(Disclaimer: I don't own the Fairly OddParents or the characters herein. And judging from how things have gone down in the last seasons, I don't think I'd want to. The characters I do own are Rudy Reed, Sammy Tang-Hope, Anti-Juandissimo, the Master Anti-Fairy, Samuel Hope, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Tang-Hope, Anti-Cupid, Theobald Tang, and Melody Victorson.)
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
by Amras Felagund
CHAPTER 8: Eye of the Storm
And so it was that three years passed since Timmy Turner agreed to become friends with Tootie Victorson, seeing no harm in having a friend who happens to be a girl, so long as they remain friends and so long as he continues to hold a candle for Trixie.
And in those three years, many things had changed. And many things stayed the same.
Timmy was fifteen, and stood just as tall as Trixie Tang did. He retained his mullet, but his face was beginning to show signs of puberty setting in. He had also matured greatly in the past three years as well; although he at first chose begrudgingly to be Tootie's friend, he now found himself seeing her as a true friend.
How could he have not seen what a nice person she was?
What he feared, was that he may have begun seeing her as more than a friend.
Though Tootie's friendship cast a new light on Timmy's life, a shadow continued to shroud his life in fear and confusion. The 'Just the Two of Us' nightmares continued to worsen, with Trixie Tang killing him in increasingly inhumane and violent ways. Chopping him into sushi with a buzz saw in one dream. Vaporizing him with missiles in another. Bludgeoning him to death with tennis ball and baseball machines in yet another. What made it all worse for Timmy, was that the dreams and Trixie's assaults continued even as she mutilated his body beyond the point when death would silence his pain and end his life.
Some unnatural force was causing these dreams for sure.
One good aspect of these nightmares, though, was that they made his misery bloom like a dark flower, and so too grew his need for fairy godparents.
Like Cosmo and Wanda.
Things had changed very little for Trixie, though. She continued to, out of fear of being disowned, denounce Timmy and her love for him. Meanwhile, her mother had planned for her marriage to Theobald to take place on her 16th birthday, which happens to be tomorrow. Her father would have done something in her aid, but his wife blackmailed him with divorce to enforce his reluctant consent.
Rudy continued his seemingly unending crusade to win Tootie's heart. And Tootie continued to spurn his affection, in the vain hope that Timmy would reciprocate her feelings someday soon.
What she didn't know, was that she had already subconsciously acknowledged him as a potential boyfriend.
Subconsciously.
But in spite of the monotony of the past three years, something most unusual had occured two years previously. Vicky had kidnapped local singing legend Chip Skylark, whom she was known to hold a fangirl crush for, and had done something that Chip, who was normally quite open, was quite unwilling to talk about even after he was rescued by Timmy - with some concealed help from Cosmo & Wanda, of course.
Nine months later, Melody Victorson was born.
When asked by her godson how that happened, Wanda had simply replied, "You'll find out in health class."
Vicky subsequently took her infant daughter - who possessed a sadistic streak to rival her mother's even at her very young age - to all of her babysitting jobs with Timmy. Just recently, Melody had learned her first word - said quite forcefully: "Bed!" Vicky would often have Timmy do all the less-than-desirable deeds of having a kid.
Such as, changing diapers.
Anti-Cosmo had returned with the thermos - which was indeed dented in various places, from the inside - that the Master desired just minutes after departing. Anti-Wanda had not even noticed his disappearance. Upon receiving the thermos, the Master did not let it leave his sight.
"It was most unusual, Master," Anti-Cosmo had said. "Clockwork gave me no resistance whatsoever. He even handed me the thermos and waved me off without a word."
"Hmmm..." the Master had said in response.
Silence.
"Master, may I ask what is within that thermos?" Anti-Cosmo had asked warily.
The Master had replied slowly, deliberately, to the increasingly questioning Anti-Cosmo, "Within this thermos, Anti-Cosmo, is a phantom, ripped from its host, bent on death and destruction. However, he was prevented from bringing about his own birth when a foolish ghost-boy captured him in this device. He existed outside of time while he was in Clockwork's care. In time, this phantom will play a vital role in increasing my power."
"How, Master?" Anti-Cosmo had asked. The Master was a mystery to him, always giving him vague answers to specific questions. Anti-Cosmo knew it; the Master was hiding something from him.
