Yeah, I couldn't remember Musa's and Darcy's attacks and I couldn't be stuffed looking for them, so I made them up. They sound like they could belong to them but. I'm close, I think.

Chapter Nine – Freaks of Nature

"Boogie Blaster!"

Riven had become so absorbed by lust he barely heard the attack, but he did feel it. Darcy took most of the impact and it was enough to send her flying away from his embrace. Even though he hadn't been the target of the attack, the sudden force of the blast still managed to hurl Riven backwards. The hero toppled backwards over his bike and he and the vehicle crashed to the ground, knocking the wind out of one and breaking the mirror of the other.

Great. There was seven years bad luck right there and it looking like the gods of superstition was getting right to work.

"Dark Wave!"

Trying to clear his mind and catch his breath, Riven looked up from his spot on the ground with his legs still draped over the leveled levi bike but couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. His mind had been slowed by Darcy's subtle manipulation, but he wasn't aware of that. Instead he just figured he was knocked senseless from the fall. Shaking himself like a dog coming out of the water, he managed to break out of that lethargic state of mind and turned his attention to what was going on in front of him.

"Sonic Boom!"

"Pitch Black!"

Darcy had used her dark magic to levitate herself into the air and was hurling as many attacks as she could muster at Musa who had transformed into her Winx form. Riven stared for a moment at the fairy's bare legs (gods he loved that skirt) before memories of what had happened only a matter of minutes ago came flooding back to him. And after all that drama she had come across him making out with Darcy: the cause of their fight. If there was ever a chance of fixing things between the two of them, Riven knew it was gone now. Wait a minute, why was she even here?

"Riven!" Musa's voice suddenly broke Riven out of his thoughts. A wayward blast of magic had been averted his way after colliding with another attack. Acting quickly, Riven pulled out his sabre, extended it and was only just able to deflect it in time.

"That was you attack by the way!" Darcy spat towards Musa. "Midnight Shroud!"

Musa quickly conjured the protection bubble Grisenlda had taught her the year before. "Riven! Get up!"

Too confused to disagree, Riven untangled his legs from the bike and scrambled to his feet. He was useless due to the fact that he was yet to master the art flying without some kind of apparatus, so he was forced to watch his two ex's (all things considered, he didn't think he could call Musa his girlfriend any more) battle it out in the sky above him.

"Hey Musa, let's see if you can multitask," Darcy grinned, gathering her dark powers in the palms of both her hands. "Deadly Nightshade!"

Musa managed to block the fistful of dark magic hurled her way, but the other hand cast its magic down towards Riven and his sabre did little to block the black wave that engulfed him. Riven was no stranger to this attack – it was one of Darcy's favourites after all – but that didn't make it any easier to endure. Total darkness encased him and he couldn't breathe. A terrible coldness stuck deep into his body and soul, and a painful roar filled his ears. Unable to do anything to protect himself, Riven could feel himself drop deeper into the dark spell. And then, faintly, he felt something light and warm flutter so delicately across his skin he wasn't certain if he had felt anything at all. However, soon the warm feeling increased and a faint red glow started to brake through the darkness.

"Riven?!" Musa voice reached him. There was a strange tone to her voice. Fear and uncertainty, there was no doubting they were there, but also a deep hurt and, oddly, compassion. It was almost like she cared whether he lived or not. "Riven?! Are you okay?!"

Struggling to even out his voice, Riven forced himself to stand despite the weakness in his legs. "I'm fine. What are you doing here?"

"Total Eclipse!"

"Darcy brought me here!" Musa shouted as Darcy's attack smashed into her shield. She briefly glanced over her shoulder to make sure Riven was telling the truth and tried not to freak out when she saw the deep purple bruises that covered his body. They looked painful. "She's been messing with our heads the last few weeks. That's why we've been fighting."

Riven's eyes narrowed, trying to work out if he believed her or not. He wanted too, that was for sure, but something Darcy had said a few weeks ago still lingered too clearly in his mind.

You make it sound like I had you doing things you'd never do if you weren't spelled. All I did was loosen your inhibitions and unleash that brilliant potential you had. I never added anything to you, if that's what you're thinking. That side of you was already within you restrained by your idea of what's wrong and right.

