Well, the last few chapters have certainly been eventful, haven't they? As I said at the end of Chapter 5, someone won't survive. Anyway, thanks, as always, to Midnight Lost for letting me use their Crimson Flame universe for the story, and for helping me write it. Also, I know that there is technically someone called Aisha in both Saints Row and Winx Club, so from now on, in any references that I make towards Winx Club's Aisha, I will call her by her 4Kids name of Layla.
I don't own Winx Club or Saints Row.
The Pixie Dust, Gardenia
Viola and Flora were sat in the VIP Area.
"Flora, I need to talk to you for a sec." Viola said.
"Sure thing, Viola. What is it?" Flora asked.
"OK, I'm gonna try not to beat around the bush. I'm just gonna come out with it. Since we basically moved everyone here, I've been thinking, and I want you to turn me."
"What? Viola, you do realise that..."
"I know what the consequences could be if, by some miracle, I see anyone from my family again, but I really want this, Flora. One of the main things I'm looking forward to the most is the fact that I get to spend eternity with my best friend."
"OK. If you really want me to turn you, I'll do it. Show me your neck." Flora said. At this, Viola turned her head to the side, revealing her neck. Flora extended her fangs and bit into Viola's neck. Viola felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck, but that pain quickly gave way to pleasure within a few seconds. This was because Flora was injecting, through her fangs, a solution that blocks both a vampire's prey and a soon-to-be vampire's nerves from feeling pain. After about 30 seconds, Viola began to lose consciousness, after which Flora removed her fangs from Viola's neck, bit into her own wrist and held it to Viola's mouth. Viola quickly began to drink from Flora's bleeding wrist. After about a minute, Viola closed her eyes and fell unconscious.
The Ruins of the Royal Palace of Domino
Johnny was sat on a rock with Bloom. They were both distraught, Johnny because Loren was blackmailing him into trying to kill The Boss, and Bloom because she'd just been reunited with her long-lost sister, only for her to become a Dark Fairy.
"I don't know what I'm gonna do. I mean, Aisha's my girlfriend, and I don't wanna lose her, but I know Loren's gonna kill her if I don't kill The Boss. Either way, someone close to me is gonna die, and it'll all be my fault." Johnny said, with his head in his hands.
"Johnny, it won't be your fault. Trust me. There's gotta be something we can do. Wait."
"What?"
"Oh, of course! The Syndicate operates from Shadowhaunt! There are two ways into there, but they only know aboout one."
"So if one of us were to go through this secret entrance while the other warns The Boss..."
"We could get Kinzie back and rescue your girlfriend!"
"Plus, we can deal a massive 'screw you' to Loren and his little gang of assholes!"
"Exactly! I can deal with some of Loren's goons, while you warn everyone."
"Alright! Let's do this! When I'm done, I'll bring the Saints to Shadowhaunt." Johnny said, and with that, he teleported to Gardenia's Pixie Dust, leaving Bloom to teleport to Shadowhaunt.
The Pixie Dust, Gardenia
Flora was sat in the VIP Area with a still-unconscious Viola. She knew it would not be long before Viola woke up as a vampire. Suddenly, Ben walked in.
"Hey, Flora."
"Hi." Flora said, still not wanting to trust Ben.
"So how have things been for you since the War?" Ben asked.
"Oh, nothing too exciting. I became a fairy, hid on Magix for a few centuries, then I found and turned Bloom. Oh, and then we went after all of the descendants of those who went against us. As it turned out, they were all people I thought were my friends, but Bloom quickly realised that two of them, Stella and Musa, could be useful to our cause, so..." Flora said.
"Yeah. I know how the rest of that story goes. You, Bloom, Stella and Musa got together with Icy, Darcy, Stormy and a HELL of a lot of witches, then killed the 3 heads of Cloud Tower, Red Fountain and Alfea, and finally, Bloom and Stella killed their parents." Ben said, with a smile on his face.
"That was exactly how... Wait. How did you know about that? I thought you couldn't access any communication networks in the Obsidian Dimension."
