Final chapter! I did it! I finished a story! I hope you enjoy it!(Wow do I overuse exclamation points in my notes.)

Duman felt relief wash over him as his friends' teleportation spell took them back to their hideout; he'd never thought he'd be happy to see that damp, cold alcove in the sewers, but he was overjoyed to be back 'home'. Sure, this wasn't their home - they didn't have a physical home - but he was back with Ogron, Anagan and…Gantlos. He was back with Gantlos. Pretty much since he'd first met Gantlos, he'd felt safe and protected by him, and now was no exception. He was weak, exhausted and his arm and leg hurt like hell, but, cradled in his boyfriend's arms, none of that seemed to matter. Gantlos was there. Gantlos had him. Everything was going to be okay.

He looked up into Gantlos's light brown eyes and saw endless, loving concern staring back at him.

'Hey…' he murmured, and Gantlos smiled down at him.

'Hey. How are you feeling?' Duman winced.

'…Not great.' Gantlos sank down to sit on the floor, keeping Duman clutched in his arms. He stroked his head gently, and Duman sighed, laying his head against Gantlos's chest, feeling the gentle rise and fall from his breathing and relishing the feeling of love and safety he had been terrified he'd never feel again.

'…Thanks for saving me,' he said quietly, leaning his head into Gantlos's chest.

'I will always save you,' Gantlos replied, caressing his cheek. 'You mean everything to me, Duman. I'd die before I let anything happen to you.' Duman smiled tiredly. He could believe that.

'I'm so happy to be back with you,' Duman murmured, slipping his hand into Gantlos's, and Gantlos squeezed it gently. 'I…I thought I might…I might never see you again,' he continued, trying very hard not to cry as he remembered the awful feeling of being trapped and hurt and scared and alone, with no idea where he was or what was going to happen to him.

Gantlos pulled him closer.

'I was afraid of the same thing,' he murmured, kissing Duman on the forehead. 'But I've got you back now, and I am never leaving you.' Duman smiled gratefully; he didn't want Gantlos to leave him. He wanted to stay right there, safe and loved, for the rest of his life. He didn't want to be away from Gantlos ever again.

He shivered, remembering when he'd woken up in that cage, confused and in pain, looking around in fearful panic and coming to realise that he was chained up and muzzled. He'd tried to stand, to run away, to shift, but his magic hadn't worked and the pain from his broken bones had sent him crumpling back down to the ground. And when his magic had eventually come back and he'd tried to shift, his captors had electrocuted him with a shock so strong that it had left him twitching and writhing on the floor as a pained scream had clawed its way out of his throat as a howl.

'Duman…' He snapped out of his painful flashback at the sound of Gantlos's voice. 'Duman, you're trembling.' He was right; Duman's entire body was shaking. He took a deep, calming breath, squeezing Gantlos's hand to reassure himself that he was away from the smugglers' captivity and safely back in Gantlos's arms.

He shifted position and a whimper escaped his lips as his arm burned with pain; he clutched his broken limb, gritting his teeth against the pain, and Gantlos's face filled with worry.

'Duman!'

'I'm fine…It just hurts.' Anagan knelt down next to him and held out a hand.

'May I?' Duman nodded and lifted his hand away, allowing Anagan to inspect the injury, flinching as he touched the painful swelling where the bone had broken. 'Hm… Well, it seems to be a clean break; I can splint it and put it in a sling, and it should be healed within about six weeks.'

'Six weeks?' Duman asked incredulously. Anagan nodded.

'Sorry. You'll need to avoid moving it until it's healed.' Duman sagged against Gantlos frustratedly. He was not looking forward to six weeks of broken arm. 'I can take a look at your leg next?' Duman nodded and Anagan examined his broken leg, a frown forming on his face.

'What?' Duman asked nervously. 'What is it?' Anagan looked up at him.

'Well, this break is a little worse; it'll probably be a couple of months before it heals.'

'But…it'll be okay?' Anagan nodded.

'Yeah, it'll be fine; you just need to stay off it for a while.' He looked uncomfortable. 'So…I really should set those bones…' Duman flinched. He did not want his broken bones to be moved; they already hurt like crazy. But, if they weren't set, then they might heal incorrectly…

'…Okay, go ahead.' He gritted his teeth as Anagan placed his hands over the break and began to cast the spell that would set the bone. He whimpered, and Gantlos held him a little tighter; he nestled into him, finding comfort in Gantlos's protective embrace as Anagan set and splinted his broken bones.