What if Darcy was telling the truth? What if he really was capable of doing those kinds of acts just out of nature? He wouldn't be able to trust himself around Musa any more. There was no denying how infuriating she could be, but he never wanted to raise a hand against her. She could hit him all she wanted, he didn't care, but he couldn't have it the other way around. What had happened outsides the gates of Alfea less than an hour ago was the closest he had ever come to hitting a girl out of anger. What if that was enough to unleash that brilliant potential of his, as Darcy put it? He'd sooner die that put any girl, especially Musa, through that kind of pain and fear.

"You can't stay in that bubble for ever!" Darcy shouted, but she knew she needed to get control of the situation now. Every inch of her skin was covered in sweat and shaking in exhaustion. She was gasping for air now in deep pants and each spell she hurled down to the couple of the ground was becoming more and more difficult to conjure. Darcy quickly realised that she needed some help in order to give her a second to re-gather her strength before she could finish the couple off.

Her eyes never leaving the other two, Darcy cast her dark magic towards two rather old looking trees surrounding the clearing. Carefully, she twisted the soul of the trees into darkness and altered them unnaturally. As her dark magic changed them on the inside, it was reflected on their outsides. The trees bark became weathered and twisted. Their leaves died and fell out in patches. Their branches reached out towards the night's sky like fingers before the trees suddenly shuttered and let out a wicked, tortured wail.

Riven felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as he watched the trees twist slightly, then suddenly rip their roots out of the ground and stoop upon them like legs. They swayed for a second, then seemed to become used to their now mobile state and began to advance on the two teenagers on the ground, wailing and clawing the air madly. One of the trees tore off one of its own branches and held it aloft like a club.

It was a ghastly sight.

"Go Charmix!" Musa shouted, shifting into a more powerful form. "Maximum Volume!"

The trees faltered slightly in the face of this new power, but then the tree without a club reached out, wrapped its branches around Musa's slim frame and began thrashing her about as it tightened its grip. Musa couldn't breathe, but she couldn't tell if it was from the strangling grip the tree had around her or from the way her ribs slammed against the rough bark as it threw her about. Her vision started to deteriorate, but before the blackness completely took over there was a flash of magenta.

With a painful thud, Musa dropped to the ground with the branch hand still wrapped around her. It was not, however, still attached to the monster tree, that was reeling from the loss of the limb.

"Get up Musa!" Riven shouted, raising his sabre to block the club from the other tree. The phantom blade bite deep into the wood as the two fighters tried to breakaway from each other or shatter the others weapon. The tree pushed an insane amount of strength down on Riven's blade and the Red Fountain student felt his legs start to give way underneath such a force.

"If I make it out of this alive, I'm going to hit Helia in the mouth for saying these things need to be protected," Riven hissed through clenched teeth, trying desperately to stop his legs from slipping out from under him. Mind you, most trees didn't look like they had just stepped out of the Realm of Nightmares but that wasn't going to stop him from hitting his roommate. Softly, but still hit him.

Suddenly, just when Riven honestly though he was going to collapse, the trees club splintered and the phantom blade cut straight through. Not expecting the sudden release, Riven fell forward and hit his head hard against the unyielding bark of the nightmare tree's trunk. Knock senseless, Riven dropped to the ground in a daze with blood flowing down his face from the new gash across his forehead, only slightly aware that the tree was now flailing its arm like branches in the air, wailing horribly with Riven's sabre run straight through the centre of its trunk. Meanwhile, the other tree had recovered from its amputation and began an awkward charge towards the dazed specialist, fully intent of seeking its revenge. An arm for an arm, as it were.

"Riven!" Musa cried, as she struggled to untangle herself from the branches encaging her. Riven took no notice of her voice or the advancing tree. With each step the tree took, its root legs dug into the ground, crushing anything it stepped on, and it had every intention to snap Riven with his legs the way a human might step on a twig.

Musa pulled desperately at the fingers of her cage, snapping most of the slimmer branches away, but there were three thick branches that just would not give. She couldn't wiggle her way out of them and time was running out.

