I got more reviews: thank you thank you thank you! Two people have said they love this, and I'm so glad. I wasn't sure about this as an idea to begin with, so I'm thrilled that people are enjoying it. Please keep reviewing!

Ngh…What happened? Roxy groaned and slowly opened her eyes, wincing as the dim light hit her retinas. Where was she? Her heart started to beat faster as she realised her hands were tied behind her back, and she jolted back to full consciousness with panic.

She looked around, and her heart sunk as she took in her surroundings. She was lying on the floor of a large metal cage in a dimly-lit room that - going off the gentle swaying she could feel under her - was on a ship. For a moment, she wondered why she was on a ship; then it all came rushing back to her. The cub, Duman, the wizards, the docks, sneaking off after Gantlos, fighting the smugglers…getting darted. She winced at her own impulsive foolishness. What had she been thinking? She should never have run off like that! Now she was tied up in a cage, and the Winx had no idea where she was! Idiot!

She heard a low groan behind her, and she rolled over, noting with consternation that her feet were bound too. Lying on the opposite side of the cage, bound and sporting a rapidly-darkening bruise on the left side of his face, was Gantlos.

'Gantlos!' He didn't move. 'Gantlos! Wake up!' When he still didn't respond, she remembered that Gantlos had been hit with a lot more sedative than her. 'Gantlos!' With great difficulty, she managed to get herself into a sitting position with her legs out in front of her, and she kicked at his leg.

'Gantlos! Wake up!' He groaned again, and she kicked a little harder. 'Gantlos!'

'Ngh…Not now, Ogron…'

'Gantlos!' She kept nudging him until his eyes finally cracked open, and he stared around in confusion.

'…Roxy?' He blinked a few times. 'What…what happened? Where are we?' Feeling relief wash over her that he'd finally woken up, Roxy replied.

'We're tied up somewhere on one of the smugglers' boats. They found us when we snuck aboard, and we fought them, but they managed to hit us with tranquillisers and knock us out.' Gantlos nodded slowly.

'…Right.' He struggled into a sitting position, wincing. 'Why does my head hurt?' Roxy grimaced.

'One of them kinda punched you in the face…'

'Oh.' Gantlos frowned. 'I don't remember that.'

'You're not missing out.' Gantlos groaned and leaned his head back against the bars of the cage.

'What have I got us into?' Roxy shrugged.

'We'll be fine, Gantlos. Now that I'm not so dizzy, I'll just use some magic and we'll be out of here in a second.' She closed her eyes in concentration, fully expecting the now-familiar rush of energy that came with her magic. But, to her surprise and horror, nothing happened.

'What?' She tried again, tensing her whole body in an attempt to focus, but still nothing happened. Not so much as a spark came from her fingertips.

'It won't work.' Roxy's eyes snapped open at Gantlos's voice.

'What?' she asked, starting to panic a little. 'What do you mean?'

'Your magic,' Gantlos explained wearily. 'Our magic. The sedatives they hit us with, they didn't just knock us out, they knocked our magic out too. And it's going to take much longer to recover than we did.'

'How much longer?' Roxy asked nervously. Gantlos sighed.

'A few hours, at least.' Roxy thought she might be sick. A few hours? So they were tied up in this cage with absolutely no magic?

'Then…what do we do?' she asked in an almost-whisper, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

'I don't know.' Nope, she definitely didn't want to hear that answer.

'Okay, I don't know who the heck you people are, but the baseline is: we've got weapons, you don't. So put your hands in the air.' Bloom resisted the urge to facepalm. They so didn't need this. Trying to deal with the situation as quickly as possible so they could get back to looking for Roxy and Gantlos, she stepped forward.

'Listen, we don't want to fight you, and, believe me, you don't want to fight us. So just put your weapons down, and this doesn't have to go any further.' Much as she'd expected, the men aiming weapons at her and her friends completely ignored her.

'I said hands in the air!'

'Bloom, honey.' Stella put a hand on Bloom's shoulder. 'I think diplomacy's had its chance here. Time for a different approach.' Bloom nodded.