"I couldn't. I just read your mind. Come on, Flora. We were together for over a decade. Your mind is like an open book to me." At this, a smile appeared on Flora's face.
"Hey, lovebirds! Gear up. We got 5 minutes before we leave for Shadowhaunt!" The Boss said, walking into the VIP Area. She and Darcy were carrying a large crate each. They placed the crates on the floor, and were just about to open them when Johnny appeared.
"Johnny, you're back. Did you find Kinzie?" The Boss asked, concerned. Viola then woke up, with her eyes now amber-coloured.
"Uh. Man. I feel like my head just got hit with a 30lb sledgehammer."
"Hey, Viola. Good to see you're awake. I'll get you some blood when we get back." Flora said.
"Thanks. Can you make it from a body, rather than a bottle?"
"No problem."
"Anyway, about Kinzie. I got good news and bad news. Good news, I found her. Bad news, The Syndicate are back. Loren somehow managed to hijack her powers and turn her into..."
"A Dark Fairy. Johnny, did you find out where they were operating from?" Flora said, extremely worried.
"Yeah. They're working from someplace called Shadowhaunt."
"Shadowhaunt? We were just headed there anyway. Help everyone gear up and we'll gather by the stage." The Boss said. Around 15 minutes later, around a hundred Saints, dressed in full riot gear, minus shields, were stood inside the Pixie Dust, with The Boss, Flora, Viola, Johnny and Darcy stood on the stage, Pierce stood by the stage and Shaundi sleeping in a makeshift bed in the VIP Area.
"Alright. I know what you guys are thinking. You're probably thinking 'We're just taking on The Syndicate again. We've taken them out before, so we can do it again, no problem.' Well, I'm not gonna lie to you. They've got more than numbers, guns and money on their side this time. As crazy as it sounds, they now have magic on their side. They've got one of our own, Kinzie, and managed to basically brainwash her. Not only that, but there's an entire dimension between us and the Syndicate. These guys are stronger, faster and smarter than anything we've ever faced before. Flora, if you'd like to take over." The Boss said, before walking behind Flora.
"Right. Thank you. I know a lot of you are wondering who I am. My name's Florales de Mortis, but I just go by Flora now. I'm a vampire-fairy hybrid, and I'm over 2 thousand years old. Both Kinzie and The Syndicate are currently in a place called Shadowhaunt. It's on a planet called Magix, which is inaccessible to beings that don't have magic. However, your Boss can fix that."
"Whoa, what? What the fuck are you talking about?"
"You see, The Boss can use magic. She used it yesterday. It was more powerful than anything I've ever felt in my life. Boss, I'd like you to try and give some of your magic to your Saints."
"Flora, I can't use magic! I can just about do that trick where you make a rabbit appear out of a hat!" The Boss whispered.
"No. You can use magic. You did it when you checked on Shaundi yesterday."
"Whoa, really?"
"Yeah. OK, just concentrate on your power and let it flow through you into your Saints." The Boss then walked to the front of the stage, outstretched her arms with her palms facing the Saints in riot gear and closed her eyes. She began glowing the same dark blue colour as she had when she checked on Shaundi, then, around 20 seconds later, the light surrounding The Boss exploded and became a dark blue mist-like substance that spread out and descended towards everyone in front of her, including Pierce and Shaundi. When that finished after about a minute, everyone had a small part of The Boss' magic to use.
"Did it work?" The Boss asked.
"Yeah, it did." Flora said, clearly proud of The Boss.
"Holy shit. I actually used magic!" The Boss said.
"You sure did."
"Alright. Now that that's outta the way, let's go to Shadowhaunt and show the Syndicate what happens when you mess with us!" With that, everyone teleported out of the Pixie Dust except for Ben, who pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Yeah. It's me. Listen, June, I found someone for our team. Yeah, from the Saints. Her name's Kinzie Kensington. No. No way! Don't tell Rick, OK? Jeez, if that nut finds out about our little arrangement, he'll run to Waller the first chance he gets, then the next thing you know, I'll be giving some poor cleaner a crappy start to their day. We keep this between ourselves for now. Agreed? Alright, see you soon." Ben then hung up and teleported out of the Pixie Dust.
