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

Season Three Episode Nine: "Xanatos" Chapter Five

Sandra was grounded. No leaving home except for school for two weeks. Her home punishment for the fight she tried to start with Miranda. At any rate, it didn't matter. When Judas showed up outside, she snuck out through her bedroom window and joined him.

"Judas mi amore!" she exclaimed.

"Cut the fake accent. It bugs me."

"Oh alright. Though I sound so awesome using it."

"What you wanna do?"

"I don't care. Let's find Uriah, Bess, and Charlotte and just see what happens."

"Sounds good to me."

Meridian. Dean was walking about taking in the sights of Elyon's palace when a fold opened next to him. Before he could react, Blunk popped out. "Oh!" Blunk said. "You Guardian teacher man right? We meet at Will's home before?"

"That's me. Why are you here? Looking for Will or Elyon?"

"Either one good. Blunk have good news for them."

"Well, they're both with Susan and the other women, working on wedding plans."

"Wedding plans? You marry Guardian mother? Happy days indeed. Please excuse Blunk, need to find girls now."

Dean pointed towards the main castle. "They went that way. Listen, before you go looking for them, I don't suppose you could get me back to earth? There's nothing for me to do here, and a wedding-planning party is likely to last for hours." Blunk obliged, opening a fold to the school. After Dean was gone, he went looking for the girls.

Women young and old were gathered on the high balcony of Elyon's private living quarters. Royal maidservants bought forth a wide variety of fine wedding gowns, and the finest tailors were sent for. Through it all, Susan held Will close, amazed at her daughter's love and kindness in helping arrange all this for her.

Then everyone noticed the smell. "There's a passling close by." one of the servants said. "But one that doesn't quite smell as bad as normal."

Everyone knew what that had to mean, and soon enough Blunk appeared, jumping over the outer railing. "Blunk, did you climb the outside wall?" Elyon asked.

"Yes. Mean guards not let Blunk in from inside. Blunk have good news for Queen and Guardian! Had to see you."

"Well, no harm is done. What did you need?"

"Blunk want invite friends to new home. Blunk proud to have-" at this point, he noticed a certain someone in the group. "Aaah! Miranda!" he screamed, and leapt behind a large vase.

Will and Elyon ran over to the vase. "Blunk it's okay!" Will said.

"She's not a threat Blunk. She's a friend now." Elyon added.

Blunk peaked out from behind the vase. Eyed Miranda warily. "No eat Blunk? No eat Mama?"

Miranda walked over and knelt down. "I'm not gonna eat anyone. Truth is, I never would have anyway. It was just a very effective threat to scare you into giving me what I wanted."

"Is true?"

"What was that human expression?" Miranda thought… "Oh, that's right." She said, "Cross my heart."

"Well… Okay. Blunk take chance." He slowly slipped out from behind the vase and joined the girls, telling them about his new home.

Varthan. Aljax bowed before his Queen. He had a plan, an idea just crazy enough to work. He hoped that Neera would also find merit in it. "Rise and speak faithful servant." she said.

"I have a plan my Queen. It occurred to me that if there were some great threat to the entire city of Heatherfield, then all of the Guardian's loved ones would be under threat. We could have soldiers with portable scanners scattered throughout the city, and gain massive amounts of data all at once."

"This is flawed Aljax." Garix said. "The attack would be made with the intent of endangering the families. Therefore any harm to them unawares would violate our rules and destroy us."

"If we were the ones attacking, yes. But that is not what I propose, my Prince."

Neera looked at Aljax with interest. "I am intrigued. What do you intend?"

"Loopholes, my Queen. We were able to safely trick two human thugs into attacking Theresa Cook by exploiting the loophole that they didn't technically work for you. We riled them up and let them do their own thing. Perhaps we could do the same thing on a larger scale. There are any number of powerful entities sleeping dormant on earth. All we need to do is wake one up, point it in the right direction, and get out of it's way."

Garix laughed. "I like this Aljax. I like this very much."

Neera said, "As do I. In order for this to work, though, the entity we select must be of an extreme power level. What we need is something frightfully powerful, something primordially dreadful… Something…" The Dark Queen cackled softly under her breath as an idea came to her. "Something… …eldritch…"