Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. This is a work of fan fiction.

Season Three Episode One: "Suspicions" Chapter One

"Will?" Susan shouted for her daughter yet again. Where could she be? For that matter where was Susan herself? She looked all around yet saw only darkness and dense mist. "WILL!" She shouted, "Will! Where are you!"

A sound from the distance caught her ear. It sounded like Will's laugh. Panicked by the strangeness of the situation, fearing for Will's safety, Susan ran as fast as she could towards the sound. She arrived sooner than she expected. A high chain-link fence stood before her. Just to the other side were Will, her boyfriend Matt, and all of their friends.

Susan let out a sigh. Pent-up fears ebbed. Then she saw what they were doing. The teens were all sitting in a circle, and they were passing a smoking pipe between themselves. Susan couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had raised Will better than this! She began to shout, but they didn't seem to hear her. She shouted louder and louder, begging Will to stop, but got no answer. Soon Susan collapsed, tears filling her eyes.

Movement. Someone was standing over her. She looked up, blinking away the tears to see Will. "What's wrong Mother?" The girl sneered. "Don't like what my new friends have made of me?"

The buzzing of her morning alarm bought Susan out of the nightmare before she could wake up screaming. Again. The exact same dream eight nights in a row. Susan had never experienced dreams with real-world meaning, in fact didn't even believe in such things. Yet as she showered and dressed for work, she began to wonder… She couldn't believe Will would ever use drugs, no matter how bad the peer pressure might get. And besides that, her friends didn't seem the type either.

And yet… Something had been going on since they moved to Heatherfield. Will kept quiet more, got in trouble more, cut school and missed curfew. What was going on? An idea occurred to Susan. She went down the hall and into Will's bedroom. In the middle desk drawer sat Will's diary. A little peek couldn't hurt, right?

"No." Susan whispered. "This is last resort. I won't invade her private thoughts unless nothing else will work." She closed the drawer and headed to work.

From across the infinite dimensions, Aljax watched Susan. They were so close. The dreams implanted by the mindquavers were working. Soon, soon the Guardian leader's mother, spurred on by fears for her daughter's life, would take actions which would lead, inexorably, to her discovering the truth. And then she would be fair game.

Sheffield Institute. Lunch hour. The large cafeteria resounded with conversation and laughter. Seated at their usual table were the five guardians and Matt across from Will. "How's your Mom Will?" He asked.

"She didn't wake up screaming this time, but I was listening outside her door when the alarm went off. She had been struggling and murmuring in her sleep."

"Murmuring?", Taranee asked. "About what?"

"I couldn't make it out," Will said. "It's too bad your telepathy only works between the five of us. One sleepover's all we'd need to find out what's been bugging her if you could hear other people too."

"Will, as much as I wanna help your mother I'm glad I don't hear everyone's thoughts. Something tells me I'd know a lot more than I wanna know. Look, why don't you just ask her?"

"Uh-uh. No way. I can hear her now. 'I'll tell you about my dreams if you tell me about your day.'" Will said. "And I can't just lie. Trust me, she'd know."

Irma grinned. "I can see how well that'd go over. 'Gee Mom, today I went to another planet and fought evil as a winged pixie.'"

Everyone laughed but Will. "C'mon Irma this is serious."

Irma's disposition softened a bit. "Sorry Will. I know you're really worried about her. But, maybe there's nothing to do. It could just be a bad dream. I've had a few whoppers that repeated on me over and over. Mostly involving Martin. They passed on their own after a week or so."

"Maybe." Will said. She didn't seem convinced.

Meridian. Elyon's palace. Caleb, Blunk, and Raythor stood by, watching as their young queen rose into the air. In the aftermath of Phobos' defeat she had seemed powerful and sure. Her flights had been smooth and graceful. Now, it was all she could do to hover a few feet off the ground.

Hovering, Elyon steadied herself and took aim at a large array of wooden targets shaped like Cedric, Phobos, and Nerissia. Spheres of pure white energy formed around each of her fists. The queen closed her eyes. "Light of Meridian!" She exclaimed, and unleashed all the power she could muster toward the targets.

In the same instant she released the energy wave, Elyon felt herself falling. She was saved from a rude landing by Caleb. "Careful." he said.

Raythor knelt down next to them. "Are you alright your majesty?" He asked.

"Blunk was scared for falling queen!" Said the passling.

Elyon managed a slight smile. "I'm okay. How many of them did I get?"

Together, they looked to the targets to assess the damage. The news was not good. At the peak of her powers, before they were stolen by Nerissia, Elyon would have vaporized the entire set without missing a beat. Today, fewer than ten were destroyed, and most of them weren't even damaged. After Nerissia was defeated, one month prior, everyone has assumed the queen's powers would quickly return to her. But now…

"I'm not getting any better." Elyon said. "The tiny bit of power I managed to reabsorb before we escaped the crystal is all I have." Elyon turned to the passling. "Blunk?"

Blunk stepped forward. Proud to serve his queen, he saluted. "Blunk ready. Whatever nice queen asks, Blunk will do!"

"I'm going to Kandrakar to speak with the Oracle. Can you go to earth and bring the girls to meet me there?"

"Yes! Yes! Blunk bring Guardians to Queen and Oracle!" Blunk used his enchanted tonga tooth to open a fold to earth and jumped through…

"AHHHHHHH!" Susan Vandom woke up screaming. The nightmare again. "One more and I'm into double digits." She murmured. Susan glanced at her alarm clock. Three in the morning. Rising from bed, she padded down the hall and into the kitchen, where she brewed a cup of herbal tea. Returning to her room with the hot beverage, she decided to peek in on Will.

The room was empty.

"Okay." She said aloud. "This does it." Susan removed the diary from Will's desk and took it with her. Back in her own bed, she sipped the tea and opened to the entry for the day Will had first met her new friends…