'Alright, I'm done,' Anagan announced after what most people would probably interpret as about ten minutes, but felt to Duman like several hours. He cracked an eye open.

'You're sure?' Anagan nodded.

'All done. You can relax now.' Duman sagged into Gantlos with relief, and Anagan frowned at the bruise on Gantlos's face.

'You should ice that, y'know.'

'Mm-hm,' Gantlos replied distractedly, staring lovingly down at Duman. Anagan rolled his eyes affectionately.

'You're not really listening to me, are you?' Gantlos shook his head.

'Not really.' Duman laughed at his boyfriend's response, proceeding to raise his head and kiss him. Gantlos kissed him back, and Duman could feel all of Gantlos's love, as well as the fear and panic he'd felt when he'd been missing, in the way his lips pressed desperately against his, and the way his arms clutched him protectively to his chest, as though reassuring himself that Duman was there and safe.

Ogron laughed quietly.

'Do you think they remember we're here?' Anagan shook his head.

'I'm not sure they can see anything except each other.' He was completely right; as he clung to the man he loved, Duman couldn't think of or see anything except Gantlos, nor did he want to. He was home. He was safe.

Roxy took a deep, shaky breath as she stared out at the Indian plain before her, the Zoomix sparkles fading from the air. She and the Winx had taken every animal that the smugglers had captured back to their natural habitat…except six.

'Okay…' She turned to the family of white tigers standing among her friends, fixing a shaky smile onto her face. 'Welcome home.' The mother tiger prowled forward comfortably, and all her cubs bounded after her, except for one.

Roxy's heart ached as she looked down at Houdini, the cub staring up at her with those big, beautiful eyes. She didn't want to leave him, but he was a wild tiger. He couldn't live in Gardenia, no matter how much she might want him to. Besides, he had to be with his family. Not that any of that information made letting him go hurt any less.

'Alright, Houdini,' she murmured, bending down and scratching his ears. 'It's time to go with your family.' Houdini yowled sadly and nuzzled her hand, and a few tears fell from her eyes. 'I wish we could stay together too, but you're a tiger. You need to be here. You need to be free.' Houdini mewed and leapt up, knocking her to the ground and nuzzling her face as though trying to stem the flow of her tears, and Roxy laughed. 'I love you too.' She hugged him to her tightly, and he mewled sadly. 'I know…' She put him down and inhaled shakily. 'It's time to go, okay?' She stroked his head one last time, and he stared up into her eyes before turning and bounding after his family. 'Goodbye…'

She felt Bloom's hand on her shoulder and she turned to look into her sympathetic blue eyes, before snapping and crying into her shoulder.

'I know that was the right thing to do, but I'm going to miss him so much…' Bloom stroked her hair soothingly.

'I know. The right thing to do is almost never the least painful. But he'll be happy here.' Roxy nodded.

'Yeah… And that's what I want.' She got to her feet and cast one last glance after Houdini, reunited with his family, his home and his freedom, and a small smile tugged at her lips, before she turned back to her friends.

'Let's get back home. Winx Zoomix!'

Gantlos refused to leave Duman's side in the weeks after saving him from the smugglers, keeping a constant, loving vigil on his boyfriend as he recovered, sticking very firmly to his promise that he was never leaving him again.

Duman had been recovering well, though his magic was still incredibly weak after how much strain he'd put on it. His arm and leg were healing, though not nearly fast enough to keep him from becoming frustrated at spending weeks staying still, and only Gantlos's constant, loving presence was keeping him from going stir-crazy.

He slept a lot, exhausted from his ordeal and the amount of magic he'd used to summon the shield, occasionally waking up from nightmares he did not want to talk about and spending hours lying in Gantlos's arms as his boyfriend soothed and reassured him, letting the fear and panic fall away until he passed out again.

Ogron and Anagan were helping too, though Duman found Anagan's healing expertise and food to be significantly more helpful than Ogron's attempts to keep him from getting bored by regaling him with fascinating facts about magic and other things he wasn't really listening to.

'Really?' Duman asked, sort of wishing Ogron would just stop talking. 'That's…interesting.'

'Isn't it?' Ogron agreed, preparing to continue his point about runic magic, and Duman groaned inwardly.

Anagan laughed softly.