Outside Shadowhaunt
Ben arrived next to Flora, who was looking through a pair of night-vision binoculars.
"What are we looking at here?" He asked.
"See for yourself." Flora said, handing the binoculars to Ben, who, at first, didn't look too concerned by what he saw.
"Oh, it's not looking too bad. Just a couple of bloodsuckers inside the place, plus a couple of turret drones around the perimeter. Seems easy enough. We screw up the turrets, knock the front doors down and kill anything that moves."
"It's not that simple. They've got laser gates on every door and window. Anyone touches one of those and they'll be fried!"
"Good thing I brought these, then." Ben said, with a laptop in his right hand and a Cyber Buster arm cannon on his left.
"OK, quick question. What the fuck is a laptop and one of Kinzie's little cyber guns gonna do to get us inside Shadowhaunt?" The Boss said.
"It's simple. If I charge the Cyber Buster up enough and fire it at any part of Shadowhaunt, it'll cause a power surge that'll temporarily overload the security system so I can hack into its interface and shut it down permanently." Ben said, which earned a smile from Flora and a confused look from The Boss. Ben sighed.
"I charge this, fire it at the castle, then we can get inside using the laptop."
"Why didn't you say that in the first place?"
"I did."
"You know what? You remind me of Kinzie."
"Right. Anyway, let's do this." Ben said. He then charged up the Cyber Buster and, when it was at full power, fired it directly at a wall. He then typed something into his laptop and hit 'Enter'. One by one, the laser gates surrounding the doors and windows of Shadowhaunt shut down. Ben then fired the Cyber Buster at the turrets, instantly destroying them.
"Care to do the honours?" Flora said, looking at Ben.
"With pleasure." Ben said, before launching a spell at the front entrance to Shadowhaunt, instantly vaporising the gates. Everyone ran inside and began tearing into the more than 200 vampires and witches Loren had hired. After around 5 minutes,, and with the combined efforts of the Saints, Flora and Ben, there was only a single witch left.
"What should we do with this one?" Ben asked.
"Hmmm. Viola?" Flora said.
"Yeah?" Viola said, appearing by Flora's side in an instant.
"Remember how you said you wanted your first taste of blood direct from a body rather than a bottle? Well, I got you one."
"No. Please. No. Anything but that. Please, just let me go, and I... I'll help you!" The witch said. She stood up and tried to run away, only to be immediately met by Viola, who, without saying a word, bit into the girl's neck. However, Viola forgot to inject the serum that stopped victims of a vampire's bite from feeling pain. As a result, the witch's screams echoed throughout Shadowhaunt for around a minute. In the main chamber, Loren was listening to Matt give a demonstration on his newest weapon, along with Bloom and Killbane, although said weapon was currently hidden under a rug, which was the only thing Matt could use.
"So, anyway, my new weapon is guaranteed to lock on to and corrupt the magic of any Fairy or Witch it hits. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to upgrade it to be 100% effective against vampires, but I can get that done for you, given another couple of weeks."
"We don't have another couple of weeks, Matt. The Saints are here." Bloom said.
"Right. Anyway, this is a weapon I call the Dragon-Killer." At this, Matt pulled the rug away, revealing what looked like a regular shotgun, which he quickly proceeded to remove from its stand.
"That's just a normal 12-gauge." Killbane said
"Oh, really, Killbane? Watch what happens when this baby hits one of the Witches."
Johnny, I'm with Miller, Killbane and Loren in Shadowhaunt's main chamber. Miller's got some sort of weapon that can corrupt someone's magic. Get here, but be careful. Bloom thought, using her telepathy from being a vampire to send the message to Johnny.
Shit. Alright, we'll be right there. Have you found Aisha? Johnny sent back.
Yeah, but I need to get the guys outta the chamber first before I can free her. Bloom sent, before turning into her smoke form and sneaking away.
