I do not own Winx Club in any way!


Speech Key:

"The" – Oral/Normal Speech

'The'Thoughts


AN: Dunno if this can be considered long, but enjoy the chapter nevertheless!

Review, but if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all!


-Displaced-

oO~The Barrier Falls~Oo

-Resort Realm-

"We really can't keep them with us," Flora whispered as she and the girls stopped outside of the boys' room.

Musa nodded. "I know, but what can we do? If we leave them, they'll follow us anyway or insist on coming with us. Or if we send them to Alfea, how do we know they won't blab about us and what we've done?"

Bloom turned to her fireands and gave them a small smile. "I can take care of that. Do you guys remember those bands I conjured for the guys?"

The rest of the Winx nodded.

"Those prevent them from leaving us without my permission or without us," the fiery-haired fairy reminded them, "but since I was the one that conjured them, I can also alter them so that they can't speak about us or what we've done."

"But won't Ms. F get suspicious when she sees those bands?" Stella asked.

Bloom shook her head. "Again, I can take care of that. All you guys need to do is once I adjust their bands, is to send them off to Alfea."

"At the front gates or on the grounds?" Layla asked.

"On the grounds," Bloom told her. "We can't take the chance that Valtor might come at any time and take them."

"What about the pixies?" Tecna asked. "We can't take them along with us."

The girls all stiffened and looked at each other before nodding. "Tecna's right," Flora said. "We can't bring our pixies with us, but maybe we can send them with the guys."

"NO!" Chatta shouted.

The girls turned around and saw the pixies fyling out from behind a large potted plant a little bit away from them.

"Chatta!" The other pixies reprimanded while Piff made disapproving sounds.

"What are—" Layla began.

"We're not leaving you!" Chatta shouted, cutting off the princess of Andros.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie," Flora said quietly. "But we can't bring you with us; it'll be way too dangerous! At least at Alfea, you'll be safe."

"We don't care!" Lockette said stubbornly. "We're not leaving you!"

"Lockette…" Bloom trailed off, cradling the little pixie close to her; her friends did the same for their pixies. "We know you want to come with us, but we can't risk you all getting hurt."

"We don't know how powerful Valtor is in this world," Musa told them, "for all we know, he could be even stronger here than he was back in our world. We can't have you all risking yourselves like that."

"At least if you're at Alfea," Stella continued, "we'd know you were safe and wouldn't have to worry."

The pixies still looked determined to go with their bonded fairies.

The Winx sighed and continued to plead and reason with the pixies until the little girls finally gave in and allowed themselves to be carried into the Specialists' room.

"Sirenix!" the girls whispered, feeling the familiar magic weave around them.

"Dreamy Lullaby!" Musa spoke softly as a string of music notes on a staff was conjured by the fairy of music.

The girls watched as the staff broke off into five separate strands and circled the boys' heads, ensuring that the boys' would remain unconscious until they reached Alfea.

Bloom closed her eyes and held her hands out, which glowed a faint orange. The bands on the boys glowed in sync with the fairy's hands before the bands disappeared all together.

The princess of Sparx turned to her friends and gave a nod.

The Pixies flew over the the boys and latched onto them tightly as the remaining members of the Winx Club clasped hands as they closed their eyes and concentrated on the task they were set to do. "Sirenix Convergence!"

A large pulse of magic engulfed the boys, who remained asleep, and within moments were gone from the Winx's sights.

"I feel bad for doing that do them," Flora murmured. "They helped us a lot. They'll be angry when they find out…"

Layla wrapped an arm around the nature fairy's shoulders. "Everything will be okay, Flora," the princess of Andros told her friend. "Besides, what's more important, the lives of just five guys, or the balance of the entire Magical Dimension?"

Flora sighed and nodded in understanding. "I know, but that won't stop me from feeling guilty…"

"Flora, when everything's over, if we're given a chance, we can explain why we did what we did," Stella told her friend. "If they're actually good people, they won't hold a grudge or get too mad."

"But if they do—" Flora was cut off by Tecna this time.

"Then they aren't worth it," the fairy of technology told the nature fairy.

"Come on," Bloom told her friends, "Let's go and check the sphere if there's anything new going on with Valtor…"


-Alfea; Campus Grounds-

A faint flash of light shone in darkened hours of the morning, fading to reveal five sleeping Specialists' with six pixies.

"That wasn't too bad," Chatta commented.

"I would rather we took a different mode of transportation next time," Tune said, looking a little green.

"Come on, we can't leave the guys here," Chatta told them. "Let's go get someone!"

"How are we going to explain ourselves to the teachers, though?" Amore asked.

Chatta deflated. "Oh, right…"

Digit perked up as an idea popped into her head. "I know! We can just throw a little magic and around and wait for someone to notice. Then we'll just slip away back into the girls' room!"

The pixies all nodded in understanding and split up. Two (Piff and Tune) were left near the boys while the rest went inside the building to find any members of the staff on guard that night.

