In the last chapter Musa's father was listening to her aunt a lot. I kinda wanted to make Musa's father the 'absentee parent'. I mean there is no way that a king has a lot of time to spend with his kids. So since he doesn't have time to spend with Musa, he employed the help of her aunt and uses her to make Musa more of a princess since he was hardly a good example. So that way she could one day grow up and be a great queen. .That's why her dad was so willing to listen to her aunt.

Anyway, back to the story…

The Army of Decay

The Crescendian Embassy was a buzz when some of the staff walked into the upper lounge to see the princess of the Harmonic Nebula asleep comfortably on the couch, nestled in the arms of the prince of Crescendo. What was a completely innocent night, that consisted of talking and eating had been construed into a million different things, all before either of the two had even awoken from their sleep.

Daniel was the first to wake and notice that he and Musa had become the center of the embassy's gossip when he noticed that there were like four people staring at the two of them sleep. "Don't you guys have jobs to do," He said sleepily when he opened his eyes, as they quickly scurried away to where they were supposed to be. The only people allowed upstairs were people from the immediate royal family, but the workers tended to be less wary of the rules when it was just Daniel there.

Seconds later the musical princess woke from her sleep as she felt sunrays falling down upon her as well as feeling Daniel move a bit. "What time is it?" Musa didn't bother get up or even move, opening her eyes was enough work for now.

"Morning – ish," Daniel answered, laying his head back against the wall and closing his eyes once again. "Hey guess what?" he asked with his eyes still closed and a half of a smirk playing on his lips.

"hmm?" Musa groaned sleepily, still not bothering to move at all. She laid there, knowing she should have been getting up, but the warm morning wind made her want to lie back and relax.

"We slept together…again," He said knowing how lame the joke actually was, but he had missed hearing Musa chastises him for having stupid and inappropriate jokes, and he had missed her laugh.

"That's why I fell asleep so early," Musa quipped back playing along.

"Yeah, I guess I wore you out,"

"That or you bored me to sleep," This time Musa began to get up, since Daniel hadn't given her an actual time except 'morningish'. She rubbed her eyes and began to get up when Daniel noticed something on her shoulder.

"Hey, what's that," Daniel asked looking to Musa's shoulder as she sat up. "I saw that earlier this morning,"

"Examining me while I sleep," Musa said through a yawn as she stood up and threw her pillow at Daniel. He was looking at a bruise she had gotten when the girls had last run into the witches, it was weeks ago, but it was a harsh dark magic attack from Stormy and it left a mark that didn't seem to want to leave. "That's not creepy,"

"It's hard not to notice that bruise," Daniel said looking at her shoulder once again. Musa secretly thanked her aunt for making her wear that outfit at dinner so that they couldn't ask about the abrasion on her shoulder themselves. It would have only helped their argument against Alfea. She wasn't exactly sure what to say to this, she knew telling him it was witches that attacked her and gave her the bruise probably wouldn't go over so well so she lied.

"Defense against dark arts," Musa stated. "We had an assignment and I didn't do it so I was kinda behind, so when it came to the practical exam… I kinda failed,"

"They work you girls too hard," Daniel said. There was a stark contrast between the teaching styles at Alfea and Devon, but that was probably because of the student population. 90 percent of the kids at Devon were royals that would be taking their parents' title one day so the school was more geared to learning law and history. While Alfea was a school for coming into one's power, Devon only had a few classes about the use of magic. "I'm surprised I didn't see it last night,"

"Oh you mean when we slept together," Musa joked trying to get off the subject.

"Hell yeah," Daniel said with a raised eyebrow. "You know you liked it,"

"How could I not?"

"Well I've got a lot of practice," Daniel joked referring to his former transgressions as he picked up his cell phone and checked the time. He then looked up to see Musa didn't find him comment very funny. "Too soon?"

"You're an idiot," Musa said as she grabbed her purse from the table. "Besides, why would I want damaged goods?"

"Ouch, what did I ever do to you?" Daniel joked since Musa had decided to make a joke about their breakup after he did; he thought maybe it was safe territory.

"It was more what you did to someone else," Musa stated. She didn't realize how at ease she was with the whole situation. It had been months since they had broken and since she had found out about him cheating on her and she had a lot of time to get over it. And she had, it didn't bother her anymore that Daniel slept with Laurie. Probably because that was only a fraction of the reason that she was upset, not to mention that Musa never really felt too jealous when it came to the Laurie situation either, which told a lot about the type of relationship she and Daniel were meant to have. "I need to be getting to the jet, it's waiting for me,"

"And it will keep waiting," Daniel reminded in an attempt to get her to stay longer. This was the longest time they had spent together since spring break so he was desperately trying to savor it. "I doubt it would leave without the only passenger,"

Musa smiled at his attempt to keep her there, it felt really nice to have things finally falling back into place. "You need to get back to Crescendo or have you forgotten all about the opening of the hospital?" Musa said in a tone mocking its' importance. It was rather funny when royal families did this, they got together at a fundraiser, ate, drank and donated money. Then they felt like they had done some great service to the world.

