A/N: Hey everyone, thank you for all the reviews so far. It's nice hearing your responses.
If possible, I do try to answer questions by DM people personally if I can. Otherwise, I'll try answering questions at the end of a chapter (if you want me to)
Anyways, here's to Chapter 5. A very, very long chapter.
±HynotisisAnime Reader±
Flora walked along the halls of Cloud Tower - it was lunchtime, meaning that majority of the witches would be in the dining hall. It was the perfect opportunity to attack - with all of the staff locked up deep in Cloud Tower's dungeons, the headmistress turned into a bird (thanks to the Trix), and with one Trix down and the other two on halt, there seemed to be nothing to get in her way.
She located the Cloud Tower cafeteria and made her way there; she took the time to look at the gloomy furniture and atmosphere, which made her eyes glow up with glee, had her heart racing and seemed to fill her up with excitement. Soon she would dethrone the Trix and take over the school as her own, and begin her plotting mission.
Once she had located the doors to the cafeteria, she stayed there, silently for a few minutes. During those few minutes, there were no witches coming in nor out of the room. During those few minutes, she was hearing the chatters of witches (the doors weren't soundproof), and it seemed quite busy. It seemed - no - it was the perfect opportunity to strike. A Darcy nor Stormy wasn't within her sight, so no one (most likely), wouldn't stop her until the near end.
Once the few minutes went, she started by (silently) putting a spell to disable all the magic within the room; this way, no one would be able to escape to tell 'authority' or use magic against her.
None of the witches in the cafeteria took notice of this.
Next Flora (using Icy's magic), froze the doors of the cafeteria. There wasn't a specific purpose behind it, apart from the fact she wanted to make a dramatic entrance.
Now things started to get suspicious; the freshmen witches were starting to get scared, whilst the junior and senior witches brushed it off - they have done - and seen worst things than ice on the door.
But suddenly, the door started to crack (because of the ice), and the freshmen witches were frightened out of their minds, with a few even starting to cry. Some older witches took to taunting them, but others started to get suspicious - Icy, was the only person the witches of Cloud Tower knew who had the power of ice. The last time any of the witches heard of her, was an announcement in the morning that she was going off somewhere and that Darcy was in charge. Fifteen minutes before the lunch hour, some witches saw a distressed Darcy, and when asked if she was ok or if Icy had returned, the answer remained the same: "Leave me alone". So it was either that Icy had come back, which was very unlikely by the looks of Darcy, or someone else was using the power of ice.
As the door started to form bigger cracks, more and more witches got suspicious, some putting their hands up ready for defence. It was when a senior witch, who wasn't really taking the commotion seriously, started walking up to the door shouting out the words of "Pathetic Twits" over and over again, that the door finally shattered into shards of ice, melting because of the room temperature.
The witch looked up to see a grinning Flora, who in turn was looking down at the witch herself. Flora used her magic to shield the door with ice shards and many different species of plants. Still looking down at the senior witch, Flora then proceeded to wrap the girl in vines and choke her, laughing at her suffering - many witches just looked at the event, scared to help in case they too will face a similar fate. The chocking continued until it was sure that the girl didn't have a pulse anymore - the witch then flung the now dead senior on to the floor, near a freshman, who seemed horrified just by looking at the corpse and went somewhere else.
All the witches (yes, all the witches), now grasped full attention on Flora.
And then the full action began to unravel. Flora began to attack with spells left, right and centre, attacking any witch/es that she could see. The older witches tried to attack with their magic back at her, with many younger students trying to use their magic to protect themselves from attacks... but all came apparent quickly - somehow the magic had been disabled from the room, and soon the witches were in full panic. Many of them tried to throw any nearby objects at the nature witch or defend themselves with the tables and chairs... all of this, however, was obliterated. When there were little objects left to defend with, many witches started running around the area, trying their best not to be hit by the now fatal blows, with some (mainly older ones), noting there was no point in running and let themselves get hit. By this time, it had been ten minutes since the whole incident started, and out of the eight hundred witches in the cafeteria, around two hundred and fifty of them had died.
At some point, a witch managed to break one of the windows and escaped via there. With her powers not bound from the spell, she went and hurried to look for one of the Trix. It took her five minutes, but in the end, she managed to find Darcy, who was in a dorm room, on a bed just looking at the scenery outside her. The door was open, but the witch didn't take any notice of this, instead just banging the door with all her strength.
"What?" asked Darcy in a groggy tone, as she turned around to face the witch. She was out of her Dark Witch outfit and was instead in a loose, purple dress. Her hair was still in a ponytail.
