Since I haven't mentioned this before, for the sake of the story's canon and my own sanity, everything else after Season 4 is not canon to this story's timeline (since there were so many issues with the direction I was taking the story in and the unfavourable changes made to the series, as well as the fact that I haven't watched past Believix). The events of the first two 3D movies are canon, for my purposes, as well as all the transformations after Season 4, though I won't be using them. I may add references to some of the canon events, but they will be rare and few and far between. Other than that, the only things that will certainly exist in the story will be every transformation that's happened in the show's canon, but I likely won't be using most of them.
For the purposes of the fic's canon, the second movie occurs some time after Season 4 ended. Roxy is not at Alfea during the movie because it's still in the school term for Season 4, and she will start attending the next term, while Nabu has woken up between the time of the season finale and the movie. Additionally, this means that Daphne is also still dead and still has her spirit residing inside the Domino palace. And yes, she is dead in this canon, not like the Season 5 retcon where she's merely a spirit cursed to remain separate from her body. Bloom was the Crown Princess of Domino and as such, she rules Domino and Eraklyon jointly with Sky.
I'll probably have to explain more some other time, but for now, I believe that this will suffice.
Sunlight Halation: Quite certainly, but remember, Harmony is fourteen, first and foremost. Not quite the age where you'd be thinking in shades of grey, is it now? Secondly, yes, you've raised a good point, but remember, Mirta eventually became a fairy. It only solidifies the fact that Mirta probably shouldn't have been a witch in the first place. At least, that's how I imagine it going. Lilliana probably wouldn't have those thoughts, as will be demonstrated shortly, since Flora and Helia by nature are the sweetest and most accepting, but with both Musa and Riven, the hotheads of their respective groups, it's going to be a lot different.
Enjoy the story.
Lilliana had spent most of the trip from Alfea to Eraklyon in moderate silence, with special emphasis on the phrase 'moderate silence', as she'd asked the occasional question to a silent Raven, who had answered and asked them back in kind. Neither had built off each other's questions or anything that would facilitate an ongoing conversation, so even for the introverted blue-haired girl, there had been uncomfortable stretches of silence in between each of the simple, non-invading ice-breaker questions that had been asked between them. At least Lilliana had discovered that she and Raven held a few things in common, though not much that they could share, with a love for classical music being one of them.
Still, that wasn't to say that they weren't getting along, as hesitantly as the fifteen-year-old girl would apply the term to her 'relationship' to the strawberry blonde. She wasn't sure that they were friends just yet — probably not, Lilliana told herself, since she was a pretty weird girl as it was, not to mention how little Raven seemed to want friends — but Raven seemed to like her presence around.
That was a lot better than she could say about how the daughter of Aunt Bloom had treated Maho and Harmony — somewhat unfairly, of course, if the girl had a say in it, but she probably didn't now, did she? She'd continue trying to get the strawberry blonde to act a little nicer, of course, but she had a feeling that it would take some time and Lilliana wasn't sure if she had that time on hand. Going halfway on something was always likely to make sure it ended up shelved, like the half a dozen portraits she had at home, stored away in her closet.
Lilliana swore that she'd finish them one day... just not right now.
The ship touched down in the large palace courtyard belonging to the golden palace of Eraklyon's royal family, the large building glittering under the sunlight as if it were actually constructed out of gold. A short feeling of turbulence preceded the otherwise smooth landing by the pilot, the king of Eraklyon himself if they hadn't changed pilots on the flight back. A soft sound of something metallic being unfolded indicated that the landing ramp for the passengers inside the ship had been lowered to the ground to let everyone on board dismount.
Lilliana was one of the last to leave the ship, with everyone else save Naida and Raven having exited the back area of the ship to the exit as soon as they were clear to land, and as such, as she approached the ramp a few steps behind the Crown Princess of Andros, she caught the tail end of a conversation between the redheaded Queen of Erakylon and her daughter.
