Chapter Text
Darcy
Our lives had changed in an instant. More happened to us than we could have ever expected, new occurrences happening right after one another. We had thought our lives had ended and finally calmed down after years of fighting, losing, and regretting our decisions on end. My name is Darcy, witch of illusions and darkness. My two sisters, Icy; a witch of ice, and Stormy; a witch of storms, share the regret I feel every day. Then everything changed. Suddenly we didn't have the same values as before. Suddenly... everything was different.
This happened a month ago.
Icy, Stormy and I—we were all known as the Trix, a coven of witches descending from the Ancestors—were trapped in Limbo, a dimension outside of time, as a punishment for trying to harness all the power of the Wild Magic. Even though that is hardly the worst we have done, but I digress. Then one day, after who knows how long—it could have been months or years—we somehow got out of that prison. Valtor had freed us from Limbo. He had wanted us to help him take control of a power being called the Wishing Star, and if we didn't, we'd be sent back to that agonizing place outside of time for who knows how long.
Long story short, we had helped him to find the seven Prime Stars—the pieces of the Wishing Star, a sentient magic that would grant any wish and desire—and return them to him. The three of us continually fought against seven fairies called the Winx to retrieve the stars, not like that was anything new. And in the end, each side had three of them. The last star was on a deserted planet that was supposedly frozen in ice, Icy's old home before Magix.
But it's not my story to tell. Nor is it my business.
When Icy, Stormy, and I got the final star—which freed us from Valtor's mark, thankfully—we chose to go to Valtor and take his three Prime Stars and gain the power that they hold. That had been our goal for years, after all. But later, when my sisters and I had to choose between giving Valtor the stars so he could destroy the Magic Dimension, keeping it for the power, or giving it to the Winx to save the universe and to get a chance to make up for the past mistakes, we chose giving it to the seven fairies. I guess deep down we knew it was finally time to stop the endless battles, ones we kept on losing no matter how hard we tried.
The Winx restored all the planets, the stars and saved the Magic Universe et cetera et cetera as they always do. But the three of us... We knew how hard it would be to start over in our lives and make up for the things we had done, so we decided to just wait before we did that and to let the whole situation blow over. At least for a while. None of us were sure of how long it would take, or what we would even do or where we would go.
But we had a mission of our own to complete.
Icy had a mission of her own to complete.
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
The three of us were in Magix forest miles away from any of the schools, a dimmed clearing close to Black Mud Swamp. Very little light shone through the tall trees, which was my ideal and was calming to an extent, even if we weren't trying to avoid anyone who would recognize us. The first two months after Valtor was defeated once more all of us sought refuge in Shadowhaunt, and all these years later was still somehow stable. Underground rivers there were clean enough as a water source, and a simple transportation spell with some adjustments allowed us to summon other resources. But Icy had dragged us out of there, pulling herself out of her slump of not knowing what to do...
I stared at the man-made pond in the center of the clearing, half listening to the conversation between Icy and Stormy, half thinking about how well this idea would turn out.
"But it didn't even work last time. Even the Prime Star didn't do a thing, so what's the point of going back there again?" Stormy questioned, referring to Diamond. She was sitting just next to the pond, tossing little stones into it—I frowned when one of the water splashes hit my glasses and took them off to wipe them clean with my sleeve. That somehow only made things worse. "If you ask me, I'd rather stay here than freeze to death."
"Because Stormy, ever since that day I have been strengthening my magic day in and day out and I didn't do it for it to not work. I have to free Sapphire," Icy said sternly as she turned to look between the two of us, leaning against a tree with her arms crossed in front of her. "It's not just sentimentality that's driving me there. I owe her, and I made a promise to her."
