Snow rolled her eyes. She's been doing that a lot lately.
"You'd be lying if you said you've never thought about it before," Skye said as they flew over Magix City. All five fairies gave her a look of disgust.
"With lowlifes like them?" Ruby said with a sneer, curling one of her short red pigtails around her finger. "I would never."
"I don't know," Skye shrugged, doing a loop-de-loop in the sky. "Ray's kind of cute."
"Sure, if you're into sociopaths," Scylla snorted from the back of their little flying formation.
"Maybe I am," Skye huffed, crossing her arms. She stopped to hover and brought the whole formation to a standstill. "Who knows? That could be the exact kind of boy I'm looking for. Or Aidan. Damn, those biceps are delicious."
"Ew," the girls all chorused, looking at their frizzy-haired friend with disgust.
"Do you realize," Nell said slowly as if she were speaking to a child, "that you are talking about a boy who has once tried to burn you alive?"
The weather fairy huffed, "I could be into that."
Snow rolled her eyes again and said, "Guys, we need to focus. This is the first practice mission of the school year. If we want to get assigned to a real mission, we have to perform well on this one. Got it?"
The rest of the fairies looked down like chastised children before reforming their flying formation and zooming ahead towards Magix City.
Snow was practically bursting with excitement. If there was one thing she loved, it was missions. The adrenaline in her veins, the magic at her fingertips, and the wind in her wings were the recipe for a perfect day in her opinion.
"Look, there's the coffee shop," Snow said, pointing to a quaint little building on the edge of town. "We can stop there to look over the information they gave us."
The six fairies landed in front of the coffee shop and untransformed on the sidewalk. They slid into a booth in the corner and ordered their drinks before pulling out the files they had been giving at orientation that morning.
"Looks like we're assigned to the Coven Grimm and the Cabal Knights again," Scylla complained after analyzing the files in her folder.
Bonnie pulled out her own files and flipped to the Red Fountain section. Pointing to a familiar picture, she said, "At least we have the same heroes as last year."
"Yes. Thank goodness for my brother and his hero brigade," Snow said sarcastically.
"Cut Winter some slack," Skye told her friend. "He's just trying to be a good big brother."
Nell rolled her eyes.
"You're only saying that because you think he's cute."
The girls burst out laughing while Skye turned bright red and started gaping like a fish. A few patrons of the coffee shop turned to look at the rude teenagers as they fell over each other in laughter. Once the laughter died down, Snow cleared her throat and said, "Okay, gross, but anyway... we need to check out this mission file."
Putting aside the group assignment file, Snow pulled out another file, this time in a bright pink folder with the words Mission Folder written on it in glitter letters.
The girls all turned their focus to the paper detailing what their first practice mission would be, so they failed to notice the six dark shadows that manifested in an alleyway across the street from the coffee shop.
"Why do they laugh so much?" Ray commented in disdain as they surveyed the fairies in the coffee shop from across the street.
"I don't know, but it's disgusting," Marin answered.
"At least the heroes haven't shown up yet," Aidan said. "I hate those guys."
"Guys, look," Thorn said, pointing to the coffee shop.
All the patrons were flooding out into the street, including the shop owners. The glow of the Magix Club's transformation could be seen from all the way in the alley. A crowd formed around the coffee shop as the shop owners blocked the door to keep everyone out.
"What was their mission?" Electro thought out loud, his brain already trying to figure it out. "Some sort of evacuation practice? Wait. They're calling the police. Something isn't right."
"Let's go check it out," Aidan said. With a flash of light, the Cabal Knights disappeared from the alley and reappeared in the coffee shop.
The six warlocks took in their surroundings as the six fairies screamed and flew up into the air in shock.
"Where did you come from?" Snow accused once she regained her wits.
Aidan smiled, "My mom's va-"
"Don't finish that sentence!" Ruby shrieked, covering her ears.
Thorn chuckled at the fairy, making the other Cabal Knights laugh as well. They all split up to torture their own fairy. You know what they say- divide and conquer.
"Can you go away? For, like, ever?"
Aidan smirked at the snow fairy hovering over him, arms crossed and pink lips twisted in a pretty pout. The self-proclaimed leader of the Magix Club, Snow was as pathetic as her cutesy name implied. Everything about her drove him insane, especially her hair. It was fluffy and white, like the snow for which she was named, and fell down her back in loose curls that made her look entirely too angelic for the hellion he knew her to be.
"But this is an assignment for class," Aidan said, smiling devilishly at the pale vision floating over him. "You know how much I value my education, Snow."
She scoffed, rolling her eyes and saying, "Oh, please. You? As if you value anything other than the pursuit of evil."
He smiled again, sharing a look with Thorn behind her. He was pestering Ruby, the upstanding citizen of the group; the redheaded fairy didn't realize that the nature warlock was backing her up into a chair. Scanning his eyes around the room, Aidan took in the familiar sight of the other Knights doing the same as Thorn, each singling out a fairy and bothering her to no end.
