More W.I.T.C.H. Adventures 1: The Queen of Infinity
by Shawn Q. Evans
W.I.T.C.H. and related characters copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Featuring the Queen from W.I.T.C.H. Adventures Heartbreak Island, available on Amazon
(The Queen has nothing to do with Elyon or anyone from Meridian)
Note: This story was previously posted, but is being re-posted due to it being edited and because related stories have been re-written.
It's based on the W.I.T.C.H. Adventures book series, but incorporates elements of the comic and cartoon.
Candracar, in the center of Infinity.
Deep below the Fortress of Infinity lies the the Crystal Keep, wherein are kept the most dangerous threats to the Infinite Dimensions, threats so severe it would be unjust for any other reality to be entrusted with their detention.
In these spartan surroundings, these chambers of solitude, the detainees are encouraged to reflect on the wrongful acts they have committed against others and how best to make amends.
Some, however, entertain different ideas.
And on this day, as the guards of Candracar deliver the scheduled meal to one of their most notorious prisoners, she regards them with an uncharacteristic smile.
"Porridge again?" cracked the woman formerly known as the Queen. "I'd much rather have that earth delicacy. What was it called again? Ah yes. Ice cream."
"Quiet, you!" barked the guard. "This is all you're getting!"
"Oh, but they have such...delicious combinations." replied the former Queen.
"The only combination you're getting is porridge and a cell!" quipped one guard.
"Cookies n' Cream. Rum Raisin." continued the one-time Queen.
As he and the other guards laugh, both at his joke and at the ridiculous woman going on about strange Earth foods, the security officer notices her glittery eyes. And her hands. Making weird movements. Some sort of symbolic...gestures? Odd. It looked like a figure 8. Or could it be magic?? He's about to say something to his fellows, when...
"Rocky Road!" yelled the once and future Queen.
The next moment, before the guard even has time to think, reality twists around the security detail. The retaining bars now encircle them, and the Queen stands on the opposite side, a free woman. And then, as fissures open in space and reality reshapes itself around him, the guard doesn't have time to say much of anything, as his mind, unable to process what he's seeing and experiencing, shuts down.
At W.I.T.C.H. 'HQ' (the basement of the Silver Dragon), the girls practice their powers.
Cornelia attempts to coax a seed to sprout in the inhospitable environment of a crack in the floor.
Hay Lin tries to create a tornado in a sealed bottle.
Irma takes a stab at creating an oasis of water in a desert terrarium.
And Taranee...has her nose buried in a book.
"Uh, Taranee?" interrupted Will, their leader. "We're here to see what we can do with our powers without transforming. Perfecting low-level uses. Remember?"
"I know that, Will!" replied Taranee, not bothering to look up. "But it's no problem for me! I can make anything combust anywhere. Hey! Did you know microwaves don't cook things like fire does? They mainly heat water molecules. I wonder if my powers could work that way? Hmmm"
"That's great, Taranee. Really. But we're supposed to be practicing our powers." said the slightly exasperated Guardian of the Heart.
"You could learn a lot about your powers from doing a little reading, Will!" Taranee chided her firend. "Like this here! Scientists believe the first life was created when lightning hit chemicals floating in water. That's more useful to know than how little static electricity it takes to frizz your hair!"
"Taranee..."
"Okay! Okay! I'll try to form flames in a vacuum! Happy now?"
"Ecstatic."
As Taranee works on her own sealed bottle which had all the air sucked out of it, Hay Lin celebrates her success when a whirlwind appears in her flask.
"I did it! Whee!" cried Hay Lin, raising her arms in victory.
"Me too. I think." said Taranee, as her bottle smolders, smoke issuing from the bottlecap as a small flame builds inside the bottle.
Just then, the force of the caged hurricane tips Hay Lin's bottle over, sending it rolling towards Taranee's bottle.
Taranee, thinking her exercise all but done, briefly takes her eyes off her heated container and rolls them towards her book. But her hands stay focused on her assignment, directing more and more combustible energy towards her jar, just as Hay Lin's jug rolls past.
Hay Lin reaches for her runaway container, but before she can, flames shoot from Taranee's bottle and engulf the tornadic thermos, sending Hay Lin reeling.