I breathed in slowly as I stood up—knowing how important promises were to us witches and Icy specifically—and put my glasses back on my face. "Icy... I get how important this is to you, but you and I both know that it may not work. It's obviously a tough spell to undo if the 'all-powerful' Prime Star can't do anything about it." I breathed in deeply, opening my hands in a harmless gesture. "Maybe, and believe me, I'm not fond of this idea either; one of us should start making our way to Alfea to see if the Winx can help us."
"And why would they even say yes?" Stormy questioned with a scof, obviously unsure of the idea, sharply throwing another stone into the pond. "They definitely still hate us, and as the only one out of the pixies who can actually reverse curses, Iorda won't help us either. Knowing our track record of..."
I raised a brow. "Killing her?"
"Yes, that."
Iorda; the Fairy of Dark Arts. Years ago right when my sisters and I were juggling schoolwork at Cloud Tower with our search for the ultimate power—all while trying to find a way to break the seal on the tomb containing the Whisperian Crystals, put in place by the Company of Light after defeating the Ancestors—Iorda showed up at Cloud Tower after being refused admittance to Alfea for her magic. But considering her powers came from one of the Ancestors, Liliss to be exact, it made sense.
If her magic, a remnant of Liliss' after the Ancestors' defeat, wasn't fused with a spark of that of the Company of Light's then she probably would've been a witch instead of a fairy for that matter. Her magic was made to keep ours in balance, because what made the Ancestors so powerful centuries ago was that, unlike the Shadow Pheonyx, they didn't have an energy naturally keeping them in check. Iorda did have a predecessor who'd died long before the fight with the Ancestors and the Company of Light.
But out attempts to convince her to stay out of our way, that didn't stop her. Years later, I admired her tenacity. No matter how many things happened, no matter how many times she almost died at the hands of my sisters and I—one of those times was barely an almost, and guilt still haunted me for that—she kept surviving. Somehow. I remember we used to compare her to a cockroach.
It fit quite well.
But upon reflecting, I could tell why Stormy would be doubtful that Iorda would even think to help Icy's sister and us in the process. If I was in her spot, I wouldn't, but that's the reason she's a fairy and I'm a witch. I had to have hope that even though she's been through too much at her hands, she'd at least consider helping Sapphire. This meant so much to Icy that I'd even resort to burying my guilt deep inside and going to Alfea myself.
"Because we don't have many choices," I answered, turning to Stormy before looking over to Icy. "What do you—"
"No," Icy interrupted, her sharp tone not open for discussion. "After all that we had done… we are in no position to ask Winx for help. It's out of the question. I'm going back to Diamond to try again to reverse the spell myself or find a way to fix it."
"And we're coming with you," I said calmly, walking over to Icy and resting my hand on her shoulder. She pauses for a moment before putting her hand on top of mine, smiling softly. Stormy joins us, a small smirk on her face, but a happy one. Over the years since we had become a coven, it's gotten easier to show these little affections towards each other. No one else had been with us—with me—as long as they had.
"Yeah," Stormy agreed. "I guess... we're in this together. Cheesy."
"I... Well, thank you, sisters," Icy smiled faintly, nodding to the both of us as her hand glowed a bright white and a swirling portal slowly began to form just in front of the pond.
I looked at Icy, straining with the effort of the portal, and I would've opened one myself if I knew Diamond well enough to do so. Seconds later, the portal was fully formed, and with a glance at each other, we walked into it. Met with bright white light, I squinted my eyes from the irritation. Only the light on Solaria—the reason why a planet would need two, no, three suns is beyond me—is as annoying as this. But I grew up on Zenothe, Solaria's counterpart, that was hidden from the light of Sorlaria's sun by a dark mist... I wasn't accustomed to so much light.
Zenothe...
Beautifully covered by a dimness I used to love...
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Soon the three of us emerged from the endless abyss of light and were on Diamond once more. Surrounded by nothing except ice, ice, and more ice. It would've been Icy's playground if not for the dark memories here. A soft, snow-field wind blew around us and blew the snow onto my ankles. Annoyed, I tugged my pant bottoms down to solve that issue. I didn't mind the cold much, but I was already irritated a how I've had nothing to do for the past few months except to be in my own thoughts.
