Disclaimer: Have you seen Flamecom's name be mentioned at the credits of Winx Club? No? Well that's because I don't own it.
Alright as of writing these 50 reviews and 20k views for this story. That's just wow. Don't know what else to say other than thanks for the support. Don't really have much else to say in this first AN. Well other than a summer job is going to make uploading bit slower but hopefully I'll keep up the pace. (Author edit written in 14th of November 2021. The original part of this AN was written in June 2021) Yep, the summer job basically meant I stopped updating and once the job ended then school began. So sorry for not updating. I'll admit I was in a small roadblock before the job, but probably would have been able to eventually get past that. I mainly focused on what would happen after these two chapters. And I'll try my best to continue this story. So again, sorry for this delay. I am disappointed in myself.
Yesterday I turned 18. What should have been one of my happiest days in life, was anything but. Instead of celebrating that day with my friends and family, I mainly just kept quiet while my parents tried to cheer me up. And don't even talk about celebrating it with friends. I ended up cancelling those parties.
Because 6 days before the party, I heard the news. Red Fountain had been attacked. Many were injured during the attack, and one had died. I remembered anxiously being glued to the screen praying that the one dead wasn't someone I knew. And then they told who that one was.
Sky. I still want to pinch myself and wake up from whatever is this nightmare. He just couldn't have. He was one of the strongest persons I knew. And now he was dead. Dead the day after I had finally decided that I want to have him in my life again. That I couldn't be afraid of what he will think because I was a witch.
And now I regret for not making that step any sooner. I regret for not staying in contact with him. At least then I could have had lots of memories with him, before he was unjustly taken from the world. But instead, all I got is the 1 month I stayed in touch with him in Alfea. And 1 day. All I had to reconnect with him was one day.
Then seemingly just to make this already bad situation worse, they revealed who the attackers were. Trix. It had to be them, because the world seemingly wants to just rub salt into my wounds. And what better way to do that, than the attackers be the Trix themselves? It all makes sense now. THIS was the job Icy had been talking about. I should have seen it coming. I should have been there when it happened and maybe. Just maybe I could have changed what happened there.
Unfortunately, that's all I can do. All I can do is ask "what if?". What if I had been there, would Sky be alive? And questions like that. Nothing more than self-blaming for a situation, I had no control over.
And then I wonder who out of the Trix did the deed. Which one landed the fatal shot to Sky? All signs point to Icy. She is the one that would most likely do that. Stormy and Darcy were cruel, but I've never been able to see them killing a person. Then again, the Trix have constantly been able to prove to me, that whenever I think they reached rock bottom. Well somehow, they can go even lower.
But Icy clearly proved to me with that rabbit, that killing wasn't anything to her. She is more than able to do the deed. And everything about the situation just screams Icy. The same Icy I went to clothes shopping just a day before. The same Icy that just a day before that, I was most annoyed by the fact she didn't want me to wear light blue. It's funny how insignificant that felt like, compared to what happened.
Those are the thoughts going around in my head. As all I did was think while sitting in a bench, in a almost empty park. The shock of his death still lingering in me. And I know it wasn't just me who it shocked. Flora was greatly affected by it as well, if not more affected than me. After all she knew the man for longer than I did. And from what she told me; it affected the other Winx very much as well. And off course even more the specialists.
But it's just not us who were shocked by this. No, his death shocked Eraklyon. After all a member of the royal family from was killed in a seemingly terrorist attack. And the response of Eraklyon was huge, almost rivaling the levels of the response to 9/11 on Earth. But what shocked me more was the silence of the nations. Oh, sure the media loved the attention. This has been all they have been talking about the last week. But more in a same way as a famous singer dying rather than a political figure. All the other kingdoms just gave were their condolences to the Eraklyon. Nothing else was really done.
I still remember the first thing I wanted to do, when I found out it was the Trix who did it. I wanted all of their heads on a silver platter. I wanted to open that stupid book Icy gave me and find the most painful spell to end their miserable lives. It wasn't like I wasn't incentivized to do so. Eraklyon has put a bounty on their heads that is so large, and I mean so large that if I were to kill them, I would never need to do a single day of work in my life.
But now that I have calmed down. Now that I have time to think, I realize I cannot do it. I cannot stoop to their level. I will find a way to stop them somehow, even if I'm all alone and my power levels are so much weaker than theirs. But somehow, I will find a way to stop them and bring them to justice. They can decide what their fate will be. Because if I end their lives I will be just as bad as them.
