Chapter Text
Red Fountain, Magix
It hadn't been difficult for the winx to sneak past the arena's security and find a way to watch the specialist's display for the Day of Royals.
Their plan had been perfectly executed, which meant of course that something was bound to go horribly wrong.
That something, in this instance, was Bloom on her way back from the toilets quite literally running into a princess and falling on her ass.
Bloom yelped as she rubbed her head, cursing her distracted mind. She took a breath and looked up, an apology dying on the tip of her tongue as she got her first good look at the victim of her clumsiness.
She was, in a word, stunning. Her willowy form was enveloped by pale golden hair and a cloak of white fur that contrasted her bronzed skin. Her amber eyes looked down at her in disdain, and her slender neck drew attention to the rubies inlaid in silver at her throat.
"How dare you?" She exclaimed in a haughty voice that bordered on shrill. "Do you know who I am?"
Bloom of course had no idea who princess pretty was. She did however recognise the man in the hologram that lay not far from her feet.
"Why do you have a picture of Brandon?" She asked, her eyes flickering back and forth between the girl and her holographic crush, apology forgotten.
"How dare you question me? That is Prince Sky of Eraklyon, and I am Princess Diaspro of Isis! Why haven't you moved out of my way, commoner?"
The princess raised her bejewelled hand and began to form a spell that took on a crystalline structure. Bloom was suddenly struck by the similarities she shared with a certain witch.
The almost white hair, the sharp features, that cold hardened beauty. The feeling of small wings fluttering around in her stomach, making her hyper aware of everything. The aura that felt cold yet caused her to warm in its presence.
The crystallising structure of the spell suddenly looked like the beginnings of an icicle, readied for an attack.
"You're wrong! I know who you are, witch!" said Bloom heatedly as she stumbled to her feet and backed up a few steps. "I know it's you Icy, don't play dumb and drop the disguise!"
The blonde gasped and raised her hand higher in defence, her expression hardening. "You give me no choice but to defend my royal honour."
A guard, arriving a little too late, raised his spear in the princesses' defence. Bloom snapped her fingers and sent him to sleep, enraging Diaspro further.
"You're on."
Bloom transformed in a hot flash of light and smoke, pushing off into a hover as she formed a fireball in her arms. She didn't give the impostor any more time, firing at her with a spell of significant strength.
The fake princess did not defend herself with a sheet of ice like Bloom expected, instead she took the full impact of her fireball and went crashing through the wall.
Follow her, her instincts crooned, capture her.
She darted through the hole she'd created and found Diaspro on the other side, sprawled on the lower level's floor in her fairy form. Bloom's vision narrowed as she took in the sight before her, not knowing that the pupils of her own eyes had narrowed into slits too.
Diaspro's fairy form was a sight to behold, and her eyes drank it in hungrily, as if she'd disappear if she blinked.
That blond hair now flowed free, and her slight form was now draped in iridescent red fabric that wrapped around her curves and trailed over her shoulder to fall behind her back, underneath which was a cropped blouse of cream silk. Gemstones hung from her forehead, her ears and her waist on delicate silver chains. Yet more gems in rich hues orbited her like small guardians, glowing with power.
What really drew her attention were her wings, which refracted light across the stone walls in jewel tones, fanning like dark feathers and tipped with delicate razor sharp red shards like stained glass.
They looked incredibly real. They looked dangerous.
They flapped weakly as Diaspro struggled to get up, snapping Bloom out of her trance.
"You brute!" cried the princess.
Instead of a spell, Diaspro leapt up and grabbed Bloom's ankle, yanking her to the floor with surprising strength.
The dragon inside her snarled.
Bloom rose from the floor with a flying kick, sending Diaspro back through the air. Before she knew it, another ball of flame was forming in her hands, and she felt her cheeks flush from an internal heat.
"What? You've never gotten off your throne before, miss high and mighty? Since that's who you claim to be." Bloom goaded.
The gemstones surrounding Diaspro fired spells that seared the walls and even Bloom's own thick skin, and each one Bloom shattered was replaced with another.
They exchanged blows without holding back, the silence heavy with spellfire and grunts. The ground glowed and sparkled with molten crystals.
Diaspro raised her shaking, scraped hands to form a halo of light. "I don't know who sent you, but I WILL protect myself and the legacy of my kingdom!" Her voice was raw and devoid of all her earlier airs and graces, and it made Bloom shiver.
