Nerissa

**Nerissa** **Crossnic** is a fictional character from the comic book *W.I.T.C.H.* and the animated series of the same name. She's the primary villain of the Second Arc, Nerissa's Revenge. In the animated series she serves as the primary villain during the second season, and has made several appearances during Season One under her aliases The Mage and Trill. She is the franchise's second most recurring villain.

## Personality

Nerissa is calm and calculating, and she will step on or over anybody in order to further her cause. She even gave birth to a son so that he could overcome her enemies and lay down the foundations for her rise to power. She has an unshakable belief that it is her right to take control of the universe and to reshape it in her own image, and to attain absolute peace across the universe, even if by force.

Nerissa is also a very skilled actress, as she was able to fool everyone, including the Oracle that she was the Mage and Trill without giving away suspicion, until she purposely exposed herself. She was also able to fool Kadma and Will when she was running away from them in order to get Kadma to absorb the Heart of Meridian into the Heart of Zamballa, and fool the Guardians that she did not want them to rescue Yan Lin. It is obvious from that she also has a lot of patience, as she was forced to wait approximately 14 years to get the Heart of Meridian.

In the comic series, Nerissa does not seem to show any feeling of guilt or remorse for what she did to Cassidy and her friends, even going as far as to call her friend Kadma a fool. She shows little feelings towards her Knights of Revenge, keeping them simply for her own use. This can be seen as she ultimately destroyed them by reabsorbing their energy for her own gain. She attacked Kandrakar solely for revenge towards the elders and shows little respect for them, declaring that they cannot stop her.

Despite her moral and ethical flaws, Nerissa, does show signs of remorse. Despite her calm exterior she is prone to fits of emotion (as shown when her son Caleb refused to join with her) and, although she does not show it, Nerissa is consumed by feelings of guilt over Cassidy's death and in one episode when Halinor and Yan Lin say to her "*Are you going to destroy us like you destroyed Cassidy, does her memory mean so little to you?*" Nerissa responds with strong emotion: "*You have no idea what she meant to me*" before screaming "*This is not over*" and fleeing, leaving Yan Lin, Halinor and the Guardians alive even though she could quite easily have destroyed them.

## Powers and Abilities

As the former holder of the Heart of Kandrakar, Nerissa possessed the power of Quintessence, and has all of the same powers as the current Guardian Will, although she is much more experienced in using them, and much more aware of their true potential than her younger counterpart.

Her elemental power/ability is Quintessence (pure life energy), which can bestow life in inanimate objects and electrical appliances. It can also be used like conventional electricity, allowing her to attack an opponent using immensely strong and powerful whitish blue lightning bolts and to form a whitish blue electrical shield and barrier around herself and others that can withstand even the strongest and most powerful of attacks. While it was not clearly displayed, it is assumed that Nerissa has a degree of superhuman strength and durability, much like Will does.

Nerissa can even create new life, as she did in order to create Ember and Tridart. Nerissa's ability to use Quintessence is so advanced that she is able to raise the dead (as seen when she raised the spirit of the former Guardian of Water, Cassidy, which she then bound to the mortal world by using the Heart of Meridian). She is also an illusionist able to change her own appearance and to twist the minds of others to her will. However, because she isn't actually changing the shape of her body, her shadow can still be seen in her true form. This allowed the girls to find out who she was when she transformed into the Oracle and tried to get the Heart from Will in "*I is for Illusion*".

Nerissa also possesses a terrifying ability: she can easily control and manipulate the dreams of others. She displays this ability in the episode "*E is for Enemy*" when she attacks the Guardians in their dreams. She even causes these dreams to manifest in real life, drenching Cornelia with water and taking most of Irma's voice away. When the Guardians faced her in a "mutual dream", they were able to defeat her and create a psychic backlash, which knocked her from the dream plane.

She also seems to possess the power and ability of telekinesis, as during her time as posing as the Mage, she was able to telekinetically levitate the Tonga Tooth that she had taken from Blunk while claiming that there was a spell on it. She has a high knowledge of spells, as she was able to place a spell on Blunk's Tonga Tooth, enabling her to track the folding movements, and knowing spells to control the minds of other (as she did with the other members of C.H.Y.K.N.), and presumably many others whilst posing as the Mage.

Nerissa supplemented her former Guardian powers/abilities by using the Heart of Meridian, which she stole from Elyon, allowing her to teleport freely, even between dimensions, and greatly strengthening and enhancing *all*of her existing powers and abilities to even greater power levels. Later, Nerissa tricks Kadma, the former Guardian of Earth, into merging the Heart of Meridian and the Heart of Zamballa, and takes control of both Hearts, fusing them together to become the Seal of Nerissa. Further strengthening and amplifying *all*of her powers in all respects, and raising her control and manipulation of Quintessence to the power level where she was able to turn Cassidy's spirit into pure flesh and blood. Nerissa later gains control and manipulation over all five elements — Water, Fire, Earth, Air, and Quintessence — when she absorbs her former friends into her Seal.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Nerissa is one of the many villains you will throughout the game. She is quite difficult on the difficulty scale.

## Trivia

* In the books, her outfit was seen to be a long, teal dress, with pink high heels that go just past her ankles. In the TV series, this colour was changed to pink, making her the only one of the series to have no teal parts to her outfit.
* Nerissa's ambitions, goals and actions resemble those of several major marvel comic villains.
	+ Her minions the Knights of Destruction/Four Knights of Revenge, function very similar to Apocalypse's Four Horsemen.
	+ She even manipulates and brainwash individuals into joining her, and dispose of them the moment she has no use for them anymore, like Apocalypse.

* In the Animated series, Nerissa is Bisexual. Greg Weisman (season 2 producer) revealed at CONvergence that Nerissa and Cassidy were lovers, and later in a Q&A he revealed that CHYKN likely knew this, but they did keep it secret, and that they were dating when Nerissa killed Cassidy. There is certainly no evidence of this in the comics, however, in the episode K is for Knowledge when Yan Lin asked Nerissa if Cassidy's memory meant so little to her, Nerissa replied, "You have no idea what she meant to me." This statement could imply they had a relationship, but further evidence is nowhere to be found, not even in the episode M is for Mercy when Nerissa attempts to bring Cassidy to the dark side by showing her what she has missed on Earth since her passing. Whether or not Greg was kidding (this is would have been a very mature concept for an animated children's program at the time) is currently unknown.  It may have potentially been explored in the canceled Season 3.