However, rather than finding any staff on guard, the four pixies found multiple Red Fountain guards posted around the halls of Alfea.

Digit nodded to her companions and they fired off tiny busts of colourful sparks in a guard's direction, garnering his attention immediately.

"'O was 'at?" The guard grunted as he followed the direction the sparks were leading him. Along the way, several other guards had noticed the strange happenings and followed the first guard to the entrance of the school building.

It was then that they saw a burst of pink and light-green in the centre of the grounds, where a large lump lay silent and still.

The guards stalked towards the lump with their staffs up and glowing, ready to be fired at a moments' notice.

However, they were surprised to find the five Specialists that had been deemed missing a few weeks ago, leaning against each other, fast asleep.

"Go alert the Headmaster and Headmistresses," one guard told another, watching as said guard rushed off to do as he was told.

The guard that issued the order knelt down and looked at the five boys. "Where in the magical Dimension were you all?" He whispered. "Everyone was worried out of their minds…"

"Let me through!" Came the headmaster of Red Fountain's voice. "I need to check on my boys, now let me through!"

The elder man pushed his way through the small crowd of guards with Faragonda and Griffin right behind him, all of them still in their nightwear, though covered with robes. The headmaster of Red Fountain made to rush over to his boys the moment he saw them, when Griffin held an arm out in front of him, preventing him from doing so.

"What are you doing?" Saladin asked. "I must go and check on them! Heaven knows just what's happened to them!"

"I understand your concern," Griffin told him. "But it would be best to check if they are who they seem to be first."

Saladin looked to protest at the suggestion, but closed his mouth when Faragonda shot a look at him. And so the headmaster closed his mouth and nodded in acceptance.

Faragonda waved her fingers and hands in a certain pattern, chanting a spell all the while. A light-gold hue enveloped the boys before dissipating all together.

Faragonda sighed in relief and gave a small smile to her old friend. "It's all right, they are your boys; however, they've been put under a temporary sleeping spell. I can't tell when the spell was put on them, but they should wake in a few hours. But for the time being, they may stay in the infirmary. And then we'll see about getting some answers."

Saladin nodded in relief and ordered the guards around them to carry the sleeping boys to the infirmary as per the headmistress' orders.


-Cloud Tower; Lecture Hall-

Valtor stood above the lecture hall and looked down into it, watching the witches-turned-monsters screeched and howled like the mindless beasts he'd turned them into.

"It's almost time," the wizard smirked as he looked through the windows at the sky. He closed his eyes and held his hands up to the sky, and his body glowing a deep-red, Valtor began chanting an incantation.

"When the screams of a thousand years are finally heard,
And the terror of the night embrace this day,
When the moons up above are consume by shadow,
Then the plains down below will cause doom to reign,
And the creatures of the night will rise one again!"

(AN: I don't know if I heard the incantation correctly, so for the parts I wasn't sure of, I put down what I felt was right.)

Winx~Club

The skies darkened with deep-hued clouds and a dark-hued rain began to descend from them.

However, the droplets touched the ground, they formed small maroon insect-like creatures, which merged with hundreds more to form soldiers of two sizes and an aerial fleet of demonic-looking flying manta.

The soldiers grouped themselves into neat groups and lines around the Cloud Tower castle, awaiting orders from the one who'd summoned them.

Winx~Club

"Excellent," Valtor smirked.


-Alfea; Infirmary-

Sky gave a loud yawn as he woke up. "That was probably the best sleep I've had in a long time…"

"I'm glad you thought so," Faragonda said as she and the other two school heads stepped into the infirmary.

"Where are we?" Brandon asked slowly. He and the others had woken up when they heard Faragonda's voice.

"In the Alfea Infirmary," Griffin answered.

"I'm very glad that you boys are safe and sound," Saladin said walking up to the group. "But what on earth were you all doing? Did something happen?"

"Something happened all right," Riven grunted.

"Did you find my girls?" Faragonda asked.

The Specialists nodded.

"Where?" She asked.

"Sparx," Helia answered.

"Did they tell you why they left?" Faragonda asked worriedly.

The Specialists looked at each other before nodding.

"They left because they were trying to—" Timmy began to explain, when suddenly, his mouth shut on its own, sealed tight.

Bewildered, the orange-haired Specialist tried to opened his mouth, but to no avail. He looked up, however, when he heard more sounds of surprise.

Timmy looked up to see that his friends' mouths had been sealed as well.

"Oh my," Faragonda said while Saladin looked on at them in amusement, and Griffin only smirked. "I didn't expect this to happen."

"And apparently, neither did they," Griffin chuckled.

"But why would that just happen to them like that?" Saladin asked.

"I assume that my girls must have had a part in this and for that I apologize," Faragonda told the headmaster.

"As for the why," Griffin answered, "those girls must have told something to these boys that they didn't want anyone else knowing without their permission. Hence the reason why their mouths are sealed shut and will be as so until the spell sense that they won't try to reveal the girls' secrets again."

