"We can fight that thing!" Rainer exclaimed, putting herself into a battle stance.
"No we can't!" Krystal exclaimed. "We don't even know what it is!"
At this point the Winx Club (in Enchantix mode) and the Specialists had already run forward to fight the large monster and the witches that had brought it with them.
"Wait," Harry realised something. "Aren't there supposed to be three members of the Trix, not two?"
"Yeah, but let's not think on it so much- aah!" Roxy screamed out as she narrowly missed a lightning bolt from Stormy.
"Protego!" Harry stepped in front of her and shielded them from a stray curse from Stormy which cracked the shield slightly.
Around them, some of the other guests- witch and fairy alike- were transforming and either flying back to the safety of the interior of the palace or staying behind to try and fight off the two remaining Trix members.
Some of the wizards, guards and other male guests had also prepared to fight.
Out the corner of his eye, Harry saw Chantal- now in a dark green and brown blouse and skirt outfit- and Matthias with what looked like a dark yellow battle axe charging into the fight against some other smaller, but nevertheless, still fearsome creatures that had come crawling over the palace walls after the larger monster.
"Drama seems to follow every party I attend lately!" Harry exclaimed as he blasted away another creature with an energy blast from his wand.
"I'll say." Roxy muttered. "And what a time for me to not be able to transform!"
Krystal, Rainer, Athena and Anahita transformed and took to the air to help fight.
"I should get you inside, Roxy. I don't think your family would ever forgive me if I let anything happen to you!" Harry exclaimed.
"I'm not that weak, Harry. I may not be able to sprout wings at the moment-" she cast her Wolf Claw spell, batting away several approaching creatures. "-but I can still defend myself!"
"If you insist!"
"How come there's only two of you, Icy?" Harry heard Bloom taunt from above. "Did that Lord Voldemort guy finally manage to actually off one of you?"
"I'm surprised that the villains that these two..." Stella paused. "...or is it three? I'm surprised they didn't try to kill them off before!"
"Shut up, fairies!" Icy roared. "You know absolutely nothing!"
Ice spikes rained from the sky that had everyone still outside scrambling for the safety of the indoors.
"Come on!" Harry tugged on Roxy's arm and led her inside.
"Seriously, what happened to the Trix?" Roxy wondered as the two huddled aside.
"Lord Voldemort likely either killed or seriously injured one of them when they turned on him. I would put money on the first one..." Harry theorised.
"Okay, when we survive this, you can talk to your people and see if you can find out if that was the case!"
Many people screamed as a giant crevice appeared on the ground inside the palace, some narrowly missing falling in.
"Guards, come on!" King Oritel called his sword to him and led the palace guards closer to the doors, which were cracking ominously as some creatures from outside tried their best to get inside.
"Seriously though. What is it with the security around here?" Harry held his wand at the ready. "How were Icy and Stormy able to get into the palace with those monstrosities without anyone noticing that they were approaching?"
"I would guess that it had something to do with magic..." Roxy answered wryly.
Harry merely narrowed his eyes at her and Roxy smiled briefly at him, before they were made unsteady again by another blow to the door, which shook the ground even more and made the cracks bigger.
At this point, some of the guests were lending their powers towards fortifying the doors.
"What do they hope to gain from attacking the Gala?" Harry wondered.
"It could be just for fun. I've been told that they're like that..." Roxy nearly let out a scream as the doors burst open.
"Come on, come on!" Harry took her hand and they ran off down a corridor.
"Wait... where are we?" Roxy looked around to see that they'd ended up somewhere outside.
"I'd say you've found one of the palace exits."
Roxy and Harry looked up to see Stormy hovering above them.
"You. So you're the one that Lord Voldemort guy couldn't kill." Stormy looked him up and down, seemingly unimpressed.
"And neither can you!" Roxy stood up straight next to him.
"And you're Princess Roxy of Tir Nan Og. We never did get to meet properly. Oh well. Since you're friends with the Winx Club, it means you're an enemy!" Stormy fired a tornado at them and before they could react, it had swept them up inside it.
"Let's see you get out of that one!" Stormy cackled, disappearing with a flash of lightning and a loud thunder crack.
"Roxy!" Harry reached for her hand.
"I'm here, Harry!" Roxy reached for it, but narrowly missed grabbing him as the tornado twisted her about.
"Come on, come on, Roxy! You can do this! We can get out of this! Come on!"
A light green light engulfed her.
When the light cleared, she felt a pair of wings fluttering behind her.