Diamond looked the same as last time. Bright white with snow, the snowflakes falling onto ours faces. In the distance, I could see several translucent owl totems made out of ice—the symbols of the witch that destroyed Icy's planet so many years ago—reflecting the bare amount og sunlight into a prism of color. And far over the horizon was a giant tree with pink crystal for leaves frozen in the very same ice.
"Let's go find my sister," Icy said with sheer determination as she started walking toward the large tree, the cape of her witch form flicking behind her in the wind. She seemed uneasy, but not too much that she couldn't deal with it. Stormy and I started to walk after her, knowing it was best to go along with her for now.
Moments later, we were almost at the crystalline tree, only a frozen river in front of us. I wrapped my arms around myself. Even this was getting too cold. Then the wind howled quietly before the sound disappeared, and I frowned, passing. I looked towards my sisters, who kept walking forward, knowing that they probably didn't hear the disturbance in the wind. And there was something else. Some sort of... darkness there.
"Sisters, something is wrong," I stated plainly before Icy and Stormy stopped walking and turned to face me. They paused for a second.
"Come on there's nothing there Darcy. We're the only ones here on this wasteland of a planet," Stormy said plainly.
I rolled my eyes and Icy gave Stormy a sharp look that meant she wasn't pleased with having her old home being called a 'wasteland." Then her eyes widened.
"Wait... Something is wrong here. The feeling in the air… " Icy started, words cut off when the wind picked up. The snow caught in it became like tiny shards of glass, rough against our skin. Something was seriously wrong, and it wasn't just because this planet was clearly cursed based on its energy signature.
I crossed and raised my arms over my face, turning my face away from the wind. I was glad I was in my transformation, ready to attack—and also glad that my glasses wouldn't have a chance to freeze over. The snowstorm didn't seem normal or even simply created. It seemed to be encircling and targeting us. Even Icy was having trouble holding up against it, eyebrows knit together in concentration and effort.
"I know you're there!" Icy called out angrily into the snowy abyss that appeared empty. "Come out and fight you fucking coward!"
I looked at her with a raised brow, but I could trust her with what she said. We were not the only ones there. And Icy knew who we were dealing with.
The wind picked up even faster, screaming like an Arise—bloodthirsty creatures that would rip one's skin off—and we started to have trouble keeping our bodies steady and from sliding from place to place. The fact that we were all wearing heels didn't help much at all, but at least they dug into the ice rather nicely.
"Coward!" Stormy yelled as she shot a dark pink lightning bolt into the snowstorm. We started to hear a vague rumble in the sky, low and dangerous. A large bolt of lightning, resembling Stormy's except darker, came down from the sky and struck the ground a short distance in front of us. Whoever did that could attack us again if we weren't able to raise our guard and stop fighting the wind.
"Oh... I'm the coward?" An echoed voice said calmly.
Then, as the sparking lightning in the sky and the wind disappeared, where it struck was now—what I assumed to be—a witch. She had red and purple hair, her eyes covered with a leathery veil, as well as scar-like markings on her cheeks and a decorated skull over her hair. A Shaman. This witch also held a wooden staff adorned with several hanging crystals and a large purple one at the curved top of the staff that crackled with power.
I glared at the witch and recoiled slightly. There was too much dark energy emitting off of her, but that itself wasn't what scared me. It was that the energy this witch had was more potent and negative than that of the Ancestors. Shuddering, I buried the thought.
"I'm not the one who had watched my kingdom crumble without doing a thing," The witch said cooly, sneering at Icy. "Isn't that right, Princess of Diamond?"
It then clicked in my head that we were facing the witch who had destroyed Icy's home. The Shaman Witch. I glanced behind me at Icy and Stormy, the latter had just come to the same realization that I did as her eyes widened with surprise. She couldn't feel the witch's energy, not like me, and I was glad for it.
