Appetite for Destruction

Chapter 13

The tension was still awkward, the silence feeding into it. Ogron had an ice pack to put over his messy bullet scar, Anagan had bandages over his legs and Duman wore an arm brace. But it wasn't as bad as Gantlos', who was crashing on the couch. His arms and neck are covered in bandages but he's still getting patched up by Bloom and Stella. Ogron's eye twitched, he was annoyed at the fact they had to depend on those fairies, as well as the constant glares from Musa and Aisha. "So...what now?", Duman asks, breaking the silence.

"Well Morgana's going to come for us all when the blood moon's over, so we should team up, stop them as a joint force.", Flora replies. Anagan and Duman look at each other before looking at Ogron. Again, he hated that they are depending on fairies, but forces out a statement hinting at an agreement.
"Good. But we have a few conditions and you must abide by them," Bloom starts, grabbing a warm compress, "Firstly, we'll take the Black Circle. And secondly, you guys need to be nicer to Gantlos. Way nicer.."
Ogron almost chokes. "Excuse me? He POSSESSED ME!"

"You deserved it," Aisha quips in, "In fact, all of you deserve what you got. On Andros, mermaids prioritize each other over power, and a good leader doesn't push their peers beyond what they can handle just to seize whatever small atom of victory they can get, and no soldier gets left behind or ditched. You, Ogron, pushed Gantlos beyond his limits with powers he can't even control. If you did that on Andros, you'd have been kicked out for disgusting and pathetic behavior like this!"
Ogron quickly shuts up, a bit offended, but a fraction of guilt seeps in, knowing she's right.
"And don't think I forgot about you two," she adds, glancing to Anagan and Duman, "Bloom told me everything, and it's clear you've been enabling your red headed friend!"
"H-Hey now, w-we were just doing our job!" Anagan stutters.
"Oh wow, you have my sympathies..." Musa scoffs, rolling her eyes, "Want a bouquet to go with that?"
"Ok fine, we were pretty huge dicks," Duman sighs, "but hey it's not that bad-"
They hear Gantlos scream from the couch and look over to see Bloom applying the warm compress on the stab wound, Gantlos heavily panting.
"Don't worry, it'll be over soon," Bloom reassures.
"Well eh, from my experience it takes a while," Stella says, "You'll be fine though," she tells Gantlos.
Musa, Flora and Aisha look back at the other wizards who awkwardly look away. Ogron's eyebrow twitches again as he clutches a few locks of his hair, unsure how to feel.

"Ogron, I can hear in your heart you feel guilty," Musa says. "You can either keep being annoying or admit you were wrong."
Ogron mumbles to himself.
"Ogron I think you'll feel better if you just admit it," Anagan suggests. Ogron bites his lip and clutches his hair more, he takes a deep breath before giving a hollow stare at the girls. "Fine, I...did not act like how I am suppose to as the team leader, and-"
"Woah, slow down, how about you apologize to the person actually affected?", Musa says, pointing her thumb to Gantlos; it looks like the warm compress doesn't hurt anymore and Bloom's bandaging the wound up. "(Do I really have to do this?!)", Ogron thinks to himself. He lets out a sharp sigh. "Gantlos," he starts, the blonde wizard shifting his hazel gaze to him. "...I don't think I should have used your powers like that, even if you warned me..."
"...And?" Bloom asks.
"And for telling Anagan to punch you when you didn't listen."
"You what?!" Aisha huffs.
"Look the point is, and I'm trying to be sincere here...I was wrong."
"We all were," Duman says, "It...it sucks being vulnerable and being taunted for it."
"And being assaulted," Anagan adds.
"And not having control..." Ogron adds as well. Gantlos blinks, unsure of what to say. He turns his gaze away to the sofa and bandages.

Duman sighs. "Come on, we should go now."
"Before his answer?", Ogron blinks.
"Don't you get it? We don't need an answer. And what he needs is some space. You fairies can keep him, at least until the injuries are all healed since miss Dragon Flame doesn't remember how to heal wounds."
"Sorry I'm not that attached, you know, magic linked to emotions? If I tried, it'd be more healing than if I did for you guys," Bloom frowns. Ogron huffs and tells them they'll meet again soon enough. Duman helps Anagan up, letting the wizard lean against him as they teleport away in a mist of smoke.

Stella sighs and looks back at Gantlos. A teardrop pierced through the corner is his eye. "Hey, I know that warm compress was painful, but you'll be healed up in no time," she says.
"It's not the warm compress..." Gantlos sighs, "You were right, Bloom...the vampirism is part of me, and I hurt them...I never wanted to hurt the others, but when things spiraled, I did, and for what?...I gained nothing from it, and now I just feel horrible. I'm more sure why you gals bothered with me. Everything is my fault, all of it...I'm a terrible friend..."

Bloom frowns. "Gantlos, things spiraled because Ogron, Duman and Anagan forced you to use your vampire powers for what they wanted. If anything, it's their fault they got hurt in the first place. You were just trying to help and please them." She extends a hand out to pat him. "And it's not your fault for having something uncontrollable, it's part of you."
"Well I wish it wasn't. Then the others would have been safe. I did worse than not be there when they needed me...", Gantlos whimpers.
"Hey," Stella chips in, "It sucks, like, absolutely sucks to have something that just drags you down. But we kind of just have to live with it, that's what Brandon told me."
"Yeah. Plus hey, like any power, it's better to train it than push it away, then you'll have much more control over it." Musa adds.
"Mhm. Please don't blame yourself for these things. It's never your fault in this case, really." Flora chimes in.

Gantlos gets a tad surprised and looks at all the Winx. "Am I dreaming? It's weird how nice you guys are being..." he says.
"We're friends now, remember?" Bloom giggles.
"Uh no because it just happened now," Gantlos sighs. "Well...now what? Tomorrow at midnight is when the blood moon will end."
"And tomorrow there'll be a Halloween party at the music bar, if you want to come," Bloom says, "We should also tell Roxy about what just happened...Oh damn I should have invited her, it would have made for a great chance to train her powers. Ah I'm such a bad mentor!" she whines.
"You girls always forget about me so I'm not surprised." Tecna quips before going back to playing Fantasy RPG Volume 2: Rise of the Phoenix.
"Eh true," Bloom shrugs.

"Oh god!" Stella shrieks, "I only have a day left and I've been so busy being annoyed at those green patches, I don't know what I'll dress up as!!!"
Gantlos looks at the sun fairy as she sinks onto the sofa's head, defeated by having a mental block about the event. He thinks about it for a second before saying: "You could go as a zombie."
Stella looks at him, her expression lights up as she starts a brainstorm of ideas from ripped clothes to fake blood and injuries to something akin to Frankenstein - Bloom told her the story once - or some other famously dead ghoul.
"(Guess I helped her out...)" Gantlos thinks.