"Yeow!" yelped Hay Lin as she whipped her hand back.
"Ohmygosh! Are you okay, Hay Lin?" asked the uber-concerned Taranee.
"Yes, but what...?" said the befuddled Hay Lin, rubbing her hand.
"My flame must have been attracted to your O2." said Taranee matter-of-factly.
"Huh?"
"O2? Oxygen!"
"Why didn't you say so? I know oxygen feeds flames! We're not all stupid!" said the upset Hay Lin.
"I didn't say you were!" replied the agitated Taranee.
"Guys? Come on!" pleaded Will.
"I, I'm sorry for blowing my top, Taranee."
"No, Hay Lin. It's my fault. I'm the one who should be sorry."
"What's going on over here?" inquired the blonde Earth elemental.
"Nothing. Just had a little accident." answered Will.
"Yeah? That's some accident!" joked Irma, eyeing the charred bottle.
"At least they did better than me!" chimed Cornelia.
"Couldn't get anything to grow?" asked Will.
"Not so's you'd notice. Barely anything! If only I had some water or nutrients. Hmmm. Would it have been considered cheating if I spit on it?"
"We can spit on things now?" chortled Irma. "We have so many cool powers as Guardians!"
"Uh, ixnay on the ittingspay." noted Will.
"Well, then I can't explain why my powers didn't work so well!" replied an exasperated Cornelia. "Maybe there's something in the soil?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" questioned Hay Lin.
"Huh? Nothing. I mean, I don't know!" said the flabbergasted Cornelia.
"All of you beat me!" interjected Irma. "I couldn't get any water to appear in that desert! But it was an unfair test! Deserts are supposed to have camels, and they store water, so if I had one of those..."
Irma's attempt to lighten the mood works. Or, it would have. If she had stopped there.
"Which reminds me...remember that field trip to the zoo in 3rd grade?"
"I can't believe you're bringing that up! It's ancient history! Let it go!" whined Cornelia.
"What? What happened?" begged Will.
"Cornelia wouldn't obey the signs that said 'No feeding the animals'!" said Irma.
"What? He kept on begging! And he looked all thin, so..." said Cornelia.
"And you would know all about thin, wouldn't you?" replied the catty Irma.
"Excuse me!" demanded Cornelia.
"Anyway, brainy Corny here didn't have any food, so she gave him her bubble gum!"
"No!" said the amused Will.
"You haven't lived until you've seen a camel blow bubbles...and get Camel snot on you at the same time!"
They all laugh. Except Cornelia, who's still annoyed.
"And that wasn't the end of it! The zookeepers were so upset with us, they wanted to show us what a camel really eats - after it comes out the other end! They made us clean the camel cage!"
"Oh my God! Are you serious?" laughed Will.
"The worst thing is, it wasn't even my fault!" said Irma.
"Maybe if you weren't laughing so hard, they wouldn't have thought you were involved!" said a terse Cornelia.
"And to this day, she still hasn't apologized!" replied Irma.
"What do I have to apologize for? I told them you didn't do it! They're the ones who should have to apologize!" said the miffed Earth Guardian.
"Man, you guys have issues, don't you?" commented a smiling Taranee.
Irma and Cornelia, flanking Taranee, regard her with cool stares.
"What? What'd I say?" said a sheepish Taranee.
"Enough with ol' oil and water!" interjected Hay Lin. "What about you, Will? How are you going to test your lightning power?"
"Well, you know, lightning's kind of tricky," replied Will, pulling out the Heart of Candracar, "so I thought I'd...huh?"
Will stared intently at the Heart. There, in the center of the Heart, was a slashing mark, a flaw, that splits the Heart in twain. But wait! That first flaw is joined by another, slicing the Heart in three. Then another, and another, and…
"Guys..." Will announced. "I think there's something wrong on Candracar."
Will folds the transformed Guardians to Candracar's Great Hall of Infinity.
It's not an easy trip.
"Whoa!" uttered Irma as she stumbled out of the folded space on uneasy legs. "That wasn't folding! It was more like bent, spindled, or mutilated!"