"Riven! Riven, get up!" Musa shouted, lashing out at the branches more violently. She didn't know what was going too happened between Riven and her, but there was no way she was going to lose him to some freaky vegetation. "Sonic Boom!"

Her teachers had always warned her to never direct an attack too closely to herself and now she knew why. Thrown free from her entrapment with a massive force, Musa crashed to the ground hard, her skin stinging from the blast of her own magic and the splinters, but she didn't have time to dwell on the pain. Scrambling to her feet, Musa sprinted towards where Riven sat, simultaneously trying to fly. She tried to beat her wings, but they had been so damaged in that crushing embrace that she couldn't get more than a few inches off the ground. Giving up on flying, she bolted to get in between Riven and the monster tree.

"The game ends here, you freak of nature!" Musa challenged, throwing herself in the trees path as she gathered her power. "Celestial Choir!"

Musa had never actually ever tried this attack in a real battle, or even in a simulation battle for that matter. She had known it was going to be a difficult spell to master when she first decided to try it at the beginning of last summer, but even with her practicing all throughout her holidays and the school year so far, she had only ever managed to successfully conjure it up once and then she was so shocked that she had lost it.

Pulling all her power into her centre, Musa bowed her head and put her hands together in front of her chest as if she was praying with her fingertips lightly brushing her throat. A small white light began to form in between her cupped hands and she started to hum slightly to try and build it up. Her skin started to tingle as a soft golden light began to radiate off her and the light in her hands grew bigger and brighter. And then, crying out in the effort, Musa ripped her hands apart until her arms were being held out horizontally and the light was unleashed.

It was so brilliantly bright that it flooded out all visibility as an unworldly choir filled the air. Having being a student of music, Musa had known countless styles of choir singing, but she had never in her life heard anything more beautiful as the sound that her attack had produced. It was the reason she had tried to master such a difficult move to being with and she was not disappointed. Each cord made her heart want to bust from its beauty and as the light started to disappear and the voices faded away, Musa could see the tree that had tried to attack Riven had been frozen still. Darcy's magic had been removed and replaced with Musa's, altering its appearance once again. Only instead of being turned back to the old looking tree it had been before Darcy had twisted it, it was now a beautiful, strong tree that seemed to have a faint golden light radiating from it. Flora would love it if she ever saw it.

Dropping to her knees from exhaustion, Musa had never felt so proud of herself. She had tried so hard to master that attack and she had finally managed to do it when it was needed the most. Its ghostly song still lingered in her ears and she was surprised to find her eyes overflowing with tears of joy.

Riven had no idea what Musa had just done, but he really didn't care. He had always thought there was no way to improve on perfection, but somehow Musa had done it. There was no way he could ever put into words just what was different about her in that aftermath of that attack, but it was breathtaking. She just glowed. If Riven had ever needed proof of heaven, there it was in front of him. She looked like some kind of angel. And then, the harsh world of reality caused Riven to plummet back into his misery. She would never be his angel anymore.

Riven forced himself to tear his eyes away from her, suddenly feeling unworthy to even look at her. That degrading way of think probably saved Riven's life as he suddenly became aware that the remaining tree was not going to stop its assault despite to the loss of its partner and with his sabre still fixed in the trees trunk, Riven had no way to defend himself. He needed to get his sabre back.

"Musa! Look out!"

Jerking around, Musa saw a large branch get hurled in her direction. She quickly crawled to one side before scrambling to her feet, but then felt her heart stop as she watched Riven dodging out of the way to the tree big, sweeping claws. With skilful steps, Riven managed to avoid the trees attacks, but he was still too close to danger for Musa's comfort. Only when she saw Riven's sabre protruding out of the trees trunk did she understand.

"Sonic Blast!" Musa shouted, unleashing the blast at the upper parts on the tree. As she expected, the tree reeled backwards, leaving its lower belly exposed. Recognising the opportunity Musa had offered him, Riven rushed in and yanked his sabre out of the trunk of that thing. He had missed so many opportunities with Musa, he wasn't going to miss another.

"Thanks," he grunted, not looking at her.

