A quick note that makes this a bit easier to understand: I headcanon that, as Gantlos is the Wizard of Destruction, his powers are incredibly difficult to control, but he's become very practised at keeping them in check, which is why he'll be so helpful here.


By this point, Ogron was becoming very quietly concerned by the number of times they'd had to fight the Winx. And the number of times they seemed to be losing. Badly. If the idea didn't gall him to his very core, he'd almost admit that he had been fatally wrong to have them retreat from so many easily-won fights back before the Winx got their act together.

'Solar Storm!' He absorbed and deflected yet another attack, doing virtually nothing to turn the time of the battle. The fight was in dynamic equilibrium: nobody was winning or losing. They were just gradually wearing down their strength until nobody won, and one side was forced to retreat first. And, with the way things were looking, it seemed as though Ogron was going to be forced to be the one to give that order.

As though asserting that statement, Duman was flung across the battlefield by Aisha, and Ogron knew they were out of fight for now. He had to call his team back.

Unfortunately, it looked like Bloom had other ideas.

'Surrender, wizards! It's over!' Ogron flinched; it looked like Bloom was done with combative equilibrium, having realised that if she and the Winx could drive the wizards off, they could beat them.

'Not today, Bloom!' he snarled, getting ready to teleport away.

'Dragon Heart!' Ogron scowled as he was knocked to the ground, the sudden nature of the attack catching him off guard and unable to defend himself properly.

'Oh, must you be this incessantly irritating?!' Bloom didn't respond, her hair crackling with flames, and he was suddenly very aware that, for all her sparkles and relationship nonsense, the woman standing before him was the holder of the most powerful magic there was, and, despite the way she acted a lot of the time, she knew how to use it.

'Dragon Essence!' Orange fire surged out of her body, shaping into a twisting, ethereal dragon that surged right for Ogron. He thrust his hands out in front of him, his heart pounding madly as he worried that his powers might be about to fail him and leave him to get cooked.

To his eternal relief, he didn't feel searing heat course across his flesh, but instead the sensation of warmth slipping beneath his skin. He started to breathe a sigh of relief, until he realised it wasn't letting up. The energy was still coming. Bloom was still channeling the flame. And he was still absorbing it.

The warmth started to become heat as he realised he had already absorbed the power of five fairies, and yet Bloom wasn't even flagging, the power still surging from her in searing waves. His insides started to feel charred, and his expression twisted as he came to the chilling realisation that he was trapped. To lower his arms and cease absorbing the magic would mean at best some very serious burns, and at worst a fiery death, while to keep absorbing was more than his body could take.

He absorbed another wave of magic, and he felt his magic rebel, his body pleading with him to stop. He had left his limits behind, and he could feel the sear of the magic evolving into a sharp pain in his head, as though the energy was trying to escape by splitting his skull in two.

His right leg gave out, and he dropped to his knees, still trying to somehow contain the power that had created all life. How did Bloom keep this contained within her?! He could barely breathe, let alone stand, and yet this girl could fly and fight with this immense power searing at her skin.

He had to release this energy. Had to get it out of his body. Had to stop before he drove himself mad. But he didn't know how.

As his limits finally vanished from view, the power began surging past his defences, his skin searing with the heat, and he felt the tips of his fingers begin to blister with burns.

'Ogron!' Gantlos shouted, his voice thick with concern, the battle having stilled around them as Winx and wizards alike turned to watch the scene with growing concern.

'Gantlos!' Ogron called, his voice cracking with panic. 'Help!'

Gantlos didn't need telling twice; he instantly unleashed a devastating earthquake against Bloom, sending her stumbling backwards, her attack faltering for a heartbeat and allowing Ogron to draw a ragged breath.

A second later, Bloom found herself tackled by a mountain lion, before being assaulted with a barrage of attacks that seemed to come from everywhere all at once as Anagan moved too fast to be seen, and as she fell to the ground, the stream of fire finally ceased, and Ogron gasped, his arms finally falling to his side as he struggled for air, collapsing forwards and barely catching himself in time. Sweat poured down his forehead as his hands met the tarmac, grazes scratching their way across his knuckles, but he barely felt it, too focused on the burning, boiling energy bubbling to the surface within him, tearing at his skin in a ferocious attempt to break free and burn everything, including him, to ash.