Outside Shadowhaunt's Main Chamber
Bloom arrived outside the door, where Flora, Ben, Darcy and the Saints were waiting. She transformed back into her 'human' form.
"Did you tell them?" Bloom asked, referring to what she had told Johnny about Matt Miller.
"Yeah, they know. Is he there?" Johnny said.
"Yeah. He's just behind that door."
"Goddamnit. If he fires that gun at us, we're screwed!"
"Maybe not. If someone can create a distraction, one or two of the others can take out this Miller guy, then the other two are fair game." Ben suggested.
"Are you crazy? That's suicide! Whoever distracts him will probably get shot." Flora said.
"Flora, I think you're forgetting exactly what most of us are and what we can do. So, just to make sure, whoever goes out there will probably wind up being turned." There was a long pause, before The Boss spoke up.
"I'll do it."
"What? Boss, you do know that if one of us turns you, you're never gonna be able to see your family again?"
I'm just glad this place is totally soundproof. Bloom sent to Flora, which earned a small chuckle from the ancient nature vampire.
"I think it's time I faced facts, Johnny! I never had a family in the first place! You know what my first memory was? When I was forced to watch my parents get butchered on what was meant to be a vacation to Mexico, by a group of vampires, at the age of FIVE!"
"Jeez. Boss, I..."
"Don't say it. I know what you would have said. 'I'm sorry. I didn't know.' That's what everyone says, and while I may not exactly be jumping for joy at the idea of becoming the very thing that I hate, if it has to happen, then it has to happen. Promise me you'll only turn me if I wind up getting shot." The Boss said, extending her hand to Johnny.
"I promise, Boss." Johnny said, before shaking The Boss' hand.
"Alright, let's do this." The Boss said.
"I can get you in there and trick them into thinking you're my prisoner, but as soon as I leave the chamber, you'll be on your own. I'll open the door slightly, so you guys can hear what's going on." Bloom said.
"Alright. Everyone stay out here, and don't come in until you hear something sounding like a gunshot." Everyone simply nodded and, without saying another word, The Boss looked to Bloom, who took The Boss' hand and turned into her smoke form again, opening the door slightly as she did so. When she arrived in front of Matt, Killbane and Loren, she reverted to her 'human' form.
"Whoa! Holy shit, that's disorienting." The Boss said.
"Shut up! I found her sneaking around in Downland!" Bloom said, sticking to her plan.
"Thank you, Bloom. Matt, is the Dragon-Killer ready?" Loren said.
"Of course it is. It's been ready since I built it a month ago." Matt said, slightly agitated at what he assumed to be Loren underestimating him. He then aimed the Dragon-Killer at The Boss and fired. The shell hit The Boss directly in her abdomen, knocking her into a nearby wall.
"It works! Yes!" Matt exclaimed.
"OK. JOHNNY, NOW!" Bloom said, causing everyone to come running into the chamber. Shaundi ran over to Matt and quickly took the Dragon-Killer from him, before knocking him unconscious with the butt of it. Bloom and Darcy went to work on Killbane, while Viola kept Loren at bay by using the water-based powers she'd taken from the girl that she drained earlier. Various cries of 'Optical Blindness', 'Volcanic Attack' and various other offensive spells rang out. While Killbane, Matt and Loren were distracted, Flora sped over to The Boss. Due to the amount of blood that had been lost, Flora didn't have to bite into The Boss' neck. Instead, she simply repeated what she'd done with Viola back at the Pixie Dust, biting into her wrist and holding it to The Boss' mouth. Knowing what was about to happen, The Boss quickly began to drink from the open wound. Around 15 seconds later, having consumed enough of Flora's blood, the wound that The Boss received from the Dragon-Killer healed and she fell unconscious. Realising that he, Loren and Killbane were, for want of a better word, screwed without extra help, Matt pressed a few buttons on his laptop. A man wearing a strange, bat-like helmet on his head appeared on the screen.
"Miller." The man said. His voice was distorted.
"We need you down here now! The Saints are killing us, and one of them's about to change!"