"Sorry for the rough ride, guys!" said a contrite Will. "It must be because the Heart's…"
Will stops in her tracks, and looks up.
They all do.
"What the heck does 'spindle' even mean, anyway, I ask you…Huh?"
Even Irma.
For the sight that greets them stuns them all.
The Fortress of Infinity of Candracar is now seemingly the Fortresses of Infinity.
The vast, pillared hall that seemed to go on forever, now went off to forever in every direction!
Up. Down. Sideways. Slantways!
"It's like that one artist's work!" exclaimed Taranee. "With the pathways that seem to go up, but really go down and then back to the beginning!"
"Like an MC Escher!" piped up Hay Lin. "Don't look so surprised, Taranee! I am the artsy one!"
"Huh? I didn't say anything!" replied Taranee.
"It's so disorienting!" said Cornelia. "Almost enough to make you nauseous!"
"Oh, I...I don't feel so good." said a peaked Will.
"You had to say it, didn't you?" cracked Irma.
"Oh no!" Cornelia shot back. "You're not blaming me for this!"
"Just sit down, Will." comforted Taranee. "That should settle your stomach."
"No!" shouted Will. "It's not that! It's this place! The Heart! Somehow, someone split Infinity, and it's tearing me up inside!"
"Split infinitive?" joked Irma. "Who knew grammar could be dangerous?"
"This is serious, Irma!" scolded Cornelia. "Will, can you contact the Oracle?"
"Yeah! Where is everybody?" said a puzzled, and worried, Hay Lin. "Where's my grandmother?"
"The Oracle. It's like...he's there, but not there." said an even more puzzled Will Vandom.
"But how can that be?" said Irma, in rare (serious) form. "He watches over everything! He's the Oracle! He's like, everywhere!"
"I think you were right before with your 'split Infinity' joke, Irma!" elaborated Taranee. "Think about it: If you have infinity, and then cut it in two, what do you have? Half of infinity. How much is half of infinity? It's still infinity!"
"Huh? Now you lost me!" admitted Irma.
"It's like the flipside to zero. Half of zero is still zero!" pointed out Taranee.
"Hold on!" barked Cornelia. "What you're saying is, we can't contact the Oracle because he's in a different infinity than we are?"
"Essentially, yes."
"That has got to be the craziest thing..." said Irma, before she was interrupted.
"Guardians!" crowed the Queen. "What a distinct...displeasure."
"The Queen of Merefire!" shouted Taranee.
It was that Queen, yes, but not the same as before. Whereas previously she glowed with the sickly green of Merefire (a bastardized, forced combination of water and fire), she now shined with the white light of infinity!
"Once, I was known as that. No longer. Now I am Queen of Infinity!" bellowed the Queen.
Then, at her command, Infinity split and folded over again, sending the girls tumbling head over heels.
"Whoaaa!"
"Yeow!"
"Arhh! Unh!"
Will held her side and pretended to be okay. She didn't want the others to worry. She had to be strong.
"Where are the Oracle and Yan Lin and the other members of the Council?" demanded Will, in the strongest, sternest voice she could muster.
"They're fine. However, at the moment they're...indisposed." said the Queen, in the type of voice one uses to talk to servants. "But I wouldn't worry about them right now. I'd worry about yourselves!"
"This is not good!" croaked Cornelia.
"What was your first clue, genius?" quipped Irma. "Candracar split a dozen different ways, Will sick, the Oracle and the others missing, or Queenie here about to zap us?"
The Queen regarded them with amusement and laughed as she waited for their move. She stood over them and before them, walking the multiple infinite pathways of the new Candracar that took her both towards and away from the Guardians at the same time.
"Guys, stop fighting! We do it like before!" said Will, authoritatively. "If we heal the Heart, it should take her power away!"
So Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin placed their hands upon the many-cracked Heart of Candracar. They thought very, very hard, with every ounce of energy in their beings and…nothing.
"Huh?" said a very perplexed Will. "I don't get it! That should have worked!"
The Queen merely laughed. And laughed.
Finally, Irma could take it no more.
"All right! That's it!" yelled Irma. "Time to kick it up old school!"
"For once, I'm in agreement with Irma!" stated Cornelia.