"Then I su—" Faragonda sighed.

"Headmistress Faragonda!" Griselda ran into the infirmary with an urgent and frightened look on her face. "Look outside!"

The school heads asked no questions as they made their ways to the infirmary windows. What they saw horrified them.

Thousands upon thousands of tiny insect-like creatures were raining down from the sky, but weren't able to reach Alfea because of the mysterious barrier around the school.

"What are those things?" Timmy asked when his mouth, as well as those of his friends, was unsealed.

"That is the Army of Decay," Faragonda said in horror. "A dark and powerful army that has no end; it is composed of all decayed things since the time the spell was invented, hence the name."

"Then shouldn't we be fighting them?" Sky asked.

"The barrier seems to be keeping them out for the time being," Faragonda told the Specialists, "however, we will keep our guards up so when the time comes to cross that bridge, we will be ready." She looked at each of the Specialists in turn. "Your quarters have been arranged, so you may head down now if you'd like."

The boys all nodded as they followed the headmaster to their room, all the while wondering why the girls had sent them to Alfea.

"I'm glad that the five are you are all right," Saladin told them as he walked. "Are you sure you can't tell us anything?"

The boys looked at each other. They definitely didn't want to risk getting their mouths sealed again, and so shook their heads in negative.

"I thought as much," the headmaster sighed before stopping. "Well, this is where you will be staying for as long as we will be at Alfea."

"Professor?" Timmy asked.

"Yes?" Saladin answered.

"How was Red Fountain Destroyed?" Timmy inquired.

The headmaster sighed and suddenly looked years older. "We were attacked by three witches who not only destroyed our school, but took a piece of an powerful artifact called the Codex from our school."

And with that, the headmaster bade them goodnight and left them to their own devices.

"Why did the girls send us away?" Brandon asked. "I mean, we've been helping them this entire time, so you'd think we'd be able to help them with whatever they'd be doing next, right?"

"And why'd they spell us like that?" Riven growled.

"Maybe there's more to this than we understand," Helia tried reasoning. "I've noticed that those girls only did what they did for a reason. Sending us here spelled was probably because they couldn't trust us not to tell anyone about what they were doing. And they were right; we were going to tell the headmaster and headmistresses."

"They still had no right to do that without consulting us first," Timmy said.


-Resort Realm-

"Girls," Bloom called, "We've got a problem."

"What's up?" Layla asked as she and the others stepped towards Bloom, who looked into the magical sphere with disgust and horror written over her face.

"Valtor's summoned the Army of Decay!" Flora gasped as she took a look into the sphere.

Stella looked a bit green as she thought back to the fight in their freshman year. "Not those things again…" she groaned.

"It was hard enough taking them out the first time," Musa mused, "but the fact that it's Valtor that summoned them combined with the fact that we now have to fight him and those mutated witches, gives me the creeps."

"It's definitely not going to be easy," Layla said as she looked into the sphere. She may not have been there for the battle at Alfea during her friends' freshman year, but she'd heard enough to know nearly everything about the year by now.

"No one said it was," Tecna said grimly.


-Cloud Tower; Lecture Hall-

"Go!" Valtor commanded to the mutated witches. "Attack Alfea and bring it crumbling to the ground!"

The mutated witches mindlessly followed his orders and piled out of the castle, running on all fours, towards the school for fairies, screeching and making inhuman noises all the while.

"Soon…" the wizard murmured. "Soon…"


-Alfea-

"Headmsitress!" one of the students called as the three school heads rushed onto the campus grounds. "Look!"

The three school heads watched as the mutated witches clawed at the barrier. But that wasn't what caught their attention.

What caught their attention was the fact that each blow the creatures dealt onto the barrier was enforced with dark magic.

"At this rate, the barrier won't last for long," Griffin stated. She turned to look at her colleagues. "Go, assemble the students and keep them ready. We don't know when the barrier will fall, but judging from the number of those creatures striking at the barrier, it won't be long. We don't have much time, now go!"

Nodding, Faragonda and Saladin left to quickly their students and staff, telling them that they need to ready themselves for battle.

All the while, Griffin fell into a battle stance as she watched cracks appear in the barrier.


-Resort Realm-

"The barrier's about to fall!" Tecna said urgently. "We need to go! Now!"

And with that, the girls changed into their Believix forms and in a matter of seconds, were gone.


-Alfea-

The fairies were in the sky while the heroes, waiting in silence until the time came when they would be needed.

(AN: I was going to insert some kind of an inspiration speech or something made by the three school heads, but I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound cheesy, so I decided to leave it out.)

The students and staff held their breath as the cracks in the barrier grew larger and larger until the entire barrier was riddled with a spider-web-like pattern. Oritel and Miriam stood ready along with the rest of their Company of Light.

Another blow to the barrier, and it shattered.

The barrier had fallen.


-Cloud Tower-

"Finally," Valtor smirked maliciously.


Ciao,

TsukiyoTenshi