"I don't even think my dad will notice if I'm there or not," Daniel said honestly as sat back down and stretched out on the couch and put his feet up. "He won't realize I'm not there until one of his advisors tells him,"

"Get up," Musa put her hands on her hips and looked at the prince as he so calmly neglected his duties, sorta like what she was doing now. "You go home and I'm off to school. Let's, for once, do what we're supposed to be doing,"

"And not be a pain in the ass for out parents'," Daniel said sarcastically. "Who are you?"

"Daniel," Musa pressed on. This was like old times, Daniel sitting around not wanting to do much of anything if it required him to have to speak with his parents, while Musa tried to coerce him into doing what was right.

"Musa," He said in imitating Musa's tone. But after a few more seconds of them staring at each other waiting for the other to break and say something, Daniel let Musa win that one. "Fine, fine, you win,"

"I always do," Musa said with a smug smile, giving herself a look over. She looked fine and was ready to get back to Alfea and redeem herself for the less then perfect behavior. Musa grabbed her things as Daniel began to walk her out of the embassy.

"Only when I let you," He challenged.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night,"

"Fine whatever you win," Daniel said as he walked Musa over to the limo that was parked outside since the night before. "As long as I get my best friend back!"

Daniel picked Musa up into a hug and swung her around like a rag doll for a few seconds in sheer happiness. "So I see you missed me," Musa said through a laugh. She pulled away from Daniel and looked up at him with a smile. The warm spring breeze brushed past the two sending a million memories flooding back of all the time they spent together in the park at school on days like this. There was no word to explain how good it felt to have him back in her life.

"You know it,"

Musa was unable to resist hugging him once again. It just felt so good. "I will see you when I get home for summer,"

"That's too long," Daniel complained as he pulled away. "You need to visit more,"

"I guess now I have a reason to, again," Musa said with a smile and got into the limo as Daniel held the door open. "I'll see you soon,"

"Yeah, don't miss me too much," He said standing at the door as it closed. Musa smiled and waved to him through the window as the limo pulled away from the embassy.

Her trip back home was to ensure that she would be staying at Alfea, and in terms of that, she had failed her objective. But the excursion was hardly a waste of time. She had finally, after months of sadness, gotten on good terms with Daniel again and now Musa was going to try to keep a good attitude about what was going on in her life.

No more breaking curfew or hitting people. Musa told herself as she stepped off the jet and back onto Magixian soil. It was early morning and the sun was just beginning to peak through the night sky. She wondered if Bloom had gotten back to the dorm or not and if Stella had gotten caught since she knew that Stella had probably left the school in search of Bloom even against all of her advisement.

If she kept her grades up and finished the year with no problems, she could probably convince her dad to let her continue to attend Alfea. And if not, Musa was beginning to think that maybe going back to Devon wasn't the worst thing that could happen. She know knew that she could keep in touch with friends and still stay as close as ever, even when they are far apart.

One good thing about a long flight was that Musa actually managed to get to Magix two hours before she had left the Harmonic Nebula, thanks to the time difference. Musa walked back onto the Alfea quad and noticed that the entire dance team was a buzz with news. They were walking out of the dance studio after what Musa could only guess was practice. What consumed them to wake up so early and dance was beyond her comprehension, but as long as they didn't make her practice with them, it didn't matter.

"So how was your trip?" Naurelle said rubbing a towel on her forehead as she and the rest of the team approached the fairy.

"Alright I guess," Musa said through a yawn. She didn't get any sleep on the jet, she had gotten a myriad of calls from Nate, Penelope, Leslie, Duke and everyone of her close friends that had found that that she and Daniel had finally made up. Nate had been the first to know since he was in Crescendo and managed to guess why his best friend was practically walking on air. And from there he had told Leslie who went on to tell everyone else in their circle. So naturally Musa got a million calls from her exuberant friends. "No decisions have been made,"

"Seriously! What the fu-," Whitney began but was immediately stopped by Naurelle.

"Can you keep the cursing down to a minimum, I mean it's before sunrise," Naurelle teased.

"First I can't drink before noon and now this," Whitney complained. "You guys suck,"

"Oh we have a bit of gossip," Ali said ignoring Whitney, hoping it would get Musa's mind off of the current problem, not going to Alfea the next year. "The witches in cloud tower have three new students. Well not new… the Trix sisters are back in,"

"How can they be back! Didn't they get expelled?" Musa had taken a lot of comfort in knowing that the witches were expelled from Cloud Tower, especially since all they bragged about was being seniors. Now all they were was dropouts and it felt good to know that they had fallen, especially Darcy.

"I thought they did too," Whitney replied. "But I was talking to Ashley who knows that girl Lexie, who goes to Cloud Tower, and she said that the witches were back in the school. That's all I know,"

"I guess that school will take anyone," Ali said. She wasn't the biggest fan of the Cloud Tower students either. Even through there was a clear rivalry between the two school, a lot of the fairies at Alfea had some friends over at Cloud Tower. Ali however didn't like the school in the slightest; she had grown up with a bit of a prejudice against them. Hundreds of years ago witches were basically burned at the stake because they had dark magic and as time passed governments and people had come to see that not all of them would be using the dark magic for evil. But, some places in the universe still had a very clear hierarchy and witches were considered second class citizens. (1) "Ugh…witches,"

Musa tired not to pay attention to Ali's obvious prejudice, she was taught since she was a baby that witches were bad so it was hardly her fault that she had the wrong idea. And it wasn't as if the girls from Cloud Tower tried to show her that they could be nice, so she continued to think what she wanted. "I'm sure they'll get kicked out again soon,"

"Who cares?" Ali snapped at the group. "We have bigger fish to fry, let's not waste any time talking about those people,"

"Bigger fish?" Whitney questioned.

