Hey! Welcome to my first W.I.T.C.H. fic. This is a oneshot but it's going to be published in two parts, because I don't want you guys falling asleep in the middle of it 'cause of its length!

I hope you enjoy it and your critique and opinions on it would be great. So please leave a review at the end.

Happy reading...

Caged in fear

It was as if everything paused in front of him. As if someone had pressed 'pause' on their remote control and it'd made everything still. Every creature, guardian, every sound and every movement of the many weapons on the broad street, ceased. Everything apart from him. He stood in the centre of it all, gaping at the scene in front of him. Tiny beads of sweat rested on his forehead and his face was etched with determination.

It was as if someone had given him a moment to himself. A moment to take in all that he was part of. The street of Meridian, where the celebrations after defeating Phobos had occurred, was the street in which the huge fight was taking place. A fight though, didn't qualify as a suitable word for the event on the street. It was more like a battle, a war for annihilating evil forever. A conflict to vanquish the treacherous malevolence that Meridian was once again, encased in.

The evil had been seen. It had even been dealt with before. But the evil had come together and was now much more powerful than ever. The guardians were sure that they could destroy it once again, but they had been nothing but beaten, knocked over and hurt. It wasn't like they hadn't faced Nerissa or Phobos before. It was just that they were far stronger this time, especially when they had combined their powers. Their sudden and very unexpected arrival overwhelmed every being in Meridian and no-one was able to come to a conclusion as to how they had returned. But that was a less important matter because as of now, a fierce, raging battle was taking place.

It was Phobos and Nerissa's minions against everyone in Meridian, including the Guardians who had been called to help by Queen Elyon. Phobos and Nerissa hadn't changed, they still looked the same, maybe with a little more of an evil glint in their eyes. And of course, Cedric and the Knights of Vengeance were there; yet that was truly inevitable considering their controllers were now in power. In fact, they had even repelled Elyon's power and had managed to lock her up deep within her palace.

Now they were creating havoc on the streets and had forced the people in Meridian to fight for survival. Nevertheless, only their minions were doing the work, the pair was just hovering in the sky, evilly cackling in harmony. After all, they were winning. It didn't seem as if the Meridian's had a chance, even with the five guardians on their side.

Matt used his brief moment to examine the situation he was presently in. Monsters were carelessly swinging their clubs, dust was flying into the air as people landed on the ground, blood was scattered everywhere, a mixture of expressions were upon everyone's faces-the monsters looking merciless and the people and creatures on the good side were either looking determined, frightened, angry or tired and the guardians were using their powers to the extent!

He couldn't stand it. He couldn't see these people being wounded, he couldn't see his friends being overthrown and he especially couldn't see his girlfriend, shooting and blasting enemies with everything she had and getting nowhere.

He took his moment, which in reality was only a second to stare at her. The worry entangled on her features made him frown; his heart couldn't take her pain. She was frozen in a ready to fire position up in the air, only a few feet in front of him. The swift movement of her wings was captured in the pause. The sweat sliding down her cheeks remained still. Her clenched fist stayed clenched. And her face remained plastered with worry.

He wanted to wish it all away; take away all her pain and fear. But all he could do was carry on. Carry on fighting; fighting to help her. Matt knew that if they had any change of winning, they needed to fight. Fight together and trample the beasts that had invaded.

Although, this was only one side of Matt's heart talking. The other side was cowering; cowering in fear. He knew and had witnessed both Phobos' and Nerissa's power and knew that they were alot stronger together. He had almost lost Will after the guardians had defeated Nerissa and he feared that Will might not survive if they were now this powerful.

He gulped as everything resumed and took action. He was now again in his warriors armour, trying to take down the creatures and protect Will. He had decided to protect Will ever since he'd found out that she was a guardian and had to go through so many things.

He didn't want to lose her; he couldn't lose her.

Suddenly, Matt ducked, and just in time too before he got wacked around the head. A green, hard-skinned creature with white spikes roared when he missed. Matt took a quick breath before stabbing the monster with his sword. He gasped and jumped to his side as the creature dropped his humungous club. Then the creature clutched his bleeding stomach and grunted in pain. Matt wasn't a person who took chances so he didn't hesitate in slicing the monsters head off its neck.

