W.I.T.C.H. Family Secrets Unveiled – Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H.
NB! This chapter has a fair share of references to comic issues, numbered in the text with specific issue number or clarification at the very bottom of the page.
"I know when you aren't telling me the truth."
Susan crossed her arms and gave Will the kind of displeased look only a parent could muster. She hadn't looked this mad since Will's early teenage years, when her double life had landed her in a fair amount of trouble. Nevertheless, her mom's words rang true, at least to a certain degree. Will hadn't exactly lied, though she had deliberately avoided telling the whole truth. The look on Susan's face, however, told her she wouldn't accept anything less, which put Will in a situation she'd hoped to avoid.
"Susan, dear," Dean said, placing his hands on her shoulders, but she pushed them off.
"No, Dean. I want my daughter to be honest with me!" she said angrily.
"I haven't lied," Will tried, but her mom slammed her hands against the door, pinning Will between her and the exit.
"Willhelmina! You have snuck out and done things behind my back, things that I don't know the full ramifications of. For years! And now your brother. What if anything had happened? What should…" Susan was seething with silent anger, and Will was unprepared.
"Mom, please," she pleaded. "If William hears you..."
To her credit, Susan lowered her voice but continued undeterred. "No! I know there's more to this than what you're trying to make it seem like. I remember the fire in the school just after you started. Were you inv…"
"No, that was Uriah and his gang playing with fireworks. Just ask Ms. Knickerbocker."
"You said Irma accidentally turned that guy into a toad and that he was declared missing a couple of days before he turned up again. That's all well and good, but I remember clearly that someone else also disappeared around the same time. You and your friends were questioned by the police about that Brown girl, Elyon. She and her entire family disappeared and haven't been seen since (1). Did you and your friends have anything to do with that? And what's this nonsense about magic not being a package deal, when you more or less spelled out the opposite when describing your and your friends' powers! If you didn't lie, then Dean was right when he said your friends' powers align with the Greek elements. That sounds far less random than becoming invisible if it rains on a Thursday! Shall I continue?"
Will swallowed and became silent. Her mom was really scary when she was angry; even Dean had taken a step back. She hadn't planned to spill her and her friends' biggest secret tonight, she had meant to tell her family just enough to satisfy them. That plan had gone down the drain. Looking into Susan's eyes, Will was reminded how she had always feared what her mom's reaction would be if she found out about her magic. But if her mom found out and things stopped there, random magical powers without obligations, Susan would probably be content, especially if she felt that, as an adult, she could control what Will did or didn't do.
Will lowered her gaze to the floor.
What Will truly dreaded was telling her mom about her other self, the part that set her and her friends apart from anything else on Earth... or the universe, for that matter. The one thing that might not make her mom angry, but scared.
She looked back into her mom's eyes and saw another emotion, hurt. But how would a normal human, with no prior knowledge of the full scope universe and its true nature, react?
Will took a deep breath and gave her mother a smile that put her back in control. She straightened up, took a step backward, and phased through the door. "I'll give you a choice," she said with no small amount of theatrical drama. "Open the door and follow me, and I'll tell you everything. But be prepared, the things you'll learn lie far beyond human knowledge. To understand the truth, you'll need to expand your mind."
Will was nearly through the door when she added, "If you choose not to follow, you could continue with your life the way you've come to understand it, just with the tiny exception that a limited amount of magic does exist on Earth."
Susan took a step back as Will vanished like a ghost through the closed door.
"What do you think she meant by that?" Dean asked, giving her a sympathetic look.
"Will has withheld something important from me, for years. I have to know why," she said, still angry, and reached for the door handle before turning around. "Will you come with me?"
Dean gave her a smile and nodded. "Always."
Susan opened the door.
