Title: What We Do
Full Summary: "She lets Baltor live. And after that, both of their lives change."
Chapters: ? (at least 30)
Pairings: Eventual Sparxshipping [Bloom/Baltor], other cannon pairings where eligible.
Spoilers up to: Besides the whole not-killing-Baltor thing, this is a cannon-compliant story. All normal spoiler warnings for the series apply.
A/N: Guess who's back on the Sparxshipping train, bitches?

She lets him live.

Looking back, Bloom decides she allows this to happen for two reasons. One is the fact that Baltor - despite being a power hungry, poorly dressed sorcerer with a mile-long hit list and a black hole where his heart should be - is human. She hated Lord Darkar, and had no problem admitting so. And Bloom knew in the back of her mind that had to do with the fact his humanity had been lost long ago. She could've spent years trying to coax his original self back from under the barren shell of the Lord of Shadowhaunt, but it would've never done her any good because the human in him was dead. So erasing him from existence had been easy (the kidnapping and brainwashing her into an evil henchman also helped). Baltor obviously had problems, but he looked like a human and spoke like a human (with a slight case of demon possession, but she was sure a few spells could fix that), which to Bloom made him human. She'd never taken a life before, and she didn't plan to start now.

The other reason is much more selfish, if she actually stops and thinks about it. The longer the battle with Baltor went on, the more it became obvious Baltor was just as clueless about her parents as Bloom. This could be good; it meant her parents could still be alive. Hell, her whole planet could still be alive under the layers of ice and rock, knowing the Ancestresses and their tricks. And she wants them to be alive. It's a desperate feeling that's twisted her insides at night when she tries to sleep.

But more prominent than that desperation, is the creeping feeling she's wrong. That after months, years of her life dedicated to resurrecting a dead planet will ultimately fail, because that seems to be the only thing she can do in reference to Sparx. And not only would she be hailed as the failure of her home world, but also the last person left of it.

It was the latter of those two thoughts that scared her most. Her mother always said she had a fear of being alone, and tried to equate it as some deep-rooted result of being adopted. Bloom didn't really care about the reason. What she did know was that there was exactly one other person left with a connection to her home world and her powers, even if he was insane. And if she did kill him only to fail later on resurrecting Sparx, she would have no one to blame for her loneliness but herself.

That thought was more terrifying that anything else.

So she improvises.

The party celebrating Baltor's 'death' is full of dancing, kissing, and drinking. Bloom does her best to act both happy and humble about her not-really-real-victory. In the end she doesn't really need to act very hard because everyone's so busy celebrating they don't notice how nervous she is.

Nor does anyone notice her sneaking off a mere hour and a half into the party, walking through the trees at the edge of the clearing and not coming back.

Icy, Darcy, and Stormy had given up the location of their last hideout when the Light Rock guards showed up. It had quickly been scanned and cleared out of all the stolen spell books and artifacts by the time Bloom got there. Since no smart villain returned to a hideout once it was discovered, and Baltor is the least-idiotic villain she's ever faced, Bloom figures she can keep him there for the time beng (Step 1 of Improvising: Use a combination of invisibility and levitation spells to bring said unconscious villain to their former hideout).

Her fairy dust hadn't destroyed Baltor; it could only get rid of dark spells. But luckily, that meant it could destroy the nasty demon the Ancestrsses had infected him with. And Bloom figured the few hours she spent getting ready for and attending the party would be enough time for the spell to do its work, and for her to formulate a plan.

Both her assumptions are correct when she enters and finds Baltor very much awake, struggling at the fire chains (Step 2 of Improvising: Lock villain up with Dragon Fire chains) keeping him pinned to the stone chair. He looks worse for wear, the bottom of his jacket singed black and blood in his hair. A bruise is starting to show on his collarbone, green and purple mixing together and contrasting against his pale skin. Bloom's never seen him look this bad, but at least he's still alive.

He stops struggling when she comes into view. Bloom waits for him to say something or start yelling, but the cavern is silent aside from the occasional drop of water hitting the floor from a crack in the ceiling. He looks at her like he wants the gods above to come down and smite her, and it makes Bloom feel powerful. That and the fact she sees his hands twitch in the chains, trying to summon magic that won't come to his fingers.

"I assume you've heard of the Nullis Lux spell." Bloom finally speaks. "It originated in one of the books you stole."

