Smoke…smoke, everywhere…in her lungs…her eyes…her mouth… Toxic…choking…everything was screaming…screaming…screaming…she couldn't think…
'Flora! Flora, stay with me!' Musa…that was Musa…why was she yelling? What was happening? She should just pass out…everything was too loud and scary…she wanted to make it go away…
'Flora! Bloom, do something!' Flora felt hands on her, before a beautiful warmth spread through her body, easing the panic and thick, choking fear. Her eyes fluttered open to stare into two familiar sapphire pools of worry.
'Ngh…Bloom?' She blinked, Bloom's face coming into focus. 'What…what's happening?' She looked around, taking in the scene around her with horror. Everything was burning…
'I didn't mean to…' Bloom whispered miserably. 'My spell…my spell got out of hand…'
'Apologies later,' Aisha said firmly, helping Bloom to her feet. 'We need to get this under control right now.' Flora heard cries of pain and turned to see the warrior fairies clutching their heads in agony. She knew that pain. She'd been overwhelmed by it until Bloom had healed her.
Their leader raised her head to glare at the Winx, her eyes meeting Flora's, filled with pain and fury.
'Retreat!' Flora watched as the fairies fled, unable to take the pain of nature's destruction. She was barely holding on herself. The trees…the trees were screaming… She groaned, clutching her head with pain.
'Hold on, Flora…' Musa muttered, stroking her arm. 'Bloom and Aisha are gonna fix this…' Flora clung to Musa like a raft in a sea of screams, whimpering as her friend stroked her hair, trying to block out the panic and fear.
This was all her fault… Bloom stared at the devastation in horror, unable to believe she'd been so careless. What had she done? This was her magic turning the jungle to ash. Doing more damage than the deforesters. Her powers were far too strong to be used so carelessly!
'Bloom, you gotta absorb the fire!' Aisha called over the roar of the inferno. 'I'll try and put the rest out!' Bloom nodded, watching her friend fly up above the thick smoke, using her power over fluids to summon rolling clouds, engorged with rain.
'Flaming Armour!' Bloom focused, pulling the blaze from the trees and earth, letting the wild power of the fire slip into her burning aura, the destructive wildfire transforming into a comforting warmth under her skin.
'Healing Rain!' There was the clap of thunder, before Aisha's heavens opened, unleashing a torrential downpour on the forest, the remaining flames fizzling out before the might of the storm. But even the power of Aisha's rain couldn't fix the damage that had been done. What had once been a rich and vibrant patch of forest, full of life, was now a charred swamp of mud, an acrid stench hanging over the land as frightened animals fled to safety.
She started, feeling a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Stella giving her a weak, yet reassuring smile.
'It's not your fault, Bloom. You were just trying to help.' Bloom shook her head. It was her fault. It was all her fault. This land…nothing would grow on this land now. Not for years, and never anything as vibrant as what had once stood there. She bit her lip, choking back tears as the acrid air stung her lungs.
A few metres away, Musa and Aisha were helping Flora get to her feet, the Fairy of Nature groaning and clutching her head. She'd done that. With her careless use of her magic.
'Bloom?' Stella asked quietly, her golden eyes filled with worry. 'Are you okay?' Bloom wiped away a tear, and Stella sighed. 'Sorry. Dumb question. Of course you're not.' Next thing she knew, Bloom found her face buried in a mass of mango-scented hair as Stella embraced her tightly. 'Hey…you made a mistake. We all do that.' Bloom nodded weakly, knowing she didn't have time to wallow in her guilt, but inwardly she was acutely aware that other people's mistakes didn't lead to wildfires.