His eyes landed on Marin and Reed who were teaming up on Skye, the bubbly weather fairy with the especially brutal right hook. He almost started to grin when he realized that one fairy was going unbothered. His eyes swiveled around the now-emptied coffee shop looking for the odd fairy out when Snow cleared her throat and drew his attention away from the issue at hand.
"I think you can take one day off, considering your spotless record of messing with us without fail. Your mother must be so proud," she snarked, eyes darting nervously to the Employees Only door behind the counter. Bingo.
He shrugged, turning back to Snow while discreetly signaling to Reed about the door. The youngest warlock nodded and started slinking his way towards the counter. Aidan focused on distracting Snow.
"You'd think she would be, but Mom only cares about stupid things like saving the world and ruling Eraklyon," Aidan said, walking around Snow so that she had to turn her back to the door Reed was slowly creeping towards. The fairy didn't even notice anything was wrong. Snow gave him a withering look.
"Oh, poor baby. Mommy isn't proud of her evil little warlock? It must be so hard."
Aidan ignored the unexpected sting of her voicing his thoughts aloud, choosing to turn the sting against her instead.
"Not that you'd know what that's like, what with mother dearest supporting you wholeheartedly in all your little heroic adventures," he spat sarcastically, sounding angrier than he had intended. "Icy must be so proud of her holy little angel, seeing as she's such an up-and-up hero herself. Oh, wait, nevermind. She's a witch."
Her blue eyes flashed and she leaned over in the air so that their faces were only inches apart and he could feel her fluffy white curls spilling over her shoulders brushing against his cheek.
"Don't you dare ever talk about my mother," she seethed through gritted teeth.
He crossed his arms and hardened his gaze, holding an intense staring contest that heated the air around them.
"Then don't ever talk about mine."
They held steely eye contact for a few more minutes before a shriek followed by a shout sent them flying away from each other.
The group of teens in the coffee shop all turned towards the doorway that Reed was standing in, hand over his mouth and eyes wide as saucers.
The other teenagers in the room ran to the door as quickly as possible. What they saw was burned into their minds forever.
Scylla was kneeling on the floor next to a man wearing an apron bearing the coffee shop's logo laying sprawled on the floor with blood flowing from the gash in his neck and tears streaming from his open, unseeing eyes. To his left, Aidan heard Marin gasp in horror. He couldn't it blame him. Something truly evil happened in this room, he could feel it in the air and in his bones. It made all the shadows look darker and the air coming from the A/C much colder.
"You were supposed to keep them out until the authorities arrived," Scylla said shakily, looking very overwhelmed and very angry. Her pale hands were covered with blood. She had obviously tried to stop the flow before she realized he was... dead. Oh my Dragon, he's dead.
"Holy fuck," Aidan said, taking in the scene before him. "Was this part of your practice mission? That is so messed up. And that's coming from me."
"This isn't a mission, blockhead," Snow said, turning to the redhead with a manic glare. The panicked frenzy in her blue orbs scared the crap out of him, although he'd never admit that. He noticed the way she was frantically avoiding looking at the dead body. He'd never seen her like this.
"I need to step out," Skye said, covering her mouth and flying to the bathroom at top speed.
"Where are the police? Where the hell are the police?" Nell repeated over and over again as she paced in the air.
"Wow, you guys you really can't handle pressure," Ray said, looking to Bonnie with concern. She was actually crying, but honestly, Reed looked like he was about to cry too. Aidan wasn't judging. This freaked him the hell out.
"Guys, we need to get out of here," he said, walking out of the Employees Only room and into the shop. "We're warlocks. They're gonna think it was us. We gotta go."
"No!" Snow said suddenly, clutching his arm. "You can't leave!"
Aidan yanked his arm out of her surprisingly strong gasp and asked, "What's your problem? You're Alfea fairies. You won't get in any trouble. Chill out."
"This isn't about that, you idiot!" she shouted, hovering over him again. "There is a dead body on the other side of that door and we are all witnesses."
Aidan shrugged away from her as she made a mad reach for his arm again. "Not my problem. Cabal Knights, let's go."
"Guys..." Scylla called warily from inside the room. "Something's happening."
Everyone made their way back to the room where Scylla was still kneeling next to the dead man in horror with Reed still standing behind her, just as wide-eyed and terrified as he had been when he found her. All eyes were fixed on the body, however. As the fairies and warlocks watched, the tear tracks coming from the dead man's eyes started to flow more heavily until water encased his entire body and spread onto the floor. Reed quickly grabbed Scylla by the shoulders and yanked her off the ground. The water kept spreading until it wrapped around the man entirely and then it started shrinking. The body started to disappear before their very eyes and before they knew it, all that was left of him was a teardrop on the ground and the blood on Scylla's hands.
That's when the police showed up.
What happened next was a blur of questions and interrogations but finally, once the sun had set, they determined that neither the Magix Club nor the Cabal Knights were guilty.
