Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. This is a work of fan fiction.
Season Three Episode Three: "Elyon: Unite!" Chapter One
Varthan. The palace of Queen Neera. Susan Vandom awoke to find herself in a small dark prison cell. Tom and Dean lay on the floor beside her, still unconscious but apparently uninjured. She looked to the front of the cell. The bars keeping them in were made not of metal, but some kind of energy. She understood that they must have been captured by someone Will and the other girls were fighting against. "Strange," she thought, "that it happened so soon after I found out about this." She turned her attention to rousing the others.
Will held up the heart. "Guardians Unite!" The heart hovered above Will's hand. Orbs of light emerged from it, each a different color, and each moved toward one of the Guardians. Just before her orb enveloped her, Will saw something different. Along with the five usual orbs, a sixth, bright white in color, had also emerged and headed straight for Elyon.
Aldarn, Miriabelle, and Caleb watched in shock as the white orb surrounded Elyon and lifted into the air. They all shouted her name, fearing what might be happening. Caleb turned to Yan Lin. "What is this? What is the heart doing to her?"
For the first time since he had met her, Caleb saw a mystified expression on Yan-Lin's face. "I… don't know." she admitted.
Within the white orb, Elyon felt a sense of peace greater than any she had ever felt. She realized her powers were growing. They were still quite weak compared to what she had at full power, but she was now stronger than she had been since before Nerissia.
All at once, the orbs vanished, revealing the powered-up Guardians. Each called out her element, before hearing a shocked Elyon say "Whoa!" They turned to look. Elyon was floating above the floor at the same height as the other girls. She looked older. She had wings. She was dressed as a Guardian, pink top with blue dress bottom. "That… was so… COOL!" she exclaimed.
As they drifted down to the floor Cornelia came over to Elyon. "What happened? Will, Yan Lin, what happened to her!"
"I think it's rather obvious what happened," Yan Lin said, "though I have no idea why or how it happened."
"It looks like we've got another question for the Oracle." Taranee said.
Kandrakar. A fold opened and the Guardians, all six now, emerged. Caleb and Elyon's adopted parents had insisted on coming along as well. The Oracle was waiting for them, along with Luba and Halinoor. "Welcome Guardians of the Infinite Worlds!" he said. "I assume you have come in response to Queen Elyon's change."
Elyon stepped forward. "That's a part of why we're here, yes. But it needs to wait. Will's mother and Irma's father have been kidnapped by someone!"
The Oracle was surprised. "This cannot be. For safety, we monitor your families at all times." He waved a hand and a set of images appeared in the air, one of each family member. "These are current images." Sure enough, the images of Susan and Tom showed them going about their normal lives.
"This isn't right." Will said. She held up the heart. It flashed, and the two images changed to show the truth; a damaged apartment and a home with bullet holes in the walls and police walking around.
"A mobius spell." Halinoor said. "Someone created the magical equivalent of a looped tape and broadcast it at us. We would never have noticed unless one of us happened to be looking at the exact moment the loop reset and started again."
"Yes." the Oracle agreed. "The list of entities powerful enough to do this to us is very short. Give me a few moments to meditate. I will uncover our adversary." With that, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate.
Aljax bowed before Neera, his soldiers lined up behind him also bowing. "Phase three complete." he said. "The hostages are held in the dungeon below."
"Very good." Neera replied. "Now, we must consider phase four. But first, I am hungry…" She snatched a soldier from behind Aljax. He screamed as she began to consume him.
"While the Oracle is meditating," Luba said, "perhaps we should go ahead and get other explanations out of the way."
"You mean what's happened to Elyon." Aldarn said.
Luba nodded. "It's really quite simple. As you know, just as this crystal" -she pointed at the Heart- "is the Heart of Kandrakar, so Elyon is the Heart of Meridian. When the Heart of Kandrakar was used in the presence of a power-depleted Elyon, it resonated with the loss within her. The Heart always maintains an ample supply of reserve energy, and it chose to use a tiny bit of it's reserves to amplify the tiny bit of power left with the Queen."
" Of course," Halinoor added, "it couldn't bring you back to full power, but from now on when the Guardians are powered up, you will be as well, to about the same level of power they possess."
Irma pointed to Elyon's wings. "And it gave her wings and a Guardian suit because?"
Luba shrugged. "That's just what the Heart does."
"I don't like this." Caleb said. "The queen has no business going into battle! She should stay where it's safe!"
"I agree" Miriabelle said. "You should be finding a way to get her full powers back to her." Cornelia nodded in agreement.
"Elyon's full powers will return eventually." Halinoor said. "We are looking for a way to constrain Nerissia outside of the crystal, though so far it doesn't look promising. But even if we never work out an alternative, well… Nerissia is mortal. She will die sooner or later. And given how much of her life force she expended using her powers, I doubt it'll be too terribly long. Five or six years, tops."
"Five or six YEARS?" demanded an angry Cornelia. "The Oracle promised something better for Elyon. He-" Elyon cut off her friend's building rage.
"Cornelia," Elyon said. "This IS better! I'll have my whole life to be the queen. My whole life to be the Heart of Meridian. But now, now I can be an almost normal kid for a while! I can go to school, hang out with you guys, be a part of doing something good! Don't get angry on my account, 'cause I couldn't be happier."
Before anything more could be said, the Oracle came out of his trance with a sudden gasp. Everyone gathered around him. "What have you learned?" Luba asked.
"Neera." he replied. "Our new enemy is Queen Neera." Halinoor and Luba gasped in fear.
"That fearful gasp can't be good news." Will said.
"No it isn't. For as Elyon is the Heart of Meridian, so Neera is the Dark Heart of Varthan. She is a force not to be trifled with. And she has set her sights on your loved ones."