Once again, Bloom was transfixed by the vision before her. Was this an angel standing before her? It certainly wasn't Icy, which begged the question of why she was still attacking Diaspro. Either way, she felt the need to keep Diaspro's attention, as if the loss of it would sting worse than any of the spells thrown at her. Her ears were ringing and all else felt muffled. She felt almost drugged. The sounds coming from her mouth were breathless chuckles.
That halo of light expanded and encircled her, solidifying into sharp quartz and trapping her arms against her sides.
"What do you want from me?" Diaspro asked, fury giving way to desperation.
Suddenly, Bloom was terrified. Not only of the girl before her, but by her own actions. She was distantly aware that she was no longer thinking rationally, that some deep dark part of her was now in control. That part of her that simultaneously screamed to be free of this trap, yet begged to stay bound and be the focus of Diaspro's complete attention.
The fear won and the fairy of the dragon fire gathered her energy to a single point within herself then unleashed it, breaking free with an inhuman noise.
Waves of energy send Diaspro through the high ceiling of the chamber and really, what was this girl made of? Stone?
Sunlight spilled through the wall and Bloom's pupils narrowed further as a hissing noise left her mouth.
Bring her back to the dark, her instincts roared, you're not done with her.
She's not done with you.
Darting through the hole in pursuit of the blonde was a mistake, because suddenly they were in the middle of the arena, there were dragons fighting other dragons, the audience let out a collective gasp, and Brandon was right there.
Bloom only had a second to take this in before Diaspro yelled a spell above the din.
"Dragon's Lure!"
Diaspro herself became crystal, shining like a thousand rubies as she bent the light around her to her will.
Every dragon in the arena snapped free from their specialist's control, slowly making their way towards the fairy.
Every dragon, including Bloom.
Once pretty coloured wings were now hypnotic, and with each flap she drew closer.
She felt herself change. She felt her wings grow heavier and more powerful, felt the material of her outfit become stiff leather and metal, felt her back prickle as it grew what she instinctively knew to be scales.
Then, as if she were a puppet, her legs folded so that she was kneeling in the air a few yards from Diaspro and she tilted her head so her hair shifted to bare her neck.
The clamour of the arena grew louder.
The inner dragon's chant of mine became yours yours yours.
Bloom stared at the ground, following the scattered beams of light from Diaspro's wings, waiting.
Waiting for what?
A dagger came to rest on her neck, gentle as a feather.
That, her dragon answered.
"I'm-" Bloom whispered, unable to voice what she felt. Even her voice sounded rougher, more alien. She could barely hear herself above the beating of her new wings.
"I know," replied Diaspro, voice steady and devoid of emotion despite the way her hand shook. "You're Dominian." She breathed.
What was a Dominian? Some type of monster? Was that why she was acting this way, because she was a beast in the guise of a fairy?
Guilty flooded her like ice and suddenly everything felt terribly real, like waking up from a vivid dream
"I'm sorry," Bloom choked out. "Don't-"
Don't what? Don't let them all see me like this? Don't kill me?
Don't leave me yet.
Then Diaspro's wings gave out, crystal becoming flesh once more as she detransformed, adrenaline giving way to exhaustion.
Bloom caught her deftly, as if she'd done so a hundred times before. Like this, Diaspro seemed smaller, more real. The weight in her arms, the smell of expensive perfume, the warmth of her winx fading as she returned to her base form. Bloom savoured it.
The knife fell to the dirt between them as she landed, setting Diaspro on the ground and hastily stepping away.
It was then that 'Brandon' found his voice.
The first name out of his mouth was not Bloom's.
"Diaspro!"
"Sky?" Diaspro turned to look at him.
"Brandon? You know her?" asked Bloom, looking up at the blonde man with her draconian eyes.
"That," announced Diaspro dryly, "is Prince Sky, my beloved fiancé."
"Listen, Bloom, I can explain!"
"You don't have to explain anything!" Bloom spat at him incredulously.
"Please-" he began, stepping towards them.
Bloom hissed and Sky stumbled back, raising his sword towards her.
"You!" She stepped forward, unconciously adopting a protective posture infront of Diaspro, "Don’t fucking raise your sword at me, you inconsiderate lying piece of shit. And don't even get me started on the guy you name swapped with! What kind of bullshit is that? Both of you are sooo single after this!"
"YOU SO ARE!" yelled Stella from across the arena.
"That is enough!" exclaimed Faragonda. "All of you get back to Alfea, to my office, now!"