"Yeah, I would tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," Ali said as she pulled Musa away form the other girls. "But I promise you'll love it!"

"So what are we going to be doing about Karen?" Musa asked knowing the conversation was going to drift that way. The two began to walk into the slumbering school and discussed their plot quietly.

"Well if she wants to get you kicked outta here," Ali began. "I say we beat her to the punch,"

"But I don't wanna leave!"

"Okay I may have worded that incorrectly. I didn't mean you, let's get Karen's ass kicked out of here,"

Musa looked at Ali with the uncontrollable desire to slap her upside the head. There was no way that Karen was going to do anything that was remotely against the rules. "Please, Karen isn't going to give us any opportunity to do so. I mean come on I doubt that she would be so stupid as to leave a loophole in her plan,"

"So we'll create one," Ali said as the two walked into the school and over to her dorm room. "The way I see it, she has this coming to her since you did absolutely nothing to start this…right?"

"I guess," Musa said a bit unsure of where Ali was going with this. She knew what Ali was doing, she was making sure Musa wouldn't stop half way through their plan and feel remorse. The last time they plotted against Karen, Ali was the one who did most of the planning and even after that Musa couldn't help but feel guilty. But now, Karen had gone too far. She had actually gone to her palace and told on her like an angry five year old. "I mean what are we going to do, call Tony Soprano and get her whacked?"

"Hahaha….whacked," Ali giggled as she opened her room door. "Okay well I've done some thinking and you know how we kinds embellished on her school record, well why not try it with her legal one?"

"Because she's the only daughter of nobility and if we get caught we're in deep shit," Musa warned, there was only so much they could do to Karen without actually getting into trouble themselves and messing with the law was not something Musa wanted to get into. Besides, the last thing she needed was to get into more trouble here.

"Please, we out rank her," Ali said trying to persuade Musa. (2). "Besides, with enough money everyone will keep their mouths shut. I'm sure the chief of police will do what we say after he gets my families generous donation to the MPD. (3).

"I think that's a little too far, Ali,"

"Well think about it," Ali said as she quickly grabbed her bag and walked back out of her room. "I have to go for a quick run then I'm busy till later today, but get back to me," Ali had some unnatural obsession with running, she said that it was the greatest high in the universe, while some of the less motivated students in Magix would differ, she never missed out on her morning runs.

"Fine," Musa said as she and Ali walked in separate directions in the hallway. She got back to her dorm room and quietly opened the door. It was still ridiculously early and Musa figured she could still get in a few more hours of sleep before her one and only class of the day.

Musa stealthfully snuck back into her room, but not before tripping over her own two feet and smacking her head against the desk. She stood and rubbed her head, how was it that she was graceful when dancing, but walking a straight line was difficult? She looked around the room; Techna was sleeping peacefully in her bed, and changed into her pajamas. She wondered again if Bloom was back, but she had no energy to check, not to mention, but she had noticed that Stella wasn't in her room, everything she did made noise. It was as if making notice was a part of her genetic code, she very rarely did anything quietly, the only time she went unnoticed was when she mange dot put up sound barriers so others wouldn't hear her.

After falling asleep for a few hours, Musa was awake after she heard Flora say something and open her bedroom door. The downside to having such sensitive hearing was that she could hear everything that went bump in the night. "Hey Flo, what's up it's like 8am, keep it down,"

"I thought I heard something," The floral fairy said through a yawn and then turned the light in the hallway on. "Bloom's back!"

Musa had figured Bloom would be coming back at some point since she had seen Stella's room empty earlier that morning. "Bloom!" Musa said happily as she and Techna left their room and walked out into the hallway to see Bloom and Stella standing in front of the door.

"You guys don't know how good it is to see you guys," Bloom said with a bittersweet smile.

"Why what happened?" Techna asked as they all walked over to the coffee table and sat around it and listened to Bloom recount her little misadventure.

"The witches followed me home and they stole my power," Bloom summed up into one sentence.

"Oh my goodness!" Flora gasped.

"Wait what do you mean 'stole your powers'," Musa asked. She had heard of powers being lessened through a spell, hell it was a punishment here. But she had never heard of someone having their powers stolen. She did hear about people having their powers stripped when they committed high crimes, but it was usually temporary until a proper holding facility was found.

"They just took them," Bloom said as she put her face into her hands and looked down to the floor. "I dunno how, but now I can't even change into my Winx. I really don't know how it happened, but they are gone and I don't know what I'm supposed to do,"

"We'll figure it out," Stella said. "They stole my ring before, I think we can get your powers back,"

"I think it's a little different, Stella," Musa pointed out.