'Okay. Winx, transform! Winx Believix!' The men laughed hysterically as there was a flash of light and the Winx changed into their fairy forms.

'What are you gonna do, sparkle at us?' Bloom scowled at the man.

'Dragon Heart!' The men's laugher quickly died as her attack slammed into their associate. Bloom folded her arms. 'You guys sure you don't feel like giving up?' In response, the men charged and began firing darts.

'Defender Plate!' The projectiles bounced uselessly off Tecna's shield.

'We've got intruders on the northern docks!' One guy yelled into a radio. 'We need backup! Intruders are-' He was cut off as his radio seemingly vanished from his hands, and he looked around in confusion to see Anagan behind him, holding the radio.

'Hello.' The wizard waved, before swiftly punching him in the stomach, sending him crumpling to the ground.

'Anagan!' Tecna called. 'I need that radio; I can use it to shut down their communications!'

'You got it!' Anagan called back, ducking past men in a blur of speed before appearing at Tecna's side. 'Here you go.' Tecna took the radio and zapped it with a bolt of green magic, and every man's radio crackled and started to smoke.

'What the hell?' exclaimed the man who'd told them to put their hands up, right before he was hit by Stella's Solar Storm and knocked unconscious, looking ever so slightly charred.

'Fire Arrow!' Bloom took two men down, grinding her teeth in frustration. They didn't have time for this! Roxy could be in danger! Sure, she was with Gantlos, but he was so worried about Duman that he'd be far too easily-distracted in a fight. Roxy was her responsibility, dammit!

She summoned her Flaming Armour, taking out her fury on an unfortunate smuggler who'd decided that it was a good idea to try and hit her with a pipe. I can't believe you lost Roxy, Bloom! She's young and inexperienced; she could get hurt! She kneed a smuggler in the stomach. You should have kept a closer eye on her! A smuggler went flying into a crate. If she's hurt somewhere, it's your fault for not protecting her! Some mentor you are. Three smugglers were thrown into each other.

'Bloom!'

'What?!' She whipped around furiously, summoning her magic to her hands before quickly letting it fall away into embers as she saw Ogron looking at her with mild concern.

'Bloom, I think you got them all.' Bloom looked around and realised he was right: she was surround by unconscious smugglers, many of whom were sporting slightly charred hair.

'Oh.'

'Wow, Bloom, that was pretty intense, even for the Fairy of the Dragon Flame,' Musa remarked, nudging a guy with her foot. 'You feeling okay?' Bloom laughed tiredly.

'Oh, yeah. Roxy's missing, so of course I'm just fine. No, I'm not feeling okay, Musa. I'm worried, and I'm starting to panic a bit.'

'Well, since that guy managed to radio in about intruders, I'd say the cat's out of the bag with the whole 'covert mission' thing,' Stella said. 'So I say we may as well just go in there, guns blazing, find Roxy, Gantlos and Duman, free the animals, and get back to the loft so I can wash all this grimy dock air and salt out of my hair.' Bloom facepalmed.

'The whole point of waiting and coming up with a plan was to avoid just busting in there.' Stella shrugged.

'Yeah, well, I'd say that's kinda gone out the window. Whatever we're doing, we should make up our minds now, because that guy said there were intruders on the northern docks, so we'll have more company pretty soon.' Bloom bit her lip and looked at Ogron, silently asking for his opinion. After all, this mission was a joint effort, and he was a leader of his own team, though, seeing as how Duman had been kidnapped and Gantlos was MIA, technically he was only in charge of Anagan.

Ogron shrugged.

'Stella has a point. They already know we're here.' Bloom sighed and rubbed her temples. And to think, when she'd woken up today, her biggest concern had been whether or not she'd accidentally double-booked an appointment at Love & Pet!

'Alright, we'll do it Stella's way. Two teams: Flora, Musa and Anagan, you go with Ogron, Stella, Tecna and Aisha, come with me. Call after you've checked each boat, or if you find Roxy, Gantlos or Duman. Let's get on those boats, take out the smugglers and hope Roxy and Gantlos don't get themselves into too much trouble before we find them.'