And the other Anti-Fairies.
"Do not forget, Anti-Cosmo," the Master had warned. "That I am your Master, and I can determine when you are overstepping your bounds, and when you may be poofing into territory that is beyond your concern. And whether or not you are worthy of living anymore."
Anti-Cosmo had silenced himself then and there. He didn't want to anger the Master.
Just moments later, a black cloud of smoke had appeared about them. As it cleared, Anti-Cosmo had looked around, and had noticed that he and the Master were no longer in the middle of a field of blue grass, and the Master - who had still not returned to his full body and still resembled a rather underdeveloped, ugly Anti-Fairy baby - was no longer in a regal red chair.
They were in the throne room of a tremendous palace that towered into the stratosphere of the azure planet of Anti-Fairies. And the Master, still resembling a blue fetus with wings, sat in a nasty-looking obsidian throne. The wand he held in his hand now had a handgrip longer than the Master's current state.
"A more fitting home for the Master of All Anti-Fairies," he said. "And in a matter of time, the Master of All Existence."
And so things have passed for three years. Some changing, while others staying the same.
But everything would change on that one fateful day.
"Things almost feel like they're coming to a boil," Timmy muttered to Cosmo & Wanda in their fishbowl that morning.
"What do you mean, Timmy?" Wanda asked, giving her godson a concerned look.
Timmy paused.
"I don't know," he replied. "I just got the feeling that...everything that's happened is all coming to a head. I mean, Fairy World is practically at war with the Anti-Fairies - you two haven't even seen your families in three years - not to mention that my nightmares are getting worse. I can't even close my eyes for more than ten seconds without hearing a buzz saw engine and 'Am I pretty?'"
"Oh, sweetie, I know it's frustrating, but--..."
Timmy couldn't stop himself. In the blink of an eye, he was on his feet. "Gee, you think it's frustrating? The girl I love isn't giving me the time of day, my nightmares are getting more violent, my two best friends have been going steady for nearly four years now, my other best friend's practically graduated from college, not to mention that one of my other friends has been carrying a torch for me for almost ten years now and I think that I might be starting to like her instead of Trixie! Wow, I would have never thought it was frustrating!"
Timmy froze at the stunned looks on his GodParents' faces, then put his head in his hands.
"Sorry, guys," he said. "I just can't stand all this stuff that's going down in my life."
"Don't sweat it, Timmy," said Cosmo cheerily. "We've been through worse."
"Cosmo's right, Timmy. Myself and Cosmo are thousands of years old, but that doesn't mean that we didn't go through the same thing when we were your age."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, remember Juandissimo Magnifico?"
"How could I for--... ohhh..."
Juandissimo was Wanda's old boyfriend. Perhaps it was his narcissistic tendencies, perhaps it was Wanda's sensitivity kicking in, or perhaps it was Cosmo's noticeable lack of a girlfriend. But in the end, Wanda dumped Juandissimo and she was with Cosmo ever since.
In Juandissimo's mind, she was denying herself... everything by denying herself Juandissimo. He is known for describing himself as 'too sexy for my sexy'.
"So, which one of you was like me? I mean, the one who thought their love would go unrequited?"
Cosmo & Wanda smiled, and replied in unison, "Both of us."
Timmy smiled, happy for his godparents.
A light bulb went off in his head.
"I just had an idea, guys," he said. "Why don't we go visit Cupid and get a love arrow from him. That way, I can get Trixie to love me!"
"Well, we kinda can't, Timmy," Wanda said. "Fairy World's at a ceasefire with the Anti-Fairies. If either side attacks out of fear, all-out war will be the result. Jorgen doesn't want to risk any Fairies entering or leaving Fairy World, in case it sets off the Anti-Fairies."
"Ohh, right," said Timmy.
If Timmy still had the ability to read minds - an ability that gave him a terrible migraine and prompted his unwishing of it - he would have noted Wanda's relief that they couldn't go to Fairy World, or else she'd have to come up with some lame excuse as to why they couldn't see Cupid.
Then again, he was the son of Butch & Tara Turner, so he'd probably say "Works for me" in response to whatever excuse they'd throw at him and leave it at that.