" I don't think so,"

"I do,"

"Look nobody else is leaving Alfea alright!" Stella said frustrated. Stella rarely showed it when she was vulnerable, unlike Techna, Bloom and Flora, she was also pretty stuck in her pride and hated it when people saw her weak. But Musa could see that loosing her friends made her on edge. "So just deal with it!"

"I never said I was leaving!"

"Wait what?" Bloom interrupted. She looked up at Musa with the same confusion that she had when Musa had found out about her powers.

"My dad wants to pull me out of Alfea," Musa explained quickly. She really didn't want to rehash everything that had gone on her trip home so she would make this quick. "So after you left yesterday. Ms. F told me that I had to go home and talk to him, I just got back earlier this morning,"

"Oh,"

"You don't look half bad for a girl who got jacked by a bunch of witches," Musa pointed out trying to maker her feel better and trying to change the subject from herself and back to Bloom, she would tell the whole story later, but now she was sleepy and all she really wanted to do was get back to sleep.

"Indeed Miss Bloom, why don't you tell us the story," The girls turned quickly and Musa flinched at the voice that they had just heard come through the door. Standing there in the doorway was none other than Griselda and she had managed to catch Bloom's return to Alfea. They were all sort of hoping that her leaving Alfea against direct orders would just be glossed over when they served their punishment, but no such luck.

"What's up Miss G?" Stella said nervously.

"I was hoping Bloom could tell me that, what's up Bloom," Right then Musa had the overwhelming desire to laugh, but she stifled it considering the situation. Hearing someone Griselda's age say that and with that accent, it was like hearing her aunt use slang.

Musa snapped out of her day dreaming about seeing her aunt act like that to watch Bloom try to get herself out of this situation. She didn't know if she should try to help Bloom out since she really did need to be on her best behavior.

"Well… I um, I was going to –," Bloom stammered facing the fear of getting in trouble once again.

"Yes well we have something to talk about now don't we," Griselda said glaring at the red headed fair "You are needed at Miss Faragonda's office and I suggest you not accidentally walk off of campus once again,"

"That's not fair! Bloom was just att – ," Stella began before she was stopped by Griselda.

"I suggest you keep your mouth shut Princess Stella," Griselda commanded severely. "I don't think you want to be expelled from Alfea for a second time,"

Stella was quick to shut her mouth and the girls stood in the doorway and watched as Bloom followed Griselda out of the room, leaving the dorm as quiet as it was before Boom had arrived back.

"Everything will be fine," Flora said in that ever cheery voice.

"Yeah, remember they were really worried about Bloom yesterday, there's not way the Faragonda will let Bloom leave," Musa encouraged as well.

"Yeah…"

"So how was your trip back home," Stella said as she plopped down on the couch.

Musa walked over to the couch and sat down as well, she was no wide awake and there was no chance that she was going to get back to sleep for awhile. "Okay, my dad is still deciding whether or not to let me stay,"

"Okay so we need to make this place look amazing to him,"

"I don't think that's gonna help, I think I'm gonna try to keep my grades up and hopefully stay out of trouble," Musa explained. "But something good did come out of the trip,"

"See every cloud has it's silver lining," Flora said happily. "So what happened,"

"Daniel and I are finally friends again,"

"That's great sweetie!" Flora exclaimed.

"He finally wore you down," Stella asked. Daniel had been in 'get Musa back' mode for awhile and she knew given some time that the two would eventually figure things out.

"No, actually I accused him of tattling on me to my dad and aunt," Musa said feeling embarrassed about the display in Daniel's dorm. "But it was Karen, and so then I – ,"

"Karen!" Techna scoffed. "I warned you that she would be retaliating…"

"She told on you!" Stella said in shock.

"Yeah," Musa said, the initial shock and anger with her was beginning to wear off , and she was not going to get to anger about this. Sure revenge was imminent, but she was going to get her revenge and finally call this war off, hopefully her final plot for revenge would accomplish that. "But, me falsely accusing him lead to us finally working things out and we're friends again,"

"Well, at least your trip wasn't wasted," Techna pointed out. "Now you and Daniel are friends again, maybe this will help in some way,"

"I hope so," Musa said and walked back into her room to get ready for the day.

Late that day, Techna and Stella went off to class leaving Musa and Flora alone in the room. Musa was in her room, laying in bed thinking about her time at Alfea, particularly about one person when Flora walked in. "Hey Musa do you have any glue?

"Uhh,… yeah in my fist desk drawer," Musa answered as she snapped out of her thoughts and sat up in her bed with a slightly melancholy look. She didn't know why, but she was just feeling down and she didn't know why.

"Are you okay, you seemed sad earlier," Flora asked as she sat at the foot of her bed.

"I dunno, I just feel upset," Musa said and then looked toward her bed covers. "Maybe it's cause I might have to leave… I dunno,"

"I don't think you'll leave," Flora reassured. "We're meant to be here, I just know it,"

"Maybe…" Musa said still not being able to shake the feeling. "Would you ever forgive someone if they betrayed you beyond anything you could have imagined. I mean it's crazy to even consider if they hurt you that much, but would you?"

"Sometimes all you need to forgive someone is the desire for them to be back in your life, if they mean a lot to you then I don't think anything should stand in your way," Flora said. "But, I thought you and Daniel were okay again?"