Roxy kicked pointlessly at the bars of the cage, and Gantlos winced at the noise.

'Roxy, maybe don't tell the whole ship that we're awake.' Roxy rolled her eyes, but desisted her clanging.

'You know, you could try coming up with a plan too, Gantlos.' Gantlos sighed.

'Making a racket doesn't really count as a plan.' Roxy huffed.

'Well at least I'm trying! What's with you? It's like you've just given up! Don't you want to save Duman?' Gantlos's eyes flashed, and he sat up straighter, not without wincing ever so slightly.

'Of course I want to save Duman! There is nothing in the universe that I want more than to have him safely back in my arms! But, thanks to me and my impulsive lack of a plan, you and I are stuck down here with no magic, no way out, and no way of telling our friends what's happened, and the others are going to have to come look for us, which is time spent not looking for Duman, during which time the smugglers could move him, or hurt him! I could have cost us our best chance to find Duman!' Gantlos's anger fell away from his expression and now he just looked terrified. 'Duman is hurt somewhere, and I'm just sitting in a cage because I was too impatient to wait until we had a plan!' He fell silent, and Roxy tried to figure out what to say in response. Before she could open her mouth, however, Gantlos spoke again, his voice just barely audible.

'What if…what if I never see him again?'

'Gantlos…We'll find him.'

'But what if we don't?' To Roxy's complete shock, Gantlos sounded like he was trying very hard not to cry. 'I can't lose him, Roxy.'

'You won't,' Roxy said firmly. 'Even if we're stuck in this cage, the others will find him. Trust me. I mean, I'm not totally clear on what happened, but from what they've said, the Winx beat the most powerful sorcerer in the Magic Dimension. They can definitely beat some smugglers and find Duman. And us.' Gantlos still looked utterly miserable, and Roxy tried to think of something she could say that would make him feel even a little better. 'And, if worse comes to worst, Stella can just talk at the smugglers until they tell her where Duman is.' She grinned as the corners of Gantlos's mouth twitched into a weak smile and he made a noise that might almost qualify as laugh-adjacent.

'Gantlos.' He looked up and she gave him a reassuring smile. 'It's going to be okay. I promise.'

'…Thank you.'

'You're welcome.' Roxy wasn't quite sure what to say next, but, unfortunately, she didn't have to think of anything, as the door to the hold they were tied up in clanged open.

'Good…You're awake.' Roxy's heart dropped as she turned to see a massively overweight smuggler with a pronounced moustache, glasses and a clichéd tattoo on his arm.

'Now that you're up from your nap, maybe you two can answer a few questions for me.' Roxy glared at him.

'Sure. The answer is: yes, that tattoo is the worst thing I've ever seen.' The man folded his arms.

'You're being awfully smart for someone who's tied up in a cage, missy.' Roxy growled furiously at him.

'Whoa! Fierce. You turn into animals like the other one?' Roxy saw Gantlos stiffen, and she shook her head.

'No, my specialty is blasting jackasses like you through walls. If you untie me, I'd be happy to give you a demonstration.' The man laughed harshly.

'Yeah, that's not happening. But my friends told me what you two did. You're magical, and that's very exciting to us.' He walked towards the cage and raked his gaze over Roxy. 'So, I heard that you grow wings.' Roxy rolled her eyes.

'That's what makes me a fairy, duh.' The man ignored her and inspected Gantlos.

'And what is it you do?' Gantlos looked away and ignored him. 'Hey! I asked you a question!' He reached through the bars of the cage and put his hand under Gantlos's chin, yanking him around to look at him. 'What do you do?'

'Seismic waves,' Gantlos growled, jerking his head away from the man's grip. 'And, for the record, I'm not really someone you want to make angry.' The man laughed.

'Oh, I think I'll take my chances. After all, what are you gonna do from inside that cage?'

'As you said, we've got magic,' Roxy spat. 'You don't know what we can do.'

