The Fall of Domino is widely regarded to be one of the worst acts of dark magic in recorded history, possibly beyond that. Domino, already crippled from Valtor's attempts at carrying out his mistresses' orders, was not prepared for the Ancestral Witches to launch the full force of their power against Domino. They had a good reason to - while Domino tried to keep their possession of the Dragon Flame a secret, everyone knew that a certain noble family had always held particularly powerful mages, and when Queen Marion Wyrnia I married into the royal line, many were already worried about Domino's influence, as it was already a major power player. The fact remains, however, that were it not for the stars seemingly aligning in the royal family's favor, the Witches may well have achieved their goal, and the Magix Dimension could have very well fallen to them.

- A History of the Ancestral Witches, Dominian Royal Archives

The screams of her people echoed in her ears, and it pained Daphne that she couldn't do anything about it; however, she had to protect the one power that the witches were after: the Dragon Flame. Her sister was still sleeping, as if Domino wasn't burning around her. Where can I send her? Where can she go?

"Daphne? DAPHNE!" Io screamed, pulling the princess out of her reverie. "We need to act now. What're we going to do with Pyra?"

Io was unnaturally serious. Daphne's head spun as her brain sent a thousand different messages to each part of her body: run! Hide! Fight! "I don't know," she said helplessly. "Where do I send her? Where should she go? Which planet will the Ancestrals not care about?"

They both fell silent, thinking. Neither of them knew of such a place; the Ancestral Witches' wrath was so great and terrible that, if the Company of Light didn't manage to stop them, they might never cease their rampage across the universe, such was the extent of their insanity. The thought was terrifying.

"Earth," Io said suddenly, as if she was surprised that the thought had come to her. "Send her to Earth. After all, it's losing its magic, right? What could the Ancestrals possibly want with a 'useless' planet like that?"

"They're insane, Io," Daphne reminded her, feeling that the notion shouldn't need reminding, given their current situation. "Who knows if they'll leave it at that?"

"We could at least try," said Io determinedly. "You and Pyra are the only surviving heirs of Domino, the greatest planet of the Magix Dimension. We cannot rule out the possibility that you may not survive the fight, Daph. Right now, Earth has the highest chance of keeping Pyra safe, given it's a Tethering World and thus has a seal around it. Give her the Dragon Flame and send her away; hopefully, once she grows and after this is all over, someone will find her. Besides, Eldora will take care of her."

Daphne smiled sadly at the thought of her fairy godmother. It was a big 'if' they were piling their hopes on, but Io was only echoing Daphne's own thoughts. "Okay," she sighed, taking a deep breath and reaching down inside herself to find her Flame. "Bidh mi a 'gairm draoidhean ethereal an Dragon Flame agus gan leigeil am sgaoil don Bhana-phrionnsa Pyra à Domino, nighean Rìgh Oritel agus a' Bhanrigh Marion, fear de shliochd airidh air First Vessel Brigid. Tha i a 'mionnachadh a bhith ga chleachdadh gu math, gus a dìon le a beatha, agus gun a bhith ga chleachdadh airson adhbharan gun adhbhar. Mar sin tha ag ràdh, mar sin mote e."

Her voice rose with each word, the phrase undertaking its own beat. After she'd repeated the chant three times, her shoulders slumped (she would have dropped Pyra if it weren't for the ever-faithful Io) and her face beaded with sweat. Her hair stuck to her face. Out of her chest came a small, flickering spark. Daphne felt strangely empty as she watched it 'inspect' Pyra, wondering if the Flame would deem her worthy. The spark was not at all the full force of a developed flame, but it would grow with time. Daphne pressed Pyra close to herself, feeling more like a mother to her than an elder sister, though perhaps that would change as time went on. She briefly wondered if she would survive. Of course you will, Daph. You'll survive and bring Pyra home. With this comforting thought, she sent a string of magic out to Earth, tying to to Pyra's still-growing core.

And Pyra disappeared.

Daphne, came Marion's voice. Daphne! Come!

