Chapter 5- SOS

Aidan slowly awoke and groaned. He carefully pushed himself to his knees and glanced around. Then he remembered.

Alfea lay in burned out ruins. The towers had been pulled down, the windows broken, the beautiful doors blown to bits. All the students had been gathered in the front of the main steps. Many of them huddled together, crying in despair. Others were unconscious like he had been. Most of the unconscious were the faculty, but a few were brave students willing to fight to the finish.

Then Aidan saw Roxy. She sat quietly, her face pale and her eyes blank with shock. She held a very faint Ms. Faragonda in her arms and blankly stared in the distance.

Just beyond the defeated Alfea residents stood hundreds, maybe thousands of creatures. They all stood tall and erect, motionless, as if waiting for a command. They were like an army.

"The Army of Decay." Aidan whispered. He'd read of them of course. How they were made from dark magic. How they could reform by taking in decay from the ground. How they could only be summoned by a person bearing the Dragon's Flame.

Aidan crawled over to Roxy. "Roxy? Roxy? Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Aidan placed a hand on Roxy's shoulder.

Roxy turned from her haze and looked at Aidan. "You're okay?" Tears filled her eyes and she began to silently cry.

Aidan grabbed her hand and held it in both of his. "Roxy. I'm alright. But you…"

"I'm okay." Roxy whispered, her eyes glancing toward the creatures nervously. "I just don't believe any of this."

Aidan could only nod and glanced once again at the creatures. Their eyes, bug-like and glowing red watched the defeated fairies and faculty, waiting for any sign of fight from them. "The Army of Decay has been summoned once more. But who…"

Before Aidan could finish his question Roxy sobbed. She shook Ms. Faragonda's limp body. "Ms. Faragonda…please wake up. You need to stop her."

"You know who did this?" Aidan stared at Roxy. "That person would have to have the Dragon's Flame."

Roxy whimpered. "Please. Please Ms. Faragonda. Nobody here is strong enough to stop her. Nobody."

"Who is she Roxy?" Aidan squeezed her hand. "Roxy, who has done this? Tell me."

Roxy looked at him. "Bloom. Bloom has done this."

Aidan stared at her in disbelief. "No. No. Why? Why would Bloom do this? Out of anybody she'd be the last one…" Aidan looked toward the army and back at Roxy. "Are you sure that was what you saw? It wasn't Baltor or a miraculously revived Lilith? Roxy."

"Yes! Yes Aidan! It was Bloom. She summoned the damn Army of Decay." Roxy pulled her hand away from him and cradled Ms. Faragonda. "She blasted Ms. Faragonda and took you out from behind. She single-handedly defeated each and every one of the teachers, then she rounded up the students here and left her soldiers to guard." Roxy looked helplessly upon Ms. Faragonda. "The students can't do anything. None of them were strong enough. But Ms. Faragonda…she's more experienced. Maybe she could take Bloom."

Aidan shook his head. "Bloom's grown beyond her teachings here at Alfea, Roxy. I don't think any of the faculty here would be strong enough. What we need to do is send out an SOS to the Company of Light. Only the Winx girls can stop her now."

"How am I going to send an SOS? If we even try magic, those damn decay monsters attack." Roxy glanced at the things and shivered.

"Why would you use magic? Your cell phone is in your pocket." Aidan pointed out.

Roxy stopped and reached into her pocket, extracting her cell phone. "Oh. Yeah."

She sat calmly in the headmistress' chair and gazed about the office. Books lined the walls of the tastefully designed room. She stood up and walked over to the shelves gazing at the titles in search of some clue involving her destination. "Hall of Enchantment. I need the Hall of Enchantment." She angrily waved her hand and the books on that shelf clattered to the floor. An orb appeared in her hand and she looked at it. "Find me something on the Hall of Enchantment! Now!" The orb lifted from her hand then fell to the floor and died out.

She sighed and sat back down in the headmistress' chair. "Why can't I find anything? Damn these trickster goodies. Always hiding everything. I need guidance in this situation." She spun the chair around and walked over to the large window facing out over the grounds. Her gaze landed on the pathetic forms of her prisoners all huddled with one another, some lying around knocked out. "How can they be so trickster-like and so weak at once?"

She stared at the scene for only moments more then turned away. Flames rippled from her hands and she waved them above her head, forming shapes and patterns with the light. She spoke words in Latin. "Tenebris excitare demon flamma draconis. Egredere ex damnato te ad perniciem. Per virtutem et ipsam quodammodo flammam ex quo nati sunt tibi ego voco. Veni ..." She stopped her chant as a dark vortex opened before her. The skies outside grew dark and lightning flashed. An ominous feel filled the air and she watched in glee as her prisoners outside panicked. "Yes… let the universe feel it. The awakening…" She sighed dreamily and turned back toward the vortex. Her pulse raced now, her blood hot with what power she had. "Awaken dark demon of the Dragon's Flame. Come forth from the destruction to which you were condemned. By the power of the very flame from which you and I were born I summon you. Come…"

The vortex snapped and hissed in response to her chanting. The air became heavy with the power of her magic and the essence of the vortex. A figure slowly began to rise up out of the dark void. Magic crackled in the air. She gave a delighted giggle.

The figure finished its ascent from the void. A huge crack snapped through the air and reverberated through the universe. She laughed, and with a lazy wave of her hand the dark vortex vanished. The figure was kneeling before her and gasping.

"Did you enjoy rebirth, Baltor?" She cooed and laughed. "I've brought you back to help me. If you don't, I'll send you back to the hell I sent you before. In a more painful way…"

Baltor glanced up at her, still breathing hard. His eyes widened in shock. "Bloom?"