'No…' he choked out, every ounce of his energy going towards containing the maelstrom of magic he'd taken inside him, his head pounding as he tried to take deep breaths, desperately struggling to somehow keep control.

'Ogron!' He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Gantlos looking calmly down at him, his expression at odds with the chaos roiling inside Ogron.

'Gantlos-' He couldn't force out more than that, gritting his teeth against the searing pain eating away at him.

'Ogron, it's okay. You're gonna be okay.'

'How do you figure?' Ogron gritted out sarcastically, trying to take any distraction he could muster as Gantlos knelt in front of him.

'Because I control uncontrollable powers every day. Just breathe. Breathe. It's okay.' Ogron wanted to snarl that Gantlos's little quakes were hardly the same as the boiling agony charring his insides, but - perhaps fortunately for their friendship - he couldn't summon the words.

'You need to let this out…' Gantlos murmured, pushing Ogron's sweat-soaked hair back from his forehead. 'Release the energy…'

'If do that, I'm ash!' Ogron snapped furiously, his words trailing off into a pained groan as he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to keep the energy contained.

'No, you just have to release a little. Just a little.'

'I can't! It's like a crack in a…' He paused, squeezing his eyes shut in pain. '…Like a crack in a dam. I won't be able to hold it back.'

'Of course you will,' Gantlos said decisively. 'You're the dam. You're fully in control here, even if it doesn't feel like it.' It really, truly, did not feel like it. He had never felt less in control, and it terrified him.

'Deep breath,' Gantlos instructed, and, as much as it galled him to need help with his own magic, Ogron fought to do as Gantlos said, sucking in a breath, the air hot and heavy in his lungs, his surroundings having been scorched by the roaring heat of the magic.

'Now…what…?' He was struggling to talk, every movement, even as small as twitching his lips, making him feel as though his every barrier was about to crumble and allow the power within to decimate everything around him.

'Left hand out,' Gantlos instructed, carefully taking Ogron's hand away from his self-embrace and directing it to point towards an empty area of the parking lot where they'd been fighting.

There was the sound of magic exploding, and Ogron started to turn to look to where Anagan and Duman were holding the Winx off, but Gantlos caught his chin and stopped him, moving his head to look back at him.

'Don't worry about the fight. Look at me. Focus on me.' Ogron nodded shakily, turning his attention to where Gantlos was directing his hand.

'Okay…' Gantlos's voice was softer than normal, gentle and reassuring, though with a firmness that helped Ogron to feel that just maybe his friend had some control over the situation. 'You're in control of what your magic does, okay?'

'It's not my magic…' Ogron choked out. 'It's hers…'

Gantlos shook his head, cutting Ogron off. 'No. You absorbed it. It's yours now. And you tell it what to do. Now, siphon a little of the magic and bring it to your fingertips.' Ogron tried to do as he said, but attempting to meddle with the roaring heat within him was wild and disorienting, and he struggled to draw only a little magic from the power.

'Stay calm…' Gantlos murmured as Ogron began to tremble with effort and panic. 'Magic responds to emotions…you know that…'

Gradually, Ogron managed to siphon off a quantity of magic small enough that he could channel it without causing injury, and he glanced up at Gantlos, too focused on keeping control to feel any chagrin over taking instructions.

'What now?'

'Release it. Steady stream, slow and easy.' Ogron's eyes widened with panic, and he started to protest, but Gantlos cut him off. 'Panicking will just make it harder. Deep breath, and let out the magic as you exhale. You'll be fine, I promise.' Gantlos didn't make promises he couldn't keep, and Ogron focused on that fact as he breathed in as deeply as he could manage, before letting out a slow, shaky breath, roaring flames bursting from his fingertips as he did so. As the power left his body, he felt the rest of the magic try to surge after it, to be released alongside its kin, but he held it back, the exertion marginally reduced with the loss of the freed magic.