'I know whatever you can do, you can't do it for at least a couple hours.' Roxy froze. He was right, but how could he possibly have known? 'Oh, I'm sorry, were you planning on bluffing your way out of this? Well, I'm afraid that, as of early this morning, I've got a bit of experience with magic. When we caught the other one, he couldn't use any magic for hours after he woke up.' Roxy saw Gantlos's eyes burn with fury. 'He got it back - good thing, since he wouldn't've been much use to us without magic. Tried to change into something else and get away, but a little shock made him rethink that decision.' Gantlos went pale with rage.

'If you've hurt him, I swear-' The man interrupted Gantlos's furious threat.

'Yeah, whatever. We've kept your friend from using magic, we'll sort you two out with the same system too. I ain't scared of you.'

'You should be,' Gantlos snarled, struggling furiously against his bonds to no avail.

'Yeah, I'm shaking in my boots. I'm just terrified of you and your futile struggling. Now…' He leaned in close to the bars. 'What I want to know is: are there more of you people? I've seen the news reports about fairies in Gardenia: there more like you?'

'We're not going to tell you anything!' Roxy spat furiously. 'Let us go!' The man laughed in her face, and Roxy almost choked on his breath.

'Oh, no. You two are staying with us. You got any idea how much money this 'magic' thing is gonna be worth? We've already got a buyer for the shifting one, and they'll pay handsomely.' Roxy was filled with a desire to punch this guy in the face.

'A buyer?' Roxy exclaimed incredulously. Gantlos looked like he wanted to wring the smuggler's neck.

'Well, duh! That's the point of this whole operation, sweetheart. Making money. And believe me, that thing's going to make us some serious money.'

'He's not a thing,' Roxy growled, and Gantlos spat something in a language Roxy didn't understand, but it did not sound pleasant. The smuggler shrugged.

'Don't make a difference to me what he is. So long as I get paid for him, I'm happy. And I'm willing to bet that if our buyer wants him, he'll be pretty damn interested in you two. Now, I'll ask again: are there more of you?' Roxy retorted using words that her father would not be happy about, and the smuggler actually looked a little surprised.

'And I always thought fairies were supposed to be all delicate.'

'You think? Now there's a surprise,' Roxy remarked sarcastically, and the smuggler scowled.

'Yeah, yeah, you won't be so smart once we've got you two sorted out like the other one.'

'What have you done to Duman?' Gantlos demanded.

'Duman? So that animal's got a name?'

'What. Have. You. Done. To him?'

'Last time I checked, I was asking the questions here.' Gantlos bit out another harsh-sounding word, and the smuggler rolled his eyes. 'You really don't seem to understand the situation. You see, you're in a cage, and I'm the one keeping you there. And nobody's coming to save you.'

'Oh, really?' Roxy raised an eyebrow. 'What about him?' She jerked her chin in the direction of something above the smuggler.

'Huh?' He looked up just in time to see a furious ball of white fur drop from a pipe and land on his face, scratching and yowling furiously. 'What the hell?!' Roxy's face broke into a wide grin as the cub clung onto the smuggler's head and rode the thrashing man like a badly-dressed rodeo bull.

'Yes!' she cheered, while Gantlos just stared in utter shock at the incredibly unlikely scene before him.

The smuggler reached up to try and yank the cub off his face, but the cub let out a furious roar and bit down hard on his hand.

'Aaah!' He staggered backwards in a blind panic, uninjured hand groping for his dart gun. Just as his hand closed around it, he stumbled back, right into a pipe. There was a loud clang as his head made rapid contact with the metal, and then he dropped to the ground, groaning quietly.

The cub leapt off his head and growled at his prone form, looking exceedingly proud of himself, before turning and bounding through the bars of the cage.

'Nice job, little one!' Roxy praised, and the cub nuzzled itself against her ankles. 'Now, could you please help me out of these ropes?' The cub meowed in agreement and began biting at the ropes around Roxy's wrists, making quick work of the bindings with his sharp little teeth.

The ropes fell away, and Roxy scooped the cub up into her arms.

'Thank you!'

'How'd he get down here?' Gantlos asked curiously. Roxy looked down at the cub and noticed that he had a frayed piece of rope around his neck. She grinned.