"Huh?" Roxy looked confused for a moment, before returning her mind to the task at hand.
"I got you!" Roxy cried out, her newfound wings finally giving her the power to propel herself towards Harry and take his hands firmly in hers.
As they finally managed to extricate themselves from the tornado, it was then that Rainer, Krystal, Athena and Anahita decided to fly onto the scene, with Rainer already trying to bring the ravaging tornado under control.
"Now you decide to show up..." Roxy grumbled.
"So Stormy was here, huh?" Rainer ignored Roxy's tone as she fought to control the tornado, while at the same time not get blown about by it.
"Isn't it a bit obvious?" Harry called out, a gust of wind almost blowing him into Anahita, who just barely managed to fly out of the way.
As Rainer finally got the tornado under control, she sunk to her knees, her fairy form fading in and out.
"Whew, that was tiring!" the weather fairy wiped her brow as she allowed Krystal to help her up.
"Stormy's much more powerful than I am. Added to the fact that that tornado contained dark magic... It runs through my veins, but not as much as say... Nephele's. She or my mother would have been able to handle that much quicker than I did. Plus trying to manage not getting blown all the way back to Andros by it as I did." Rainer said, still looking a bit tired.
"Look! Roxy unlocked her basic fairy form!" Krystal was the first to finally notice this fact.
Roxy examined herself at these words.
A pale yellow short-sleeved cropped jacket over a black tank top, a pale yellow miniskirt with black trim, black fingerless gloves and black flats.
Krystal conjured up a floor length mirror for her and she realised that her hair was now pulled back into a low ponytail by a black bow and her wings, a translucent light blue, were shaped like butterfly wings.
"Hmm... Not bad," Roxy thought.
"You look absolutely cute, Roxy!" Krystal waved her hand and the mirror disappeared in a shower of light blue sparkles.
"I agree with Krystal's assessment," Harry started. "But isn't there the matter of the party crashers?" the ground beneath them shook again.
"I don't know how much juice I have after dealing with that... Stormy-nado," Rainer piped up. "but I'm coming with you all!"
"Let's go then!" Harry led the way back towards the main action.
"Book Shield!" Anahita held her hands in front of them and a giant, transparent white shield shaped like a book appeared in front of them, cutting off the creatures' path as they bolted back outside.
"Hey, Icy. I've got the thing!" Harry noticed Stormy holding something that looked like a vial with a scarlet coloured liquid inside, gloating victoriously.
King Oritel seemed to notice as well as the Dominoian king's eyes widened.
"This... This attack on the Young Royals Gala was all just a diversion!" He roared, slicing a creature clean in half.
"Damn straight it was! Now that we've got what we want, courtesy of the Royal Apothecary." Icy smirked.
"But now that we've got what we want," Stormy blocked a couple of shots aimed at her from miscellaneous guests almost casually. "we can get the hell outta here."
"Not without a few presents for you all though. Toodles!" Icy waved tauntingly as she and Stormy teleported out, narrowly missing being hit by a blast of Bloom's Dragon Fire.
Leaving most of the creatures they had brought with them behind. Apparently, the largest monster had already been destroyed by the Winx Club.
"Bloom! You and your friends go check out the Royal Apothecary. We'll take care of these things!" Oritel jammed his sword into another creature while his wife Queen Marian stood back to back with him, using her own sword to do the same to another creature.
"Right, Dad!" Bloom nodded, taking off, the Winx and Specialists close behind her.
"Reducto!" Harry fired off several rounds of the blasting spell, reducing the creatures to piles of dust, the random odd body parts sticking out of them.
Roxy closed her eyes as a bunch of butterflies made of energy gathered around her.
Opening her eyes and thrusting her hands forward, the swarms of energy butterflies swarmed forward, engulfing half a dozen of the creatures and reducing them to nothing.
Out the corner of Harry's eyes, he saw Roxy's roommates helping her, as well as some of the other guests who'd remained behind to fight.
What seemed like forever later, but was really only a few minutes later, all the creatures were gone.
"Well," Harry noted, as he took in the damage around him as some people cast spells to repair and clean up things. "That could have gone a whole lot worse than it did. The Trix and their little gifts caused less damage than I thought..."
"What's left of the Trix..." Roxy reminded him idly.
King Oritel turned to address the remaining guests at that point.
"Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, I do apologise for the events which took place here this evening. It was not mine or Queen Marian's intention for something like this to occur and ruin the Gala."