"Mom's calling," Daphne told Io. "I can go on my own. You shouldn't risk yourself for me."

Io took Daphne's hand. "You and I 'til the end, sister. I will not violate my oath now." Her dark blue eyes seemed to glow. "I am a Dragon's Teeth warrior. We will stay with our Vessel always."

"Except Pyra's the Vessel now."

Io shook her head, smiling sadly. "I have no illusion I will survive this fight to find Pyra."

Daphne shook her head firmly. "Don't think like that, Io! People who accept their death fight less. We can't have one of our best fighters give up!"

Io's face seemed to brighten. "Does that mean I can accompany you?"

Daphne shook her head. "I knew I wouldn't be able to convince you. Very well." She strengthened her grip on Io's hand and followed the thread of magic Marion had sent out to her - and much like Pyra, they disappeared.

When they reappeared next to Marion, the queen and former Vessel didn't give them any time to orient themselves. "We are facing something even more powerful than Valtor, girls," she said gravely. "We may not be able to stop this force." Here, she looked straight into Daphne's eyes. "I could feel you grant the Flame to Pyra. I only hope that it was the right decision, as it reduces your power greatly. Anyway, to save Domino, we must resort to the last ace-in-the-hole we have."

"Which is?" Io asked.

"The Flame's Grimoire. It was a comprehensive guide to First Vessel Brigid's offensive and defensive spells - all of them."

"That's a huge gamble, Mother," Daphne reminded her. "People who don't have the Flame would be hard-pressed to pull it off without side effects, and none of us have even a sliver of it right now."

"It's our last chance to save Domino."

The steel in Marion's voice cowed Daphne. She sighed, wondering why no one listened to her. "Io and I will go there soon as possible."

Daphne, once again, grabbed Io's hand and they flew to the vault together, stopping every few seconds for identity verification, as if their DNA would change within twenty feet of walking. Io groaned. "Why's your family so paranoid?"

"These magics are very powerful, Io, but this is a little bit overkill," Daphne admitted as they landed and ran to the vault to tug it open. The princess and her guard shot through the opening like a laser. "Flame's Grimoire, Flame's Grimoire, Flame's Grimoire," Daphne muttered as she cast her eyes around the room - locating spells wouldn't work in the vault.

"Found it!" Io shrieked, a note of hysteria in her voice.

"Go ahead without me, Io," Daphne said. She saw Io about to object and shook her head. "Valtor's known to steal magic from other planets. I need to seal the vault away so the Witches and their lackey don't get their hands on the stuff here. Please, just this once, listen to me. And no detours to play the hero, okay? Two lives can be sacrificed for everyone else. That's an order."

Io's eyes glimmered with betrayal; breaking a Dragon's Teeth oath was akin to a life in prison. One of the warriors was never to leave their liege's side. "Alright," she spat, "but I swear, Daphne Marion Wyrnia, if you don't die here, I'll kill you myself! That's a promise."

"Always did like the action movie references, didn't you?" It was so nice to have a normal conversation and pretend that Domino wasn't crumbling around them.

"You know it."

Daphne laughed. "I do. Oh, I do. Now go!"

Io nodded once and ran.

Once she was gone, Daphne de-transformed from Nymphix and re-transformed into Phoenix, the fire equivalent of Sirenix. She wobbled with the magical energy it took out of her, but managed to close her eyes. "I, as a Phoenix fairy, demand access to the Realm of the Eternal Flame." She felt herself being pulled out of that dimension, but managed to stay grounded and took the spell matrix of the dimension-summoner and combined it with the inherent magic of the vault, which had developed over time since things that had magic woven into their very words had been resting in there for a very, very long time.

With a final almighty shove, Daphne completed the spell, and the contents of the vault disappeared. She sighed in relief, not completely cancelling the spell just yet to make sure to make sure the texts went through properly - and that's when she felt a spell sing into her shoulderblades.

She screamed as her magic flared up and tried to protect her, trying to shunt her to the Realm of the Eternal Flame, and she was slowly dying in the process as the excruciating spell took effect.