"Cafeteria... witch... attack... danger..." breathlessly replied the witch who had just started to regain her breath.
"Calm down. I can barely try to make out what you're saying"
The witch regained her breath, took a deep breath and explained fully what was going on:
"In the cafeteria, some witch had just appeared and she attacked everyone in there. Everyone. She must've put on a spell on the cafeteria because none of us could manage to summon up our magic, so we were left with chairs, benches, tables and anything else we could find to defend ourselves..."
Darcy took some notice but overall didn't seem integrated.
"...and then when all of that obliterated, we were left with basically nothing to defend ourselves. So the witch started to attack harder... so hard that witches started dying packs at a time. By the time I managed to escape, there were quite a handful of corpses scattered across the room"
"Couldn't you just like... use the front door or something? Why did you have to 'escape'?"
"Because the witch barricaded the doors with shards of ice and some sort of vines. I had only managed to break one of the windows while the chaos was pursuing, before exiting. After that... the witch barricaded all the windows as well, so there was no escape for the rest. I was the only one who escaped."
Darcy perked at the line 'shards of ice'. Now she was interested.
"And what exactly did this witch look like?"
"Well..." the witch thought "I know she had brownish hair... She wore something resemblant of dark green..."
That was enough for the dark witch. Darcy simply put on some slippers and went out of the dorm, dragging the witch with her. She ran across the halls all the way back down to the ground floor, where the cafeteria was.
But it appeared that Flora did a bit more than 'attack the cafeteria'. As she progressed towards the bottom floor of the school, the building seemed more and more disintegrated, and a strange air fell over her. The witch accompanied by her started to slow down, as so did she. Darcy's face fell as she saw all sorts of plants as well as green ice grow uncontrollably all over the school (mainly the corners). As for the students, there were some shell-shocked from the events in the cafeteria, some corpses wrapped in the weeds and others trying to escape the grasps of the plants - those who were caught suffocated in the plant's hands until death.
Darcy and the witch stopped just outside a classroom and looked shockingly at the state of the school. This could mean only one thing...
Flora... what the hell have you done?
Unfortunately for Darcy, just at that very exact moment, a wave of green-purple magic swooped the witch of darkness in the blink of the other witch's eye. The witch, now having no one for protection, ran from the plants that now roamed Cloud Tower.
In another room, Darcy had just woken up from the hit from earlier and was tied to a pole. It had appeared she was in the middle as to her left, she could see Stormy, and to her right, Selina.
"Stormy...?" Darcy wearingly said
Stormy had turned to her right to see Darcy. Just like Darcy, she too was also just recovering from her hit, "Darcy? Is..is that you?"
"Yeah." Darcy turned to her right and saw Selina, "what about you?"
"Not that bad." Selina turned to look at the Legendarium. She then turned to see Darcy, who had the same, saddened expression as her. "I would get her out, but I have no free hands right now. Summoning someone requires both hands."
Darcy then turned to face the centre again. Just as she did, the door creaked open. All three witches stared at the door to see who it was. Was it Icy, who turned out to be just fine? Was it the Winx who had come to save them (even though they didn't like them one bit, they had to admit that their presence would be very useful at this point in time). But no. Flora, of all people, had to put her high-heeled boots first, before her face peeped in the room, as her whole body entered.
Stormy started to violently move, as she was struggling to get out of the dark witch's thorny wrap. Stormy hated Flora out of all the people in the room - she hated her even more as she caged her in vines and she laughed at her futile attempts to break free. This made Stormy even more irritated and seemed to release an even stronger reaction to which Flora laughed even harder.
"Do you actually think you're going to get out of there?" Flora asked while hastily laughing at her attempt to get out "Please, you look silly even trying."
"Yeah..." started an enraged Stormy, "and when I get out, I'm going to strike you right where you're standing. I'm going to beat you so hard that you'll bleed tears by the time I'm done with you."
Stormy continued her struggle, whilst Flora walked up to her and cast a spell to put her in a deep sleep. "Oh please, you wouldn't defeat me even if you tried. Remember all those times when you fought me, calling me a weakling, yet I still came out victorious? Yeah right - so stop claiming that you'll beat me up, because you and I both know who will end up victorious." the witch whispered to the storm witch's ear. It sent chills towards Darcy and Selina; how could one sound so reassuring and calm yet so threatening and violent at the same time?
"Where's Icy?" Darcy asked, "What did you do to her?"
"What?" Flora started "You haven't heard? I thought you would be mourning by now."
"Mourning?"