'Hey…it's okay…' Roxy murmured up to a baby monkey sitting in a tree near the burned ground. 'It's safe now.' She fluttered up, holding out an arm, which the animal quickly scampered onto. She frowned as she felt his tiny heart pulsating madly with panic and fear. 'It's okay…let's find your parents.' She flew towards the trees, her head aching with the fear of the animals panicked by the fire. 'Hello? I've got a baby monkey here…?' She made a sharp left at the sound of chattering, breathing a sigh of relief as the monkey leapt off her shoulder and flung himself back to his parents. 'Well, that's one problem solved…' Just seventy billion to go…
She landed, transforming back to her jeans and combat boots, aware that despite Diana knowing they were in the forest, that didn't mean they should start announcing their presence when they were heading for her temple.
She was about to call to the others to ask where they were going now when she saw Flora standing with her hand pressed against the ashy, sodden bark of a tree, her eyes glistening with tears.
'You okay?' she asked quietly. Flora shook her head, tight-lipped.
'They're in pain…' she grit her teeth, a green aura spreading from her palm across the tree. For a few moments, Roxy saw a few skeletal leaves shimmer with green, but it was gone faster than a trick of the light, leaving Flora staring up at them with raw pain in her gaze. 'I'm not strong enough…I can't fix this…' Roxy put a comforting hand on her arm.
'Sure you are. You're the Fairy of Nature. You can fix all of this. As soon as we stop Diana, we'll come back here, and you'll make everything ten times better than it was.' Flora looked unconvinced, but she managed a weak smile.
'We…we should get back on track.' The tremble in her voice didn't escape Roxy's notice, and she squeezed her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.
'West…west is this way,' Stella said quietly, pointing into the trees. Everyone walked after her, nobody really able to think of much to say as the toxic smoke of the charred forest slowly vanished from the air the further they trekked.
Roxy couldn't help being a little unnerved by what she'd seen. Of course, in no way did she think it was Bloom's fault; it had been an accident. But that was what made it so terrifying. That something that destructive could come from a small slip-up. Knowing that people held that much power…it was scary. Something like that could happen if any of them lost control…their powers could all be that dangerous. Deadly heatwaves, tsunamis, deafening sound waves, out of control viruses, lethal jungles…her own powers could spark a stampede. Who knew how many people that could kill? Who knew how many people she could kill? She'd never really thought about how deadly she'd really become. It had always been…simple. Probably the wrong word, but it kinda fit. It had been clear: be a fairy, fight the wizards, free the fairies. There had been facts. The wizards were evil, the fairies were good. Now things were turning on their heads and she was suddenly aware that this wasn't just a few fights at a train station or industrial estate. Was this…war?
'I…think we're here,' Musa muttered, staring through the trees at a huge grey stone temple rising from the jungle. She was kinda surprised they hadn't seen it earlier, honestly. The thing was huge. Definitely not a secret base.
'Wow.' Stella regarded the temple with a frown. 'It's no palace of Solaria, that's for sure.'
'You mean it's not implausibly large and ostentatious?' Musa quipped, earning an eye-roll from the blonde princess. 'Maybe Diana wants to be able to walk from one side of her house to the other in under a month.' She had to duck very quickly as a fruit of some description was thrown at her. 'Hey! Where'd you even get that?' Stella pointed to a tree behind her.
'That tree. Duh. Don't make jokes about my palace, Musa.' Musa shrugged.
'Alright. But what about all the super true things I was saying about your palace?' She winced as the next fruit found its target, leaving her looking like she'd been the victim of a deplorably-applied face mask. Stella smirked, and Musa looked to Flora.
'Hey, Flora, this stuff edible?' Flora nodded, and Musa subsequently licked the fruit from around her mouth. 'Mm…thanks for the snack, Stell.' Stella made a hand gesture that was completely unobtrusive on Earth, but Musa knew would have got her removed from any royal event on Solaria. 'Huh. Classy.' Roxy snickered, and Musa shot her a grin.
'Okay, enough projectile snacking,' Bloom interjected, surreptitiously moving Stella away from the tree. 'We need to get in there, find Diana, and hit her with everything we've got until she pulls the plants back.' Musa frowned.
'Bloom, I get that we don't have a lot of options, but…we already lost against Diana. Are you sure this is our best plan?' Bloom sighed.