"Yeah we are," Musa said quickly. When she asked Flora the question, it wasn't Daniel that she was wondering about. Thinking on her feet, Musa made up a quick excuse to hopefully throw the nature fairy off her mistake. "I just don't know if I've gotten past it," Musa lied. She was actually completely past what happened with Daniel, but Riven, that needed some work.

"I think you'll be fine," She reassured her friend after seeing the uncertainty in her face. "I mean if someone is worth having around, they have to at least make an effort to try to redeem themselves after doing something wrong. And Daniel has,"

Riven hadn't done that, as far as she had known he was still with Darcy. Not to mention he was probably tormenting someone as she thought about him. Teaming up with the witches was one thing, but Musa had hoped by now that he would have come to his senses and apologized for his actions. That would have shown real character, but the guys only saw him in their classes and he was hardly ever a topic of discussion. As much as she wanted to believe it wasn't true, maybe Riven was beyond redemption.

But if all you needed was the desire to have them back in your life….

No. It wasn't going to happen. Riven had gone too far with his little rebel act. He had endangered everyone including her and there was no way you forgive someone for aiding in an attack against you. Not that Riven would want her forgiveness, Musa was sure Darcy made him feel very good for what he was doing to the people he once called friends. (4)

She couldn't believe that it was Riven that made her second guess everything with Daniel, it was him that made her want to change everything. And now it was like none of it was worth it. Daniel may have cheated, but Musa was sure he wouldn't have done it if she hadn't fallen for Riven or if Karen didn't open her big mouth. A perfectly good relationship was ruined because of that, and even though Musa and Daniel were probably better off as friends, she couldn't believe she had let herself be so influenced by one person.

"Thanks Flo," Musa said as she got up and looked at the clock. "I've got class, but I'll see you later,"

Musa walked out of the dorm, still not sure where she stood when it came to Riven.

After class, Musa returned to the dorm to see that Bloom had just gotten back from her class as well. She walked into flora's room where all the girls were sitting on Bloom's bed as the fairy released some tension.

"Come on Bloom, we'll get your power back," Flora encouraged. Musa sat at the corner of the bed and tried to help.

"Yeah, but the witches want to summon some army," Bloom said, sitting up in the bed as her voice becoming lower. "The army of decay,"

"The army of decay…" Techna said feverishly typing it into her computer. "It says here that it is only a legend, it's supposed to be some army that is created from the decay of all dead being since the dawn of time,"

"Eww! Gross," Stella exclaimed. "Why would you want a zombie army,"

"According to legend it is the most powerful army that can be summoned, but you need a lot of power to summon it," Techna said as she read on. "But it has never been summoned and there is not even any proof of it's existence.

"So the witches might be bluffing!" Musa said optimistically. "It could be a big hoax,"

"Ugh I hate this! I wish I never discovered my powers!" Bloom said as she fell back into her bed. "I wish I never got my Winx or come to Alfea, that way the witches would have never found out about me and taken my power, and I wouldn't be in this big mess and nobody would be in danger…I'm so sorry guys,"

"It's not your fault," Stella said trying to comfort her.

"You can't blame yourself, Bloom," Flora said, but nothing could comfort the fairy. There was a major problem looming and all the girls could feel the pressure.

"I just wish I knew what to do," Bloom said as she paced the floor and picked up Kiko.

Just then her phone went off. The fairies sitting on the bed exchanged looks, over the past few days, since the day of the royals, the girls had been picking up Bloom's phone for her since she wasn't ready to talk to Sky yet. Stella had taken care of her problem since she yelled 'I never want to speak to you again' into her cell phone the last time Brandon had called and then she blocked his number.

But Bloom wasn't ready to yell at Sky, not that she would. When Musa thought about it, there were two types of girls and their differences were best seen when they were betrayed. There were the girls that were like Musa and Stella that got angry and contemplated revenge, and then there were girls like Bloom, Flora and Techna. They were a lot more timid and they tended to take betrayal hard. They became sad and depressed. So, Stella and Musa had mainly been taking turns picking up Sky's calls and coming up with snarky comments to feed him before hanging up abruptly.

It was rude and immature, and the two princesses would have it no other way. "Bloom's room, how may I help you," Stella said in her cheeriest voice. Musa looked to Bloom, who wasn't even paying attention because it had happened so many times, and smiled. She knew Bloom would eventually get over this, but it was fun to mess with Sky in the mean time.

"Uhh.. hey Stella, is Bloom there," Musa overheard from the phone, probably because Stella put it on speakerphone.

"I'm sorry Bloom is unavailable right now,"

"The receptionist act," Musa said to Flora as the two sat silently listening to the conversation. "I think I already did this one a couple of days ago…"

"Well gotta go, Brandon or Prince Sky or whoever you are," Stella said rudely and then hung up the phone.

"Nice fade away Stel," Musa said. "I think I would have gone with something a bit less subtle, but I'll get the next one I guess,"

The two shared a quick laugh and then looked up to notice that Bloom had left the room. "Should we go see if she's alright?" Techna asked when the fairy was out in the hallway.

"Nah, I think she needs some time alone for right now," Flora answered.