"Ooo, stop, you'll give me a swelled head!" joked Irma.
As they readied their attacks, the Queen smiled.
Irma gathered up water, and Cornelia dug up the floor of the Fortress to free Candracar's stone and rock.
Then first Irma, then Cornelia, released their respective walls of water and earth, sending them sailing towards the smirking, glowing Queen.
Then, with a wave of her hand, Infinity split again!
Queen, water and earth, all were suddenly elsewhere.
The Queen momentarily disappeared, and a second later stood untouched on another twisting stairway.
The water vanished for a moment, then reappeared…over Cornelia. Gravity did the rest.
Similarly, the earth found a new target…Irma!
As her friends were doused/covered in pulverized pebbles, Taranee sprang into action.
"You're going to regret messing with my friends, sorceress!" Taranee shouted. "Fire!"
"Yeah!" agreed Hay Lin. "Air!"
"Wait, Hay Lin!" cautioned Taranee.
"Don't worry!" replied Hay Lin. "I'm too fast for her! She can't nail me like she did Irma or Cornelia!"
The double-barreled attack stormed at the Queen, who took no evasive action.
Instead, when it was almost upon her, she gestured and two small shifts, bendings of space, opened before her and consumed both fire and air.
She twisted Infinity so subtly, so expertly, that the Fire and Air Guardians never noticed the two cracks in Infinity that opened up behind them.
As the wind roared over Taranee, the force of the blast smothering her fire and putting it out, the quick-moving Hay Lin turned her head towards the fire shooting right at her!
She managed to dodge the flames, just barely, but the heat poured into her throat, burning her lungs!
Hay Lin gasped for breath and coughed, assuring Will she was alright, but doing nothing to lessen the anger the leader of the Guardians felt at the crazed monarch.
"That's it!" Will exclaimed. "You won't hurt anyone else! Lightning's too fast for you to dodge!"
"Dear girl," the Queen said, talking down to Will, "do you even understand lightning? It always goes for the highest point!"
And with that, the Queen folded Infinity yet again, so Will was at the highest point! And the lightning came right back at her! She ran and tried again, but this time the other Guardians were elevated and made the lightning's target.
"No!" cried Will in despair. In desperation, Will shot her electricity at the errant lightning bolt and destroyed it before it harmed her friends.
However, the resulting blast blew the Guardians off their feet.
"Enough of this!" snapped the bored Queen. She then folded Infinity around each Guardian.
Will saw it coming, but couldn't evade it! She was enveloped in a cocoon of white nothingness, and her mind soon joined it as she passed out.
"Huh?"
Cornelia awakened with a start.
"Where am I?"
Before her, all was white. A whiteness that stretched to forever.
Behind her, all around her, the white. Nothing but white.
For someone who was used to the all the colors of the living world, and was happiest with her feet on the ground, this was both surprising and distressing. Even Irma's bad jokes would be a comfort in a situation like this.
And then she realized - her friends! Where were they?
"Will! Hay Lin! Irma! Taranee!" she screamed.
"Hey!" blared the voice in her head. "You don't have to yell!"
"T-Taranee?" Cornelia gasped. "Where are you?"
"Same place you are, I guess." Taranee answered. "In a white room. I think it's a small part of infinity that the Queen used to trap us. I was just talking to Will about it. Hold on!"
"Taranee? Wait!" pleaded Cornelia.
But the telepathic Taranee was 'taking another call'.
"Will? Cornelia's freaking. I'm not sure how long she can last."
"Cornelia's strong. Don't worry about her. But what were you saying about Infinity? You don't think it's stable?"
"The very fact that we can communicate telepathically means her 'splitting Infinity' thing isn't perfect."
"But that's good, right?"
"I'm not so sure. She could collapse this entire reality!"
"And that would be bad. But I don't understand why our plan to heal the Heart didn't succeed."
"I've been thinking about that. Maybe it's because the Heart gets its power from Candracar or, specifically, the Aurameres. If the Queen separated the Aurameres like she did us and everybody else, that would explain why the Heart cracked and we couldn't fix it."
"So we have to reunite the Aurameres? How can we do that if we can't get out?"
"You still can't fold?"
