Disclaimer: I don't own Winx Club.

rc, it's nice to hear from you again. I fully understand not being able to review, particularly in light of an announcement I need to make:

I'm going on vacation. I will be leaving in a few days for a camping trip with my family. The trip itself will last for two weeks, and I will have no internet access during this time, and little to no electricity. This means no updates. I will be back sometime in mid-August to finish this story, and the ending is already shaping up to be spectacular. So I'm looking forward to my vacation, and I'm looking forward to finishing this story.

Also, Vivian's not crazy! She enjoys her job too much, but she's not crazy! ...Okay, maybe she's a little eccentric. There's also an interesting story about how my design for her character evolved, but I'll put that in the bonus features at the end.

Luminé is easily one of my best supporting characters, and I like that I got to explore several different sides of her. There was Luminé the leader, Luminé the friend, and Luminé the ferocious defender. It isn't hard to see her establishing Solaria, or her taking on the Ancestrals. She's also Stella's distant ancestor, so there's that.

On with the story!

Amelia landed in a clearing in the forest at the base of a huge pillar of rock that thrust into the sky, the rest of the Classix a heartbeat behind her. Deep holes dotted the clearing while the mouth of a cave yawned in the side of the rocky protrusion.

"She was here." Amelia said.

"Great." Dhalia responded. "Which way did she go?"

"I can't tell. She's been here many times. The trails overlap and combine. She could be anywhere."

"It sounds like she's using this place as her lair." Dhalia said. "In that case, we can set an ambush and wait for her to return."

"Um, girls?" Artis said from the edge of one of the pits. "If I didn't know better, and I don't, I'd say this looks like someone ripped a bunch of trees out by their roots."

"Ripped out by their roots, or ripped their roots out of the ground." Nyssa said. "I've seen this before."

A rustling sound caught their attention. A tree stood atop the pillar of stone.

"That...wasn't there when we landed." Perdi said.

"Nope." Reyva replied. "And neither were those."

More trees began to appear, crawling on their roots as they emerged from the cover of the forest, surrounding the six fairies.

"Now we have to fight trees?" Dhalia complained. "Why can't anything be easy?"

"Because the universe hates us?" Artis supplied.

"Not helping."

"You did ask."

"...I think I liked you better before you died."

The tree atop the rock spire rose up on its roots. They slowly entwined to form a pair of wooden legs. It's branches formed into a pair of arms, creating a huge headless wooden body. A wooden sword of massive size formed in its hand. All around the Classix the other walking trees went through the same transformation, wooden weapons appearing in their giant hands.

The wooden soldier atop the rock jumped down. It fell two hundred feet, ten times its own height, before crashing into the ground hard enough to leave a crater. Astonishingly, not only was it completely unharmed, but it had landed on its feet.

"You didn't mention they could do things like that." Dhalia said to Nyssa.

"I was hoping it wouldn't be relevant."

"Well it's relevant now! How do we beat them?"

"Quite easily, you just breathe fire on them and-" Nyssa trailed off.

"None of us are dragons at the moment, not even you." Dhalia said.

"Magically enhanced weapons work fairly well?" Nyssa offered.

"Now that's something we can use. Let's go Classix. Try to conserve magic for Eclipsis. Let's do this."

The Classix drew their weapons.

"Firebrand!" Dhalia cried. She spun her staff in a quick circle as the blades began to glow red hot.

"Spell Blade!" Amelia shouted. Her twin swords began to shimmer faintly in the late morning sun.

"Chrono Edge!" Artis cried. Her daggers started to hum, seeming to vibrate in her hands.

"Psychic Shot!" Perdi exclaimed. The heads of her arrows began to shine with a faint colorless light.

"Gravity Hammer!" Dhalia declared. The head of her hammer seemed to distort as the air around it twisted.

"Night's Edge." Nyssa said calmly. One edge of her sword began to glow with a black light. Pausing for a moment, she turned it over. "Day Blade." She said. The other edge began to glow white.

"Let's do this."

The trees charged.

Amelia dodged another sword the size of door as she spun past a twelve foot long spear. The trees were strong, but slow. Dodging them was fairly easy, but one wrong move would likely be the end of it. To her left she spied Nyssa fighting another tree. It swung its sword at her in a brutal downward slash. She bounced out of the weapon's range as it hit the ground. Before the tree could recover, Nyssa leapt forward and raced up the spine of the sword, jumping atop the things shoulders. Two quick slashes severed the thing's arms and she jumped down, stabbing her sword into the wood of the tree to slow her descent until she landed on the ground. She was off and running the moment her feet touched the ground, not waiting for the two halves of the tree to fall before moving on to the next one.

Reyva always did like the simple route. She side stepped a sword, ducked under a spear, then ran forward and smashed her hammer into one of the things' feet. It shattered under the power of weapon, causing the tree it was attached to to topple over. Before it could get back up, Reyva ran over and smashed it in the middle of its chest, shattering it into pieces.

Dhalia came up behind her, neatly slicing off the head of the spear that had been aimed at Reyva. The petite girl raced forwards and stabbed one of her staff's blades into another of the wooden soldiers. It stuck there, igniting the wood around it. Dhalia pulled her weapon from its body, leaving it to burn.

Artis was rapidly finding her daggers were of limited use. They were too short to inflict serious damage, and her powers didn't affect them enough to make them worthwhile. She sheathed them, then pointed at a tree. "Chronal Burn!" It burst into flame from the inside out, swiftly turning to ash as Artis's powers accelerated the blaze.

Perdi's weapon of choice wasn't doing much either, and her powers were useless against these things. Unable to help, she took refuge inside the cave.

Amelia lunged, driving one of her blades deep into the enemy she faced. She then stabbed her other sword into it a bit higher, and began to climb it using her swords. By the time she reached the top, it was already dead. As it fell she leapt to the next one, sliding halfway down its back before she could stop herself with her swords.

The area was littered with splinters and charred logs. The trees had been destroyed.

"Well, that was fun." Artis said. "Let's never do that again."

"Agreed." Dhalia said.

"Now what?" Reyva asked.

"Now, we wait." Dhalia said, walking into the cave to join Perdi. The other Classix followed.

A/N: Next chapter, the final battle begins. In about three weeks. Sorry guys. Hey, it could have been worse. We could be where I wanted the story to be at this point, about two chapters ahead. Then you'd really hate me for the cliff hanger. Oh well.

See everyone in a few weeks.