"Yeah, Flora's right," Musa agreed as she stood up and began to leave the room as well.

"And where are you going?" Stella questioned with a questioning grin on her face.

"Out,"

"With?"

"Why does it matter?" Musa asked. She was only going out with Ali, but it was fun messing with Stella a little. She knew Stella was hoping it was a boy that she had met and was now dating.

"Please tell me it's a boy you met,"

"Fine, I'm going out with a guy," Musa said grabbing her things as she walked through the open doorway.

"Really!" Stella said perking up with excitement.

"No," Musa said with a fake frown and shut the door with a small giggle.

Musa walked out onto the Alfea quad where Ali was waiting for her. She walked up to the petite brunette and smiled. "So what's on the agenda?"

"I was thinking a little plotting and a little scheming," Ali answered. "Maybe some ice cream, let's see how the plotting and scheming go,"

"Fine, but we are not going to go so far as to change her records," Musa warned drawing the line.

"Why not?" Ali complained like a child as they walked through the quad.

"Because if we do then she might try and do the same,"

"She can't, she's already gone to the highest authority in your life, what else can she possibly do?"

"Fine, what if we get caught?"

"We've been through this," Ali reminded.

"Yeah and it's not exactly a sound strategy, not to mention if we do get caught my ass if outta here either way," Musa said. "My dad isn't going to take my falsifying paperwork too lightly,"

"You won't be doing any falsifying, the police chief will. Just think about it, we cant get in trouble and if we do, we can just do what other rich kids do," Ali said. She, unlike Musa, had no problem using her good fortune for her own personal gain. "We throw money on the problem until it goes away,"

"I really don't like that idea," Musa said as the two sat on the bus and made their way to Magix. "I mean this is going a lot further than knocking someone off the dance team,"

"Yeah and she's the girl who blabbed to your boyfriend about how you were all over some other guy. Not to mention she made it sound like you were sleeping with someone else and then she went to your castle and told your aunt that you've been skanking around with some big nobody…" Ali said pointing out all the horrible things that Karen had done to Musa. "Should I continue or do you see my point?"

"Fine, I get it, but I'm still not too sure,"

"And now that she has the power back, she can keep going until she's satisfied. You have to show her who's boss,"

"Still,"

" Well we have to at least meet with the police chief, he wants to thank me in person for my families generous donation,"

"Fine," Musa gave in as the two walked off the bus and onto the streets of Magix. The citry was alive with people, little did the two know that the city wouldn't be like that for much longer.

"You're sure it's Karen right?" Musa asked as the two walked through the city.

"Of coarse I'm sure," Ali said almost offended. "She was just short of telling what she did. It's her I am positive of it. Besides, who else would it be?"

"You're sure, I mean I've done a lot of false accusing lately," Musa pointed out. Although if she hadn't falsely accused Daniel, she would have never gone back to apologize and they wouldn't have become friends again.

"Positive,"

Sitting in the police chief's, Musa felt unusually awkward, it wasn't like she was the one in trouble here, but she was never the kind of person to make back handed deals. Ali, on the other hand, sat in the seat next to Musa's humming with excitement. She found this to be exciting, apparently doing things that were morally questionable excited her.

The police chief walked into the office and he was not the image that Musa would think was leading one the entire police department in Magix. He was a plump, middle aged man who looked like he had passed his prime when it came to police work. The bald chief sat at his desk and looked at the girls with a jolly smile; he was a lot less menacing than a lot of the other police men that they had passed on their way in. "Hello girls, how are you today?"

"Good!" Ali said in the bubbly personality that she used to get on the good side of teachers and other figures of authority.

"Well that's good, I wanted to call you two in to say thank you for both of your families donations to the police department," He said, much to Musa's surprise. Musa looked over to Ali with one eyebrow raised. She simply smiled and looked back at the chief.

"Well our families wanted to show how appreciative we are for all the hard work you and the rest of the department do," Ali said sounding surprisingly sincere.

"We hope you can attend the policeman's ball. There will be a lot of famous faces, it will be fun for you and your generous families to attend," The chief said politely. "Please come, a thank you for your gift to the department,"

"I was kind of hoping you could do us a little favor," Ali said. "I mean for our support of the police department,"

"So did he agree to help us?" Musa asked as they walked out of the police station.

"More or less," Ali said. "He can have the false records done in a day or so, but we have to keep this between us,"

"Fine," Musa said, she had to admit, now that getting rid of Karen for good was starting to become a reality, the moral compass in her mind was starting to go astray. But Karen deserved it.

"You put my name on the letter," Musa asked as they walked out onto the pavement and towards the ice cream parlor.

"Why not?"

"I didn't donate anything…"

"What's the harm, now you look like a philanthropist," Ali convinced her.

"Fine Ali, but I still don't know if we should use the records,"

"Well you have till the end of the school year so decide,"

"Good,"

The two left the police department and stopped for ice cream and then began to make their way back to Alfea.

"That's weird, James isn't picking up his cell," Ali said and closed her phone. "He hasn't texted all day either, you would think Red Fountain was under siege the way this one is ignoring me (5)"

"James? I thought the boy of the day was Travis," Musa asked with a smirk playing on her face. Ali was about as boy crazy as Stella, except Stella seemed to have calmed down from that lunacy ever since the day of the royals, she wouldn't admit it, but she was absolutely heartbroken.