'I'm afraid I am, Musa. We don't have any better options. It's fight Diana or prepare Gardenia's acceptance speech for the 'Greenest City of the Year' award.' She plastered on a fake-confident smile. 'Besides! Diana caught us by surprise the first time, and we weren't all together the second time; I'm sure we'll do better this time.' Musa doubted they stood much of a chance against the Major Fairy of Nature on her turf, but Bloom had a point; what other ideas did they have?
'Okay then. How are we getting in there? I'd advise against knocking; something tells me Diana isn't exactly planning to roll out the welcome wagon.'
'We need to avoid detection until we find Diana…' Bloom mused. An idea gradually occurred to Musa.
'How about camouflage?' Stella grimaced.
'I am not covering myself in mud. No way, no how.' Musa shook her head.
'No. I mean like a spell to hide us. But you should try the mud idea anyway.' Stella appeared to have a few choice words to say about that little comment, but Bloom cut in before she could permanently destroy any illusion of a perfect, always-classy princess.
'That's a good idea, but we need a way to stop Diana sensing our magic, or it'll ruin the surprise attack.' Flora raised a hand.
'Um…I can use the energy of nature to disguise ours. Diana won't sense my magic, since it'll blend in with the energy around us.' Bloom give her a thumbs-up.
'Great.'
'Stella can bend light waves to hide us from sight, and I'll take care of any sound,' Musa pitched, and Bloom nodded.
'Perfect. Let's move.'
Musa's lips twitched into a grin as they slipped past two guards staring suspiciously out into the jungle, evidently watching for the very intruders sneaking behind them, hidden by Stella's light bending, Flora's natural aura, and her very own enchantment to muffle their footsteps and breathing. Of course, the spells weren't foolproof. If one of them were to transform, they'd be sensed. If they made too much noise, the spell wouldn't be able to handle it, and they'd be heard. And Stella was just making them blend in - they weren't totally invisible. But still, it was more than enough to dupe some guards, allowing them to slip through the huge stone doors and into the cool shade of the temple.
Despite the enchantment, Musa held her breath as they crept through the main atrium, incredibly aware of the dozen warrior fairies and the weapons held ready at their sides.
She caught Bloom's eye, her leader following as she beckoned her and the others down a corridor down which she could hear no voices, footsteps, heartbeats…nothing. No guards.
They hurried down the passage, Musa double-checking for guards. When she didn't see any, she gestured for Stella to lift her spell, though she kept her own active.
'We're good. There's nobody in here. Now we just gotta figure out where Diana's hiding…'
'Can you listen for her?' Bloom asked. She nodded.
'I'm gonna need quiet.' Everyone stayed silent, and she focused, concentrating on the thousands of sound waves across the whole temple, sifting through them in search of the sounds of life, discarding every creak of a door and crack of stone. She heard voices…so many voices…but not Diana's feisty, commanding tone. Not yet. All guards…except… She frowned. That was weird. She thought she'd heard… She caught it again. A deeper voice. Too deep for a fairy. But she quickly lost it again in the hum of noise. She struggled to find it again, certain it didn't belong in Diana's temple, but just as she thought she could hear it again, she picked up on another sound. …Groans. Pained groans at that. Someone was in pain. Who? But her spell was barely managing to allow her to tune into such a small fraction of the sound, let alone determine identities of mystery groaning people.
She should keep looking for Diana. That was the objective. But…she'd heard the pain in those sounds. Someone needed help.
'Musa?' Bloom whispered as she grimaced. 'What is it?'
'Someone…someone's in pain…' she muttered. 'I can hear groaning. But it's not a fairy…' The other Winx exchanged glances. Their mission had been clear. Find Diana. But they hadn't become guardian fairies because they could ignore those in need.
Bloom looked back at her, her cyan eyes clear and decided.
'Where?' Musa listened again, turning and pointing along the hallway.
'That way. And…down.'