"Yes. Mourning." Flora turned her back towards the dark witch and started to walk towards the door.
Darcy gritted through her teeth "What have you done to her? What are you not telling me?"
Flora continued walking.
"Flora? Flora? FLORA!" Darcy had had enough.
The former nature fairy then turned around to face the witches. "So. You really want to know. Do you?"
Darcy and Selina nodded their heads. Stormy was still in deep slumber.
Flora gave a long, thundering sigh, then gave a grudgingly, one-worded answer: "Fine."
She then proceeded to tell the witches:
"Once the former ice witch had lost all strength to continue, I knew it was time. She stood no chance of beating me, and would never beat me in the first place anyway. Of course, when she first came, she was a perfect, porcelain princess, but I reduced her to rubble in less than half an hour... when I first looked at her deficient state of body, I wasn't sure if I should kill or take. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to kill, but also to take. You saw that - didn't you?"
"Of course I did. We all did. Now get on with it."
"As I said, I didn't know if I should kill or take. But in the end, I realised that the latter option would be better - so take I chose. I imposed a spell on her that dug deep into her icy source. I knew that taking her powers was just scratching her surface - but the ice in her heart... well."
Darcy's eyes widened. Selina looked shocked. Stormy was just starting to wake from her slumber.
"Hey, what's happening?" the storm witch asked.
"Nothing... just a story," Flora replied.
"Continue." Darcy bluntly said. Her voice was starting to get on an edge. One the younger sister knew too well.
"Yeah..." Flora resumed "...so after that happened, the ice witch fell weak on to the ground. She was helpless! Crawling around like that, nothing to defend her. Little to no energy in her. Her skin was turning pale than usual. She looked tired, poor, poor thing" Flora laughed as she said that. "Well... at least she wasn't cold... not yet."
Stormy's mouth widened. Darcy looked in shock. Selina the same.
"You..." Darcy started, "Don't tell me..."
"Yes, I will tell you. It was easy to just fling her to the middle of nowhere. With her out of the way, I used her magic to curse the place into a winter-nature wonderland... There was snow everywhere, icicles coming out everywhere, ice plants - dangerous ice plants implanted everywhere. Plant monsters. Venus Flytraps, Rosary Peas, the whole thing! A wonderland just for me!"
"But... but what about Icy?" the storm witch asked.
"Well, Storm Storm... as for your sister, I encased her in an icicle trap, filled with plants and icicles. But as you see, the temperature in that trap was way colder than outside. And with the added wind in the trap, no clothing for the cold, and already on the edge of death. Well, it seemed like there was only one possible outcome out of all of this."
"No. You don't mean that she's... she's..."
"Yes Stormy." the witch interrupted "as we speak she's probably almost on her death bed... her skin ice cold and covered with frost. Her movements weak and lifeless - eyes shutting off, heart about to stop in about a flash... heck! She might already be dead." The witch smirked and then started manically laughing. It sent chills up to Darcy, Selina and Stormy especially, in shock about what new information they just received.
"And so, Icy, the former ice witch, the former leader of the Trix, will die from hypothermia and other, minor causes. It was so sad that she had to perish at such a young, lively age when she had so much potential, so much more the world had to offer to her. So, so sad that she had to die before experiencing all the other wonders of life." there was no remorse nor regret in Flora's voice. She didn't seem to be fazed by it - it was nice to see the witches' reactions.
"But I'm sure you'll get over it. Like every other time. You'll always find a way." Flora gave a big smirk to the other three witches.
But that grin was the final straw for the storm witch - she screamed in sorrow, sadness and anger and tears started to slide off her face. Stormy then conjured enough energy to break herself free of Flora's trap before pouncing on the nature witch and attacking her on the ground.
The fight seemed to go on for quite a while, Stormy giving a few blows and kicks to the witch, whilst Flora focused on dodging them, still glued on to the ground - Stormy seemed to have the upper hand for quite a while, until Flora kicked her off her, and started to exchange a few attacks of her own, eventually overpowering the storm witch. In the process of the fight, Stormy had freed Darcy and Selina from their traps, but they decided not to get involved in the fight.
Once Flora was seen clearly as the winner of the two, she levitated the three witches high up (almost) to the ceiling. The three of them struggled to break free of her grasp.
Flora let out a grotesque smile, which disturbed Selina very much, "You all are so funny." the nature witch pointed a finger at Stormy "You should've never challenged me", before pointing the finger at Darcy "I really don't know why you wanted that story in the first place", before placing the finger at Selina "and you... I don't know about you. Except you're a fool for even joining them. You could've saved yourself from a lot of trouble."