"Shaman Witch!" Icy growled as she stepped forward, hands glowing. "You may have destroyed this place in the past, but here and now I will defeat you! And you will never hurt anyone's planet ever again!"
"And we'll help you do it," I spoke, focusing on my magic myself, feeling it stir deep inside me and from within my mind. Right now I wouldn't need my psychic magic, but if need be and if shadows didn't work I wouldn't hesitate to tear this witch's mind apart. Stormy followed, more than ready to fight for our sister.
"You really think you three can defeat me?" The Shaman Witch scoffed, tone light. She raised her glowing staff into the air before hitting it to the ground. "You underestimate me!"
The staff and the witch herself glowed a deep purple, and I recognized the spell as that of the psychic element before something happened. Something bad. I felt a presence in my mind—something that had never happened to me before—and then a splitting pain shot through my head and my knees hit the ground. What the fuck? How did she break through my defences? This shouldn't have been happening!
I screamed, pressing my hand to my head and trying to at least focus my magic again so I could break the spell. Nausea that I knew would come—I'd cast similar spells, sadly, on others—rose and I buried it. I'd be fine I'd be fine I just have to break the spell! Biting my lip and tasing blood, I tried to ignore my sister's screams and pained noises. But then images appeared in my mind, those of the past, and I had no doubt it was the Shaman Witch who was doing it.
I saw it all clearly, reliving all those part moments as an outsider.
I saw the me of the past.
The people I've manipulated—images of what I did to Riven appeared.
The people I hurt—I saw what I did to Musa, and most of all, the things I did to Iorda.
All the bad things I had done. All the pain and despair I had caused just because I'm alive.
I felt a tear fall slowly from the corner of my eye and down my cheek, and my mind was feeling duller by the second. All the guilt that I've been feeling for these three months was being dug out of my chest all at once and it was agonizing. My body began to tremble, choked sobs shaking my chest. More images began to appear, and I wondered how long this would end; the spell, the guilt, and the hate of what I'd done.
Through the pain, I wondered if this would ever end.
If I'd even be seen as someone good.
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Iorda
Our lives changed in an instant and everything got more confusing than it was already. That is one thing I can say without hesitation. And I think the Winx felt the same way as I do, well, they felt the same confusion. There's no doubt in that...
My name is Iorda, the Fairy of Dark Arts
Three months ago, when Valtor almost had his clutches on the last Prime Star, we had some unlikely help. The Trix, three witches who the Winx and I had fought against for years on end—the deep-rooted fear regarding them has yet to disappear, and sometimes I think it won't ever fully go away—had chosen the side of good and gave Winx and I the last star. After Valtor was defeated, everything went back to normal.
For the most part.
I was at Alfea at the moment, enjoying my last moment at the school. No, it was more than that. It was a home. The sun was shining and there was silence everywhere, the only noise was the birds chirping and the occasional student walking outside the halls getting ready to leave for summer break. The school year was over, and the Winx had all gone back to their planets to live out their duties as Guardian Fairies. Or as princesses with stressful royal duties, which makes me grateful I'm not magical royalty, having to rule over entire planets.
But I didn't have a kingdom to protect, at least in the traditional way. I am still a Guardian Fairy, but unlike the Winx and the other faries who have a planet to protect with a ruler and a kingdom, my role is watching over the three Dark Prisons: Omega, Obsidion, and Oblivion. Obsidion was destroyed years ago, and though Omega has occasional breakouts—while, on the other hand, Oblivion is secure as can be—it is far from a concerning amount for the Council of Magix to send me to watch over there. Back after Valtor was defeated the first time and the Ceremony of the Gifts occurred Headmistress Faragonda arranged a meeting between me and the Council, whom the majority of the members didn't like me that much, and it eventually led to them all deciding that having a Guardian to watch over the prisons would decrease the breakouts.