"—forbidden from going up to your room until the day is over or until your father and I say otherwise. Don't think you're not in trouble for that stunt you pulled back at Alfea, Raven," Aunt Bloom said sternly towards her daughter.
Raven glared almost sullenly at the woman, a silent, piercing glower that looked like the queen had just killed her cat, not literally, of course — Lilliana wasn't sure if the girl had a pet — and pursed her lips together into a thin line, her single visible eye narrowing. Her upper lip curled into a snarl and she looked as if she wanted to say something, but evidently, the strawberry blonde thought better of it, as she merely pushed her way past the veteran fairy without so much of an apology, which didn't do much for Aunt Bloom's mood.
The black-clad girl stuck out like a sore thumb among the pastel-wearing teens even as she walked past the stiff-backed Eraklyonian guards garbed in a classically charming blue and white, already looking like a witch among Specialists and fairies without even attending Cloud Tower yet.
Still, would that be so bad if she followed through on her 'threat' to her mother?
Lilliana didn't think so, really. Witches were people too, like her mother always said. Her parents had always told her that she had to treat everyone equally, even if they looked different — even if they were different. Even those who look evil can be good, Lilliana. They're not all bad people, she remembered her mother saying to her once. It was an idea that both sides of her family agreed on wholeheartedly, both her mother's side and her fathers — no one was evil just because they weren't the same.
Different is neither good nor bad, but it's certainly not the same, the dark blue-haired girl mused silently, tilting her head to a side as she followed after the strawberry blonde on her way to join the other girls. She supposed that was why she had decided to speak with the prickly girl, though not without prior engagement from Naida, who she was rapidly coming to like as well — though as Lilliana liked pretty much everyone, that wasn't saying too much. She took after her mother in that aspect, so her father liked to say.
As she caught up with the group of girls at the entrance to Eraklyon's grand palace, she overheard a few snippets of a conversation between the children of the Winx Club on what to do now that they had arrived at their destination. Lilliana drew closer to the group of girls somewhat shyly, her dark green eyes darting over to their parents first, who were standing together at the French double doors that led inside the golden palace. She watched her father leave with the other men in the group along with the king, engrossed in some sort of discussion that she couldn't hear, while the Winx Club's six members stayed where they were, near their daughters.
"Girls, if you want to explore the towns outside or the castle, you can do so at your own leisure," Aunt Bloom was saying when Lilliana slowed to a stop next to Naida, "but please do take some guards with you just in case if you decide to go out into the town. Safety precautions, I'm sure you all understand, girls. Am I clear?"
Aunt Stella stepped forward and rested a slender hand on her best friend's shoulder. "That'll just draw more attention to them, B," the blonde queen of Solaria interjected. "Maho's only made her public appearances on Solaria and I've made sure not to let pictures out, and you know royal policy — no public appearances until their sixteen birthday. They can go incognito. I'm sure nothing is going to happen." The blonde interrupted again as soon as the redhead turned around to speak up, saying, "And I'm very certain that our girls can protect themselves even if they encounter any trouble."
Lilliana's own mother nodded in agreement despite only being nobility. She hadn't let Lilliana anywhere out in public officially either. "Stella's right, Bloom," she said gently and convincingly. "I'm sure that nothing is going to happen. If people catch sight of the Erakylon Royal Guard, the Solarian Sun Guard or even my own Rose Knights shadowing a group of young teen girls, it'll cause a scandal at best."
The other members of the Winx Club voiced their agreement with the Queen of Solaria and Linphea's Grand Duchess before Aunt Bloom sighed, giving in. "Alright," she relented, her tense form relaxing just a smidge, "but be sure to return back to the palace before the sun sets, girls, and if there's trouble, all of you run straight back to the palace, immediately, am I clear?" she said sternly, her voice making it clear that she would brook no argument. There was little question on why this woman had become the leader of the Winx Club, and to this day, even without the Dragon's Flame inside her, was still one of the most powerful and feared women in the entirety of Magix.