The outside wasn't what she expected. Gone was the familiar, bleak, modular staircase of their apartment building. In its place was a grand staircase made of seemingly white marble that spiraled in both directions, broken up by wide landings. It was beautiful in an otherworldly way Susan didn't understand until she looked over the railing, there was no bottom, just stairs upon stairs. In the other direction, the stairs continued, ending in a bright light far above. Will's silhouette was visible several flights higher. How she had reached so far up so quickly wasn't something Susan even questioned. Will waved down to them and continued walking upward.
"How much further up do you think the stairs go?" Dean asked, nearly out of breath as he leaned against the wall ten minutes later. They had walked far higher than the apartment building would suggest, but neither of them believed they were still in the same building. Will was still ahead but walking slowly enough to keep a fixed distance between them.
"I don't know, but I don't plan to stop before I get my answers. Sooner or later, she'll stop. I hope." Susan breathed heavily, just a tad less exhausted than her husband. "Though I have to confess, I'm curious about where we are. I wish there were windows so we could look outside."
The stairs continued to spiral upward, and Susan found her breath growing shorter, not just from the climb, but from the questions piling in her chest. How had she missed it all? The secrecy. The strange behavior she'd mistaken for teenage rebellion. The spark in Will's eyes after she returned from seeing her friends, that couldn't be explained by shopping trips or boy talk. With each step, it wasn't just her legs that ached; it was the realization that her daughter had lived a second life beyond her reach. One she was never a part of.
When the stairs suddenly ended many flights later, Susan and Dean were nearly on their knees, gasping for air.
"If I had to walk this many stairs to work each morning, I'd quit on the spot!" Dean gasped. "I hope there's an elevator for the way down. At least the air feels fresh."
"I don't see anyone," Susan said, looking around. "But then again, I didn't see the top last time we looked up, either. This can't be natural."
The stairs ended on a marble floor that stretched out indefinitely forward. Fortunately, on the wall nearby was a tall, white door left slightly ajar.
"Nothing we've seen today is natural. And I really hope that door doesn't lead to a broom closet, I'm not eager to find out how far this floor stretches," Dean said.
They opened the door and were met by a grand room with high vaulted ceilings and columns stretching into the roof. The colors of the ceiling, walls, and floor were all in various shades of pastel blue and white, and scattered around were objects of both familiar and foreign design. Golden globes showed planets with unfamiliar continents; books of every shape and color lay on tables; astrolabes of brass, pictures, and various equipment from the past and the future adorned the space. Surprisingly enough, Will's old bicycle was also there! There was also the picture of Will and her friends dressed up for the Halloween party at the school right after she had been transferred to Heatherfield. It was such a lovely picture of smiling friends.
After the monotonous walk where Susan could focus all her thoughts on getting a clear answer from Will, this room upset it all and added confusion to it. Where had all of this come from? And at the other end, not too far off with a balcony behind her, sat Will at a wide mahogany desk and silently watching them. Was she anticipating their reaction?
Susan, with Dean on her heels, entered and walked slowly toward Will, their gazes lingering on the marvels on display. "What's all this?" Susan asked, still feeling upset but unable to hide her amazement as she examined a huge globe made of brass with a couple of moons circling it. Her anger was quickly dissolving into bewilderment. "This can't be Earth. The continents are all wrong, and it has several moons."
"That's Metamoor (2), a planet in a solar system far, far away. The place is medieval in appearance, but they produce some excellent math teachers, better than the ones we've got here on Earth!" Will replied cheerfully from across the room. "I've often wondered where people who willingly become math teachers actually come from."
"Do you mean Horseberg?" Dean chuckled (3). "Hey, you've got a picture of Ms. Rudolph here, why does it…"
"Tilt the picture, Dean!" Will said.
Dean did, and let out a yelp when the photo of Sheffield's previous math teacher transformed into an alien-looking dinosaur. "What the heck is that?!" he shouted, drawing Susan's attention.
"Galgheita, or Ms. Rudolph, as you knew her, was a refugee from Metamoor. She came to Earth with Elyon Brown to hide her from her evil brother, Phobos. Galgheita is a galhot, one of Metamoor's original inhabitants."