And that leads me too today. Sitting in a bench at the park in Magix. For the first time in my schoolyear, I felt lucky to be a "firstie". For the past week the media has been harassing every single Cloud Tower student. Hoping that one of us happened to see something scandalous the Trix did. Very quickly Griffin made a rule that every single second- and third-year student were barred from leaving the campus, until the winter vacation would begin.
And that lead me here, sitting on a park bench alone. Just staring at nature in front of me, which under normal circumstances would have had a calming effect. But now not really. The vibrancy and life in front of me only reminds me of how he is not alive. And because of that watching the life in front of me only leaves me with bitterness.
Yet for the next 20 minutes that was all I did. Bitterly watched the nature and people in front of me, like I have for the past week. I was just so focused on my own thoughts and looking what's in front of me, I didn't even notice someone sitting next to me in the bench.
It wasn't until that someone taped multiple times me in the shoulder, that I finally turned to look at him. And to say I was angry would have been an understatement. As soon as I saw him, my hand formed into a fist and I almost punched him, and the only thing that held me off, was because I was in a public park.
The person was none other than Riven, who had the audacity to face me. Less than two weeks ago, he and along with his potential murderer girlfriend Darcy were making fun of me and Sky. And now he has the guts to sit right next to me, like nothing had happened.
"What are you doing here?" I hissed at him, and hopefully he would get the hint, that he was not welcomed here.
It seemed that my response discouraged him a little from opening his mouth. As he stayed quiet for a second, and I almost hoped that he would just leave. Nevertheless he eventually regained enough confidence to speak up. "Look I came here to..." He began but didn't finish. I was just about to have enough of this, and I was just about to leave when he finally finished. "Apologize. There I said it. I'm here to apologize."
This caused me to finally to actually look at him. Because despite whatever I thought of him. Even though I expected him to give me some bogus lie of an explanation to me. I could just hear that the apology he gave me was sincere. That someone like Riven had to swallow his pride so much just to let those words come out of his mouth.
And this change could be seen in his physical appearance. His hair wasn't nearly as well done as it was last week ago. Rather it looked like he had neglected taking care of it. He had some light stubble, so clearly, he had also neglected shaving. And there were bags under his eyes and his eye area was redder, indicating to me that he had been crying a lot recently. This Riven in front of me was almost unrecognizable from the Riven I saw just a week ago.
"What do you want to apologize about?" I asked him finally. Part of me wanting him just to repeat it again.
Riven took a deep breath and I could tell, this was not easy for him. Apologizing was such a foreign thing to Riven, just like how foreign it was for me to lie just a year ago. "I want to apologize at how I treated you and Sky. Looking back, I just want to punch myself for what I did back there." He said and I could just feel the sadness and bitterness rising up in his voice.
"If I had only known that it would be one of my last memories of him..." He said but couldn't add anything more to the sentence. Opening up about the whole thing was causing him so much pain, he just couldn't say anything more to that. His inability to continue caused him to punch the park bench in frustration. It was the first manifestation of self-blame I saw from him.
After he seemingly had calmed down a little from punching the bench, he began to speak again. "I also want to apologize for my failure to protect Sky in the Veritas chamber." He said looking at me deep in the eye. "You might think I was with them for the whole thing, but I assure you, I fought against them with all my power. And because of that I ask you to forgive me for my failure." He said as he looked like he was about to cry again.
"Why it had to be him!" He cried out all of a sudden. "Why couldn't did she have to hit him and not me." He said in shame. And at this point I knew I had to intervene. I couldn't look at Riven wallowing in self-blame. I couldn't look at Riven wishing it was him that got killed rather than Sky.
As much as the selfish part of me would admit, I would rather have him dead and Sky stand in front of me. I would rather have one of the members of Trix shoot the shot at Riven rather than Sky. After all I was never fan of Riven and I really didn't like him after our last interaction. While Sky was the entirely opposite. Still, I knew I needed to assure him, that none of this was his fault. Even though I more than anyone would like that this was only his fault, because then maybe... just maybe I can blame myself less.
I pulled him into a hug, which surprised me even. "Look this isn't your fault." I tried the most basic line to assure him, because quite frankly I didn't know what to say to him. "You tried your best to protect him, there wasn't anything else you could have done to save him." I said to him.
"I should have seen the signs." He argued back doing his best to stop himself from bursting out in tears, and unlike most people he actually succeeded. But the information he just told me also got me interested. I saw some signs from the Trix that something was going on. But Riven was the closest person the Trix had, and I now wanted to know, if he knew anything about the whole thing.
"What signs?" I asked while looking around the rest of the park, hoping that no one else was paying attention to this scene. After confirming that no one really was paying attention I released my hug from Riven.