"Nice job," Irma called as she and Hay Lin combined their powers and threw a few icicles at more gruesome creatures. Matt smirked and ran off to find his next target.

The battle had been going on for hours; it was surprising that the guardians weren't drained yet. "Taranee, a little help here?" Cornelia suggested as she struggled to keep a group of monsters in her vine cage.

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Taranee quickly flew over to Cornelia and used her fire power to set light to the vine's, making the monsters choke and burn. Then both girls smiled at each other for their impressive teamwork.

Caleb panted hard as he collided with the ground with a thud. His breath got caught in his throat when he turned onto his back and realised that he was going to be crushed by Thor. "Shit." Was all he could utter before he closed his eyes in order to brace himself.

"Earth!" The earth guardian summoned her power and made several vines with thorns erupt from the ground. They wrapped themselves around Thor, making him howl. Cornelia then landed on the ground beside Caleb and flicked back her long hair. "I think it's safe to say I saved your butt, right?" she giggled and stretched out her hand.

"Oh, please." Caleb rolled his eyes at his girlfriend as she helped him to his feet. "I could've managed it! It's just that...well, you decided to step it."

The blonde scoffed, "Sure." The couple stood, staring into each other's eyes for a few seconds before they were taken out of their bliss world.

"Uh, excuse me? But we're kinda in a battle, IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED!" Irma's famous sarcastic tone called from above them.

"Yeah...I don't plan to hold these giants off for much longer," Hay Lin chimed in, barely glancing at the two because she was too busy using her power to hold back the creatures that would've killed the couple if she hadn't stepped in.

Cornelia pursed her lips in embarrassment before grinning apologetically. "Oops, sorry."

Irma stuck her nose in the air, "Yeah, you would've been if Hay Lin hadn't saved you on my command!"

"Your command?" the guardian joined her best friend after sending the creatures off in a tornado. "I was the one who spotted them!"

"Yes but who was the one who noticed the monsters? Huh?"

"...Me!" Hay Lin insisted.

"Have you got memory issues now, Hay Lin? It was me," the brown haired girl gestured towards herself.

"Yeah right. What's your problem?" Hay Lin put her hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow at her friend.

"My problem? What's your problem!" Irma copied every action that Hay Lin did and bore her eyes into Hay Lin's.

Cornelia sighed an over dramatic sigh as she placed her delicate hand on Caleb's brown coat. "The things they do for us!" she said extra loudly so her friends could hear. Then she placed the back of her hand on her forehead and sighed again. Caleb tried hard not to laugh but ended up sniggering when the two guardians turned to them.

"Oh," Irma laughed sarcastically with her hand on her chest, "The things we do for you?" she repeated.

"Yeah..." Hay Lin narrowed her eyes at Cornelia who was huffing out of annoyance. "Without them, you wouldn't be here right now!"

"True. Though-" Cornelia was cut off because a boulder sent her flying through the air.

"Look out!" Hay Lin cried as she dodged another huge rock which had been flung into the air by catapult.

A boulder was headed straight towards Irma. Caleb rumbled as he jumped into the air and grabbed the water guardian's ankle and pulled her down. She landed right in his arms and both of them rolled on the ground until they came to a stop.

"Thanks." Irma rubbed the side of her head as she groggily sat up.

"Don't mention it. Besides, now we're even." He ran a hand through his chocolate hair and brushed the dust off his trousers.

Irma was about to protest but the sound of Will's ear-piercing shriek made her head snap in her direction. Irma jumped back into flight and clenched her hands into fists. "You're gonna pay for that, Phobos!" she shouted at the evil Prince who was laughing hysterically.

"Irma, what happened?" inquired Matt as she scrambled over some sand bags and bodies.

"He...he hit Will!" she replied with spite dripping from every word that escaped her lips.

"What?" Matt blurted out loud and sent a death glare at Phobos, who just returned it with a smirk.

"Caleb, you help Cornelia and Matt, you go find Will," Irma ordered at she conjured up her energy to attack Phobos.