Roxy followed Musa down the passage, casting glances over her shoulder for any guards that might pop up and attack. Stella was no longer casting her invisibility spell, Bloom having advised her to conserve her energy while there was nobody around, but Roxy would have felt better to know they were less vulnerable.
She frowned as they walked down another flight of stairs. Where were they going? Because it felt like they were headed for dungeons.
They reached the bottom of the stairs and she saw a pretty good indication that her feeling had been right: they were in dungeons. The walls were interspersed with heavy stone doors, equipped with thick padlocks. Most were unlocked, lying open on the door, but at the end of the hall was a door upon which not only had the padlock been locked, but there were several more chains holding it shut. But oddly, no guards. It didn't feel like anyone had been down there in a few days, actually. Like whatever had prompted that door to be locked had been locked in and abandoned in the dark.
'In there,' Musa murmured, pointing at the locked door. 'They're in there.' Bloom stepped up to the door, fingering the chain.
'Diana definitely didn't want anyone getting out of here…'
'Can we use magic to break it?' Roxy asked, but Tecna shook her head.
'I can sense a magical suppressant; spells won't work on them.' Roxy sighed. Well that was just perfect.
'What are we supposed to do now then?'
'Bloom can take care of the chains,' Tecna replied. 'Spells won't work, but they're still made of metal; heat them strongly enough, and they'll melt right off.' Roxy noticed Bloom stiffen slightly at the suggestion. Looked like she hadn't recovered from causing the wildfire.
'I…I'm not sure that's a good idea,' Bloom muttered, playing nervously with her hair.
'Bloom, don't worry,' Tecna reassured her. 'We're surrounded by stone. Stone won't catch fire.' Bloom took a deep breath, but nodded.
'Alright. Stand back, everyone. This is gonna get pretty hot.' Roxy watched with awe as flames spilled from Bloom's hands, enveloping the chains, the metal turning white-hot before slowly, sluggishly, starting to creep down the door, pooling on the floor as slag that Aisha quickly cooled with a small rain spell.
'Well that was effective,' Roxy remarked, looking at their now unbarred access to the door, and thus the room beyond and whoever Musa had heard.
'I can sense heat signatures in there, but I don't know if any could be guards,' Bloom hissed. 'So be ready. Musa, your spell's still up and running?'
'Running so hard it'd win a marathon.'
'Good.' Bloom carefully pushed the door open, stepping through into thick darkness beyond, Roxy hurrying after her, squinting into the shadows. She could make out shapes, seemingly bodies, slumped against the wall.
'Stell, can we get a little light in here?' Bloom muttered, and Stella summoned a ball of light, the glow washing over the room, lighting up the figures and illuminating the last faces Roxy would ever have expected to see, her eyes meeting a familiar glacial blue gaze.
'Ogron?!' Sitting slumped against the wall, staring at her with shock and confusion, was one of the wizards she'd been looking for for the past several days. Guess this explains why they weren't in Gardenia…
'…Winx?' Ogron stared at them, dumbfounded. 'What are you doing here?'
'We came to stop Diana taking over the world,' Roxy replied, still in shock, taking in the other wizards. Her gaze fell on Duman and she gasped. He was lying with his head on Anagan's legs, groaning and thrashing, sweat pouring down his forehead, his expression twisted with pain. Seeing his state, Flora was already running over and dropping to her knees in front of him.
'What happened?' she asked, pressing her hand to his forehead to check for a fever. Going off the way her lips pursed with concern, Roxy was willing to bet she'd found one.
'He…he was protecting me…' Gantlos said quietly, staring over at Duman with the same pain in his eyes that Roxy remembered from the ship. 'He was too weak to use his powers safely…and Diana shocked him.' Flora frowned, pressing two fingers to his neck to check his pulse.
'It's erratic…he needs healing magic, and soon.' Her gaze lifted to Anagan, her eyes widening as she took in a deep gash across his forehead. 'Great Sage…' She reached out to examine it, but Anagan flinched away.
'Please...don't…' Roxy's eyes hardened, internally fuming that Diana had just thrown Anagan and Duman down here when they were evidently hurt; they needed medical care!