Io tried to find Queen Marion's thread of magic as she flew, but even though Her Majesty was like a second mother to her, you could only feel the threads of family or those you had an exceptionally close bond with. So she had to fly and waste valuable time, which frustrated her greatly.

She passed many fighters in need of help, but as much as she longed to jump into the fray and feel useful, she had to follow Daphne's orders. As much as it pained her to say so, her soul sister was right: she couldn't waste valuable time in favor of a few lives in the here and now when she could save billions in the future.

She burst into the room Queen Marion was in and saw the king had joined her, along with refugees unable to fight or healers helping the wounded. "My queen!" Io gasped. "I have returned with the tome." She dumped the Flame's Grimoire into Marion's lap rather unceremoniously. "I can help you start it."

Marion frantically paged through the book, looking for the right spell. "Where is it, where is it?" Her eyes landed on the next page, "Spell of Draogn Summoning, ultimately forbidden-" She went pale. "Runs the risk of killing all involved casters."

"No, my queen!" one of the other people in the room yelled. "You must not sacrifice yourself!"

"I agree, Marion," came King Oritel's deep rumble. "We need an adult member of the royal family alive to keep us going."

"No," Marion insisted. "You do not know how to channel the Dragon Flame, and though it is not with me now, I remember clearly what it feels like to use it. It may not kill me."

And round and round the argument went. The people, understandably, didn't want their monarch to die, but the fact remained that Marion was the only one with some idea of how to cast the spell. However, it was too late. A chilling cackle cut through the debate.

Lysslis, Belladonna, and Tharma could not by any stretch of the imagination be called human. Their skin was pale and gray, with purple, blue, and red accents respectively. Magic of the same color leaked out of their eyes, and they were only held together by pure magical energy. That may seem fragile, but the magic they were made of healed all possible wounds. Oritel immediately guarded his people and wife from the Witches. "Get away from them, right now," he warned, "or you'll regret it."

He tried to mask the fear in his voice, but the Witches caught on to it like sharks smelling blood in the water. "No, King Oritel, I don't think we will." They somehow managed to make his title seem like a mockery.

Oritel leaped into action, striking Lysslis with his sword. She nimbly twirled aside, and thus, a dangerous dance began.

Oritel was a skilled fighter, and he striked many killing blows, but the magic simply healed them all. His people and Marion tried to help, but they, too, were ineffective against the Witches. "Say hello to your daughter, Oritel," Tharma hissed, and Oritel's eyes widened. Caught in his moment of weakness, Belladonna striked a killing blow, and Oritel fell.

Io let out a Dragon's Teeth war cry and charged, engaging them as Oritel had. Her magic had more of an effect, though: it ate through the Ancestrals'. She fire off a curse at them, slowing them down as she dodged and kept on cutting. Their injuries healed in slow motion, but Io couldn't keep up the spell forever. Time magic had never been her forte, and when the curse faded away, Lysslis rose to her full, great height, and stared down at her, infuriated. "You are no match for me, little fairy!" she shrieked, and fired a killing curse at her. Io crumpled to the floor, her vision fading.

"We swear vengeance!" the three hissed in eerie unison, and the magic in the air pulsed in acceptance of the vow. "We will haunt your dreams and torture you until you are so insane you are laughing in delight from the pain-"

Suddenly, their vow was interrupted as the Flame's Grimoire activated, a golden light spreading through the patterns on the cover and similarily encompassing Marion's skin. All eyes turned to her as she summoned all of her power to put in the spell. It was like a great ice cream scoop was taking all of her power and putting it into the spell; that was the only way she could think of to describe it. Her chanting grew louder and louder. "Begone!" she said finally, and the witches blasted their own spell at her.

The throne room was destroyed in the resulting clash.

The Witches were gone.

On Earth...

"I must leave."

"But why?"

"I do not know. All I know is that I must."

"Take me with you."

"Non-magicals cannot go in. The hole in the barrier is too small."

"But..."

"It is for the best, Klaus. I love you. I love Roxy too."

"I know."

"I have to take your memory away. It's for your own good."