"Yeah, why don't you boys do that while I finish off your little friend?" Phobos said in a calm tone, before howling with sarcastic laughter again. "Pathetic. Do you really think you can take me? Prince Phobos?"

"There isn't a doubt in my mind." Irma retorted proudly. "Go!" she hissed at the boys who were looking from her to Phobos. "I said go!" The two boys exchanged glances and ran off to their girlfriends. Irma knew it would be fatal if they lost any of the guardians and it was important for them to recover in safety while they got their energy back. She was also afraid that someone from the bad side would end up taking their lives.

Once the boys were gone and Phobos had made no attempt to stop them, Irma Lair turned back to the male controller of all the evil on the street.

"Show me what you got, guardian."

"Do you want to die?" Even though Irma sounded strong and confident on the outside, she was trembling in fear on the inside. She was afraid that she'd die and wouldn't be able to help her friends. That was the fear Phobos and Nerissa had created in the guardians' minds due to their immense power.

"There's no reason to worry about that, because we both know that it's not going to happen!"

Irma gazed at the ground with a bit of hesitation. She knew that Phobos could sense fear. Her heart raced. Beads of sweat appeared on forehead. Even her physique proved to falter.

Then suddenly, she noticed a pink skirt being wisped by the wind behind Phobos. She raised her head in curiosity, only to find her best friend signalling for her to be quiet. Irma loved Hay Lin; she was always there for her, in battle and at school, everywhere really. They did love to fight of course, but they were practically sisters.

Irma was sure not to smile or show any change in behaviour because she knew that Phobos was eying her every move.

"You have an oversized ego, you know that?" Phobos didn't reply. Irma was sure he knew that all too well. "You're going down. Do ya hear me?"

The Prince just cackled again and his foot length, black, dress type outfit he wore, swayed in wind. Little did he know that most of that breeze was being created by Hay Lin who was glaring daggers into the back of his head, only a few metres away from him. If looks could kill then Phobos wouldn't have been floating in the air right then.

"And Phobos, I wouldn't cackle if I were you. It doesn't suit you." Cornelia added, joining her friend. Irma look surprised to see the blonde, but figured that Caleb's magic kiss would've healed her in an instant anyway.

"I-uhh...wouldn't make him mad if I were you," Irma whispered. Phobos knew she was saying something to Cornelia in secret because her hand was over her lips.

"Chill. Plus, you're not me." Cornelia bit back, still looking at Phobos with a confident smile stuck to her flawless face. That smile was continuously growing because she could see Hay Lin making her attack stronger and stronger as each second passed.

Irma scoffed, "I'm glad."

At Hay Lin's signal, the two girls got themselves ready in fighting positions. It was time for Phobos to go down.

Cornelia yelled as she concentrated on moving several boulders off the ground and aimed them directly at Phobos. Her aim was sharp and he was knocked out of the air. It was shocking that Phobos didn't do anything to defend himself.

"Why isn't he fighting back?" asked Irma as she flew closer to the pile of boulders which Phobos was trapped under.

"Maybe he's dead...or was just too shocked when he saw the stones?"

"Boulders." Irma corrected. "Still, it is a bit strange, don't you think?"

"Stop worrying. Let's just finish him off." Cornelia stepped back as a huge wave of water circled Phobos and lifted him out of the boulders.

Irma shouted in agony as she tried to control the water. She felt as if someone was trying to push the water away. Of course, that someone could only have been the Prince himself. "Hay...Lin..." she whimpered.

Hay Lin heard her friends small cry for help and was quick to rescue with her freezing breeze she had summoned. It did exactly what she wanted, freezing the water around Phobos and locking him in a giant ice cube. Hay Lin then went over to her friends and the three of them stood proudly, looking down at the frozen Prince.

"Uh, girls? He's moving," stated Caleb after a quick glance at the huge ice cube on the ground. He was also trying to defend himself from an evil creature's sword at the same time.

"What did Caleb say?" Cornelia asked. She hadn't been paying attention the first time since she had been checking on her manicure.

"He said that he's moving." Hay Lin answered, gulping when she realised it was true.

