solarian princess, wanting to make sure the older girl got the point as well that even if she could handle whatever it was in the forest, she needed to take caution as well. She was certain that the attackers weren't going to be nice to Maho either, and that it was a seriously bad idea to attack, especially if Maho was outnumbered, judging from the sounds she heard. Maybe if she herself had paid a bit more attention when her mother had been teaching her about ways to control her powers, she would have already learnt to transform into her first fairy form, but that was too late already.

The dark-haired girl just sighed, lying on her stomach on the forest ground as her long hair slid over her face and hid her eyes. "Oh, I just hope we don't get into too much trouble once this is over," she whispered.

"I just hope we make it out in one piece," Naida said softly. "You think Maho's going to be able to handle it?"

"She's confident," Harmony said, raising her head enough to look all of the others in the eye, "and dad says that 'if you're not all that, then fake it 'til you make it'." She drummed her fingers on the ground, managing a weak smile. "I hope she's got it."

"Then let's cross our fingers and hope," Tiara said, peering up uneasily at the bushes. She inhaled, and puffed out her cheeks as she stared at the bushes — no projectiles were flying anywhere at the moment, thankfully. "Cause even if she doesn't, we're going to need that hope."

The girls all looked at each other and just sighed, almost in unison, as they proceeded to duck their heads, as none of the four felt like they wanted to get hit by any flying projectiles that could come.


Maho took off into the clearing, the Moon Stave in hand as she burst through the thick greenery of bushes and trees. She was greeted with the sight of three girls in pointed, wide-brimmed hats, one of them holding up a glass shard that she was about to throw at Raven, who had gotten herself onto one of the trees in what Maho could only suspect was an attempt to get herself away. The Solarian girl's mind immediately locked onto the three girls and their ridiculous hats — stereotypical Earth witch hats, she realised — and she raised her stave threateningly. "Hey, you witches!" she yelled at them, drawing their attention away from her.

One of the trio, the blonde holding the glass shards, looked at her with watery green eyes. Her messy dirty blonde hair was frizzed and tangled under the brim of the black hat as she tipped the hat back. "What's this, girls? Another pixie for us to play with?" She raised her hand and waved it in the air, creating a plane of glass in the air that shattered into shards behind her with a snap of her fingers. Pointing at the silver-haired princess, she swept her arm towards Maho, shouting, "Die, pixie!"

Maho's blue eyes widened as she raised her weapon into the air on reflex, twirling the shaft to use it as a bat. She batted away the shards of glass that got too close to her, redirecting them into the ground and preventing them from getting past her. "Hey!" she retorted, narrowing her eyes. She was no pixie! Spinning the Moon Stave in her hand, the princess held it up and yelled, "Maho Magic Winx!" Using the words as a focus just like her mother had taught her too, the fairy concentrated her power and let the magic of the Moon Stave wash over her as she instinctively shut her eyes.

Silver light enveloped the fairy in ribbons of light, drawing on the power of the full moon at midnight to transform her. The princess raised both of her hands, crossing her wrists, and the shining rays of the moonlight wrapped around her forearms, forming into her wristbands. Leaning back, the girl kicked a leg up into the air, slender streams of softly glowing moonlight curled around her legs, wrapping around and pulling taut before bursting into her boots. Her shoulder-length silver hair pulled itself up, twisting into a high ponytail with a wrapped tube tie, and Maho smirked confidently as she dropping into a self-assured pose, holding her stave out as her wings fluttered lightly. The magic around her dispersed, and she announced, "Maho, Fairy of the Moon!"

Her clothes had changed into the simplistic fairy attire, replacing her blue and white ensemble with a glittering silver outfit. She was clad in a one-shoulder crop top with the strap bearing a braided pattern, going over her right shoulder, and a pair of matching mini-shorts and her white knee-high boots were now a sparkling silver as well. Her ponytailed hair was held in place by a white tube tie, and around her forearms, she wore two light blue cuff-like bands that faintly sparkled. Her wings were a light powder blue, tipped off by a lovely silver that matched the rest of her ensemble. Her entire outfit was reminiscent of that of her mother's, even down to her wings.

"Oh, look what we have here, girls," the blonde of the three fashion disasters sneered, her hands on her hips as she looked at Maho with narrowed eyes. She bared a sly smile at the fairy, tilting her head slightly as she looked down her nose at Maho. "This little pixie's here to save her friend, and she thinks that she can intimidate us with a sparkly transformation! How about we show her what for, girls?" It was received with a cheer by the other two girls, and the blonde continued, "What do we do with pixies, girls?"