"You're the magical, Morgie. I won't pretend to know what I'm talking about when I say no."

"It's for the best. You won't have to live with any pain."

"I love you, Morgie."

"I love you too."

"It won't hurt at all. I promise."

The witch Mab was weary and tired, hiding in a cupboard of the Dominian Royal Palace. She cradled her baby in her arms.

It might seem irresponsible to bring a baby to war, but it would have been more so to leave her alone on Lynphea.

She had been a firm supporter of the Witches' cause, until she'd seen the death and destruction they'd unleashed on Domino. She wanted no part of that, and she had no illusions that she would survive the war. She knew, though, that Princess Daphne was sending her sister Pyra to Earth; and she figured that was best for her baby too. She sent a thread of her magic out to intertwine with Daphne and Pyra's, and tied her baby's thread to that too.

"Goodbye, NoName," she said tiredly. "Be safe."

She didn't have the courage to say I love you and then immediately regretted it when her baby disappeared.

Stuck between life and death, between one dimension and the other, never fully able to pass on, Daphne's consciousness worked for hours to try and figure out how to manifest as a spirit. She knew her case was rare, and as such couldn't figure out how to properly do it until several hours later. When she finally managed to appear in the ghostly form of her Nymphix, she gasped as she surveyed Domino.

It was a frozen wasteland now; there seemed to be nothing left. Surely the Witches couldn't have achieved such a monstrosity in such a short amount of time! she thought, but what else was the explanation for the landscape she saw now? Her instincts didn't lie. She tried to follow her thread of magic to her family, but no - Oritel's line was dead, and so was Marion's, and she couldn't feel Pyra's at all. She tried to find the other Nymphs - Io was dead, Syffa and Sabrina were lost years ago, Yanli was dead too, T'ana was also dead, Ellena and Combe had been vaporized by their own magical energy, and, of course, Politea was a monster - not a shred of her original personality was left, except perhaps her rampant jealousy. The only thread of magic she could feel was Europa's, Io's twin. It was weak and pulsing with grief, but it was alive, and Daphne drew on the strength that came from knowing that one of her soul sisters lived to not break down in tears right there and then.

She heard footsteps and perked up weakly, trying to present a strong profile for whoever stumbled upon her. Her eyes lit up, though, when she saw who it was: "Laurelia!"

"Daphne!" Laurelia breathed, and she rushed towards her. "What happened to you?"

"I-I'm not sure," Daphne admitted. "I was going to another dimension when the Ancestrals struck, and I'm stuck now. I can't feel Pyra's thread and everyone else is dead-" She choked on her tears.

Laurelia's face softened. "It's okay," she said, trying to give the (former) princess a comforting smile. "It's okay, Daphne. We''l work through this. I need to go now, but hold on for me, okay?"

"Okay," Daphne breathed. "Okay. But... I don't know whether I'll be able to hold on to this world for much longer, at least in the form of a human."

Laurelia frowned. "I could tie you to a source, but I'm not sure if that would just interfere with your already unstable magical core even more."

"Do it," Daphne said. "I-I can't die yet. Not yet."

It was ridiculous, considering the death that had permeated her life these past years, but Daphne had never really given thought to what would happen if she were to die. Now, it was all hitting her in the face, and that, combined with the lingering horror from seeing her people murdered in one of the worst genocides the Magix Dimension had ever seen, she was desperate and hysteric, not really thinking about the consequences of her actions.

"It's Roccaluce Bay in Magix," Laurelia said. "The Source of Sirenix."

Daphne let her reache out with her magic to tie the thread to Roccaluce, all the while thinking about Pyra. The process was exhausting and she disappeared.

Laurelia, meanwhile, looked down at her hands. How had everything escalated so quickly? It was like she'd become headmistress of Alfea only yesterday.

"Faragonda," came Gwendolyn Griffin's voice, a last-minute defector to their side. "We need to go. Your lips are blue."

Startled, Laurelia touched a hand to her mouth. Was it wrong that she hadn't even noticed the cold?