"Say no more. I'm on my way. I'm in Downland, so I won't be long. Just keep them fighting for a few more minutes." The strange man said, before ending the video call. Bloom quickly teleported to where Aisha was and brought her to Johnny. The two embraced.
"Matt, have you called him?" Loren said.
"Yes, I have. The Knight'll be here any minute!" As soon as Matt finished his sentence, both Kinzie and the man, now known as 'The Knight' appeared.
"What the...?" Flora said.
"YOU! GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER, NOW!" Bloom said, flying over to attack The Knight. However, this left Darcy to fight Killbane alone, which, even with her extensive knowledge of both dark magic and hand-to-hand combat, was too much for the darkness vampire, and Killbane knocked her out with a well-timed punch to the face.
"You know what, THIEF of the Dragon Flame?! You can have your sister back! Just give me what was mine in the first place! Give me the Dragon Flame!"
"You know I can't do that, Knight!"
"Fine. Have it your way!" The Knight said, charging a spell. Flora, realising that her most trusted friend was in danger, gasped.
"BLOOM, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Flora said, before quickly flying towards Bloom. The Knight's spell, intended for Bloom, instead hit Flora, causing her to plummet to the floor.
"FLORA, NO!" Bloom screamed. Seeing that he'd caused enough destruction for now, The Knight broke the spell over Kinzie, causing her to revert to normal and fall, but Bloom flew down and caught her sister in time.
"EVERYONE, FALL BACK!" Bloom said. Everyone quickly ran through a Portal, with Ben picking up Flora and The Boss on the way.
"That's right, RUN! RUN, JUST LIKE THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY HAVE DONE FOR CENTURIES!" The Knight said as the Portal closed.
The Pixie Dust, Gardenia
Everyone arrived around the stage. The Saints that had been injured in the process of fighting The Syndicate's hired guns (or fangs) were being treated by Viola and Shaundi, while everyone else quickly moved Flora into the VIP Area. Ben conjured a bed each for Flora and The Boss. He then gently placed Flora on one of them and The Boss on the other, while Bloom did the same for Kinzie.
"How is she?" Bloom asked, concerned for her friend and sire.
"She's not good. Evidently, The Knight knew what he was doing when he cast that spell. It's a very ancient spell, one of just a few known to be fatal to vampires. I'm sorry." Ben said. Realising what he meant, Bloom gasped.
"No. No, she can't be! Flora! Flora, wake up!" At this, Flora woke up, but everyone could tell that she was very weak.
"Bloom, it's OK. I always said to myself that I wanted to die saving somebody, and I've done that."
"Flora, please! You can't die! Tell them you'll be OK! Please!" Bloom said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Bloom, I can't. I want you to lead Darcy and Ben now."
"What?!" Bloom, Darcy and Ben said at the same time.
"Yes. As the last surviving member of the original Sanguine Coven, I hereby pass leadership onto you, Bloom, and my final act as leader is to welcome Ben and Darcy into the Coven. Bloom, I'll never forget you." Flora said.
"And I'll never forget you, Flora." Bloom said, the tears now beginning to soak her black and red striped tube top. Slowly, Flora closed her eyes for the final time. Bloom fell to her knees and cried, with everyone rushing to comfort her.
Wow. That was a long chapter, and it was an emotional one. Sorry to any Flora fans reading this, but I felt that her death was necessary, considering the direction I'm taking the story in. Also, for anyone wondering, yes, 'June' from Ben's phone call is June Moone/The Enchantress (I'm using the Cara Delevingne version from the upcoming Suicide Squad movie) and The Knight from the end of the Shadowhaunt battle is Jason Todd, aka The Arkham Knight from the Batman: Arkham Knight game, which I don't own. The reason why I included him and Enchantress is because I'm building to another Winx Club crossover, this time with the DC Extended Universe. It involves Enchantress and Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad, plus the Batman: Arkham Knight versions of Poison Ivy and Jason Todd, but I'm not giving anything else away.
Chapter 7 will be up as soon as possible, and it will basically be everyone dealing with the aftermath of what happened in Shadowhaunt.