"Wait, wait, stop!" Dean exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "This is too much. You mean to tell me my colleague was an alien? And Elyon too? Where are they now? And how do you know all this?"
Dean wasn't alone in having his world view rewritten. Susan had come to expect that she had a lot to learn about her daughter, but that she also had to rethink everything she thought she knew about the universe, that was a shock she hadn't imagined. It was so utterly alien that it would take days or weeks to digest the information and sort it out.
Despite the distance, Susan could not miss the incredibly wide grin spreading across Will's face. She leaned back in her ornamented chair, clearly enjoying the moment. They could now see she had changed her clothes, Will now wore a fuchsia and teal colored outfit, and from her back sprouted a pair of large wings, nearly identical to William's.
"First, yes, you worked with aliens, and yes, they're better teachers than Mr. Horseberg. Second, Elyon is an Escanor, a human-descended race. Whether you count her as alien depends on your point of view. Elyon, her adoptive parents, and Galgheita are now safely back in Meridian (4), on Metamoor, where they belong. As for how I know it… I have been there of course, on multiple occasions!" Will exclaimed eagerly and threw out her hands as if to show them something invisible.
"Impossible!" Susan said, though even she didn't sound entirely convinced. "If that's on another planet, somewhere else in the universe, how in the world do you travel there?"
Suddenly, and completely without warning, Will stood directly before them in a flash of light. Tall and radiant, with an otherworldly glow amplified by her mirthful grin and flashing wings, she looked almost ethereal. Susan and Dean stepped back in surprise. Neither could find words as they stared at the woman before them who wore a smile as bright as the sun.
"I'm unbound by space and the boundaries of our universe. At will, I can go anywhere I want, or anywhere I'm called, inside or outside the universe or the dimensions within (5)."
Susan blinked. "That's… not possible. That's science fiction."
Will smiled gently. "It's also my Tuesday mornings, or Friday evenings. Kandrakar sends us where we're needed, and…"
"Kandrakar?" Dean asked. "Who is that?"
"It's not a who, it's a place," Will said. "You see, I have this extra job where I, along with Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin, am responsible for maintaining the balance between worlds, and between the people and forces within them. Each of us has enormous power over our elements, and more. But combined together, our true strength is limited only by our imagination, morality, and friendship."
Susan and Dean's jaws hung open, nearing their physical limits.
Will continued, unfazed by their stupor, lost in her own narrative. "Everything you see around you, these artifacts, are memories. Tokens from places and people we've seen and met. Each of us is a Sovereign over an elemental force of the universe, and we also possess a wide array of other powers. Outside time and space lies Kandrakar, a fortress at the center of infinity. It's inhabited by the oldest and wisest from all worlds. And we, my friends and I, are its Guardians."
"When a world is in danger or needs guidance, the Council of Elders is consulted. If direct intervention is necessary, we're sent to help. The five of us have probably seen more worlds than all of Hollywood's productions combined! But not every problem is world-shattering. Sometimes we solve the small ones too. We even take our own little adventures."
She pulled a red book from her desk and opened it to a page showing a red dragon. "This is a Flying Dragon from the Rammarekar Mountains (6). I don't even know which world that's in. One day, while walking to Olsen's Pet Shop, I stumbled across a baby dragon in Heatherfield Park. They're incredibly rare and travel between worlds to safely lay their eggs. This one had hatched and gotten lost, so I brought it home until we figured out what to do with him. We all took turns caring for it. And Mom, when you came to kiss me goodnight you never noticed him hiding under my blanket. I wonder what you would've said if you'd accidentally pulled it off."
A strange, gurgling sound escaped Susan's throat, her jaw had already dropped so far that it couldn't open any wider. Finally, Will noticed how utterly dumbfounded she was.
"How much had she missed?"