"No. Whether it's because the Heart is damaged, or because you can't fold infinity if it's folded around you, I don't know."
"Probably just as well. Screwy as things are, if you tried to fold, we might end up like Irma joked: Bent, spindled or mutilated!"
"What does 'spindle' mean, anyway?"
"Um, it involves spinning something on a rod, I think."
"Oh."
"Man, this is weird. These infinite prison cells, it's like each of us is trapped in separate mobius strips, going around and around forever, and…"
"Hold that thought! I think I hear something!"
………..
"It sounds like wind."
"I told Hay Lin to use her air to probe for any holes in her prison."
"And is that…water?"
"Same thing with Irma! Both air and water flow, so they'd be best to test these cells."
"Wait. Something's happ"
KRAKA-BOOM
ZZZZTTT
"Will?" Taranee thought-screamed. "What's going on?"
"I…I'm fine." Will answered. "No. Better than fine! A flaw is gone! No, there it goes again! The flaw is back!"
"Huh? What happened to you for a moment there?"
"I don't know! I felt lightning, then the flaw went away, then it came back!"
"Hold on! Before the lightning, you said you heard wind and water!"
"Yes. So?"
"So I think Irma and Hay Lin created a thunderstorm by accident, and that's what created the lightning!"
"They can do that?"
"Yes! Back when we fought the Kaithim..! Oh, right, you weren't there!"
"The Kaithim?"
"The energy creature." "Oh,
I remember now. It was poisoning the water."
"Right! So we zapped it with lightning we created."
"And I'm finding this out just now?"
"Whatever! Look, we can use this! I think what the Queen did to the Aurameres, separating them, was against their nature! Objects in a steady state want to return to that state!"
"Huh?"
"The Aurameres want to be reunited! I think by combining our powers, we can nudge that along!"
"I think you're right! And you said before we were trapped in mobius strip thingies, but there's a limit to what the Queen can do! These infinities aren't completely stable. I bet if we combine powers, we can make these mobius strip prisons intersect, causing them to collapse and then we can save Candracar!"
"Yeah. Yeah! That could work! But I think we should limit it to only combining the 4 elements."
"Why?"
"You remember the problems we had when Luba fused all the Aurameres together, don't you?"
"Oh. Yeah."
"I'll tell Hay Lin and Irma to re-double their efforts!"
"What about Cornelia?"
"That might be trickier. But I can work it out."
"Great! Good luck!"
"Cornelia?"
"Taranee? What's going on?"
"We've got a plan! But I'm going to need your help."
"Me? But what can I do? I'm not like the others! I can't 'create' earth to manipulate! I have to make use of whatever's at hand! And in here, I'm, like, totally cut off from my power!"
"No, you're not! Your cell may not have any soil in it, but Candracar is full of earth materials, and it's all outside your room!"
"But everything feels wrong!"
"But I just told you..."
"Not that! I mean us!"
"Us?"
"Sometimes...sometimes I worry we're not up to this. What if we mess up?"
"We won't. Trust me."
"How's Hay Lin holding up?"
"She's...dealing. She's putting all her energy into getting out of here and saving her Grams."
"That's good. How about Will?"
"What about Will?"
"At times I wonder about her, too. So much power. It destroyed Nerissa, and..."
"Will's fine! She could never become Nerissa!"
"I know that! But...never mind. You said you had a plan?"
"It's Will's plan! And it's gonna work! All we have to do is combine our power!"
"How do we do that?"
"I theorized that our 'infinite prison cells' are next to each other. So if we send our power outside the cell, they'll combine, reunite the Aurameres, heal the Heart, and make our cells intersect and collapse."
"Really? How do you know that?"
"Irma and Hay Lin already did it. On a smaller scale, though."
"Oh. So what do I do?"
"Imagine all the earth you can, pouring out of the ground! Then I'll add my fire to it!"
"I...I'm trying! But it's hard to get a hold of!"
"You think it's easy for me? We can do this! We have to!"
"I know! But...!"
"Are you going to let little Miss Queenie of the Universe get the better of you! Ngh!"
"No! 'Specially since she gives
royalty a bad name! Ahhh! There! I've got something" "Keep
at it!"
