DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters except the OCs. Elyon's surrogate mother and natural mother have been arbitrarily renamed because I couldn't remember their actual names.

This fic was partially inspired by "the Doll of Meridian" by Citadel, but draws heavily on concepts taken from "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan.
I've never seen the cartoon, so this fic is based solely on the W.I.T.C.H comic.

I was always puzzled by the reasons why Phobos couldn't reign to begin with and why should he have to draw power from the environment while every other magic user in the series obviously did not. This is the explanation I have come up with.
AU in that Phobos doesn't get imprisoned in Kandrakar at the end of the first series.

Will be P/E and will contain lemons, attempted suicide and deaths in later chapters. Rating will rise accordingly.

Flame me all you want, I'm fireproof.

Enjoy!

When they brought her brother back from Kandrakar, he was no more than a shadow of his former self. Clad only in a pair of roughspun breeches and barefoot, he was paraded in chains through the main thoroughfare from the city gates to the palace, while the populace pelted him with insults and rotten vegetables. Elyon had sternly opposed this proposition, but the rebels wanted their triumph and the situation was still tense. She had to dismiss almost all her police forces for being too compromised with her brother's regime and the new recruits were young and unblooded and most of them had been in the rebellion. She could not risk a tumult in those conditions, so she had to consent, on the condition that no harm should befall her brother, to which Caleb and Vathek readily gave their word.
Throughout the whole ordeal, Phobos never reacted; he kept walking and staring ahead with his head held high, while the people shouted abuse (assassin, tyrant and monster were the kindest epithets) and even when a half-brick grazed his head, making blood run on his face from a scalp wound.
At the end of the parade, he was brought in front of her throne and forced none too gently to kneel before her. Elyon could not repress a sentiment of pity towards him, who used to be so haughty and had been brought so low. He always used to be slim, but now he was gaunt and there were dark shadows under his eyes, his glorious long ash-blond hair had been all but shorn and his ginger beard had grown long and unkempt, but the worst thing was the look in his eyes: defeat, sadness and desperation. A terrible realization dawned on the Queen, hitting her like a physical blow to the stomach: her brother had been broken, possibly beyond repair. All around her, people were cheering, rejoicing in the humiliation of the tyrant, but Elyon could only see his pain and didn't have the heart to smile.

On that first day, most of the time had been occupied by state affairs and it was only later in the evening that she found time to visit her brother's cell. Unnoticed by her counsellors, Elyon slipped into the gaol and silently approached the cell in which her brother had been placed. It was damp and cold down there and dark. It was nothing more than he deserved, whispered a small voice in her head. It was terrible and bleak, said another.
Her slippered footsteps didn't make any noise on the rough flagstones, so she could hear very clearly someone sobbing. It took her a moment to realise that it was her brother. Phobos was curled in a corner of his cell, his arms locked around his drawn-up knees, rocking backwards and forwards and crying silently. He looked in so much pain and grief, that Elyon couldn't bring herself to stand there a minute longer and ran away towards the safety of the upper halls of her palace. She couldn't begin to imagine why he was reacting like that: he was in a cell, that much was true, but she ensured that he was treated humanely and no harm was given him.
Try as she might to dissimulate it, her surrogate mother, now an officer in her personal guard, readily detected her internal turmoil.
"What does disturb you so, Your Grace?" she asked at lunchtime the next day, after she had held court almost all morning. Elyon couldn't ask any better than someone to confide into and Adhara had been her mother for sixteen long years, it could do her no harm to speak with her.
"Elyon, call me Elyon. You were my mother." she said. After barely two months of reign, she had almost forgotten how it felt to be called by her name. Your Grace here, Your Majesty there, even Caleb.
"Elaena Escanor was your mother, I was merely a protector, Elyon." the warrior retorted.
Elyion nodded, but only to appease her. She knew her real mother only by a painting and Adhara's words and she had not the foggiest idea about her father (maybe she should ask Phobos, later), she could not be emotionally attached to them. Her only family had always been Adhara and her husband.
"I am worried about my brother." she confessed, somewhat abashedly.
Adhara waved a hand in the air dismissively. "There is nothing to worry about, Elyon. He cannot harm you anymore, he has been rendered innocuous."
"I am not worried about me, Adhara, I am worried about him. – she retorted - He is… broken. All the fight has gone out of him. He was crying, last night. Did they harm him in Kandrakar?"
"They severed him, finally, that is all. This always happens to those who are severed." she explained neutrally.
"Severed?" Elyon asked, horrified. It sounded painful and horrible.
"They separated him from his magic. – Adhara explained – I should have told you before, when you were younger…" she added, when Elyon stared at her uncomprehending.
The warrior sighed and seated herself near Elyon. "Male sorcerers are evil, Elyon, they will use their magic to do evil things, if left alone." she started.
"But Caleb uses magic and is not evil." Elyon objected.
"Caleb is an elementalist, he calls upon the assistance of one of the elements and uses its energy for specific tasks. Sorcerers can mould energy and create things, they can ply the matter to their will. It is different." Adhara explained.
"Then I am a sorcerer too. Why am I not evil?" Elyon objected again. The whole thing didn't make any sense to her and sounded like superstition and prejudice.
"Because you are a woman. – Adhara responded – Women are allowed to create and to mould, men aren't. It is sacrilegious, blasphemous. Sorcerers need to be stopped and the only way to prevent them to do evil is to separate them from the source of evil, their magic."
Elyon looked at her surrogate mother, flabbergasted.
"Some of them go on with life without too many problems, especially if they are caught and severed early, but most… They do not seem to be able to live without what makes them evil." Adhara continued, quite oblivious to Elyon's distress.
"What happens to them?" the queen asked.
"They let themselves die, rather than live redeemed, Elyon, and I'm afraid this is what's happening with the Usurper." concluded Adhara, with a faint sigh.
"If only your mother had done it when it was time, but no, she wanted to try something less traumatic, and let him keep part of his magic. – she added, sadly and a bit bitterly – Your mother was very kind and merciful, but, in this case, it was misplaced. If she had severed your brother when he was young, he might have survived and she would still be alive."
Elyon was breathless with mingled horror and astonishment "H-How?" she asked.
"Oh, Elyon, I am so sorry, I should have told you, but I didn't think you were ready for it. – she said, tears gathering in her eyes - Your brother killed her not long after you were born."