"They started right after they all quit their jobs at the restaurant." He began with the knowledge I already knew. "I didn't think of anything about it, at the time. I mean why would I? I expected them to quit that job at some point. But I should have thought more of it, when I asked about Darcy's new job, to which she answered very cryptically, not really telling me anything about it." He continued. "I should have seen that this job involved stealing the codex from Red Fountain."
And at that moment he caught my attention. I grabbed him from his shoulders while looking around if there were any onlookers nearby. "Did you just say stealing the Codex?" I asked with a shocked and serious tone.
He nodded at me a bit hesitantly. "You know something about this don't you?" He asked. And again, I looked if there were any onlookers around, just in case no one would hear what I would say.
"We need to have a longer chat, but not around here. We need to do this in a place a lot more private. I don't want to incriminate myself." I whispered to him.
"This is serious, isn't it?" Riven asked me little scared even. I just nodded at him. "Alright. I know a place where just two of us can talk. My bike is parked near the park entrance." I nodded at him again and let him go. With both of us heading towards his hover bike or whatever they call those things.
Riven got on top of the bike and put his helmet on, while I sat right behind him. During the journey neither of us spoke a word to each other. Leaving the speaking part to when we would reach whatever destination Riven would take us. After some time, we finally reached our destination. I recognized the place even. It was the building where the Trix stole Stella's ring last year. The place which Darcy had put an illusion to make it look nice, when in reality the whole building had been abandoned years ago.
"We are here." Riven said as he got off the bike. "I don't think anyone is going to bother us here." He said and looked around just to make sure there was no one here. "Alright whatever you got to say, you can say it now."
At first, I was quiet because I didn't know where to even start. But eventually it did come together. "Did the Trix mention anything about me during last few months?" I began by asking him.
"Not really. Darcy only talked about you a little after our meeting. Besides that, they never even mentioned you." Riven confirmed me.
"Well, me and the Trix have been closer than you think we are." I told him and I could already see Riven's expression turning into a more surprised one. "So much so that I along with the Trix stole a Codex in Cloud Tower."
I could barely even finish my sentence before Riven stopped me in shock. "Did you just say you stole the Codex in Cloud Tower?" Riven asked me in shock.
"Yes." I replied almost stuttering as I didn't expect being so nervous when explaining my side of the story. "We did so quietly over a month ago."
This time Riven's look of shock turned into a look of fear. "A-are you with them?" He asked me scared. "Are you on their side?" His scared voice starting to turn into an angry one.
"No. They blackmailed me to do it." I answered her quickly and little scared. "They would have hurt my friends and parents if they didn't help me. Trust me. No one in this world hates the Trix as much as I." I explained to him, which calmed him down.
"So let me get this straight. The Trix have already stolen the Cloud Tower Codex without anyone even knowing it. And now they have stolen the Red Fountains Codex. If we think of this logically we already know what their next target is most likely going to be." He explained.
"Alfea." I stated the obvious. If two pieces were stored in the Maigx's school it would only make sense for the third one to be in Alfea.
"Exactly. And that's what's going to be the Trix's and LD's next target?" He stated.
"Wait." I stopped him. "Who's this LD guy?" I asked Riven who just happened to remember to mention this important figure.
Riven almost facepalmed himself as he seemingly also realized he forgot to mention this LD guy. "Oh yeah. Darcy was mentioning this LD guy a lot and eventually I asked who he was. She told me that he was her new boss, so he is probably also behind this." Riven told me.
LD... LD there's something familiar about that name but I just can't place it. What is it that sounds so familiar about it. And then it hit me.
"Lord Darkar!" I exclaimed which confused Riven. "When I met Flora she told me that the Winx had been sent earlier this year to free pixies that Lord Darkar had kidnapped. He's probably the guy who along with the Trix are behind all these attacks." I finished explaining him.
"So this Lord Darkar and the Trix are working together to get all the pieces of the Codex. Just what is it about the Codex that drives them to even take someone's life." Riven ponders.
That is the same question I have been asking since I helped them to steal Codex. Just what is it about this Codex that has been driving the Trix to do the things they have been doing recently? It needs to be something really important for them to take it this far. "Whatever it is. It must not be good." I responded to Riven, not trying to confuse him with the research I have been doing, which so far has gotten me nowhere.
"But now I also wonder what do the Pixies have to do with this whole thing? There has to be a reason Darkar kidnapped them, and it most likely has something to do with this Codex thing." I pondered out loud.
Riven just shrugged his shoulder, so clearly, he had no idea. "I remember that when I stole the Cloud Tower Codex with the Trix, that it was guarded by a pixie. I guess the pixies know something about the Codex that we do not."
"Now that you mention it. While I did not see it, I heard the Trix struggling against someone when they stole the Red Fountain Codex. That could have also been a Pixie guarding it." Riven brings up and I nod.