She knelt down in front of Gantlos, frowning at the chains clamped around his wrists.
'We need to get these off and get you out of here…' She reached for the chains. 'May I?' Gantlos nodded, and she examined the bonds. Uh, hold up a second… '…There's no keyhole.' She frowned in confusion. 'How do I get them off?' Gantlos shook his head miserably.
'You don't. They've been enchanted; only those allowed by the spell can remove them.'
'How convenient,' Roxy muttered. This was certainly a step up from the ropes on the smugglers' ship that had been taken care of by a tiger cub and a few moments of gnawing.
'Actually, only those allowed by the spell can unlock them.' Roxy turned to raise an eyebrow at Tecna.
'…You know that's what Gantlos just said, right? Or is Musa's anti-sound spell malfunctioning?' Tecna sighed exasperatedly.
'No, I mean…look, the chains are made of metal. Enchanted or not, they can come off the same way we got the lock off the door.' Roxy just gawped at her for a moment, while Bloom looked like she was fighting off a panic attack. Ogron and Gantlos exchanged a glance, before Ogron broke the silence.
'…How did you get the lock off the door?'
'Oh, Bloom melted it,' Stella chirped enthusiastically, prompting Ogron to immediately blanch and recoil against the wall.
'No. Absolutely not.'
'I completely agree with Ogron,' Bloom concurred, before frowning slightly. 'That felt weird to say.' She gave Tecna a firm stare. 'We need a different plan.'
'Well then I'm afraid you're going to have to provide one, as this is currently the best my 150 IQ has to offer. Aisha can surround the metal with Morphix, which doesn't melt, and you will melt it at two opposite points, allowing it to come off.' Bloom opened her mouth to argue, but was cut off by Gantlos.
'Do it.' Roxy raised an eyebrow, about ask if he was serious about having metal melted off him, but then she saw where he was looking. His gaze was locked on Duman, his eyes filled with pain and desperation, and she knew he'd have those chains melted off him whether Aisha protected him with Morphix or not.
'Whatever we're doing, we should do it fast,' Musa chipped in. 'Who knows when the guards will come down to check in?' Ogron laughed bitterly.
'Until it's time to drag us to Tir Na N'og for punishment, they won't. We haven't seen anyone in days.' Roxy frowned. If they hadn't seen anyone, who'd brought them food? Looking back at Gantlos and taking in his drawn, haggard face, she realised: nobody. All of them looked weak and half-starved. They had to get them out of there, and fast. No way was she letting Diana take them to face what she was reasonably certain would be torture.
'Well, I guess fire is the only plan we have,' she sighed. 'Bloom?' Bloom looked vaguely nauseous, stuttering that it was a dangerous plan as Aisha knelt down next to Roxy, snapping her fingers to summon the Morphix that would protect Gantlos from the molten metal.
'Bloom, please,' Gantlos begged. 'Try.' Bloom swallowed hard, but knelt down, Roxy moving to make room as she inhaled, her irises sparking with fire, the sections of metal under the Morphix starting to glow. Her hair crackled with flames, and Roxy could feel the heat rolling off her, making her wonder just how Bloom wasn't melting.
Speaking of melting, Gantlos's eyes lit up with hope as the metal started to ooze out of shape, Aisha very, very carefully easing it away from the chains, the bonds dropping from Gantlos's wrists with an echoing clang.
'Huh. Melting,' Roxy remarked as Gantlos stared down at his wrists for a moment in dumbfounded silence. 'Apparently an effective plan.' Gantlos seemed to fully register that he was free, and immediately scrambled to his feet, flinging himself across the cell to Duman.
'Duman!' Duman didn't respond, just groaning in pain again. Gantlos made a choked noise and pulled him into his arms, Anagan carefully easing the shapeshifter across to his boyfriend. 'It's okay…it's all gonna be okay…' Duman still didn't respond, but Roxy saw his body nestle into Gantlos's arms a little.
