Chapter Text
The Winx were dead. After years of defending the Magical Dimension from the threats of the likes of Valtor, the Trix, Lord Darkar, Acheron and the like, the Winx were dead. Killed in action. But to understand the events that lead up to the defeat and deaths of the Magical Dimension's most treasured and valued guardians, we must first, set the stage.
It started with an explosion on Andros. Quite frankly, if it hadn't been for the mermaid patrol reporting it to Nereus, who then reported it to his Uncle Terredor, who then passed the report to Aisha, no one would have known it happened. The explosion took place in an isolated patch of ocean, even more isolated than the Omega portal and when Aisha arrived to investigate, she found nothing. No island, no wreckage, no physical indication that anything had even happened. The only evidence that something had occurred was an odd magical signature, a trace that whatever had caused the explosion had used magic. Aisha had called Tecna then, knowing her friend would be the best one to analyze the remaining signature. The results, much to Tecna's confusion, were inconclusive. Tecna ran the scan twice more but again, the results were inconclusive. She could not figure out what kind of magic was used to trigger the explosion.
It wasn't until two weeks later when another, similar explosion rocked the forests of Lynphea. The echoes of pain through the flora of the planet caused multiple people who were close to the source of the explosion to fall into minor, temporary comas for a few weeks. Flora of course, rushed to investigate but like on Andros was unable to locate what had exploded or what had caused the explosion in the first place. Sure, there was a massive crater in the ground, but there was no rubble to give her any indicated of what might have been destroyed. And like on Andros, there was a magical signature left behind in the crater. The same one that Tecna had tested on Andros. She'd hoped when she ran her scan, it would be more conclusive than the first three she ran on Andros. But like before, the results were inconclusive.
After that, like clockwork, there was an isolated explosion every two weeks. One in the poles of Zenith, another in the great desert of Solaria, one far out in the steppe of Melody and another high up in the mountains of Domino. Every time the Winx investigated and every time they came up empty handed save for the magical signature of whatever cast the spell to cause the explosions but no matter what Tecna did or tried, she could not provide a conclusive answer to what or who the magical signature belonged too. After that, things were quiet for a while. Most people forgot the explosions ever happened, writing them off completely as the news cycles moved on. Some people whispered about the Trix being back to their old tricks but the Winx knew better than that. If the Trix were somehow involved in this, they wouldn't have kept quiet about it, not for this long. So the Winx kept quietly investigating but no matter where they looked, or what books they read, they couldn't find any record of what might have been located at the explosion sites. At least, nothing recorded on the realm wide web, much to Tecna's chagrin. Even searches of the royal libraries of Domino and Andros had no clues. They had slightly more luck in the library of Solaria, one book Bloom had found made reference to a shrine out in Solaria's desert but no corroborating source could be located to say for sure.
Tecna continued to try and puzzle out the readings of the magical signature that had been found at all six explosion sites. She'd worked with those samples for days, barely sleeping in her attempts to analyze and understand what she'd scanned. Stella proved to be a surprisingly good help, noticing that there were indications within the scans that Dark Magic had been used. Tecna had nearly kissed her friend out of joy alone, this was the first breakthrough she's had in weeks. She could know say that Dark Magic was involved in the blasts and in a strong enough concentration to obliterate whatever it had been directed at. Not that it provided more insight to what had been destroyed, or change the fact that the scan results were inconclusive on the source of the Dark Magic. It wasn't the same kind of Dark Magic produced by dark witches but it didn't have the same indicators that it was a dark magician or a warlock or even a fairy. Despite this new development, Tecna was getting more frustrated by the lack of concrete answers.
The Winx had debated among themselves who might be responsible for the explosions. They'd ruled out the Trix pretty quickly, their oldest foes weren't known for being subtle and too much time had passed for it to be them without them doing something to reveal themselves. They'd checked with Selena to see if Acheron was still in the Legendarium where he belonged and he was still there. Kalshara was still where she belonged, so she was out. Aisha even checked the Omega Dimension to see if the Wizards of the Black circle were still where they belonged, which they were. Valtor was written off as the culprit because, like the Trix, he wasn't particularly subtle and would have revealed himself already if he had come back from his second death. And Bloom was confident she would have sensed his Dragon Fire if it had reawakened a third time. They even considered the possibility that Lord Darkar had come back because if fucking Valtor of all beings could come back and go after them a second time, what were the odds that Darkar could come back and start wreaking havoc throughout the Magic Dimension? But there was no evidence he was back and despite these endless debates, they were still no closer to discovering the identity of their mystery magic user.
It was another month and a half before the one responsible made themselves known, causing an explosion at the Temple of Nymphs in central Magix. The Winx were quickly deployed to the city and got the first look at their new opponent. A girl radiating so much Dark Magic there was a dark aura surrounding her that was visible to everyone. The girl was strong even if her magic was extremely uncontrollable. She easily shrugged off the weaker attacks used to try and incapacitate her and blasted away the spells used to try and restrain her. It was only when Bloom and Musa started to pull out their stronger attacks did the girl let out an ear-piercing scream and teleported away with a blast of Dark Magic that blasted the girls out of the air.
That first attack was only the beginning. After that the girl started ramping up attacks across multiple planets and as always, the Winx were there to respond to the attacks. Doesn't matter where the attack took place, the girls were there to fight and try and capture or defeat the girl, she always managed to escape. Bloom remarked after a particularly rough battle, that their opponent seems to move and attack like she was possessed by something. That possession would also explain the girl's aura and her inability to control the Dark Magic that leaked from her body. It was the best theory they had as to the source of her power but they were still no closer to identifying the newest threat to the Magic Dimension. Tecna and Flora had been working to try and figure out who she was but had continued to come up empty. And they tried very hard to try and find the girl to try and stop her. Do not think for one second that they didn't try. They did, they fought hard to try and capture her so they could help her but she would always manage to escape, causing more destruction and injuries.
The day the Winx died was a Tuesday. Make no mistake, they fought to the very end. The girls had been called out to Domino when their opponent had reappeared, attacking the palace directly. Daphne and Miriam had managed to hold the line until the Winx arrived. Bloom had instructed her mother and sister to join Oritel and Thoren in evacuating the palace before engaging in battle with her friends. And it was going well, they had managed to hold the line, forcing their foe out of the palace and somewhere more isolated so they didn't risk more collateral damage and civilian deaths. They were close to victory, Bloom deciding a final convergence attack would give them the power needed to finally break through the aura of Dark Magic and render their foe unconscious. They were at victory's door. They knew it, their opponent knew it. While the girls were charging up their convergence, their opponent was charging up an attack of her own. She launched her attack first, which collided with the Winx' right as they launched their attack. The collision of uncontrollable Dark Magic and the Winx' convergence spell caused a massive, uncontrollable blast of magic across the battlefield. The light from the backlash was seen from the palace. Since the convergence spell was closer to the Winx, the blast consumed them entirely, not even leaving bodies behind.
Once it became known to the wider Dimension of the demise of their protectors, headlines popped up in online articles, across newspapers and magazines, on television bulletins across the Magical Dimension proclaiming: "The Winx are dead. Hope is lost."