A GREAT EVIL | Fate: The Winx Saga ~ Alternate Season 2

Chapter 2 - In The Solaria Jailhouse

What Jade doesn't know...

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About twenty miles from Alfea, in the depth of the dark royal prison, Saul Silva was thinking, prostrated in a corner of his damp cell. That was unlike the warrior he used to be, but the return of Andreas and his arrest had affected him profoundly. Why had his old friend resurfaced overnight? Why had he blindly obeyed Rosalind? Why had he brought Beatrix up instead of his own son?

Sky... What was going to happen to him now? This young guy, whom he considered his son, might be well trained and mentally strong, but his sire remained a danger for him. He closed his eyes to reconstruct his face in his mind and smiled. He was so proud of the loyal and brave man Sky had become. For him, time had passed far too quickly, he could still see himself teaching him the basic skills of fencing, ten years ago. Nostalgic, this memory got the better of him. From now on, he could no longer protect him, because he knew that the outcome of the trial was already decided. He would be executed for attempted murder.

The Specialist swallowed painfully, dreading to think what changes the school in Alfea must had undergone in the last few days. And what about Farah? Where was she? Just before his arrest, she had told him she had an appointment with Rosalind in the surrounding forest.

His fists clenched in rage and he let out a hoarse growl. What had she done to Farah? He knew Rosalind was a more than fearsome mind fairy, just like his friend, but unlike Farah, Rosalind was vicious, but also furious after being locked up all those years, and she had no problem slaughtering those who stood in her way. Suddenly he had a very bad feeling. What if Farah never came back from her appointment? What if Rosalind had killed her in order to take control of the school and, more importantly, of Bloom and her Dragon Flame?
Saul focused, trying to connect his mind to the fairy's. Being her Specialist, he hoped to locate her by thought. During all these years they had worked together, they had never really left. For the first time, he was starting to really care about his fairy's life.

The Specialist closed his eyes and disconnected his mind from the surrounding noises: prisoners complaining, chains rattling, guards admonishing.

He tried to connect his mind to Farah's, but unsuccessfully. After many attempts, he collapsed on the board that was serving as his bed, gnawed by despair, tears rolling down his cheeks. Farah was dead...or unconscious, anyway. He had failed to protect her from Rosalind as he should have done as a Specialist. He had failed in his mission. Now he had only his eyes to cry and his memories for only one prospect.

"I'm sorry about everything, Farah," he apologised in a whisper. "I should have gone with you, maybe I could have figured out how to help you."

He suddenly heard a trace of chuckle in the hallway, and he looked up, bitter: Andreas. He'd made the route just to mock him.

"You? Really?" he laughed wickedly. "You thought you were a hero? But you're weak, in fact, you're unable of protecting her. And you know why? Because she was much stronger than you!"

Saul jumped off his seat like a fury and stuck to the gate to face him. Andreas had spoken about Farah in the past tense, so he knew what had happened to her, and he was going to beat the truth out of him.

Before he could say a word, Sky's progenitor continued in a cheesy tone:

"Besides, do you think she can still hear you? You're so naive!"

Saul's eyes lit up with the urge to thrust a sword into his stomach, as he had done in the past.

Farah was dead...dead...and he couldn't take it. Everything was crashing down around him.

"What did you and Rosalind do to her?! he spat, consumed by sorrow"

"Me?" his enemy retorted, looking falsely innocent. "Nothing at all, but if you want to know, I wish I had."

The latter moved closer to the cell gate, his sadistic smile widening:

"Farah Dowling was a real catch, wasn't she?"

The Specialist tried not togive himself away, because he knew that he was enjoying torturing him.

"I would never have let you harm one hair on her head, do you hear me?"

Andreas giggled again before taking a sip of the liquor contained in a vial he had detached from his belt. He blew the alcohol vapors in his face with contempt.

"I would have fucked her as she deserved, and I'm sure she would have loved that," he said, emphasizing the words. "Unless it's already done..."

Saul didn't respond to his provocation, his sadness and hatred for him preventing any words from coming out of his throat. Just imagining the scene made him sick. Farah into his evil hands...he preferred to get this unbearable image from his mind.

"I guess she didn't leave you the privilege of stroking her," Andreas whispered hoarsely.

The former teacher was boiling inside, ready to explode at any moment. He knew very well that on this point Andreas was not wrong; his relationship with the fairy had been no more than a close friendship. He knew everything about him, and knew how to push his buttons, and he was finding some sort of sick pleasure. How could this guy, who had been his best friend, smear Farah's memory like that and treat her as an object? He didn't care about being constantly belittled and humiliated, but the fact that he was attacking his friend who couldn't defend herself hurt him and made him angry.

Andreas was also the one who had made her miserable, who had ruined her life during the battle of Aster Dell by stabbing the man she loved, in his sleep. Saul had watched him that night, intrigued to see him getting up after loitering the night before around the shed where the couple used to sleep. After a few minutes, he had seen him come out, like nothing was wrong. The job was done, and as he had not heard any screams from Farah or her partner, he had gone back to bed, thinking that his friend had done no such thing. Besides, at the time, he was certain that Andreas would have been incapable of murdering a friend. But he had been wrong. The next morning he had been awakened by a terrible scream of Farah, who had just discovered her partner lacerated, a knife stabbed in the heart. And then everything had become clear in his mind. He had to avenge the murder of their friend, seeing Farah so devastated had broken him in turn.

Saul had always been convinced that Rosalind had ordered the murder, because all the horrors that his friend had committed had come from that fairy. Unfortunately for him, denouncing him would not change his fate, and nobody would believe him, especially not Queen Luna. He had become a marked man.

The Specialist took a deep breath before telling him a piece of his mind, once and for all.

"You're a pretty little garbage, Andreas. It's not very nice. Sky's lucky you're nothing more than a progenitor, I can't imagine what he would have gone through and what he would have become if I hadn't been there instead of you."

Andreas seemed destabilized the space of a second. He knew very well that he had been an absent, non-existent father, and he wasn't necessarily proud of that. But in the meantime, he had another fight, for Rosalind.

"Now I'm taking back my place, just like Rosalind. You, you can't do anything anymore. Soon the dungeon, my friend," he taunted, waving his hand at him before walking away from the cell.

Saul heard his rapid footsteps become less and less audible, before collapsing to the floor, destroyed by his last words and provocations.

It was all over. For him and for Farah. He would not see Sky again. Alfea, in Rosalind's hands, would sink into chaos.

However, death did not frighten him anymore, and he welcomed it, thinking that he would find his fairy there.

To be continued...