Shaab Stone

The Shaab Stone is a mysterious and magical stone that appears exclusively within the Winx Club Comic Series. It makes its debut in the issue of the same name and acts as a major item during the Shaab Stone arc of the comics.

Overview
Long ago, a mysterious meteorite fell on Magix and landed in the center of what is now known as the Enclosed Territory. The impact of the meteorite's crash was so great that it disintegrated and its dusty remains were scattered across the Enclosed Territory, resulting in the area's ability to cancel out all magic. The dust and fragments left behind by the destroyed meteorite became known as the Shaab Stone collectively.

No one knows why the Shaab Stone can cancel out magic specifically but many antagonists throughout the run of the comics smuggle pieces of it to use as either a precaution or an integral part of their sinister plans.

Appearance
The Shaab Stone is a large magenta-colored slab of rock. It takes the form of pebbles, powder, and even a pendant in its later appearances, all while retaining its magenta hue. The only exception to this is in Issue 47 where the Shaab Stone fragment appears to be green instead of magenta, though, that could be due to the fragment being encased inside the pendant of the pirate captain.

Season 2
The Shaab Stone is first mentioned by Lothar when reporting in to Belizarius in Issue 22. Wanting to find a way to blackmail Headmistress Griffin into working for him, Belizarius sent out his men to look for a way to make that possible. Lothar managed to uncover the mystery of the Enclosed Territory, a mountainous area near Magix where magic mysteriously does not work. According to his findings, the reason for this is because of the fabled Shaab Stone: a stone with the ability to cancel out all magic. Knowing this, Belizarius has Lothar and his men travel to the Enclosed Territory to retrieve the Shaab Stone and his men prepare their ships and supplies for their latest job. Little do any of them know is that Helia has been listening in on their plan and once he has all the information he needs, Helia returns to Red Fountain to inform Codatorta and the three headmasters.

In response, Saladin has them all assembly various groups of fairies, witches and Specialists to monitor Belizarius' men and retrieve the Stone if it exists. Since Helia was the one who collected all the information they know now, Codatorta has him appointed as commander for his group.

By morning, the Winx meet up with the Specialists to join them on their search for the Shaab Stone, however, once they enter the Enclosed Territory, the group faces a few issues in their search. They then decide to search for the crater left behind by the meteorite all those years ago as it would not have completely disappeared given how large it is supposed to be. After getting a better look at the Territory's map (courtesy of Bloom), the group manages to find the crater, only to be met with the sight of another shuttle flying by.

Realizing that it is one of Belizarius' shuttles, Helia has Timmy land the shuttle somewhere out of their field of vision to spy on them. Taking out their binoculars to spy on them, the boys find that they have set up an entire base camp at the center of the crater and, to make things even worse, they have just got their hands on the Shaab Stone! Upon learning this, everyone begins to panic now that the legend of the Shaab Stone turned out to be true, and Riven begins lashing out, insisting that they should ambush Belizarius' men while they are busy celebrating. However, Helia has everyone retreat for now to simply monitor them as they wait for backup since Belizarius' men are professionals.

By nightfall, the group exacts Helia's plan to monitor Belizarius' men as they await backup, however, Riven has been skulking around, looking for an opening. He pulls Timmy into his hiding spot as two of the soldiers lugging the Stone and talking about the pay they will get from Belizarius once they turn over the stone. Wanting to snatch the Stone while they have the chance, Riven goes against Helia's orders and charges at the men, forcing Timmy to run after him for cover. The two manage to knock out the men and steal the Shaab Stone from them, but they are quickly apprehended by Lothar and two other soldiers who overheard sounds of a scuffle.

When backup finally arrives, Lothar forces them to let him and his men leave by using Riven and Timmy as hostages. Codatorta tries to negotiate with them but Lothar refuses and threatens to kill Riven and Timmy if they do not let them leave peacefully. With no other option, everyone is forced to let Lothar and his men escape with the Shaab Stone, ensuring that Belizarius gets it for the safety of their friends.

The next day, Riven and Timmy are released on the outskirts of Magix unharmed as Lothar promised, while Helia must now explain to his grandfather of what happened. Sky tries to get Helia to tell Saladin the truth, that all this was Riven's fault, but Helia believes that it would not do any good and leaves to face his grandfather's wrath.

At Alfea, the Winx lament over how magic no long works in all of Magix, while Belizarius revels in his success with the Shaab Stone on a display on his desk.