'He must've escaped the smugglers. Again.' She quickly removed the rope and laughed softly. 'He's a regular Houdini.' She scratched the cub's ears. 'Hmm…Houdini. That's a good name.' She looked into the cub's wide eyes. 'What do you think?' The cub meowed in a satisfied sort of way, and Roxy laughed. 'Okay then, Houdini. I need you to go look on the man for the keys to the cage, alright?' Houdini mewed and bounded back across the room, beginning to nose at the smuggler in his search for the keys.

Meanwhile, Roxy untied the ropes around her ankles and quickly made her way over to Gantlos, freeing his hands and feet.

'Thanks,' Gantlos said, rubbing his wrists.

'No problem.' There was a loud meow, and the cub came running back into the cage, a set of keys dangling from his mouth. He dropped them at Roxy's feet, and she grinned.

'Let's get out of here.' She scooped up the keys and immediately began trying them in the lock. No…no…no… There was a loud click. Yes! The cage door swung open, and she rushed out, closely followed by Gantlos.

'Okay, where do we…' she trailed off as Gantlos began stalking towards the smuggler, his eyes burning. 'Gantlos, wait!' She caught his arm, and he stopped. 'Gantlos, I know you want to make him pay for what's happened to Duman, but if we want to find Duman, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible, because we have no magic and no real way of fighting the smugglers.' Gantlos looked like he wanted to argue, but he eventually conceded and turned for the door.

'…Okay. Let's get going.' Roxy held up a hand.

'Hold up just one second.' She ran over to the smuggler and grabbed the dart gun still clutched in his hand. 'I'm just going to borrow this.' She held it up to show Gantlos. 'It's not a pair of wings, but at least it's something.' Gantlos nodded, and he, Roxy and Houdini slipped out of the hold.

'Dragon Heart!'

'Morphix Wave!'

'Megawatt!'

'Solar Storm!' Bloom landed on the ground, breathing hard. This was the fourth boat of smugglers she'd taken down, and it was beginning to get tiring.

'Tecna, any more incoming?' Tecna checked her handheld and shook her head.

'Negative, Bloom. We got them all.'

'Well, let's go look for Roxy, Gantlos and Duman, then.' They split up, and Bloom's search yielded the same disappointing results as her last three. Walking back to the agreed meeting place, her friends' expressions told her that they'd had the same luck.

'Lots of animals,' Stella sighed. 'But without Roxy to help keep them calm, it's not really safe to release them yet.'

'Same,' Aisha concurred. 'But no Roxy, Gantlos or Duman.' Bloom's heart dropped a few more inches. Where were they?

Her phone rang, and she seized it hopefully.

'Hello?'

'Hey, Bloom.' Musa didn't sound happy. 'We checked another boat. Same thing: animals, but nobody else.' Bloom tried not to panic. They were running out of boats to check!

'Bloom?' Tecna began nervously. 'We only have two boats left.' Bloom took a deep breath.

'Okay. Musa, you guys check the next boat. Talk to you soon.' She hung up. They had to be on one of these boats. They just had to be.

They weren't on the boat. Bloom struggled to comprehend the situation. They had to be here! Where were they?

She almost cracked her phone screen as she accepted Musa's call.

'Tell me you've found them.' Silence. No… 'Musa?'

'…They're not here, Bloom.'

Dun dun dun! Where are Roxy and Gantlos?

Also, yes, I named the cub. I just thought it would be nice if they weren't calling him 'the cub' all the time, and Houdini just kinda fit, since, in the show, he escapes from the smugglers and even from Roxy.

Pancake11007: I am very happy to provide some fluff and cuddles just as soon as Duman is safe. He'll be back with Gantlos soon, just hang in there! Also, since you like Gantlos and Duman, I have a question. I wrote a story (or most of a story) a while ago about Gantlos's birthday that has plenty of Gantlos/Duman cuteness. I wasn't really sure about posting it, but if you (or anyone else) would like to read it, if you say so in a review I'd be happy to finish and upload it.