Elyon stormed into the gaol like a whirlwind and demanded to be shown the prisoner. The cell door was thrown open and a couple of guards entered, iron clanged and the guards left. "It is safe, now, Your Majesty." one of the guards said.
"Leave me alone with him." she ordered curtly. The guard bowed. "As you command, Your Majesty." and the whole troop withdrew, leaving her alone in the corridor. Elyon breathed deeply and steeled herself and then she entered her brother's cell.
Phobos was still sitting into a corner of the cell, but this time his wrists were chained to the wall. He looked even worse for wear than the day before, bruises spreading on his arms and torso. The guards had told her that he had tried to break free when they first put him in irons. The look in his eyes was hollow and haunted, but he put on a show of haughtiness and defiance. Even Elyon, naïve as she was, understood that it was just pretence. "Elyon, what do I owe the honour to?" he drawled and he almost sounded like his old self, except that he didn't and for some reason her rage deflated, until it was just a dull pain.
"Why did you kill our mother?" she asked in a whisper.
Phobos stared at her, uncomprehending. "I did what?" he breathed. "Who told you this, that hysterical bitch, Adhara?" he added, anger surfacing through the dejection.
Elyon didn't exactly know what happened, only that her mind clouded with rage again and when her mind cleared, her hand hurt and his brother's cheek was red and swollen.
Phobos shook his head, as if to clear it, as if her blow had been strong enough to make him reel. Elyon gasped in horror at what she had done. She had never hurt anyone before.
"I didn't kill her, Elyon, even if I would have had the right to do it, for what she had put me through. – Phobos said slowly and angrily, his blue-grey eyes boring into her – I merely imprisoned her and not even in one of these dark cells. I kept her in one of the guest suites in the east wing, treated her as humanely as possible, but she caught the plague and I couldn't do anything about it. Half of Meridian was infected, more than twenty thousand people died, including her. Even you almost died. I couldn't save her. Nobody could, but it is easier to blame the evil sorcerer, isn't it?" he asked, bitterly.
"I- I didn't know." Elyon stammered.
"I wouldn't expect so. Adhara kidnapped you shortly afterwards, you were too young to remember and I wouldn't suppose she had told you anything but her prejudiced point of view. Why, I am surprised she hadn't told you that I had summoned the plague." he said with a sad smile.
"You didn't, did you?" she asked timidly.
Phobos shook his head. "Such a thing would be impossible, but her faction spread the word nonetheless."
Elyon blinked, uncomprehending. "But why?" she asked.
Phobos smiled again and his smile made her feel bad, so bad that she wanted to crawl somewhere dark and hide. "Because I am evil, I was always evil, even when I was not, Elyon. I am a male magic user, there is no need for any other reason in her mind."
"But you conspired against our mother and imprisoned her! – she replied, unwilling to let him tarnish Adhara's character notwithstanding her own perplexities at her reasoning – You were a tyrant to the people of Meridian, you were evil, do not deny it!"
"That was just politics, Elyon, one day you will understand. – he explained – There was a more progressive faction in the court, one that didn't give a damn about traditions and the gender of the ruler as long as their policies suited them and I rewarded them after they helped me overthrow our mother, do ut des. It could have ended like this, but the traditionalist faction didn't let it go. They rebelled, they plotted, they scaled up the violence, tried to kill me, almost managed it a couple of times and I responded. It is the way of things." he concluded cynically.
"I bet Adhara never told you what happened to our father…" he continued, seeing that Elyon remained silent.
Elyon shook her head. "She never mentioned him." she admitted.
"I would have imagined it. – he confirmed – He was called Cathair and he was a knight of the Royal Guard. Mother liked him well enough to keep him even after he had impregnated her with a useless male child, contrary to tradition. He had a small latent magical talent but he could hide it well, but unfortunately for him, mine was much greater and I didn't manage to hide it. I was eleven and hadn't done anything more evil that brawling with other squires, when my mother discovered it and tried to "cure" me from evil. – he continued sombrely, never breaking eye contact with her – Adhara insisted that I should be severed, but my mother thought it would be too cruel and just crippled the part of me that used magic, punching a hole in it so that the power would disperse and I would never be able to do anything more dangerous than conjure a bit of sparkles." His tone was disturbingly matter-of-fact, but his eyes were full of pain and Elyon instinctively cringed. How could their mother be so cruel?
"It hurt so much, Elyon, and I couldn't understand why she had done it, what had I done wrong. I had just been playing and afterwards I hurt inside and all my friends eschewed me, because I was evil." he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
"But it didn't work, right? You were almost as powerful as me." Elyon said, trying to sound cheerful even if she was about to cry. She had believed that her family was a happy one, that Phobos had been the cause of every bad thing that happened, that he had no excuses, but it seemed that the truth was very far from it.