'He'll be okay,' she reassured him. 'We'll get you all out of here, and then Bloom can use her healing powers.' She paused, looking to Bloom. 'You can fix this with your healing powers, right?' Bloom nodded.
'Mhm. Energy imbalances are pretty easy to fix when you have the ultimate force of life inside you.' Roxy smiled reassuringly at Gantlos.
'See? We can fix this.' Gantlos managed to return a weak smile.
'Okay, who's next?' Aisha asked. 'We should get you all out of here as quickly as possible.' Ogron recoiled as Bloom looked at him, her hair still slightly on fire, and Anagan sighed.
'I'll go next.' Ogron shot him a grateful look, and he smiled weakly.
'Okay then.' Aisha knelt next to him, Gantlos moving back with Duman as she and Bloom repeated the melting process to remove Anagan's chains.
Anagan rubbed his wrists as the metal clanked to the ground, stretching his hand out and frowning in concentration, a very tiny spark of magic glowing above his fingertips.
'Looks like your magic's coming back online,' Tecna noted while Bloom and Aisha took care of Duman's chains, Gantlos clutching him protectively to him the whole time.
As Duman's chains fell from his wrists, Bloom looked over to Ogron, who blanched.
'There has got to be another way to get them off.'
'Ogron, you'll be fine, I promise,' Anagan reassured him, moving over to sit next to him. 'It doesn't hurt; you just get a bit warm.' Ogron shook his head.
'No. I'm not having metal melted off me. Not a chance.' Anagan put his hand on the panicking redhead's shoulder.
'Duman needs to be healed as fast as possible, and we can't leave you here, so there's going to have to be, okay?' Ogron bit his lip, staring down at his chains, then up at Anagan giving him a reassuring smile.
'…Okay.' He held his wrists out to Bloom and Aisha, his breathing becoming shallow and panicked as the metal began to glow a dull red, averting his gaze when it blazed white-hot.
'One moment…' Aisha muttered, carefully detaching the molten slag. 'Got it. All done.' Ogron looked back to his wrists as Bloom lifted the remainder of the bonds away.
'See?' Anagan murmured. 'You're fine. Better than fine, actually: you're free.' Ogron took a shaky breath and rubbed his wrists, staring down at the lack of chains uncomprehendingly for a moment. He looked back up, meeting Bloom's gaze.
'…Thank you.' Bloom gave him a warm smile.
'No problem.' Roxy had to disagree with that statement; Bloom was evidently still struggling after the wildfire, and using her powers so delicately had clearly made her nervous. But they'd have to deal with that later. Right then they had to get the wizards out of this dungeon and go find Diana.
'C'mon.' She held her hand out for Ogron. 'Let's get out of here.' Ogron accepted her hand gratefully, allowing her to help pull him to his feet. However, as soon as he was upright, he swayed on his feet, staggering and almost falling to the floor until Roxy quickly ducked under him, looping his arm over her shoulder and bracing her legs to take his weight.
Ogron stared at her in surprise, and she raised an eyebrow.
'You good?'
'…Yeah. Sorry, I…I'm really weak.' He looked away, as though embarrassed by the admission.
'You've been stuck in a dungeon for days, Ogron. That's kinda to be expected.' She just stared for a moment as Gantlos dragged himself to his feet, Duman still clutched in his arms. He was blatantly as weak and exhausted as Ogron; how the hell was he doing that? She was slightly convinced Gantlos had some kind of well of stubborn, loving determination inside that allowed him to just keep going beyond the limits of what was realistically feasible.
Seeing as how Anagan didn't possess such an ability, Flora helped him to his feet, supporting him in much the same manner as Roxy was doing for Ogron.
'C'mon, everyone,' Roxy said, heading for the door, helping Ogron walk. 'Let's get out of here.'
And the wizards are free! Yay! And you can't really blame Ogron for being a bit unnerved by the idea of having metal melted off him, but it really was the best plan they had. And don't worry, Duman will wake up soon.