"What now?" Snow asked the group once they were finally allowed to leave the coffee shop.
"Nothing," Aidan answered. "We forget this ever happened and move on."
"We can't just ignore this," Nell said, crossing her tanned arms over her chest. It was wrapped in sparkly yellow fabric and somehow over the course of the day, she had stained it with blood. Aidan wondered if it would be there the next time she transformed into her Winx form or if magic worked the same way as bleach. "We are the only people who saw what happened in that back room. If another murder like this happens and we haven't done anything about this, that blood will be on our hands."
Aidan noticed out of the corner of his eye the way that Scylla stared down at her hands as if she could still see the blood that she had washed off. Now that they weren't soaked with red bodily fluids, he could see that sometime over the summer Scylla had begun biting her nails. The black nail polish was making a valiant effort of standing up against her new idiosyncrasy, but apparently, it was no match for her high anxiety levels and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
"You can do whatever the hell you want," Electro said, towering over Nell even when she was hovering a few inches off of the ground. "You're not dragging us into this. Have a nice night."
With that, he conjured a swirling green portal to Murmire and took a step through. Marin and Ray immediately followed him. Nell flew away in disgust and Bonnie followed, still sniffling slightly. Ruby turned up her nose at the remaining Knights and followed her friends back to Alfea.
"What the hell just happened?" Skye murmured, putting her head in her hands. She still looked a little sick.
Snow placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder before abruptly turning to hover angrily over Aidan again.
"How can you be so cold?" she accused. He decided that now was not the right time to point out that she was the snow fairy and he was the pyromancer, so he just stayed silent. "There are bad guys and there are villains. You're crossing a line."
He rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the way her words settled down in his brain and made themselves at home.
"I always knew you were bad, but evil? That can't be you."
With those words, she flew away into the night. Aidan rolled his eyes.
"Like you know who I am," he said, but it was too late and she was too far away to hear him. Skye followed her into the air.
Aidan turned around to walk through the portal and noticed Thorn giving him one of his signature looks. It made him feel guilty, but he didn't know why. Aidan glared at Thorn in hopes that it would filter the effect of his soul-seeing gaze. It didn't; he just felt worse.
Thorn walked through the portal, having been completely unaffected by Aidan's glare, so the redheaded teen went to follow when he remembered to check for Reed. The youngest warlock was easily distracted and got left behind more often than he liked to admit. Aidan always made sure to check for the quiet boy before leaving.
The magenta-haired warlock was still hovering around Scylla who looked like she would collapse at any moment. The shaky girl was staring at her hands so distraughtly that for a brief second, Aidan actually felt pity. The feeling was soon replaced with annoyance that Reed was holding them up.
"Reed, come on!" he called.
That seemed to shock the traumatized fairy out of her stupor and she realized that everyone else had left. The Solarian lady jumped when she saw that Reed was standing behind her. Giving him a small smile and a curt nod, Scylla flew away into the night, leaving Reed behind on the ground.
"Hurry up, Reed!" Aidan called again. The boy in question scurried over to the portal red-faced with his head ducked down. Aidan smirked as Reed jumped through the portal, too embarrassed to look at his leader. His smirk dropped, however, when he felt the unsettling feeling of somebody watching him. He looked back over his shoulder, but all he could see was the tranquil scene of a city asleep. The feeling never left him, even as he disappeared through the portal and reappeared in his dorm in Murmire. It chased him all the way to bed and deep into his dreams.
Red.
The first thing he noticed was that everything was red. It was dripping down the walls, onto the floor, over chipped black nails, into snow-white hair. It was like everything suddenly became red. There was a door and four walls, but then water suddenly rushed through the door and the walls were gone and he was drowning.
He struggled to stay afloat as heinous laughter filled the not-room. The water tasted salty on his lips and it was red too. It started to consume him. He was disappearing. It was so fucking cold.
A bright light flashed and he was enveloped in flames from head to foot. The warmth drove him upwards until he was face to face with eyes that saw the entire world. He was floating high above Magix and someone else was here with him. It was someone good, he could tell, but he had no idea who yet.
"I am yours and you are mine," a voice rumbled from everywhere. The eyes blinked and for a second all light disappeared before they opened again and the warmth returned.
"I don't understand. I have to be-"
He cut himself off because he had no idea where he had to be.
"This is where you have to be," the voice said. It was coming from somewhere inside of him and it urged him to look down. He could see all five schools of Magix. They were much closer together than he had previously believed.
"Who are you?" he asked the eyes because he felt the warmth slowly diminishing as the eyes grew further and further away.
"I am yours and you are mine," the voice rumbled again, echoing through the universe and bouncing off of each planet. The blast of sound sent him plummeting back to Magix and back into his own body where he awoke in a cold sweat.
Flinging himself out of bed, Aidan took to pacing around the room until the dawn. Three hours later, that's how Thorn found him: sleep-deprived and running grooves into the carpet.