In the following issue, all magic in Magix has been nullified for the past week according to Bloom now that Belizarius has the Shaab Stone in his possession. She goes on to explain their current situation to her diary, talking about how Belizarius plans to use the Shaab Stone to force Griffin and the witches of Cloud Tower to use their magic to increase his trading network and, ever since Belizarius got his hands on the Shaab Stone, everyone has been at a loss on what to do. Also, since their retrieval mission failed, all blame has been directed at Helia since he was appointed commander, despite it all actually being the fault of Riven acting rash.

In fact, at Red Fountain, Riven still does not feel any remorse for what happened and even instigates a fight with Timmy by claiming that they would have the Stone in their possession had Timmy not acted like a coward. Luckily, Sky and Brandon stop Timmy from letting his rage get the better of him and they decide to spend the rest of the day at the White Horse to blow off some steam.

Later that day, Griffin tries conjuring something up with her magic but it ends up dissolving again thanks to the presence of the Shaab Stone in Magix. The three headmasters begin to panic over Belizarius' actions as, without magic, Magix is practically open for any sort of attack from other realms. Saladin believes that Belizarius is aware of this as this would give Griffin more of a reason to eventually cave in and accept his deal, however, he reminds his colleagues to stay strong as they will steal the Shaab Stone back and destroy it so that something like this does not happen again.

Meanwhile, at the TradeMagix Company building located at the outskirts of Magix City, Belizarius marvels at the Shaab Stone's glow as he boasts over how he now has influence over everyone thanks to the Stone. Servidio, on the other hand, fears that their actions may cause the Fortress of Light Council to get directly involved. Belizarius does not fear a possible intervention at the hands of the Fortress of Light Council because he believes that no one will be capable of defying him so long as he has the Shaab Stone. To make sure that things stay this way, Belizarius and Servidio lock the Shaab Stone in a large red safe and Belizarius laughs triumphantly as he declares that he can have his men deal with whoever dares to take the Stone from him.

At long last, the weekend rolls around and the Winx and Specialists head for the White Horse to hang out. Unfortunately, Helia's stigma follows them as a witch begins talking to her friends over how Helia is "the man who let them rob the Shaab Stone." She then goes on to explain that Griffin is losing her mind over their current situation, and this ultimately leads to Horg, the boyfriend of the witch's friend, to instigate a fight with Helia. The two get into a fight and Helia easily defeats Horg but trashes the café in the process. This causes the police to arrive and apprehend Helia, who tells them that he was the one who started the fight. Helia's arrest ultimately drives Saladin into having him expelled, which later leads Helia into working for Belizarius himself!

Being aware of Helia's ties to Saladin, Belizarius tries to get Helia to force Griffin into working for him and, during their conversation, Helia tells Belizarius of secret documents that hold information that could be used to blackmail Griffin. Helia then takes it upon himself to infiltrate Alfea to get Faragonda's copy of the incriminating document and, by nightfall, he does so with a little help from Flora, who is none the wiser. However, just as Helia makes his escape in a TradeMagix Co. helicopter, Flora wills herself into summoning her fairy wings to give her the boost she needs to sneak on the back of it.

Later that night, Flora is captured by Lothar and his men are brought up to Belizarius' office just as he gets his hands on the incriminating documents. Before Belizarius can turn his attention away from them, Helia insists that he keep reading, and Belizarius quickly learns of a planned attack on his TradeMagix Company building for the Shaab Stone with every single student from Magix's three schools. In a panic, Belizarius decides to move the Shaab Stone before that can happen, so he unlocks the safe and gets ready to do so, only for Helia to destroy the safe's lock by smashing it in with a nearby trophy.

After knocking out the guard, tripping Belizarius and forcing the only door to the room shut, Helia signals for Riven and Sky to burst into the room on their hoverbikes to retrieve the Stone and help him and Flora escape. The four of them then speed off just before Lothar busts the door down with the Shaab Stone now in their possession and, during the ride back to Red Fountain, Riven explains to Flora that Helia's expulsion and collusion with Belizarius was part of a plan to get the Stone back.

By morning, Flora relays the information to her friends back at Alfea and tells them that they disposed of the Shaab Stone by throwing it into a crater on Flame Mountain where no one will ever find it again.

Halfway into Issue 32, it is revealed that Lothar and his men have been abandoned by Belizarius without pay when he fled from Magix to evade arrest. After witnessing how well-trained Bloom's dragon friend is, Lothar plots to steal him and trade him over to the highest bidder. His subordinate wonders how they will be able to steal the dragon from fairies, to which Lothar reveals that he chipped off pieces of the Shaab Stone and kept them on his person during their mission to retrieve it. Remembering that he knows of a circus owner always looking for oddities in the Gourkal Dimension, Lothar and his subordinate go looking for their former comrades to exact their plan.