Maho tossed her shoulder-length silver hair over her shoulder, a feat that Lilliana thought was quite impressive seeing as her hair was barely long enough to pull the action off. "You don't have to worry, Aunt Bloom," she said confidently, raising her sunglasses and resting them on her head so that everyone could see her sapphire blue eyes. A small smile pulled at the corners of her lips. "I'll be sure to keep an eye out for trouble. You can count on me." As the oldest in the group, it seemed as if she was automatically falling into the role of the girls' leader, unlike the Solarian Princess' mother. The confidence that Maho exuded in waves certainly helped with her natural aura of leadership, too.
Aunt Stella gently patted her daughter on the shoulder and turned to loop an arm around Aunt Bloom's shoulders, leading her best friend inside the Eraklyon royal palace while striking up an enthusiastic conversation about something fashion-related with the entirely of the Winx Club, her high soprano voice easy to hear even as the women made their way inside after their husbands had long gone through the French double doors.
"So, we're visiting the town then?" Tiara asked once the Winx Club was out of their line of sight. She smoothed a hand through her orange-brown hair, pushing her bangs out of the way of her cyan eyes. Bouncing on her heels, the girl was already exchanging glances and excited grins with Harmony, who was next to her and looked equally as excited to be there. "Ooh, this is going to be so much fun! I need to get something for 'ssandra too," she said with a beaming smile.
Naida was beaming too as she let her pixie flutter over to her head from her cupped hands. "I think that's a great idea," she agreed readily, grinning at the statement. "I've never been to Eraklyon before, and if we end up coming here again, we'll probably be seeing a lot of the palace then. Besides, we'll be back later on, so plenty of time to explore!" She made a gesture toward the doors to the entrance of the palace, then made a sweeping gesture towards the gates leading to the town nearby. "So why no go and see everything else while we can?"
The girls didn't seem to want to argue with that logic, and free of guards — much to Lilliana's relief, that included the helicopter-like Linphean Rose Knights, her parents' personal security detail that had nearly suffocated her since her childhood — they set off into the town that surrounded Eraklyon's golden palace, slipping out unnoticed by everyone in the town and effortlessly joining the people in the crowd.
They were walking along the streets of a busy shopping area before too long. Maho had taken up the front of the group, looking around and window-shopping, while Raven and Lilliana were lagging behind. The others were varied in where they were, Harmony and Tiara practically bouncing from store to store, checking out tourist souvenirs and sweets stores, while Naida and Acquanetta seemed to like taking her time to chat with various vendors that had set up stall.
Lilliana was just passing a florist's when she stopped, looking through the store's glass window to see a vase placed on the counter, containing a single daffodil in a bouquet of roses. Ordinarily, most people would have ignored that tiny little detail and simply regard it as a design of the bouquet, but Lilliana's intuition told her otherwise, and her intuition was never wrong. A bouquet of daffodils meant joy and happiness, but one alone meant misfortune... oh, oh no.
"Get down!" the blue-haired girl shrieked, her voice rising unnaturally loud.
No sooner did the words leave her mouth did the crisp sound of glass shattering reach her ears as the windows of a nearby tall building proceeded to shatter on top of the girls, raining down shards of glass down onto the streets below, causing a mass panic to happen.
Lilliana cried out in surprise as she was tackled to the ground and off to the side, the girl squeezing her eyes tightly shut as chaos exploded around her. Possiblities and questions raced through her mind — what had just happened? Was everyone alright? It was just an accident, just someone being careless, right? — but none of her more pressing questions was answered. The girl felt someone shake her shoulder and she cracked open a green eye with a shaky gasp to see Raven over her, the other girl looking around with a wide-eyed gaze.
