A/N: This is a relatively short chapter, I guess, but I haven't touched this fic in almost a year, so I figured I should post what I have and what I added today. I also intend to upload this to . People have been reviewing begging for updates…


She was cold, even huddled in the blankets. Timmy kept apologizing all over himself, but Chloe had ceased to hear it. Bloody rain lashed the windows and she couldn't avert her gaze. Cosmo was trying to change the subject, but was ineffective without Wanda. Chloe missed Wanda too, but she wouldn't be selfish enough to call her back. If Wanda wanted to hang out with Tootie, then that was her prerogative.

She could tell Tootie what had prompted her to receive her godparents, but she wasn't sure Tootie cared. She glanced up when Timmy said Tootie's name, albeit riddled with curses and her lips twitched.

"Man, Wanda would wash your mouth out after saying that," Cosmo remarked, sounding impressed. "Maybe I should do something too…"

"You don't have to," Timmy replied. "You're the cool fairy."

"Yay! I'm cool!" Cosmo cheered.

"I bet Tootie takes after Vicky," Timmy snapped and Cosmo stopped cheering. Sobering, he shook his head. Timmy, about to launch himself on another tirade about Tootie, stopped at the grave expression on Cosmo's face. Chloe stared too. It was unusual for Cosmo to look that serious for more than a minute.

"What?" Timmy asked.

"Nothing," Cosmo said quietly. Louder, he said, "So…wanna play some games? Let's play the not-study game!"

"You know something," he accused.

"Nope! Nothing!" Cosmo said and flipped open his head to reveal empty space. Chloe knew it was a visual trick but it gave her the creeps. Everyone had a brain, even if, in Cosmo's case, it was smaller than average. A lot smaller. Timmy frowned, unconvinced.

"I bet if I asked Wanda, she'd tell me."

"No, she wouldn't," Cosmo retorted. That, at least, seemed to be the truth. Timmy glowered.

"I wish you'd tell!"

"I can't!" Cosmo protested and it grew dead silent in the room. Timmy had forgotten Chloe was there. Intent on finding out the answer, he leaned forward, nabbing his godfather out of the air. Chloe slid to the side to avoid being crushed.

"Yes, you can!" he insisted. "Is it suddenly against Da Rules now?"

"Kinda."

"How can something be 'kinda' against Da Rules?" he objected. Chloe slid out of bed and, rubbing her arms, crept toward the door. Timmy was too absorbed in his argument to notice. He'd never been particularly observant. It was amazing that no one had stolen Cosmo and Wanda from him before, considering how on the ball he wasn't.

And she said this knowing that she cared for him. It was just a fact. Timmy wasn't the brightest kid she'd ever met.

Once she reached the stairs, she headed down and toward Tootie's house. Tootie could refuse to see her; chances were she'd like to eviscerate her. Maybe somehow Chloe deserved it. When people hated her, they loathed and appalled her. There were no half measures.

She reached the front door, pulled it open, and stepped outside. Deborvak was floating there and holding up an umbrella.

"Man, this rain is so annoying," he said, as though it were ordinary. "And what are you doing out here on your own, young lady?"

"I wanted to talk to Tootie."

"She doesn't want to talk to you," he said and his expression softened. Despite Tootie's hatred for her, Deborvak had always been sympathetic. She would like to have said that all faeries were good, kind-hearted individuals, but meeting anti-faeries and whomever was responsible for this had proven her wrong. Deborvak shifted into a human child form and, holding the umbrella, walked her in the direction away from Tootie's house. She didn't pivot and race away. Instead she let him call the shots.

"Aren't you supposed to be guarding them?"

"The person will lay low for a while," he replied, shaking his head. "I am keeping an eye on them; I have a magical alarm set up that if they trip, I can shoot back to them."

"You're not like the other faeries," she remarked.

"What tipped you off? The dragon-like wings or the tail?" he teased. He had a way of making her feel at ease and, briefly, she envied Tootie. It wasn't that she wanted Deborvak instead of Cosmo and Wanda. It was just that Tootie must've been able to relax around her godfather. Sometimes, Chloe found it difficult, if not impossible to relax.

"You're not from Fairy World, are you?" she said and then flushed. "Forgive my personal questions. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"It's fine," he said, shrugging. "I'm from a different universe, from a planet known as Tyrocka. I've been living here for a few years now. I had to get away…my foster mother was literally evil. I mean, no holds barred, kill anyone who gets in your way, stereotypically villainous evil."

Chloe mulled that over. There was something he wasn't telling her, like he had said all of that to forestall any questions. To boot, he had said it rather fast, almost as if it were rehearsed. Yet she sensed no nervousness from him, just that weird calming aura.

"Did she hurt you?"

"Yes," he said in a way that ought to have closed the subject. His gaze wouldn't meet hers and they were, she saw after a moment, headed for the park again. She dug her heels in and stopped. After a moment, he stopped too and changed direction. Perhaps he hadn't even been thinking about it.

"I'm sorry for my goddaughter's behavior. I'm sure she would understand if you told her what happened."

She shook her head. A large lump had formed in her throat and she swallowed against it. Hugging herself, still cold, she blinked when Deborvak conjured up a warm fleece jacket. His expression was sad and tugged at her heart.