"No, Travis was a major ass," Ali said sharply and quipped back at the musical fairy. "So that means you would love him,"

"Funny, but I am so done with boys," Musa said only to received a raised eyebrow from Ali. She was so immature sometimes. "I mean for now,"

"I don't see why, you and Daniel are friends again. You might be leaving Magix for good," Ali pointed out, she was very helpful friend and truly loyal, but she didn't exactly have a filter in her mind that stopped her from being blunt about things. It was a good thing at times, but it did tend a hit a nerve every now and then. "If there were a perfect time for a random meaningless hookup, it would be now,"

Musa had never been the 'random, meaningless hookup' type. She found that sticking her tongue down some random person's throat wasn't as satisfying as others made it seem, or coarse others tended to not stop there. But, going past kissing with some random guy was completely out of the question. And even if she wanted to hook up with someone, there was something stopping her and even though she didn't want to admit, to herself or anyone else, it was the same thing that had ended her last relationship and caused her a lot of pain over the school year. But, she still couldn't let go of the hope that Riven was going to change or at the last minute come to her aid. It was all a messed up fantasy, but she couldn't help but want it to happen.

"Looks like a storm is coming," Ali said looking up at the sky in the direction of Red Fountain and Cloud Tower. "We should be getting back," Musa looked up at the sky, it was getting dark out even though it was only late afternoon. There was a storm coming. Musa nodded in agreement and they began to walk back to Alfea.

Musa walked back to her room after saying bye to Ali. In the dorm the girls were all sitting quietly, trying to stay out of trouble when Musa walked in. "So where have you been missy?"

"Out with Ali, we went to Magix,"

"Doing what?" Stella continued with her motherly act.

"Are we doing this again?" Musa asked as she walked in.

"That's weird," Techna said randomly as she gazed out the window.

"What's going on out there," Flora asked. She had been tending to her plants and she brought a few of them in when the wind started to pick up, fearing that they would get hurt in the storm. "I can hardly hear the voice of nature,"

"Yeah, it's been cloudy like that for like an hour now," Musa said, she and Ali had returned from Magix awhile ago and even while they were there the sky was dark, ominously awaiting the storm. But, it never came. It never took this long for it to storm, so it was a bit odd to see this happening.

"What's weird?" Stella asked looking to the window that had captured everyone's attention.

"Those are ciradel clouds," Techna said as she walked over to the window.

"And that means?" Stella questioned as a few more claps of thunder were heard.

"I don't know, all I know it the current air pressure wouldn't allow ciradel clouds to form,"

"What is that!" Musa gasped as she and the rest of the girls in the dorm looked outside in shock. It wasn't rain that was falling from the sky, it was a mucky substance that was a deep purple color. The second it hit the ground the drops of the unknown substance came together and began forming little monsters.

Then, a foul smell began to engulf the entire area. "What is that awful smell!" Stella commanded as she put her hands in front of her face, still unable to look away from what was going on in the quad.

"Decay, it smells like decaying …" Musa couldn't finish the rest. The scene playing out in front of them was enveloping all of them. Fairies were running to take cover from the foreign substance falling from the sky while others were trying to get the small creatures that it created off of them.

In only seconds the entire school was infested with the creatures. They were crawling up the bell towers, into any cracks or openings. It was like they had all been dropped inside of a horror movie. "Oh my god," Musa said with both hands on the window gazing in disbelief at what was happening.

"Army of decay…" Bloom said with wide eyes looking at apocalyptic scene, it was becoming darker by the second and a few fairies had begun fighting the small creatures.

"What are those things!" Stella yelled as the creatures began to crawl up the side of their balcony.

"They're like little bugs or something," Musa answered, if they were bugs then how come the girls outside couldn't seem to exterminate them?

"They're trying to break in!" Techna cried out when she saw them all over the window. Stella shrieked just as they managed to break through the glass.

"Anyone…an extermination spell please!" Stella yelled to the girls who had all retreated further back in the dorm.

Suddenly, the door to their dorm room opened and everyone let out the same cry of horror. It was only Professor Palladium. "Hurry girls get out of here, we're evacuating the east wing,"

The girls ran outside only to be face with a bigger problem. The army was everywhere and it was like waves of rot were coming from every possible angle. The only thing left to do was fight them, or let the school fall.

"Well, don't just stand there!" Musa commanded as she tied her hair back and pulled herself away from the window. "Let's save our school!"

"But, I don't have my powers…" Bloom said timidly knowing the girls were going to fight without her.

"Don't worry, we got this one," Stella said.

All the girls transformed into their Winx and began their attempt to save their school from the rotting menace. Musa began shooting attacks at the small rot bugs on the ground only to find that millions of them we sneaking through even the tiniest cracks in the walls. "Boggie Blast!" She shouted as another, this time larger, monster came at her with fury. The creature fell to pieces and Musa quickly moved on to defeat more of the monsters.