"Most likely it was one guarding it. So, there is clearly some connection with Darkar kidnapping the Pixies and the Codex, but I just can't place what is it."
"Well perhaps the Pixies know the locations of the Codex. Could explain why the Trix knew they were in the schools." Riven suggests and it sounded like a plausible theory.
I just nod at him. "Well moving on, I don't think there is anything else to talk about this. Unless you can think of something?" I ask Riven who just shakes his head. "Anyway. I don't know about you, but I want to do stop them. I want to bring them to justice for Sky."
"So do I." Riven interjects. "I'll go anything to stop them as well, since it seems no one is doing anything about them. It's the least I can do for him."
I nod at him. "Let's exchange contact details. If either of us has any new info, or sees anything that might indicate their next move, we'll tell each other. Alright?" I ask him and he nods.
"Yeah. That's all we can really do at this moment. Observe them and plan how we can stop them. There's nothing else we can really do besides that. Expect maybe train to become stronger." He said and brought up a good point. I needed to start training my magic, because right now, if we knew when they were going to attack, we would be destroyed.
"We'll do that. Observe and get stronger." I said and shook his hand, and he reluctantly shook mine.
After that we exchanged our phone numbers. There really wasn't anything else we could do now, so this meeting was over. "Hey Riven? Can you give me a ride to downtown?" I asked him after we gave each other our phone numbers. Riven just nodded in return.
Just as Riven was putting on his helmet, I finally found it in me to ask a question, that had been bugging me since I got the news about Sky.
"Riven?" I called him.
"What?" He responded.
"I need to ask who was it that did the killing shot?" I asked him, as I sat behind him. I needed to know just who did it.
"Icy." Riven answered bitterly.
"I had a hunch it was her that did it." I said just when Riven started to drive the bike away.
There done. Finally, I got this chapter done on the final day of 2021. At least this chapter wasn't delayed all the way to 2022. I will try to be active especially now. The next two chapters are going to be themed around Christmas and New Year, but there will still be many plot points that happen. Now I hope you had a good Christmas and I hope the new year will be good as well. I'll try to be much more active in 2022 especially starting from April, as my school schedule becomes much lighter at that point. But before that I will upload the best I can, but they might be slowed down due to me getting my first car. A blue 1972 Volkswagen Beetle that needs some restoration, so I'm going to be spending time inside a garage rather than the computer. By the way if I ever plan on giving Bloom a car in this story, I'll probably give her a car similar to that, since it fits her. But all these issues should be solved by April, so I hope I especially step up there. Anyway, in the one shot I published during Bloom's Birthday (well seems that I missed it by one day) I said I would start crossposting on AO3 and Wattpad. Now unfortunately my invitation to AO3 will be delayed heavily so it will take a lot longer for me to get an account there. So won't be posting there for some time. But I will start posting this along with my oneshots and active stories to Wattpad soon. I will try to make use of the few Wattpad exclusive features there, such as putting images in few story sections. But yeah, I will read Wattpads TOS and if it's acceptable you will find my stories there soon. Anyway, sorry for the long AN but now I got to respond to some of the reviews you gave the last chapter.
davidomega59: Well looks like someone isn't a fan of Sky. Personally I have nothing against Sky. Had he not died in that Episode of Winx Club without Bloom being there to revive him, he would be a part of this story for future chapters. But anyway looks like Sky being gone is a positive thing for you.
Luiz4200: The only person nearby powerful enough might have been Salladin. But what is written has been written. And while Videocrazy gave me an interesting alternative story idea, I'm not going to walk this decision back.
Videocrazy: Trix definitely crafted a perfect storm, which while calm now will start forming in the future chapters. Also, despite Bloom being a witch the Dragon fire is still a light power source. If her being a witch made the Dragon fire a dark power source, then Bloom being Dark Bloom would have also had the same effect and the portal wouldn't have worked.
Jean d: Thanks for complimenting my writing. I know it has a lot of flaws, but I like to think I am improving.
Namida Kuromaki: Another person who is not the biggest Sky fan. Anyway, I have yet to decide whether this story will only be the second year or will it go through the third year and maybe beyond. I have different endings in mind for whether or not I'm continuing this beyond second year. The main reason why I wouldn't go beyond second year is... well you have seen how inconsistent my uploading has been. I'm afraid if I go beyond second year this story will never be finished. But the decision whether this will only go for this year or beyond will be made I would say during the last 3-5 chapters. By that point comes the no turning back point.
MagicXFairyix: Glad you liked the story. Hopefully my slowness hasn't been too disappointing.
Viva out