'Again,' Gantlos instructed, and, trembling, Ogron complied, releasing wave after wave of fire, the tarmac under the blaze glistening as it began to melt.

Eventually, Ogron found himself able to breathe a little easier, the fire inside him finally reduced to a point where he could contain it, though still not without effort.

'There you go…' Gantlos said softly, putting a hand on Ogron's shoulder. 'Think you can handle it now?' Ogron nodded, pale, shaking and drenched in sweat, but no longer feeling like he was burning alive.

'…T-thank you…' he murmured, his vision blurring from exhaustion as he glanced up at Gantlos.

'You're welcome,' Gantlos replied, holding out a hand. 'C'mon, let's get out of here. You look like death.' Ogron was almost indignant at the remark, but it felt too true to be rebuffed, so he just took Gantlos's offered hand and shakily rose to his feet along with the other wizard. However, having expended almost all his energy on controlling the power he'd absorbed, he had practically no strength left to stand, and his knees buckled beneath him, his body too tired to try and correct the imbalance, simply allowing him to fall. He'd have had a rather intimate meeting with the tarmac had Gantlos not swiftly caught him, allowing him to exhaustedly sag against him, too tired to feel embarrassed by his weakness.

'I got you.' Ogron just nodded tiredly, allowing Gantlos to take his weight.

'Duman! Anagan!' Gantlos called to where the other two wizards were barely keeping the Winx back. 'Ogron's okay! Teleport away, now!' The two of them vanished in matching puffs of black smoke, Gantlos following suit, extending his spell to take Ogron with him, and the two of them reappeared a second later in the old warehouse they were using as a living space.

'Is he okay?' Anagan asked before the smoke had even cleared, crossing the warehouse with quick, worried strides.

'…Fine…' Ogron groaned, part of him wanting to stand unaided, but another part of him wanting to leave his head resting on Gantlos's shoulder as though that would ease the pounding in his head.

'He needs to get some rest, and to release the rest of that magic as soon as he's strong enough,' Gantlos informed the others, carefully guiding Ogron over to his makeshift bed. 'Easy there…' He eased Ogron to lie down, and Ogron's body sagged into the blankets, finally able to relax.

'I…am never…doing that…again…' he groaned, burying his face in the pillow. 'Never…again…' Gantlos patted his shoulder sympathetically, providing some comfort to his exhausted mind and body.

'I'm gonna make an executive decision here and say we don't pick any fights for a little while,' Gantlos said firmly, and Ogron made a sort of agreeable grunting noise. That worked just fine for him. And when they did pick another fight, he rather hoped to avoid facing Bloom again.

'You gonna be okay?' Duman asked, hopping up to sit on a crate at the head of the makeshift bed where Ogron was resting. Ogron just mumbled something tiredly incoherent into his pillow, and Duman raised an eyebrow.

'Was…that a yes?' Ogron exhaustedly raised his hand, giving Duman a weak thumbs-up, before dropping his arm back to his side.

'The tips of your fingers are burned,' Anagan said worriedly. 'We should see to that…' Ogron made a irate grunting noise into his pillow, and Anagan got the message to address that at another time.

As everyone graciously stopped expecting Ogron to respond, the exhausted wizard rolled over, sinking into his pillow and finally breathing easily.

'Gantlos?' he mumbled before he passed out the way he was so desperately looking forward to.

'Mhm?'

'Thank you. You really saved me there. I don't…I don't know what I'd do without you,' he murmured, fighting to keep his eyes open, as he knew once he closed them, he wouldn't be able to coax himself to open them again for quite some time.

'You don't need to find out,' Gantlos replied softly. 'Get some sleep. You completely exhausted yourself back there.' Ogron nodded slightly, too tired for words as his eyes finally fell shut and he passed out.

As his thoughts drifted into the incoherence of slumber, his last musings sparked his exhausted interest, just for a moment. He'd released a lot of Dragon Fire under Gantlos's careful guidance. But he still held a powerful reservoir of that magic inside him, burning and crackling beneath his skin. I wonder what I can do with that…