"It's not easy! It's resisting!"
"So? You're the freaking Guardian of Earth! You can't let a little thing like a prison cell stop you!"
"I know that! Unhhh!"
"Hey! I just thought of
something! What do you get when you put fire and earth
together?" "I, I don't get it!"
"Lava! Which leaves me with just one question?"
"What??"
"Which one of us gets to be Lavagirl?"
"Ah ha ha ha! I, I don't think either one of us has the hair for it!"
"That can be arranged! I'll buy the red hair coloring! It's got to look better than that pink hairdo, right?"
"That's too much! You're okay, Taranee! Hey! I think I've got it! Earth!"
"I am good, aren't I? Mmmm, Fire!"
As the earth and rock rolled out of the ground in waves, fire ignited it. When the resulting magma flowed past Will's infinite cell, the combined energy was absorbed by Will and the Heart.
And that, along with Irma and Hay Lin's thunderstorm-generated lightning, should have been enough to heal the Heart (at least partially), reunite the Aurameres (or at least some of them) and collapse the shards of infinity prison cells.
Should have. But it wasn't.
"More!" Will shouted, both verbally and telepathically in a 'conference call'. "I need more energy!"
"More??" Irma pouted. "How can we do more than we are already?"
"We can't give up now!" pleaded Hay Lin. "Come on!"
"I didn't say I was giving up!" Irma corrected.
"We're all with you, Hay Lin!" added Cornelia.
"Yeah!" said Taranee, joining in.
As Irma's and Hay Lin's thunderstorm grew in intensity, peals of thunder rocked their infinite prison cells and lightning cascaded all over!
Similarly, as Taranee's and Cornelia's moving walls of molten rock surged past in ever-increasing numbers, the sheer force was great enough to knock the cells around!
As her compatriot's combined energy grew in Will and the Heart slowly healed, flaw after flaw disappearing, Will fairly glowed with the pure power of Infinity as lightning crackled around her.
Then a flash, white and blinding! When Cornelia could finally see, she was free of the white room but had to move fast to dodge the still-flowing lava!
"Whoa!" Cornelia yelled. "Guess I'm not lavagirl, after all!"
Then she notices her friend Will. Sitting on the ground. Still crackling with energy.
"Will?" asked Cornelia. "Are you okay?"
Cornelia and the other girls approach Will cautiously.
"Stay back!" Will commanded. "I still have some excess energy to burn off! So...it worked?"
"Yeah!" Taranee exclaimed. "We're all out!"
"Stick with the plan!" Will ordered. "We're not out of the woods yet! She'll be back, and we still have to finish reuniting the Aurameres!"
The plan, developed by Taranee and communicated telepathically to the other girls, was simplicity itself. They only had to combine their elemental powers in new and untested ways. All while defeating a Queen who had total control of Infinity.
No problem!
As if!
Actually, it was easier than it sounds.
"What is the meaning of this?" commanded the imperious Queen, surveying the desolate scene. Puddles of water and flaming rocks littered the Great Hall. "What are you doing to my realm?"
After Irma and Taranee combined their powers, that is.
"Fire!" yelled Taranee.
"Water!" shouted Irma.
"Ha!" roared the Queen. "I don't even have to do anything! You'll cancel yourself out!"
"Think again, Queen for a second!" said the confident Taranee.
Before the Queen's eyes, the fire and water combined to create steam.
Too late, she realized her predicament! She tried to shift the oncoming steam away from her, but it was like trying to catch a cloud with your hands! The steam flowed around her clumsy attempts at creating holes in space.
She couldn't avoid it!
The steam burned her eyes, nose, mouth, all of her exposed flesh!
Thus impaired, she was vulnerable to Cornelia and Hay Lin's attack!
"Earth!" stated Cornelia.
"Air!" added Hay Lin.
The resulting debris tornado hit the Queen like a freight train, the loose particles of gravel filling her throat, making it difficult for her to breathe!
And all the while, the elemental powers merged, causing the captive Aurameres to erase their slice of infinity bonds and join again with its sister globes. Will's power grew, also.
But while the Queen was down, she was not out.
It would take even more of the Guardians' power to do that!