Cornelia sighed, "You guys worry too much. Watch this," with that, she flew onto the ground next to Phobos and used her power to make a hand in the earth like she'd done many times before. The hand, which looked expertly carved into the ground, worked with Cornelia's actually hand, so she made a fist and held the ice cube firmly in her giant mud hand. "Ta-da!" she exclaimed, smiling contently.

Just as she had finished, Taranee decided to join them. "Anyone seen Nerissa? I shot a few fire balls at her and then she disappeared within the smoke."

"Nope," Irma shook her head and the other two shrugged.

"Weird...hey, you knocked out Phobos!"

"It was a team effort." Hay Lin smiled at her friend with glasses.

"Want me to burn him?" Taranee looked at each of the girls in turn.

"Go ahead." Was Cornelia's reply. She got an eager nod from Hay Lin, it resembled a puppy nodding to agree to play 'fetch' with its owner.

"Ooooh, yeah! I so wanna see him burn to death!" Irma responded.

Taranee gave her friends a single nod, "Fire!" she breathed and set light to the hand that Cornelia had created out of dirt.

"Is it just me or does anyone else feel the need to laugh evilly right now?" Irma asked as she stared into the fire.

"It's just you." Cornelia smirked at Taranee's comment.

"Awh, come on! It'll be fun. We might as well make the most of the moment?" A frown fell upon Hay Lin's face when Cornelia and Taranee refused to cackle.

"Hay Lin," Taranee began as she fixed her glasses, "Please don't forget that we're on the good side and that people on the good side don't laugh evilly."

Irma and Hay Lin just pouted and the other two girls rolled their eyes. "Fine. But we're still gonna laugh, right Hay Lin?"

"Are we? I mean, yeah. Yeah."

"Ready? Go!" With Irma's quick declaration, the two girls started laughing evilly. Well, as evilly as they could anyways.

"Will? Will! Will, wake up!" Matt was panicked. He had been trying to get his girlfriend to regain consciousness for quite a while now. Though, she still hadn't woken up.

She had landed in the small forest, behind the houses on the street. It was where the woodcutters would go to chop their wood every day before Meridian was invaded.

Matt was thankful that she hadn't landed in a tree but safely in a bush, which luckily, wasn't infested with bugs or animals and wasn't full of thorns. Even without those factors, Will was still bruised and her outfit had been torn in various places. None that were inappropriate though.

"Will...please..." Matt sniffled. The thing that he was most afraid of had come true, and now Will was lying cold in his arms. However, Matt hadn't lost hope because he could still feel her pulse which meant that her heart was still beating. That was all the hope Matt needed.

With that hope, he had tried everything from mouth to mouth resuscitation to violently shaking her, yet neither of them seemed to work. "Will, we need you...I need you. Your friends need you. Without you, they're going to lose and you wouldn't want that, right? So wake up. For them...for me," he whispered through sobs.

This was a whole new side to Matt but it was one which he had always had ever since he met Will and accepted her as his girlfriend. He sighed as more moist tears fell out of his eyes. Matt sat silently for a minute with Will's hand in his own.

In an abrupt second it dawned on him that he could hear water. That could only mean one thing; there was a stream of some sort nearby. Matt softly placed Will's hand on her chest and ran off in the direction of the sound of flowing water. He only had to go past a few trees until he came across a winding stream that twisted its way through the forest.

He rushed up to it and felt the water rush past his fingers. His eyes lit up like bulbs as he peered into the glistening water. He knew he couldn't spend too long staring at the beauty of the stream since he had an unconscious girlfriend to deal with, so he scooped up some fresh water in his hands and sprinted back to Will, making sure the water didn't leave his hands.

Once he got to her, he lightly sprinkled some water over her face and poured the rest in her mouth. He hoped with all his might that she'd flinch and open her eyes. No such luck. Matt groaned quietly and plonked himself on the ground.

"Just face it, boy. She's dead." A voice sounded from above Matt.

Matt's eyes suddenly flourished with alarm. "Nerissa," he breathed.

That's part one.

So what did you think? I'll take any comments, so please go ahead and review. Likes, dislikes, improvements or whatever?

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P.S- I'd love if you checked out my Winx writing too. Let me know what you make of it :)