"What's he apologising for?" Roxy heard Genevieve whisper to Brianna. "I actually had more fun than I thought I would! Those creatures had insectan features, so I might be able to add them to my arsenal!"
"Oh no..." Roxy thought worriedly, albeit briefly. "This gave her ideas..."
"You were supposed to enjoy yourselves; mix and mingle; instead, those of you who chose to remain ended up fighting those monstrocities..." Oritel said.
Roxy raised a hand, trying to draw the king's attention.
"Yes, Princess Roxy?" Oritel acknowledged her.
"Your Majesty, I heard you say that this attack on the Gala was just a distraction. Is it okay for us all to know how you realised this?" Roxy asked.
"It was the vial Stormy had." Bloom answered from above, having just returned from where she went with her friends. "Dragon's Essence. A very powerful, if not one of the most powerful healing potions in the universe. Made here on Domino and stored under tight security at the Royal Apothecary."
"A highly regulated potion that takes a lot of skill to brew. The recipe was passed down Domino's royal line for millennia." Marian elaborated. "It's used only in very extreme cases of injury and illness for persons on the cusp of death."
At this, a lot of excited chattering broke out amongst the guests.
"In that case, Darcy must not be so dead after all..." Roxy mused.
Others around them started putting two and two together.
"That must be why Darcy wasn't here! She got hurt somehow and it's really serious!" Someone exclaimed.
"They must be desperate!" Regine exclaimed.
"I wonder how Darcy got hurt in the first place..." Anahita mused.
Harry and Roxy looked at one another. They'd passed the word of the Trix turning traitor on Voldemort to the various law enforcement agencies in Magix and they in turn had distributed it to various planets and those in charge of them, but apparently, they'd not made it public knowledge yet.
They'd just have to follow their example and keep their mouths shut for now...
"The threat is over. If you wish to return home, transport is ready. If you wish to remain for a while longer, you may also do so. The choice is yours." Oritel said.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm willing to stay..." Athena said.
Many others around her nodded in agreement.
"Then it's settled. We won't let Icy or Stormy ruin our evening!" Bloom exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air.
Everyone else let out cheers and whoops of celebration.
"It didn't work." Icy felt the cold seeping through her veins, forming a chilly mist around her, which froze over the empty vial in her grasp, that she crushed with one squeeze. "The Dragon's Essence didn't work!"
Behind her, Stormy pulled a grey shroud over Darcy's still body, which looked like it had been affected by some sort of horrible, debilitating curse, the storm witch's expression a mixture of sadness and fury.
"Lord Voldemort is going to pay for killing our sister. Stormy, I think I've found someone that I hate even more than Bloom or the Winx Club." the floor beneath the ice witch began to get frosted over. "No. I know I've found someone I hate more than them..." Icy seethed.
Stormy levitated over to her.
"First we give Darcy a fitting funeral for a witch. Just the two of us." Icy vowed, her voice soft, but no less dangerous sounding.
"Then we go for our revenge." Stormy vowed as well. "Voldemort knew curses and hexes we didn't. If we knew, we could have stopped whatever it was he cast at Darcy..."
"But we know a lot of curses that he doesn't know. We'll make sure he suffers. That wizard Harry Potter might be fated to ultimately destroy him in the end, but that doesn't mean we can't... help along the process, does it?" Icy mused.
"Darcy was the brains of our little outfit. You were the leader. I was the brawn." Stormy spoke quietly.
"Why are you speaking in the past tense?" Icy asked her.
"It's over, isn't it? The Trix. It's done. We can't do this without Darcy..." Stormy pointed out.
The two remained silent for several moments before Icy spoke again.
"You're... you're right, Stormy. We will disband this group and go our separate ways. But only when we've seen Voldemort meet his end." Icy spoke with a little growl.
Stormy nodded.
"Swear it." Stormy held out her hand towards Icy.
Icy raised an eyebrow, but reached out her own hand.
As the two surviving members of the Trix clasped hands, a swirl of light blue energy from Icy and dark maroon energy from Stormy twirled together around their clasped hands and the glow subsided.
Fun fact: When I was choosing which Trix member to kill off, all I did was put the names in a random selection thingie I found online and it gave back Darcy's name, so... Au revoir, Darcy!
Also, this chapter brings Specialist Potter over the 100,000 word mark. To those of you who've stuck along for the ride so far and especially those of you who actually review, I'd like to say thanks. I am not the best responder to reviews, but I will try to respond to every review on this chapter. I won't answer questions that involve spoilers though.
I hope you stick around for the rest, since it's far from over!