Raven grimaced as she moved off Lilliana, most likely being the one who had tackled the Linphean girl. She rolled her shoulder with a grimace as she got to her feet, though from what Lilliana could see, she hadn't injured it when she had gotten the two girls down to the ground. "Alright?" she asked the dark blue-haired girl, her voice low and uneasy as she extended a hand to Lilliana to help the girl up. "Is everyone alright?" she shouted, her voice rising amidst the still chaotic scene. She didn't get a response other than the still chaotic screams as people got themselves together.
Lilliana grasped her hand and slowly rose to her feet, a hand clasped tightly to her heart as it raced in her chest. She just hoped the other girls were alright.
"Get down!"
The uncharacteristic shriek from Lilliana, the quietest, shyest girl Tiara had ever had the pleasure of meeting, piercing through the girl's thought about purchasing the cute rainbow phone charm she and Harmony had been eyeing from the window of a cutesy pastel store. The cyan-eyed girl looked up running a hand through her hair to push her bangs out of her eyes for the moment in the confusion. "Huh? Wha—?"
"Waxing Moon Shield!" Maho suddenly shouted, the princess summoning her silver moon stave and slamming it down into the ground in the centre of the girls — most of them, anyway, but Tiara hadn't noticed that. A shimmering, gossamer-thin barrier of silver light sprung up from the stave and enveloped the girls in a dome-shaped shield just in time, as a hail of glass shards rained down from above, the broken windows of a building emptying the contents of what had used to be present in their glass panes downwards. The shield deflected all of them and protected the four girls inside from harm.
Harmony sidled up to Tiara, the petite girl instinctively checking her friend for harm to her person as she raised her arms to cover her head. She scrambled down, glancing up only to flinch as a shard of glass shot down over her magenta head, being bounced off by the glowing shield just in time to avoid hurting any of the girls. "Heck is that?" she whisper-shouted, her navy eyes wide. She yelped, cringing as the barrier suddenly flickered, but it held up for long enough to shield them from the last of the glass shards.
The dome-shaped barrier shook once before it finally gave way, disappearing in a burst of silver light into Maho's stave, which vanished as well and left the silver-haired girl without anything to support her. She staggered forward, groaning as she rubbed her temples. "Ow, my head," she grumbled, lowering her sunglasses back onto the bridge of her nose. She slowly straightened, a hand on her head, still standing though her legs were shaky.
"Maho! Are you alright?" Naida shouted, hurrying over to the older girl's side to help her stand upright. She kept a hand on the silver-haired girl's back as she helped the Solarian princess straighten up.
As Maho replied to the dark brunette in a faint tone, leaning on the Androsi princess' shoulder, Tiara got to her feet somewhat shakily, looking around in the chaos as she helped Harmony to her feet. "What just happened?" the bright brunette girl asked, running a hand through her hair — her tell for whenever she was nervous or antsy, her mother had mentioned once. Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention, and the girl gasped as she spied someone making a break for it, shoving their way through the crowd.
"She's got to be behind this!" Harmony cried out, having seen the same thing as her best friend, and before Tiara could caution her closest friend against it, the magenta-haired girl tore after the retreating form of a lime green-haired girl like a heat-seeking missile, taking advantage of her agility and speed that came from her smaller, petite size.
"Harm, wait up!" the fourteen-year-old cried out as she began to give chase, stumbling over her own feet as she found herself struggling to catch up to her petite friend, especially even though she had a wider stride than the short girl. She heard footsteps behind her and turned her head to the side, just in time to see Naida pursuing their unknown escapee.
Naida quickly overtook Tiara as the brunette began pushing herself to catch up before she lost the group in the crowd even as her lungs started burning. Tiara had never been very athletic — it hadn't been necessary back in Zenith, so she'd neglected to focus too much on the physical, which was now clearly a mistake at this point. She pushed herself, gasping for breath even as she weaved through the crowd, that was quickly starting to part around the fleeing girl and the group that pursued her.