Ohh, Trixie... he thought. I know there's no way you could ever like someone as unpopular as me, or someone with as big teeth as me, but I want to be with you so much. What kind of monster would try to keep that from happening?
"Everything is going exactly the way it should," Cupid said as he watched the scene through a crystal ball in his castle, a smile on his face. "It's only a matter of time before the truth comes out. Not just for Timmy and Trixie, but for when Tootie finally realizes that Rudy is the only one who truly understands her."
Cupid frowned.
"Still, Timmy is depending on Cosmo & Wanda to help him with his Trixie problem. They had to have told him a million times that no Fairy magic can affect true love. You'd think that all the very specific rules Jorgen made thanks to some generous bribes - not that he needed them, since he loves to make new rules - would have made Timmy realize that deep down, he has the one thing that she wants most from him, with or without Fairies:
"Himself."
A brief pause.
"Man, I've gotta stop talking to myself," he muttered scratching the back of his head.
Anti-Cosmo shuddered involuntarily.
I hope that Master didn't notice that, the Master heard Anti-Cosmo thinking.
"What is it, Anti-Cosmo?" the Master hissed.
Anti-Cosmo froze in place. He sank to the floor of the Master's throne room, genuflecting before the Master. "Forgive me for my fear, Master. It's just... I'm not certain we can retrieve one of the objects you desire. Don't get me wrong, I want to see you return, and I could easily retrieve one from Jorgen von Strangle's personal collection - after all, he keeps the teeth of the Fairies he pounds with 'his bulging muscles' as a display of his strength - and any Anti-Fairy would gladly give their right hands for you, but--..."
"No worries, Anti-Cosmo," the Master said. "I have my ways of retrieving the final item required for my resurrection."
"And then, we shall know your real name, Master?"
"My name is... strictly on a need-to-know basis. Right now, you don't need to know, Anti-Cosmo. Or any Anti-Fairy at the moment, for that matter. Now, float along, Anti-Cosmo. I must meditate. I want to be in prime condition for my rebirth."
Anti-Cosmo looked dejected. The Master heard Anti-Cosmo thinking, Oh, rat-poopy, before he anti-poofed away in a cloud of pale-blue smoke.
Yes, the time is near, the Master thought darkly. In time, my connection to that loser will be severed, and I will have no fear of passing from this realm should he perish. A dark grin crossed his infantile features. Then, his death at my hand is a mere 'Verbus Mortus' away. But first, I must collect three objects necessary to ensure me the in-between existence of an Anry: the bone of a Fairy (as Anti-Cosmo stated, teeth will suffice), the flesh of an Anti-Fairy (such fools they are)...
And the blood of my foolish Fairy counterpart.
The Master then waved his hand before his throne, and an image of that idiot Turner boy walking down the street appeared before him. On the other side of the street, the Master saw a certain teenage girl with large glasses, braces, and hair in pigtails.
Looks like it's time for me to foil Cupid's plans for Turner and Tang, he thought.
Without even raising his wand, a single word echoed in his mind:
Contrarotus!
Timmy never heard it coming. He was just walking down the street by, on the way to Chester's house to see if he could actually spend time with his best friend instead of just his girlfriend - a handy way of keeping Vicky from babysitting him and making him babysit her daughter - and had just barely acknowledged that Tootie was walking down the opposite side of the street, right by Trixie's mansion, in the opposite direction that he was going, her head down so that she couldn't see him coming, when suddenly...
He was floating in paradise.
A voice spoke to him, a calm seductive voice that, by merely speaking at all, had already seized his cooperation. A voice that sounded eerily familiar.
But to Timmy, there was no eerily familiar. All he heard was his own innermost, most intimate, most internalized thoughts.
He heard his own voice.
Approach her.
Ignoring the feeling that approach was a big word for himself, he did as the voice said. If not, the world would degenerate into a nightmare world from which no escape could be found.
Timmy approached Tootie.
---
Tootie was walking down the street, trying to find some place she could avoid three specific people: her elder sister Vicky, her infant niece Melody - I swear, Vicky said she was over Chip, Tootie thought. Then again, Vicky's words aren't worth the breath she uses to say them. - and her admirer Rudy, when she spied the boy she truly loved approaching.
She gasped.