The answer to her question is obviously a yes, because for a moment Bloom sees fear in his eyes. "You used the Nullis Lux spell on me?" he finally asks. His voice is hoarse, and Bloom can see blood on some of his teeth.

"I did."

Baltor rolls his eyes, and spits a mouthful of blood out on the ground (though not in Bloom's general direction, which makes her feel a bit better). "That's impossible. The spell takes away the powers of the weaker being; there's no way you could've beaten me so easily."

Bloom has to smirk at his still-inflated ego. "You should thank Professor Avalon. He taught me fairy dust could remove dark entities, even though you tried to tell me otherwise. After that was gone…well, stripping your personal powers weren't that much of a problem." (Step 3 of Improvising: Use a magic spell to get rid of your enemy's power) Baltor coughs and spits another mouthful of blood out in response, and Bloom involuntarily winces. "How do you feel?"

He glares at her. "Like shit, no thanks to you."

"You're welcome for sparing your life."

"Please, I don't want your pity."

"I didn't help you because I pity you." Bloom says, sitting opposite of him. "You've killed hundreds of people and caused millions of dollars in damages all because you couldn't win a fight. Your ego could cover my entire hometown and then some; I'm way past pity."

"Then educate me, Your Highness. What caused your change of heart?"

Bloom doesn't answer his question. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say you don't want to be sent back to the Omega dimension for all eternity. And lucky for you, there's an alternative solution."

"Lucky me," he quips. "What deserted dungeon do you plan to imprison me in?"

"Earth."

His head snaps back to look at her; the first time since she's entered. "You must be joking."

"Nope. Earth is a magic-less world with enough government to keep you in check. And who knows; maybe if you don't try to overtake it, I could give you your powers back." Even as she said the words, she knew it wasn't that good of a sell, especially for someone like Baltor. But she hoped the idea of getting his powers back would help.

No such luck. "So you're keeping me alive as a pet project? A convict you can reform into a respectable member of society?"

"You're not a pet project; once I send you to Earth you could walk into the White House and proclaim yourself leader of the free world, for all I care. But I'm warning you; you won't get very far without your powers."

Baltor glares at her. "Sending me to Earth with a lack of powers still sounds like a pet project. Since this has turned into some sort of honesty hour, you must humor me; why didn't you just kill me?"

"Do you want to die?" He huffs and doesn't meet her eye, which is the closest thing to a yes she's going to get. "So again, you're welcome."

"…You've never killed before, have you?"

Bloom looks at him in surprise. Baltor's gaze is still on the wall, but he keeps talking to her. "You don't want to ever know what it's like. Standing over someone and watching their life fade from their eyes. It doesn't even matter if you meant to kill; you get this feeling that washes over you that you can't place, and it stays with you for weeks on end. And by the time you do work out what it is, you've killed too many people to care."

The speech he gives is unprompted, but Bloom would be lying if she said it hadn't been in the back of her mind. "What's the feeling?" she asks when he still won't look at her.

"Emptiness." There's a beat, and he finally looks back at her. "No one would've objected to you killing me."

"I know."

He gives a humorless laugh. "Do they know you didn't kill me?"

She debates lying to him, but knows that if she does now things will just get worse down the line. "No, they don't."

"And why is that?"

"Because you're a coward who fears death…and I'm a coward that fears loneliness."

To her surprise, he smiles. Not a full smile – there's still a hint of a smirk behind it, but for the time being, she'll take it. "We're in each others hands, then."

Other Notes:

The Nullis Lux (Latin for "no power") spell is partially inspired by Aang's powers in Avatar: The Last Airbender. No such spell has ever been mentioned in the Winx world, but think of it as a more powerful version of the spell used by Griselda in Season 1 to take the girl's powers away when they were in trouble.

Baltor is the name the 4Kids! dub gave Valtor in Winx Club. I watched 4Kids! and am a bitter old fandom grandma, so it's staying Baltor for this story. The same rules apply for Sparx, the 4Kids! name for Domino.

Because this story is written as a series of looks into Bloom and Baltor's lives, chapters will be on the shorter side. While this is sad, the idea is this will allow for more updates, which everyone loves.

The buildup for this is going to be slow. No one's having sex for at least ten chapters. I can't even guarantee the sex, honestly. Sorry.

Update (12/28/15): Chapters 1-3 are going through some edits, mostly to fix tense issues. If you catch some I've missed, please let me know!