"I lost my biological mother a few years back. Technically, I'm an orphan, but I never considered my father much of a father. My mother, she was killed too. I know where you're coming from. I'm not trying to stir up old memories. But if you want to talk about it, ever…you can just call me."

She shook her head again and managed, "I have Cosmo and Wanda."

"Oh, I know," he said. "And I'm sure they have a lot of experience with grief. After all, Cosmo causes Wanda grief all the time."

She laughed briefly and he smiled.

"I have a daughter with blonde hair too. If it makes you feel any better, she and Tootie don't always get along either."

"Does she hate me so much because of Timmy?" Chloe burst out. "I just want to be friends."

"Up until recently, her existence revolved around Timmy. He saved her from a gruesome fate when she was young and she'd idolized him since. It doesn't help that he's one of the few kids who dares to stand up to Vicky on a regular basis. Every time he enters a room, she lights up.

"She's tried wishing it away, but I'm sure you know the sanction against wishing away love."

Chloe nodded. It wasn't one she'd invoked very often, but she had run up against it once before.

"She'd be livid if she knew we were talking," he said. "She's jealous of you because of Timmy and because of Cosmo and Wanda. She adores Wanda. Wanda's the only one in Fairy World who looked out for her before I came along."

Chloe gnawed her lower lip.

"Don't do that," he chastised gently. "With that chip in your tooth, you're liable to do real damage."

"I feel bad for her, but…I don't want to give up Timmy and Cosmo and Wanda. I'd understand if they wanted to go with her, because I love them and I want them to be happy no matter what. And I know I'm being selfish by keeping them to myself."

"You're a good kid," he said and shook his head. "Things don't always work out like we plan, but sometimes, it's because we can't see the big picture yet. Look, it's stopped raining."

Sure enough, the sky was blue and the sun shone. The sidewalks were dry and there was no trace that it had been raining. If she hadn't known better, she might have thought it all in her imagination.

"Are you going back to Tootie now?"

He shook his head. "I'll wait until she wants me back. I don't want to intrude on her time with Wanda. Wanda gets too little time off as it is."

Chloe glanced back toward Timmy's house. Timmy hadn't wished her back, but then again, he might not have noticed her absence yet. She frowned. Since Deborvak was Tootie's fairy, she couldn't wish for him to return her. However, he seemed to have understood her intentions because he waved his wand and she was gone, back to Timmy arguing with Cosmo. It was like she'd never left.

Then she glanced at the clock. No time had passed. Maybe…maybe she hadn't left. Or maybe Deborvak had arrested time to give her a breather. Weird. She didn't question it, though. His methods were his own. Now, it was time to interrupt the argument before Timmy ruined Tootie's and Wanda's night.


Two days passed before anything else happened. It hadn't been sufficient to have anyone lower their guard, including Cosmo and Timmy. Wanda and Deborvak were vigilant, wary of anyone attacking their godchildren. Deborvak established magical traps all over Dimmsdale for a slip-up and Tootie attempted to sleuth out all fairy godchildren in the area. There weren't as many as she thought, but then again, kids had a way of blabbing about their faeries and losing them.

Tootie wasn't sure what she was expecting. Another dead faerie, maybe? That was so crude. There weren't a lot of faeries around here to fall prey to their suspect, either, whoever he was. She wasn't naïve enough to think that their perpetrator was finished.

What happened next, however, didn't happen on Earth at all. It happened right beneath Jorgen's nose.


He didn't blame his mother for what had happened. It wasn't her fault she'd had to go to ground and conceal herself, lest she end up in prison or worse. He also didn't blame his father, who might have gone insane with Fairy World's restrictions upon him. No, he blamed the corrupt system that had necessitated it. He blamed the Fairy Council, the judge, the jury of her so-called peers, and her family for repudiating her. Technically, they were his family too, but he didn't consider them that. They had, after all, disowned her. They wouldn't have wanted him either.

He didn't know where his half-sister had gone. In fact, he hadn't known she was his half-sister until very recently. When he'd gone to break out the faeries from the high-security containment, she hadn't been among them. Of course, he didn't know how long faeries lived, but this struck him as suspicious. Half-breeds should at least have survived several hundred years, if not more. Someone was deliberately keeping her apart and he would cut a swath of destruction to get to her.

After all these years, he wasn't quite sane. Perhaps he'd never been sane, to begin with, and had kept it well under wraps for so long.

At present, he rotated a man in stasis that he had brought back from the past and twirled his wand about between his fingers. His stepfather, Henry, stared at him with wide eyes and terror etched in his features. He couldn't help but wonder whether this was the same terror Henry had inflicted on his wife every night when he stumbled home drunk and demanded she tend to his "needs".

Ezekiel contemplated the man for a few minutes more before shunting him off to the side. He had work to do and people to handle before he could get to the real prizes.

Flicking his wand, he threw darts at a bulletin board before him. He was in a darkened room on Earth that used to serve as a teacher's lounge before Dimmsdale had abandoned the school. It was from olden times, back when Denzel Crocker's ancestor had lived here. It was amazing the bulletin board had survived this long.

The darts landed straight on Wanda's and Juandissimo's faces. Ezekiel smiled. Tick, tock, little faeries. Time to get to work.