"Are you ready, Irma?" asked Cornelia.
"I was born ready!" replied Irma. "Hey, you know what? Water and Earth is mud!"
"So are you going to say it, or should I?" asked Corny.
"Say what?" replied Irma.
"You know what! You're dying to say it! So go ahead!" added the Earth Guardian.
"You know me too well!" chuckled the Water Guardian.
As Irma and Cornelia let fly their combined water and earth, Irma does say it.
"Hey Queenie! Here's mud in your eye!"
"Wha?" said a shocked Queen, finally recovering from the Guardians' initial attack in time to see the wall of mud headed her way.
"Noooo!"
Covered with mud from head to toe, her cries stop.
The Guardians don't let up, though. They don't give her a chance to strike back. They can't. The stakes are too high. If they don't stop her now, they could lose themselves, their loved ones, Candracar, and who knows how much more if the Queen isn't content with merely ruling Infinity!
Next up is Taranee and Hay Lin.
"You okay with this, Hay Lin?" asked the concerned Taranee, extending her hand to her skittish friend. "I won't let the fire hurt you!"
"I, I know that, Taranee!" admitted Hay Lin, taking her friend's hand. "I trust you. Let's do it!"
Working together, Taranee builds a fireball in her hand, while Hay Lin stands behind her feeding it air (oxygen) to make the fireball more powerful, Taranee taking pains to ensure that the fire doesn't blow back onto her companion.
When the fireball is half as large as a person, the two Guardians launch it at the muck-covered Queen, while both cry "Firestorm!"
The flaming ball of fire expands, fed as it is by Hay Lin's winds driving it ever onward, and it bakes the mud-drenched monarch like pottery in a kiln!
But it's still not over. Not quite.
Oh, with all the elements combined all their myriad ways, all the (visible) flaws are gone from the Heart, the Aurameres are free and reunited, and even Candracar is reverting to its state of singular infinity.
But the Queen, although immobilized, remains a threat.
And then there's Will, the Keeper of the Heart.
Fairly bursting with the awesome powers of the elements combined, her every movement generating sparks, she hits upon one way to solve all their problems.
"It's said that energy can't be created or destroyed, only transformed." commented Will. "Time to put that theory into practice! Quintessence!"
Will holds the Heart before the mud-baked Queen, it's energies bathing the wannabe royalty in a curtain of pinkish-white light.
When the curtain finally lifts, the onetime Queen of Merefire and almost Queen of Infinity shines almost as brightly as her former self, her facets reflecting the light of Candracar off of her now-jeweled form.
"There! She, she can't hurt anyone now, but she can think about what she did!" Will squeaked. "When the, the Oracle figures she's reformed, or has somewhere safe to put her, he can transform her back! I..!"
Spent of her excess energies, Will collapses to the floor.
"Will!" yelled Cornelia. "Are you alright?"
"Sure, Cornelia!" replied Will, kneeling on the floor. "Stuff like this just takes a lot out of a girl! That's all! What else could it be?"
"She thinks you...uh" started Taranee, who then noticed the 'don't you dare' look Cornelia shot her. "Nothing. Never mind. It's not important."
"O-kaaay!" Will said, slightly puzzled by her friends' weird behavior. But she chalks it up to her friends' ultra-concern for well-being and then dismisses the thought.
"Grandma!" Hay Lin shouted in joy as she ran to the arms of her grandmother, Yan Lin, who was now free. "You're okay!"
"Of course, little one! You know what I say - if you're okay, I'm okay!" joshed Yan Lin. "So, are you okay?"
"I am now!" answered Hay Lin, hugging Yan Lin.
" 'I'm OK if you're OK'! Such a parent thing to say!" cracked Irma. "Like, um, what's that other one? 'Everyday is kids day'! Ha! If only that was true!"
"You never stop, do you?" commented Cornelia.
"You'd hate it if I did!" jibed Irma. "Come on, admit it!"
"Never!" replied the smiling Cornelia Hale.
"You have done well, Guardians!" announced the majestic Oracle as he strode into the room. "My faith in you remains unwavering!"
"Thank you, sir!" replied Will. "But I don't understand! How did the Queen get so powerful and escape, right from under your nose?"