There were two babies in the portal, peacefully sleeping. For them, the trip to Earth took less time than the blink of an eye. For the rest of the universe, and everything beyond, over a century passed before they got ejected from the portal, because Daphne's wouldn't let go of them until Earth became (relatively) safe.

The remnants of Daphne's magic tried to send Pyra and NoName to Eldora, Daphne's former fairy godmother and tutor, but the spell missed. Pyra and NoName ended up in the same town, but in different areas. NoName was found first.

A woman cocked her head. "Do you hear that, David? Sounds like a baby crying."

David shook his head. "You're hearing things, Cass," he said gently. Cassandra had just been told that she was infertile, which had shaken her to her core. They wanted children desperately, but now David was wondering if his wife was a bit delirious.

"I'm not," Cass insisted. "Listen, really listen. You'll hear it!"

Deciding to entertain her, David cocked his head - and, sure enough, in the distance, was the faint sound of a baby sobbing.

David and Cassandra exchanged wide-eyed looks and bolted after the sound.

They found the girl in an alleyway and picked her up. David frowned. "Strange... the blanket doesn't even say her name or anything!"

"Well, maybe we'll just have to pick one for her," said Cassandra, smiling widely.

David panicked. "Cass, you can't possibly be thinking about keeping her!"

Cassandra lifted her chin. "We wanted children, we're getting children. Besides, this child was meant for us. I can feel it."

David sighed. He knew when Cass had that kind of look on her face, there was no denying her anything she wanted. "What should we call her?" he asked, resigned to his fate.

Cassandra paused.

"Selina. I've always liked the name Selina."

Where Pyra appeared, the protective charms put on her by Daphne got triggered and set a whole block of apartments on fire. No one was hurt, but it was one of the worst fires in Gardenia's history. Mike Peters, a firefighter, was making his way through the building to look for any people trapped by the flames. That was when he happened upon a baby.

She seemed to almost be... protected by the flames, like they respected her, and she didn't seem hurt or even distressed, like being among flames was normal for her. A glowing barrier was around her. Rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, Mike shook his head and picked her up. She babbled happily, and the fire started to die down of its own accord; the protective charms receded when they sensed someone who would care for the young princess.

Later that night, Mike brought the baby to the apartment he shared with his wife, Vanessa.

"Mike, we can't keep her!" she said, shaking her head. "We're in no condition to be raising a child. I've only just opened my shop, and your job is barely enough to support the both of us; we can't afford a third person, especially a baby. Besides, where will she sleep when she gets older? And your story about the flames only complicates things."

Mike shook his head. "It's hard to explain, honey, but I feel like we must protect her. Besides, look at her! How can you say no to a face like that?"

As if Pyra could hear him, she shifted in her sleep and murmured, "Mama..."

Vanessa melted. "Fine. I've been looking at a townhouse closer to the shop, anyway... what'll we call her?"

"Well, what about Bloom, after Mom?"

"I like it. It fits her."

And thus, two fairies and a witch, newly renamed Bloom, Roxy, and Selina, lived in normal families and were raised among a world that no long believed in magic...

And that's where our story begins.

Author's Note:

Welcome, one and all, to my first fanfic! This is a rewrite, so I'll be making some HEAVY changes to, well, everything. Not all of these will come into play in this chapter, but once the story actually gets going - oh, boy. Also, I used Google Translate for the Gaelic, to let me know if anything's wrong and I'll fix it. The translation is supposed to say, 'I summon the ethereal magics of the Dragon Flame and release them to Crown Princess Pyra of Domino, daughter of King Oritel and Queen Marion, a descendant of First Vessel Brigid. She swears to use it well, to protect it with her life, and not use it for unwarranted purposes. So I say, so mote it be.' Also, Morgana put a Time Barrier around Tir Nan Og to make sure her fairies lived while she roamed the Earth looking for other fairies to recruit, and Pyra and NoName got stuck in this barrier - so the seige of Domino did happen centuries ago, but Pyra and NoName didn't age during that time. I wasn't sure how to integrate that into the narrative, so I thought, better address it here than break up the flow of the story.