"Woops, sorry, I guess it is a lot to take in." Will said, gave a sheepish smile and gently closed the red book. A wave of melancholy washed over her face as she realized her enthusiasm had overwhelmed them. "Maybe I should take this a little slower."
Dean adjusted his jaw with effort. "Yes, please. That would be nice. But if you'll allow me to ask, where are we, exactly?"
"This…" Will gestured with one hand, "…is no particular place. I altered the reality (7) of our stairwell and the top of our building to create an imitation of what I imagine my office in Kandrakar would look like, if I had one. If I cancel it, we'll probably be in someone's attic."
"An illusion, then?" Dean asked.
"No, not quite. This place is real enough not to disappear until I decide it should. And anyone who walks in or out of this apartment will find themselves here. Maybe I shouldn't have made it so flashy..." Will muttered with a sheepish look.
"By the way, be warned! William can do this too, and he's really good at it. You should've seen his first day in kindergarten," Will added with a helpless grin. "He conjured an entire zoo (8), complete with an elephant that tried to eat the ceiling tiles. I had to dispel it all while distracting the poor managers from discovering it."
"Alright…" Susan sighed and looked around the surreal chamber before settling her gaze on Will. "But why didn't you tell us this during dinner? You've already kept a huge part of your life a secret from me, why hide the rest?"
Will took a deep breath. "Mom, first of all, how do you think you would've reacted if you'd learned that my friends and I traveled across the universe to fight dangerous threats when we were barely teenagers?"
Susan's expression darkened. "How bad was it?"
"Despite our appearances, we are not fairies. And our adventures rarely feel like fairy tales when we're in them. People have died, some by our hands (9), others by the forces we couldn't stop. We've seen more of life than most people twice our age. By the time we graduated from Sheffield, we had already witnessed birth, death, and the consequences of bad choices. I can tell you some things, but I won't tell you everything."
"Alright," Susan said softly. "And what's your other reason?"
Will looked down, then met her eyes again. "My second reason… I'm a Guardian and a Sovereign. Together with my best friends in the world, we're stronger and more powerful than almost anything in existence (10). I don't want William to feel jealous of that, or scared. Young children often want to emulate their older siblings before they develop a sense of self. I can't take him with me where I go. And maybe I never will. But if he learns too early what I can do, he might form unrealistic expectations about himself. William needs time to grow, and to find his own limits and abilities in his own way. Do you understand?"
Susan and Dean exchanged a look before Susan nodded slowly. "I see it now," she said. "Especially why you don't want to let William in on everything just yet. That was… thoughtful of you. But Dean and I are adults. I think we deserve to know the whole truth. Please? As your mother, I thought I knew you. I thought I knew everything about you. And now I see… I didn't even know the half of it."
Will stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her mother. "You knew the part that matters, that I love you" she whispered. "That part that shaped everything else."
Susan didn't answer. She only held on, just a little tighter than she needed to.
"Alright," Will said gently. "I'll tell you the story, but not everything. Some things are only between us girls. Not just as Guardians, but as friends. But before I start, I should probably return the stairs to normal. Otherwise, I think the residential appraisers might have a heart attack."
So... what do you think of this chapter? I have only planned for one more and I hope you will stay tuned until next time.
1. Unlike the cartoons, in the comic, Elyon never goes back to school.
2. In some language adaptations, Meridian is the name of the planet and the capital city, but Metamoor is the true name of the planet.
3. Dean and Horseberg have rivalry, occasionally explored further in the novellas.
4. Issue 23
5. Once again, the W.I.T.C.H. lore is broader in the comic version than in the two TV seasons.
6. Issue 124
7. Both Will and Cornelia display the ability to alter reality on a few occasions.
8. Issue 98
9. The girls kill Nerissa in issue 22. By that time they are 14 and 15 years old in the comic. Also, because their astral drops eventually develop independent identities, the girls have, for all intents and purposes, created new life using their powers.
10. Issue 139