The next day, the Winx wake up feeling exhausted and nauseous and it is revealed by Musa that they have been feeling weaker for the past two days. That is when Aisha rushes in to check on them and inform them that Professor Palladium had found that someone contaminated Alfea's drinking water! When asked what the water was contaminated with, Aisha reveals that a sleeping potion and fragments of the Shaab Stone have been used, and this helps Bloom realize that this was all done so that whoever contaminated their water was after her dragon friend.

An hour later, after getting everyone up, the Winx are given enough clues to let them know that the bandits have fled into Gloomy Wood Forest to the north with Bloom's dragon friend. Thanks to Knut's sense of smell and his description of the scents, Tecna realizes that those involved with kidnapping the dragon are men who formerly worked under Belizarius. With all this information, the Winx try to transform, only to be stricken with powerful headaches that cause them to fall to the ground. Bloom realizes that the fragments of the Shaab Stone they had ingested has a strong enough influence to render them incapable of transforming, so Stella proposes that they call the boys over to help aid in their search and rescue mission.

Season 3
Halfway into Issue 47, just after the Winx and Specialists have retrieved the asteroid monster's eggs for Professor Torganis, Nabu has their submarine dive back into the ocean to make their way back to Torganis' lab. However, on their return trip, the submarine gets knocked around and Timmy realizes that they are being attacked by a barrage of bombs. With water now gushing into the submarine, Nabu has it resurface, only to come face-to-face with a large pirate ship!

Timmy and Nabu both come to the realization that the pirates must have had an anti-radar system, making them undetectable to their submarine's sonar system, and that they pirates are the most infamous band of pirates on Andros, as they have managed to keep their hideout hidden from the realm's authorities. Stella tries to transform but is unsuccessful, which causes Bloom to quickly fear her suspicions. As the girls take a closer look at the pirate captain, they spot the Shaab Stone encased within his pendant and the captain promptly mocks them over how they thought they would come unprepared.

The Winx and Specialists are then forced onto the pirates' ship as the pirates steal the monster eggs. As Nabu and Brandon begin to suspect that the pirates have been hired by Count Kargan, Bloom realizes that Aisha is not with them. It later turns out that Aisha had dove into the ocean to evade capture from the pirates and she stows away in their ship to find out where their hideout is so that she can save her friends when the time is right.

Season 4
With the rebellion on Eraklyon growing in intensity, the Winx and Specialists fear for their friends, Sky and Brandon, as they will have to get directly involved eventually.

One day, in Issue 74 during what was supposed to be a routine flight, the two boys go missing, which prompts everyone to search for them. After uncovering a device made to simulate a shuttle's signal, Bloom begins to fear that the rebels have come to Magix to kidnap Sky to give them more of an edge in the rebellion. She then splits off with Stella and Flora by her side, meets a rock climbing hobbyist named Jordan, and comes to learn that Sky and Brandon's shuttle crashlanded somewhere towards the twin peaks near his home.

Finally with a good lead to go off of, the trio of fairies head for the twin peaks, but quickly begin to feel dizzy and weak as they get closer. After making a safe landing, the girls forces themselves out of their Believix as Bloom reminds Stella and Flora that these are similar to the symptoms they faced while under the influence of the Shaab Stone and she suspects that someone within the approaching rebel squad must be carrying fragments of it as a precaution. Now that they have been rendered powerless, Bloom realizes that saving Sky and Brandon will be much harder than they anticipated.

Once the three of them find Sky and Brandon, things take a turn for the worse, as the rebels have ended up on the cliff directly above the two boys. Without their powers, the girls are stuck having to hide outside of the rebels' field of vision, but Stella constantly pokes out from her hiding place to desperately warn Brandon that the men coming for them are the enemy rebels. As Stella groans over not having enough magic to incinerate the rebels, one of the soldiers realizes that the prince's fairy friends did not transform and the leader of the group boasts over how the Shaab Stone is the perfect weapon against fairies. He then claims that they will be safe so long as their fragment stays around his neck and he watches the rest of his soldiers make their way down the ridge to their targets.

Still rendered useless in this predicament, Bloom, Stella and Flora have no one else to turn to but Jordan, who ends up successfully rescuing Sky and Brandon and buys enough time for Timmy to pinpoint their location.

Trivia

 * Shaab is the anglicized form of the Arabic word شاب (šābb), meaning "young man."
 * The Shaab Stone is the most recurring item within the comics, as it is used or at least mentioned in some way in five separate issues and across three different seasons.
 * Morgana's Necklace is the only other comic-exclusive object that shares this and it comes in second; only being mentioned and used in four issues only contained within the events of most Season 4 comics.