"We can take this thing down if we work together. I can't do another attack like I did with the other one, so we're going to have to work as a team, got it?"

"Yeah," Riven nodded. "What's the plan?"

The tree quickly recovered and rounded on the pair, but both Musa and Riven were ready for it. Shifting his grip on the hilt of his sabre slightly, Riven dropped down, ready for his attack. All he needed to do was to wait for Musa's command.

"Ready?" Musa whispered, her eyes locked on the tree.

"Yup."

"Just hold on a bit long," Musa told him. "Just a little bit longer."

With an insane wail, the tree ripped out two more of its branches and flung them at the pair, who easily managed to avoid the flying pieces of wood. Musa was suddenly reminded of a film Bloom had forced them to watch about a girl with red shoes that went over the rainbow and met up with a bunch of weird characters. Two of those weird characters were two apple-throwing trees that were pretty much a nicer version of this branch-throwing tree. Musa probably would have laughed if it hadn't been so dangerous. Driven completely mad with dark magic and rage, the tree suddenly lunged at them, tearing up the earth and wailing terribly.

"Now!" Musa shouted.

Riven sprung forward, ready to do some serious damage on this monster while Musa focused her power on the sabre in his hands. The blade became a deeper a deeper shade of magenta than normal as a result of Musa's magic. The tree reached out one of its hands, but Riven easily parried it and swung his blade around to cut deep into the wood. With each smooth stroke Riven lashed across the trees body, Musa's magic altered the sword, sending sonic blasts into the wood with each attack. Riven continued his savage assault and with each hit the shock waves smashed deeper into the wicked trees soul. Musa could see cracks appearing in the trunk of the tree and there was a red glow seeping out from inside.

"Musa! Move back!" Riven shouted, slamming his sabre into the trees side. It couldn't take much more and it was becoming desperate. Madly, it ripped more of its limbs off and hurled them away with no real direction.

"I'm not leaving you!" Musa told him sternly and a fool's hope fluttered in Riven's heart. He knew she didn't mean what he wished she meant, but it was nice to know she wasn't completely bitter about everything. If it had been Stella he had fought with – not that he'd ever go out with that loud mouth wench – she'd probably be on the trees side, but that didn't mean he was going to let Musa get hurt for the sake of him.

"Musa! Get out of here! It's too – "

"Riven!" Musa cut him off, but if she hadn't done it the tree exploding would have. The tree could no longer contain all the sound waves that was swelling inside it and had erupted under the pressure. Riven was thrown backwards and would have been impaled by the massive splinters if it hadn't been for Musa's fast thinking. She threw herself at Riven, covering his body with her own and quickly erecting a shield. The fairy could feel her magic shutter under the force of the explosion and she found herself clinging more desperately to the boy underneath her. Large stakes of wood half penetrated her shield but the magic managed to stop them mere inches from the pair. The ground beneath them shook from the unleashed sound waves and as Musa felt her magic start to falter, she closed her eyes tightly and held onto Riven firmly.

And then everything went still. Musa had never been a massive fan of the sound of silence, but there was something different this time. It was as if everything stopped for that one moment and was completely still. And then she heard it. The deep, rhythmical thudding of Riven's heart beat. It was beating hard, a clear result of him fighting and Musa could feel him take in deep, shuttering breaths as she lay on top of him, her cheek pressed against his chest.

"Musa?" he whispered, almost begging her to answer. Slowly, Musa opened her eyes and lifted her head in met Riven's worried gaze. He instantly dropped his eyes, unable to look into those navy orbs and see the fear he was certain would be there, highlighting his shame. However, when he felt her fingertips lightly touching his face as if Musa physically needed assurance that he was still there and Riven couldn't help but look at her. And when their eyes did meet, Rivens world melted away. He forgot all about everything; about Darcy, about the fight, about the numerous bruises and abrasions he had all over his body. All he could think of was the beautiful face above him and the way it lack any fear or hate like he expected. Instead, Musa wore a look a love and relief, and she couldn't take her eyes off of him.

In that one moment, both felt a faint flutter of hope that there might still be something between them worth saving despite all the horrible things that had happened that night. They had one moment of peace before hell crashed back down upon them.

TBC