"Maybe. But I'd rather be stuck with them with a lot of trouble, than running around Cloud Tower under the likes of you." Selina stated - it was the first time in a long time that she ever said anything. Darcy let out a smile.
Flora sighed, "you are really naive... aren't you?". The nature witch then flew up to Selina and grabbed her Legendarium from her belt. "and I'll be taking that for the meantime."
"Hey!" Selina screamed as she recognised what was happening. She tried to grab the book back from the witch's grasp, but all Flora did was tease the living hell out of her... putting the book close to her so she can reach it, and pulled it back to her when she was just about to. This went back and forth for some time until Flora got bored and made the book disappear out of plain sight.
"Where did my book go!?" Selina demanded.
"None of your business. It's my book now. I do what I want with it." Flora snarled. She bought the three witches closer to her.
"What about Icy?" Darcy asked.
"Yeah... tough luck!" Darcy's eyes widened in shock.
Flora then swung the three witches round and round, before aiming them at the window, where they flung out of. With the remaining three witches out, the witches paralysed out of fear, and no other powerful authority near her that could stop her, she let out an evil laugh. Cloud Tower is now all hers; no one could stop her. The nature witch then flew to the headmistresses office, where she would take control of the school itself.
Flora's magic was so powerful, that it had managed to take Darcy, Stormy and Selina all the way to Alfea, whilst at the same time, deprive them of any magic they had for a temporary amount of time. Too weak to do anything, the last of Stormy's magic gave in, and her Dark Witch outfit changed to her civilian one, as well as Darcy and Selina's magic also giving up on them. The three of them starting to fall down helplessly as they were deprived of so much energy.
The Winx were cleaning up the mess after their battle with Flora. Just as Musa was cleaning up the sides of the window, she saw three figures (she didn't know what they were), falling out of the sky and about to land just outside the entrance of Alfea.
"Hey, look" Musa announced, getting the other four's attention.
Aisha, Tecna, Stella and Bloom ran to the window where they saw the figures fall down and hit the ground. For around two minutes, they didn't move a bit and looked like they weren't going to be cold turkey for some time. With worry growing on their faces, the Winx spent no time wasting and ran outside to where the bodies were.
The faces of those bodies were lying flat on the ground, so when Bloom lifted up the head of one of those bodies, she put her hands over her mouth in shock.
"Bloom. What's wrong?" Tecna asked
"One of those bodies..." Bloom started "is Darcy."
"Which means that those 'bodies' are the Trix!" exclaimed Stella, who took two steps back.
Musa and Aisha lifted up the other two heads, who revealed to be Stormy and Selina themselves. Stella and Tecna examined the area.
"Where's Icy?" Aisha asked suspiciously "shouldn't she be here?"
"Well, there's no sight of her anywhere, so I assume she's not here", Tecna concluded.
"Nah, I still think this could be a setup."
"But look Aisha." Aisha turned to her leader who was now talking "The three of them are out cold, and they don't look like they can put up a fight. And besides, they just fell from the sky for some apparent reason."
Aisha nodded in agreement, "but I still think that something fishy is going on. The Trix are accompanied by Icy most if not all the time."
"If they were going without Icy, surely they would've attacked by now. And they have Selina with them."
All of the Winx thought about this for a moment.
"But let's not worry about that right now. We need to get them help as soon as possible. It's like their magic is fading away." Bloom said as she felt Darcy's skin, "Musa, Stella, help me carry them up to the dorm. Aisha, Tecna, you tell Faragonda about this." All the Winx nodded in agreement and did as they were told. Stella wrapped Stormy round her back, whilst Musa carried Selina on her back (as she shuddered at the thought of carrying Stormy around, especially after all the things she did to her), and the trio went up to their dorm.
Meanwhile, Aisha and Tecna were running to Headmistress's Faragonda's office. Aisha looked out of the windows they were running past and saw bits of lightning. they weren't really major, but it definitely got her gears whirring. She looked out of the window in suspicion for a brief moment, then looked forward again, heading straight towards the Headmistress's door.
Aisha trusted her leader most of the time. Most. Today was not that day. Keeping to her beliefs that she announced to Bloom earlier on, Aisha looked out of the window one last time before entering Faragonda's room.
There's definitely something fishy going on here. Aisha thought to herself.
A/N: Finally done with this chapter! I know, it is very long. Sorry if the last paragraph sounds all wiffy-waffy.
Next chapter will include more Winx, and toning down on the Trix.
±HynotisisAnime Reader±