Phobos made a sound low in his throat that could have been constructed as a laugh. "It worked very well, instead, sister. Why do you think I had to absorb magic from the outside? Without it, I would have been powerless."
So it had not just been greed and selfishness, but rather a desperate attempt to heal, to be normal. Elyon had to steel herself further to refrain from comforting him.
"Anyway, - he continued – after this, Adhara grew suspicious of our father and tried to convince Mother that he was to blame for my curse, but Mother wouldn't heed her. It took her years to get her perfect occasion and demonstrate that he was cursed as well and, by that time, Mother was already expecting you. – He paused a bit, lost in the memory – In the face of evidence, even lust was not enough to stay her hand and she and Adhara severed him, even if he had never done anything evil at all, even if he had always protected his Queen, as his duty demanded and more, even if he loved her. They broke him and sent him away, confined him to a distant guard tower, so that Mother wouldn't have to behold him any longer. He lasted two months before throwing himself down the parapet."
Phobos shuddered. "After the "accident" he had been the only person to treat me like a person and not a piece of walking refuse. I think he felt guilty about what happened to me and tried to make amends by cheering me up, by trying to teach me the way of the warrior. I would have made a fine knight like himself, he said, even if no one would knight a cursed person, except maybe him. – he continued, clenching his fists until his knuckles whitened – When he died, I was alone again, so much alone that it hurt and I vowed to take revenge on Mother for making my life a living hell, for taking away everything that was good in it… " he finished and hung his head, seemingly drained of all energy.
Elyon knelt to the floor beside him, unheeding of her silken dress and slowly extended a hand to pet him reassuringly, but he flinched as if expecting to be hit again and she retracted her hand as if burned. "I am sorry…" she whispered.
Phobos made another low sound, but this time it sounded more like a sob. "And do you know what the worst of it is? – he asked, voice thick with tears – For all that I tried to avoid it for all my life, my fate has found me. Adhara has won, Elyon. I am finished. It is just a matter of time."
Elyon shook her head, not wanting to believe it. "Do not say so… Not everybody dies of it, I've heard." she offered, trying to console him.
Phobos remained silent, not even looking up to acknowledge her words.
"Does it hurt very much?" she asked gently.
Phobos shook his head. "It does not hurt, Elyon, not as what Mother did to me before. – he replied softly - How do you feel when you work magic?" he asked suddenly.
Elyon chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. "It feels good, very good. – she said, blushing – I feel energized, the world seems crystal clear and beautiful, full of colours. My heart races and my mind spins. I feel one with everything. It is too intense to bear, sometimes, as if I was going in sensory overload and I know I could burn myself to cinders with it, but that makes it even more exciting. I feel alive, so alive that sometimes the rest of the day seems just a fuzzy dream." Telling it felt a bit too intimate, almost embarrassing, but if there was a person who could relate to it, that would be him, because he had experienced it, lived for it as she did, and suddenly she understood. Something of her moment of dreadful revelation must have shown on her face, because he nodded. "Yes, Elyon… - he whispered – Imagine remembering it, but never being able to feel it again. Imagine living forever in that fuzzy dream, being able to sense the power around you but being separated from it…" the corner of his mouth twisted downwards, as if he was trying to keep a stiff upper lip.
Elyon cringed again. It was no mystery why people let themselves die, rather than endure it. It was beyond cruel, it was inhuman.
"I would have done this to you, sister. I feel sick inside, now, thinking about it, but that's what would have happened to you if I took your power at the Coronation." he confessed and, even if the thought should have squicked her, enraged her, made her want to hit him again, the tears he couldn't keep at bay anymore made her want to hug him and make it better somehow. She did neither thing.
"Why did you want to do this to me?" she asked instead.
Phobos shook his head again. "I thought Adhara had poisoned your mind against me. I thought she had convinced you that I was irredeemably evil and that you were just waiting for your occasion to get me, that your innocence was just a ploy. I had to get you before you got me. I thought it would be poetic justice to sever you as you would have done to me and maybe your power would have been enough to restore me. – he explained, tears streaming on his face – I had not counted on you being unaware, on her not telling you anything. Your smiles were sincere, your affection was not feigned. You could have accepted me, if I had told you… If only I had known…"
"Would you have given up the throne to me?" she asked, unconvinced.
"No. – he replied curtly – I had the right to it, but we could have negotiated with the rebels, brokered a truce… We could have found a solution." he said.
"You were afraid of me?" she asked, trying not to think about what-ifs. It would have been too painful.