"She should not have been able to. She must have had help." responded the Oracle.
"Are you saying there's a traitor on Candracar?" asked a shocked Taranee.
"I am saying no such thing!" the Oracle replied in a calm, controlled and yet very forceful voice. "As you know, Taranee, some things are hidden from even such as I."
"But you will try to find out what happened and let us know, won't you?" requested Will.
"Of course, Guardian!" answered the Oracle. "We will make it our highest priority!"
With that reassurance, and a few more goodbyes, the Guardians folded back to Earth.
Some time later, the Candracan Guards inspect the last of the prison cells in the Crystal Keep.
All of the cells were found whole and undamaged, their occupants still residing in them.
And then they came upon the very last cell, a tiny prison for the tiniest prisoner of Candracar.
It was empty.
"Sound the alarm!" roared the guard. "The Empress Bug has escaped!"
Epilogue: Deep within the jeweled center of the Heart of Candracar, unseen by human and immortal eyes alike, a series of tiny, black spots form.
Next in our series of sequels to W.I.T.C.H. Adventures:
The Empress Of The World!
Wherein the Guardians…lose!
Miss it not!
Notes
The origin of the Queen - She was a sorceress with a touch of magic. Her small magic unlocked a greater magic. She spun a vortex of unnatural magic that the former Guardians couldn't cross, and that warped a piece of time and space into a tiny, separate loop. Separated from the rest of Infinity.
In W.I.T.C.H. Adventures Heartbreak Island, the Queen used an eerie, sickly green combination of water and fire, called Merefire. It's obvious she's learned some different tricks since that time. It could be that she wanted to be captured and sent to prison on Candracar, although this is just speculation.
The Queen uses the ice cream thing to distract/confuse the guards. It has no otherwise practical purpose, and isn't connected to her magic.
The Tower of Mists seemed to be more of a 'Meridian' prison, so I created the Crystal Keep as a place Candracar would keep the baddies the Guardians bring in from other worlds.
'Split' Infinity looks like Olympus from the Wonder Woman comics.
The Guardians (minus Will) fought the Kaithim in the Season 1 episode "The Battle of Meridian Plains".
The concepts of separate infinities and mobius strips were introduced in W.I.T.C.H. Adventures Heartbreak Island.
When Luba fused four of the Aurameres together (including the Auramere that powers the Heart), an energy creature called an Altermere was created. When all five were fused, Nerissa woke up. Therefore, I theorize it's bad news if the Aurameres are combined, but ONLY IF said combination includes the Auramere for the Heart. So the Guardians hesitate to combine their powers with Will's (what would earth and lightning/energy be anyway? Or energy and water?). It didn't make any sense to combine the four elements with Will's power.
There's a small amount of soil and dirt in Candracar (as seen in the comic, they have a few decorative plants) that Cornelia used to make her mud wall with Irma.
I don't know if the comic ever had a fight in Candracar (I only have the graphic novels), but it's a weird coincidence that a week after I wrote this story, the TV show featured a fight in Candracar.
The Oracle calls Taranee by name (and he never calls the Guardians by their name, not even the Keeper of the Heart), because he respects her.
This story is the first in a 4-part series called More W.I.T.C.H. Adventures. Each tale brings back the antagonist from the W.I.T.C.H. Adventures book series (When Lightning Strikes, Heartbreak Island, Stolen Spring and The Cruel Empress). That's right - the Empress, Danny Nova and even the Worm are all coming back, but not in the way you expect. They've all changed a bit due to their encounters with the Guardians. Let's just say, W.I.T.C.H. is in for very tough times ahead! If you thought the Queen was something else, wait till you see what the Empress has planned, not just for the Guardians, but for Heatherfield! And more on the Guardians' powers! The girls are only beginning to learn what they can do.
What about the fifth and unpublished Irma-centered tale "Enchanted Music"? I throw that in, too. But just a cameo.
I wrote this story before I read W.I.T.C.H. comic #22. By an amazing coincidence, events in that issue dovetail with what I'm doing here and are going to prove important later.
If I was writing the W.I.T.C.H. comic, these are the types of stories I would do. More like superhero comics - more action, more science fiction.