It was after what felt like an eternity — to Tiara — when the trio of girls rounded a sharp corner as the green-haired girl scrambled into an alleyway, managing to corner the fleeing girl into a dead end, all four of the girls breathing heavily even as the green-haired girl — clad in deep blue and black — took a few steps back into a brick wall and gave them a glare.
The short green-haired girl — probably a witch, from the style of her clothes — pushed back her choppily-cut lime green hair as she gave the trio of girls an angry glower with harsh amber eyes. A sneer curled her green-tinted lips as the Gothic-looking girl pressed her hands against the brick wall to no avail. Her amber eyes snapped back to the wall in what seemed to be frustration before she turned right back to the trio of fairies-to-be, a firm scowl on her face. Her gloved hands raised up to form a loose and sloppy fighting stance.
"Why are you running?"
"You did that, didn't you?"
Naida and Harmony made their demands at the same time, both assuming a rather defensive position, the former poised to fall back at any moment, while the latter seemed ready to spring forward to deliver a hit like a boxing glove on a spring from those cartoons Tiara watched in secret. Tiara herself just leaned on the wall of the alleyway, gasping for breath even as her cyan eyes locked firmly on the green-haired witch, the unathletic girl trying to catch her breath before she collapsed from the lack of oxygen.
The witch glared at them, sending goosebumps down Tiara's skin from the venomous look in the amber eyes. Her black-gloved hands raised halfway into the air as if trying to make a move to surrender, before she snapped her fingers, summoning a green crystal bottle to her hands. A sickly green glow enveloped the bottle as it floated in front of her, and the witch snapped her hands out at them with a dark grin. "Poison Fire!" she snarled, hurling sickly-smelling flames at them.
Naida sprung back, her hands reached out to pull both Tiara and Harmony out of the way of the fire and tightly towards her. "'quanetta!" she shrieked, scrunching her features together into a grimace even as Tiara covered her head out of instinct. No sooner had she spoken did a wave of water emerge from nowhere, crashing into the green fire, extinguishing it and absorbing the harsh, toxic smell that was hanging in the air from the scorching tongues of fire. Steam rose into the air from the heat, obscuring everyone's line of sight.
Tiara finally pulled away from Naida to cough and get a breath of fresh air. She waved her hands in the air in front of her to clear away the steam that was stifling her. She didn't want to know if she could breathe in it if the fire was poisoned as the attack name indicated. Her eyes squinted slightly as she looked around. "Harm?" she shouted out, despite already knowing that her best friend was on the other side of Naida. She received a shouted back affirmation, and Tiara let herself sigh in relief.
That still left their assailant, though, and the girl tried to see beyond the steam to see where the green-haired girl had gone. Unsurprisingly, it seemed as she was already gone. Tiara mumbled a very unladylike curse despite how much trouble she would get into if her mother heard her. "She's gone!" she called to the other two girls as the steam rose up into the air, clearing her line of sight and letting her see that her best friend was unharmed. Thank goodness for Naida, she couldn't help but think to herself with a sigh of relief.
Naida smiled at them faintly as she pushed herself off the wall and checking Harmony and Tiara for injuries. "Acquanetta, are you alright?" she called, hurrying over to her pixie, who flew over to her and promptly dropped into Naida's outstretched hands. "Oh, you're definitely not alright," she whispered. "Let's get you back to mum."
"Maybe we should have gone with guards," Harmony groaned as she got to her feet, scratching her head. The girl shook her head, her short, choppy magenta pigtails wild and unkempt after their little adventure. The petite girl slowly walked over to the other two as she rolled her shoulders and neck, slowly flexing her fingers as she reached them. "I'm going to be sore tomorrow morning," she mumbled.
Tiara snorted as the trio of girls — empty-handed — made their way slowly back to the palace. "Never thought I'd hear you say that, Harm. You never liked having guards anywhere near you." The following response she got back made her crack a chuckle.
"Shut up, Tia."
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