"Musa unwanted dance partner at 6 o clock," Musa turned to see an enormous beast that towered over her in size creep up behind her. Made entirely of the same rot that created the other, much smaller, monsters. Musa stood in shock at the beast that let out a ghastly wail, unable to move. Luckily, Techna was there an managed to get rid of the one for her, it was just enough to snap Musa out of her trance and back into the fight.

Musa looked at the monsters that she had just defeated with pride, she then turned her head for a quick second to see how her friends were fairing, the girls of Alfea seemed to have a good hold on the monsters and it even looked like they were winning. Then, not a second later, she turned her head to see the pile of rot remains that she had just defeated began to reform until it was an even bigger beast than she had fought before. "You cannot be serious..." Musa said with an exasperated sigh.

The princess then flew up into the air as some of her classmates had done; this was one way of dodging the creatures on land, of coarse flying had a major disadvantage; it drained a fairy of power a lot quicker than walking or running. But, maybe she could be more successful at beating these things by air. She looked out onto the horizon and saw hundred more of the creatures marching towards the Alfea gates. Musa shuttered to think where these beasts were coming from if they were called 'the army of decay'. She looked out at the Alfea fence was not nearly enough to hold back monsters, the larger ones, with heads that looked as if squids were coming out of them, we able to easily walk past the puny fence that was largely there for decoration.

The clouds that were pouring down the droplets of rot had ceased the rain for a second, before Musa could give a sigh of relief a piecing screech filled the air and a whole fleet of stingray like monsters began to descend upon the school. Musa summoned all her power and began to fire at every monster that came at her in the skies, but fate was determined to make this hard on her, the sky became even darker and the rain continued once again.

"What the hell!," Every muscle in Musa's body ached, the small fairy could hardly keep her arms up let alone fly around the air above the school dodging the air stingrays and the occasional land monster's fist when she flew too close to land. Fatigue was clearly setting in for all the fairies and judging by the army's ability to penetrate almost every surface, it was beginning to get the better of them.

Musa, wishing that she had gotten more sleep the night before and silently cursed Daniel for talking to her so long, found it impossible to fly for another second, landed and for a second she just knelt on the ground in a desperate attempt to regain some of her strength. She looked over her shoulder to see that her friends were still keeping up a brave front even though the exhaustion on their faces was unmistakable.

Right as Musa looked towards Stella, she saw the princess being approached by what she was now calling stingrays. The beats swooped low to the ground ready to give Stella an unwanted ride through the air. Feeling a second wind coming on, Musa sprung to her feet and raced right past Stella and shot the monster to the ground with an sound orb. The slight of the stingray falling to the ground in bits and pieces made Musa feel a little better, up until it reformed, this time into a weird squid-headed monster.

Backing up from the monster, Musa felt herself back straight into Stella. "Thanks Musa," she said between breathes. Both fairies were exhausted, but they continued to fight. "How about we do a quick double team?"

Musa smiled as the two attacked the squid like beast that was standing in front of her. Musa used a sound wave to knock it off it's feet while Stella sent a solar blast at it that sent it flying back, taking another few of the monsters out with it. After a congratulatory high five, Stella flew up into the air and began fighting by air while Musa continued to fight by land.

The creatures melted down into their rotted remains and like water sliding into a drain, they slipped through the very cracks and crevasses that they had entered from. Musa collapsed to her knees in happiness to know that the fighting was over, even if it was temporary, which she suspected it was.

But nothing could wash over the feeling of finally stopping for a minute and catching her breathe. She sat on the ground and leaned against the part of the Alfea wall that hadn't fallen. Her legs trembling from sheer exhaustion and her arms laying limp at her sides. She smiled and leaned her head back against the wall and looked over and about five feet from her, Ali was sitting with the same expression on her face.

"Did we win?" Ali asked quietly, probably the quietest voice she had ever heard from Ali.

Musa looked up to the sky and saw the even though the monsters were gone, it was still dark and the clouds didn't dissipate either. There was more to come, Musa knew it and she suspected everyone else did too. "For now,"

."I hear the witches are operating out of Cloud tower and I heard that Red Fountain just battled these guys too," Ali said after a few minutes of silence, scooting towards Musa. "That's why James couldn't call earlier, they got attacked before we did,"

"So this defiantly isn't over," Musa murmured looking to the floor. She had never felt so anxious in her life, she knew what was coming and even though she wanted to get it over with, she wasn't ready to face the brute of the army yet.

"Guess not,"

Musa and Ali sat against the wall for a few more minutes before they were joined by the rest of the Winx Club. The girls sat there silently knowing what was on the other's mind.

They had won the battle, but the war was far from over.

1.I always wondered why witches were so hated, I mean they were practically kicked out when they were at Miss Magix. So if figured that there had to be some reason as to why they were so hated.

2. Ali is the friend that has no boundaries for anything. She's not a bad person ,but she tends to speak her mind and do as she pleases. Everyone seems to have a friend like that.

3. Magix Police Department (MPD)

4. The intensity of Darcy and Riven's relationship is never really specified (this is a kids show after all) but I can only guess that a senior witch and hormone driven teenage boy did more then what's appropriate for a kid's show.

5. How ironic….

Next chapter – sparks of hope

xoxo,
princessm