He nodded. "Yes. – he said softly – You are so powerful, Elyon. You do not understand how scary you can be. When you made the prison disappear effortlessly, I trembled, because I knew I was no match to you. Maybe, if I had never been wounded, I would have grown as powerful as you, or maybe you are more powerful for being a woman, but the point is that I knew you could defeat me without breaking a sweat and I didn't understand why you didn't do it, what were you waiting for."
"I wasn't. – she said softly – You were not my enemy, until you tried to harm me."
Silence fell heavily in the room, while Phobos cried quietly and Elyon watched him, torn between pity and the last remains of the affection she had for him and her queenly pride , both stunned by the weight of their decisions and their assumptions.
"What about Cedric?" she asked, finally.
"He is in Heatherfield, in exile." he replied softly.
"Did they… do it to him too?" she enquired, tentatively.
Phobos shook his head. "When I first met him, a mob was trying to kill him for being a magic user. I rescued him, but being severed has always been his worst nightmare. He was terrified beyond reason, even if he had always been very brave. – he reminisced - The Council wanted to get him too, but I told them that I had forced him to do what he did and they believed me. They just shielded him from part of his power and sent him to Earth, under surveillance of the Guardians. In time, they will give his power and his freedom back, if he behaves." Phobos smiled sadly again. "At least I managed to do some good."
Elyon bit her lip hard enough to taste blood, but even that pain was not enough to distract her and tears stung her eyes, flowing freely on her face.
"Elyon…" he said, softly and wondering. "Please, do not cry. It would be easier if you hated me."
"I know, but I can't help it." she replied, somewhat brusquely.
It would have been easier if he had been a complete monster as Adhara and Caleb had told her, she would have been able to stifle the last remains of her affection for him, but he was not. He was ruthless, Machiavellian, cruel even, but he had suffered so much for no apparent reason and this was what the pain had made him. Elyon wanted to scream against the futile cruelty of it all, against the traditions, against her mother, against Adhara. They had ruined the lives of a lot of people for nothing, perpetuating pain and prejudice, but now she had the power, she was the Queen, the Light of Meridian, and she would make things better for everybody. This had always been her goal.
Elyon dried her tears with the back of her hand and stood up, brushing her dress clean of the dirt of the prison cell with vigorous motions.
"Guards!" she called. They arrived in a blink, cudgels at the ready. Phobos curled himself up as much as the chains would allow, as if he expected pain and violence, and Elyon realized that the bruises were not the result of an escape attempt and that the guards had beaten him up. It enraged her beyond anything else. He was weak and powerless and they took advantage of it.
"Captain, I want the prisoner unchained, now." she ordered harshly. "And I want the names of the guards who beat him yesterday."
Phobos raised his head again, looking at her with amazement and admiration, while the Captain gave her an alarmed look. "Your Grace… are you…" he started, haltingly.
"Yes, I am sure of both. Give me the names or I will dismiss all of you. – she interrupted him curtly – Meridian is full of strapping lads who would like very much to enlist, substituting you will be a matter of minutes."
"But… but he is…" he continued. Elyon gave him a look so black that he withered.
"Whatever he might have been, he has been "cured". – she spat, speaking in a way even people such as him would understand even if she knew that what had been done to him was anything but a cure – He might still be redeemed and he is still my brother and I want him out of irons and out of here. Now. Do I need to repeat myself, Captain?"
The Captain shook his head dumbly and saw to it. Elyon couldn't help but cringe at the way her brother tried to avoid the touch of the guards while they opened the chains. He never took his eyes off her, however.
The chains had finally been unlocked. Elyon dismissed the guards, unable to stand their sight any longer, and knelt down next to Phobos again. He had not moved an inch. She extended a hand towards him and smiled. "Come, I'll take you out of here." she said softly.
His eyes widened in disbelief. "Elyon…" he whispered and gingerly took her hand in his. He was trembling slightly, she noticed, and her heart constricted again in pity.
She stood up and hoisted him up to his feet. He was so weak that he almost fell down again and she had to sneak a hand around his waist to support him. He flinched again at her touch and she noticed another black bruise where she had touched him.
"It is alright, sister, I can stand." he said and slipped from her grasp, leaning heavily on the wall for support.
"Liar." she said softly. "Why didn't you tell me they had beaten you?"
Phobos looked down at the floor. "I thought they had done it on your orders." he said, almost inaudibly.
Elyon let a frustrated noise and stomped her foot on the floor. "I won't harm you. I just won't. It is over for me. – she said – Whatever you might have done, you have already paid for it dearly enough. Let's start over, please." she implored, feeling tears well again into her eyes. She sneaked an arm around his waist again, gently, mindful of his bruises and looked a question to him.
Phobos looked at her with awe and, perhaps, affection and leaned on her for support. "You will be the best Queen Meridian has ever had. If you survive the courtiers and schemers, that is."