'Ogron, leave him alone. You know he's not as interested in this as you are.'

'Is anyone?' Duman muttered, leaning on Gantlos's shoulder, and Gantlos chuckled.

'Probably not.' Ogron rolled his eyes.

'None of you appreciate me.' Duman hid a smile.

'I'm appreciating you stopping your lecture.' Ogron looked a little offended.

'It is not a lecture, Duman. I'm simply telling you some interesting things while you're recovering.' Duman raised an eyebrow.

'We have different definitions of the word interesting.' Ogron huffed.

'I was just trying to keep you entertained.'

'And you're succeeding! Winding you up is keeping me marvellously entertained.' He gave Ogron a mischievous grin, and Gantlos and Anagan stifled amused laughter at Ogron's expression.

'Fantastic.' Ogron rolled his eyes. 'I'm glad I'm so helpful.' Duman laughed, and a smile slowly made its way onto Ogron's face as he watched his friend laugh. 'So can I take it that you're back to being your old self?' Duman nodded.

'Getting there. And I do appreciate the thought behind your lectures.' Ogron smiled.

'I'm glad. And they're not lectures.'

'They feel like lectures.'

'Well, they're not.' Duman smirked.

'You make it way too easy to wind you up.' He shifted positions so he was pretty much lying in Gantlos's lap, and Gantlos adjusted to make him as comfortable as possible. 'So…' He stifled a yawn. 'What's the plan? You know, after I'm all healed? Are we still fighting the Winx, or…' Everyone exchanged a look as Duman trailed off. He had a point. What were they going to do? Everything had been so clear before; the Winx were their enemy, and they had to defeat them and destroy the White Circle. But now…the Winx had saved Duman, and arguably Gantlos too. Fighting them felt wrong, and nobody was quite sure what to do.

Duman grimaced.

'I was kind of expecting somebody to say something. Sorry.' Ogron shook his head.

'No, you were right to bring it up.' He frowned. 'To be completely honest, I'm not sure what we do next. But maybe…maybe the Winx don't have to be our enemies.'

'You know, we haven't seen the wizards since we saved Duman,' Stella remarked, lounging back on the picnic blanket they'd spread out in Gardenia Park after Roxy had convinced the girls to come spend the evening decompressing from the stresses of running Love & Pet.

Bloom nodded, playing with a blade of grass, relishing the peace and quiet.

'Yeah…' She rolled over and sat up. 'You think they've given up?' Stella shrugged.

'Who knows? I'm just talking.' Roxy stifled a laugh at her friend, turning to look at Bloom.

'I don't know. It would seem foolish and naive to think that they have, but…'

'But?' Bloom prompted curiously, and Roxy bit her lip.

'Well, helping Gantlos save Duman, I guess I saw a more…human side to him.' She hadn't told anyone what Gantlos had said in the cage, feeling that the wizard's near-breakdown was a private thing, and that it shouldn't be shared with her friends, but she couldn't help thinking back to how close Gantlos had seemed to tears at the thought of losing Duman, and found that it was far harder to think of him as the soulless villain she'd thought she'd known.

She shook her head and smiled slightly, looking up at the evening sky thoughtfully.

'I don't know what the wizards are doing. But maybe…maybe they don't have to be our enemies.'

The end! I hope you liked it! I know it didn't have any action, but I just felt like bringing the story to a nice ending, with the Winx and the wizards acknowledging the adventure they just had together. I'm not really sure what would happen after this, but I can kind of imagine that the wizards don't turn Mitzi and her friends evil, nor do they try again to steal the White Circle (Duman's got two broken bones, so he wouldn't be doing that anyway). I'd imagine that the Winx would still free the Earth Fairies, and that, when the fairies want revenge, the wizards would surrender to the Winx like in the show, since, after this adventure, they might feel that they could actually trust the Winx. Except, in my head, the wizards would actuallybe surrendering, not tricking the Winx, since I just don't see them betraying them after they helped save Duman; which would of course mean that, even if Duman got sick, Nabu wouldn't kill him, so he and Gantlos would stay together. I have no idea what would happen after the trial (if anyone has any idea what might happen, please mention it in a review, because I've always been curious what would've happened after the trial in the show if it hadn't gone so horribly wrong).

Thank you so, so, so much for reading this story, and I hope you liked reading it as much as I liked writing it! Please review and tell me what you thought!

Until next time,

Calissa Rowan;)