"We tear them apart!" the second cheered enthusiastically, her magenta-streaked green ponytail bouncing eagerly in the air as she bounced on the balls of her feet. She raised her hand, covered in a neon pink glove that reached all the way up to her upper arms. Three branches, broken off and fallen to the ground, were quickly encased in a bright pink glow, and all the twigs they had on them were stripped off to form sharp points, and they hovered in the air, poised to strike out at Maho.

The third, a redhead with disastrously exaggerated electric blue makeup on her face, cheered in agreement. "Yeah! Let's get on it, girls!" Her face, covered in unsightly acne, was twisted into an ugly sneer as she balled her hands into fists, glowing with heat as she raised her hands into a boxing stance. "Let's show this little pixie what for!"

Maho grimaced at the terrible colour coordination they had, as well as the horrific idea of putting makeup on already sensitive skin. "Ugh, ew," she muttered to herself. "Learn some self-care spells before you try to attack people, honestly." Her hands gripped her stave more firmly and she held it in front of her, pointing the crescent towards the three of them. "Well, it's time to let you go. Go away and run from me in fear, that is. I'll show you girls what for." Silver energy gathered at the crescent moon at the top of the stave, growing and pulsing with power. Spinning the Moon Stave around in her hand, she slashed the stave down at the three witches and blasted them with the silver energy, shouting out, "Crescent Beam!"

The blonde raised a glass shard to deflect it, but when the shard was vaporised by the energy blast, she paled and scrambled out of the way even as the second girl tried levitating branches and felled trees to protect her and her companions. The energy blast vaporised everything in its path before slamming into another tree, burning a hole into it. "Oh, dear Dragon!" the blonde gasped. "Suzie, get Debbie behind you!" she ordered, her green eyes wide. "We need cover, stat!

The redhead, Suzie, pushed the magenta and green-haired girl, Debbie, behind her. "On it, Irene!" She raised her hands up into the air and blasted the ground, kicking up a storm of dust that was quickly parted by another blast by Maho. But as the dust cloud began to settle, the sound of hasty footsteps indicated that they were beginning to flee away to prevent them from getting hurt by another blast of energy from the fairy.

"We're going to be back, pixie!" Irene yelled out, but when the dust completely settled, they had run away and fled completely into the forest, leaving no trace.

Maho huffed, a little disappointed. She had thought that witches would have been more of a challenge, but she was also glad that they'd run in the other direction so the other girls were alright. She released her transformation in a shower of silver light and replaced her sunglasses on the bridge of her nose. Walking over to Raven, she held a hand out to the strawberry blonde as the black-clad girl began to scale her way down the tree she was on. "You alright?" she asked critically, eyeing the girl from behind her dark glasses.

Raven didn't take her hand, sliding down the rest of the trunk and landing on the ground in a crouch. She straightened, dusting off her jacket, and pulled the hood of her jacket up over her head as she eyed Maho down. "I'm fine," she replied snappily, her voice terse and her eyes untrusting. "You certainly took your own sweet time getting here, huh?"

The silver-haired princess just scowled at the girl. "I saved your behind from those nutjobs," she retorted, returning the Moon Stave into a ring and slipping it onto her finger again. "You could have died if they had been more accurate. Appreciate that I even arrived at all rather than complain that I didn't come earlier. You didn't exactly give me any trail to follow either," she argued, pointing at the younger girl's head in a harshly accusatory manner. She didn't appreciate the tone the girl had taken with her.

The strawberry blonde shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket, standing her ground. "I do," she replied curtly. "Thank you for saving me, princess. Or should I call you 'Your Highness'?" The sardonic tone that had entered her voice was just an undertone, but Maho picked up on it ever so clearly regardless. Raven blew a stray lock of hair out of her other eye. "I think it's about time we go. Your parents are going to get worried if we stay out here for too long, Your Highness." She spat the word out like it was poison in her mouth, but Maho sensed something off.

Raven seemed like she hated the words related to royalty and parentage more than she hated Maho. The words 'princess', 'your highness' and 'parents' in particular drew most of her ire like they had killed someone close to her. It was an intriguing mystery to unpack — or rather, it would be if Maho wasn't still rather infuriated at how little Raven seemed to appreciate being saved at all.

Watching as Raven began to walk back in the direction she'd just come from, Maho narrowed her blue eyes behind her sunglasses as she stared hard at the other girl. Nonetheless, she walked off behind her. What's wrong with her, for the Dragon's sake? That's a mystery I don't want to unpack at all. The silver-haired girl began the trip back to Alfea, already casting her cleaning charm on her clothing again.

Now all she had to do was convince her parents that she and the others hadn't left Alfea at all and everything would be peachy.


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