Later on that day, Adhara entered her chambers in a fury.
"I have been told that the Usurper is no longer in prison." she said sternly, as if she was reverting to the role of her mother.
"Yes, it is true." Elyon replied, never raising her eyes from the drawing she was completing. She complimented herself for her calm and collected appearance, even if she wanted to scream at Adhara until she had no more voice. Phobos was presently sleeping next door, under surveillance, it is true, but unrestricted. He had been allowed to bathe and change clothes and now he looked a bit more like his old, fastidious self, at least until one noticed his haunted, empty eyes.
"This is madness." Adhara spat.
"He is "cured", didn't you say so this morning? What do I need to fear from him?" she asked idly.
Adhara shook her head. "He has been allowed to live with the curse for too long to ever be safe, Elyon. The gaol is the place for him, until his addiction kills him. Mercifully, it can't be too long." she said blandly.
Elyon almost exploded with fury, but managed to keep a cool exterior. "You will call me "Your Grace" or "Your Majesty", Adhara – she said and the warrior woman flinched – And you will remove yourself from the palace for a while, until I call you back. As it is now, I cannot stand you sight."
Adhara clutched at her chest with a pained expression. "Your Majesty… he has poisoned your mind against me. I have never been anything but you faithful servant…" she protested.
"Just go, Adhara. Please." she insisted. She didn't want to deal with this now, she just couldn't.
The warrior removed herself from the room and, Elyon didn't have any doubt, she would remove herself from the palace as well, as she had ordered.
For the first time in her life Elyon felt utterly alone.

R&R please! Even if you flame. It is cold where I am, I could use flames.