Packing my things in my suitcase that was resting on my bed I felt relieved that almost everything was packed. For the summer I was planning to go back to Earth, but... not with my family there. We both agreed after several discussions to have them kept out of my life now that magic had been brought into it. Second year at Alfea Headmistress Faragoda and Griffin brought it up that if things got worse... they wouldn't be safe. They were non-magical, and if I wasn't the vessel for the magic to balance the Ancestors the their descendants I would've lived out my life as a normal human. Sometimes I wished I did, but not now. I love my life here, the Winx, and everything else.
I shook my head. I was still going to Earth, but with Eldora for the time being, until I'm sure I can visit my family without them being in danger. Eldora was going back to Earth as well for this summer, specifically Gardenia, until she had to start teaching again. I'm just grateful she let me stay with her, and as... 'nutty' as she is, she means well.
Letting the suitcase lid fall, I walked over to my closet, grabbed the last few items of clothing, and stuffed them in. Things have been moving very slowly lately, and it felt strange. Somehow wrong. Valtor has been defeated so we can resume our normal lives. But at the back of my head, the same question kept on nagging me over and over.
Where had the Trix gone after the right?
After the three witches had helped us defeat Valtor they just… disappeared without a trace. No one in the Magic Dimension had seen them, because if they did there would be news reports across the galaxy. But they were still out there, I can feel it. It was the same way I knew that after all of us defeated Tritanus the Trix weren't killed by him, and low and behold, they ended up showing their faces several weeks later at Daphne's coronation party on Domino.
It makes sense that it would be hard for them to reveal themselves, but... it's still unlike them.
And it's been three months.
Even for them, that's a while to stay hidden. In the past, they would come back again and again to conquer the Magical Dimension, but even if that's no longer their goal it feels like something is off. I thought back to what happened on Diamond—I spotted Icy's protectiveness towards that fox I felt was cursed, overheard her conversation with her two sisters about how Diamond was frozen and that she's the... princess of it, which was a big shock—so things are probably not finished with them. It'd make sense that they'd have their own goals and would pursue them secretively.
But for them to just be... silent like this.
Over the years I'd learned to trust my gut feeling when something was wrong, and this was one of those times.
Breathing in deeply I focused on my psychic magic, having to dig deep to field it because it's the part of my magic I tend to ignore for the most part, before I felt my magic respond. The easy part was done, and I sat down on my bed just in case something went wrong. And if not, if the Trix are far away it was going to take a lot of my energy to communicate with them. A part of me debated over just ignoring my suspicions, but the worst-case scenario is that I reached Darcy's mind and she blocked the communication knowing who it was.
I reached out with my magic, searching for even a faint signature of Darcy's mental presence. It wasn't too hard for me to try to focus on finding it. She'd.. been in my head once or twice in the past, but luckily those memories were buried deep enough to not resurface during this. And since the two of us practically have the same magic I'm able to recognize her mental signature just as much as my own.
I felt a nauseating pain.
Bringing my hand to my stomach I doubled over, wincing. What the hell was going on? I held onto the connection between Darcy and I, not even able to feel the discomfort that came with it through the nausea. Was... was this what Darcy was going through right now? Were she and the rest of the Trix in a fight or something? Focusing on my magic even harder I strengthen the connection, eyes widening as I realize Darcy's mind wasn't the only one I felt.
Darcy! I communicated, telling myself to keep focusing. Dully I felt a small flicker of psychic magic as Darcy returned the connection, but it was... weak and barely holding. What is going on?
Iorda? How… Darcy returned, the nausea on myself and likely her as well lessening.
Then it came back but even worse. My hand gripped my bed's blanket tightly. I had to keep focusing. The Trix must be in some sort of danger, and whatever it was seemed bad. Scratch that, dangerous. If whatever they're facing can put Darcy of all people under a psychic spell then...
Get out of the spell! You—
Then the connection broke.