Something was wrong with Timmy - maybe it was the way the light was hitting his eyes; the cerulean-blue perfection of his eyes seemed somehow dimmer, and appeared to have a slight reddish tint. There were two explanations for this in Tootie's mind: either Timmy was crying about the fact that his chances of being with Trixie were nil...
Or it was just a trick of the light.
But that didn't explain the stolidity of his face.
Or the monotony of his voice.
"Hello, Tootie," he said.
Tootie said nothing. Maybe he'll snap out of it, she thought.
---
Timmy stood before Tootie.
You know, you never realized how attractive she is, the voice said. Stroke her hair.
"You know, I never realized how attractive you are," he said, stroking her hair. A small voice in the back of his head was screaming that he should never be this close - this intimately close - to anyone but Trixie.
Tootie started backing away.
"You're not Timmy," she said. "Timmy would prefer drooling over Trixie."
Who is Trixie?
"Who is Trixie?" he asked.
Kiss her. Embrace her. Love her.
He kissed her. He embraced her. He loved her. The small voice began screaming incoherent warnings of doom and failure and settling for less than what was desired.
Tell her you love her.
The small voice regained intelligibility, and gained strength.
"I..."
Well?
"I-I can't--..."
TELL HER YOU LOVE HER! ASK HER OUT, YOU--...!
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
---
Tootie was shocked. One moment the boy she loved was kissing her - kissing her with all the passion and commitment and love that she had desired from him - and holding her as though she were his life support - or vice versa - then he pulled away, his left eye began twitching, and his arms and his legs and his whole frame began to shake as though he were waging some tremendous internal battle. Then he shouted,
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Tootie felt herself jumping back a few inches.
What's going on? she thought.
Tootie looked at Timmy.
Timmy looked at Tootie.
Tootie noticed that his eyes were bright, cerulean-blue, and perfect once more.
"Tootie..." he said, his voice thick with emotion. "I'm sorry. I can't do this."
"Do what?"
"I can't... bring myself to go out with you."
Tootie glared.
"Don't get me wrong, though," he added hastily. "You're a good friend, and I trust you more than you think I do, but--..." He sighed. "Tootie, I just realized something...
"I really do love you."
Tootie's heart skipped a beat.
"But...it's more--...I see you more like the sister I never had."
"Re-really?" Tootie said, hot tears stinging her eyes.
"Yeah." Then he smiled. "Just hope I don't feel the same for Icky with a V."
They chuckled.
"Y'know, I was feeling that being with you - y'know, in a romantic way - was next to impossible for a few weeks now," Tootie said. "I guess I've been running on empty for too long."
"So, this was a bit of a wake-up call?"
"Mm-hmm," Tootie said. "...I suppose it's better to be a surrogate sister than to be a wannabe stalker."
"Yeah."
"...I had a little brother once," Tootie said.
"Really?" Timmy said. Then he remembered. "Ohhh..."
"He ran away from home after Vicky hid one too many porn magazines in his room," she explained. "He screamed that one day Vicky called up when she babysat you, and ran away in the middle of the night."
"What was his name?" Timmy asked.
A tense pause.
"Rudy," she said. Then, as if Timmy suspected something, "He had black hair."
"Ohh," he said, a glimmer of genuine concern in his eyes. Tootie could tell that he understood her reasons for not returning Rudy Reed's affection. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright. I just hope that wherever he is, he's okay."
"Well, keep on wishing, and you'll get what you want." His expression turned slightly sour. "I just hope it'll work like that for me and Trixie."
"Well, since I don't like you like that anymore, I wish you the best of luck."
Timmy nodded, his expression changeing to one of warmth and caring.
Then the surprise came.
Timmy hugged Tootie.
She stood there, stunned by Timmy's sudden display of affection - fraternal though it was, it was still startling. Tears rolling down her face and a small smile, she hugged him back, letting him know that, though her romantic feelings for him were now spent, she still saw him as a surrogate brother. A replacement for little Rudy Victorson.
Oh, Rudy, I love you, she thought. Wherever you are, I hope from the bottom of my heart that you found the love you truly deserve. Tootie froze. Am I thinking about my little brother...
Or about Rudy Reed?
And Tootie realized the truth.
She loved them both.
With all her heart.
---
He meant it. Every word of it. He had found the basis for his feelings for Tootie, which were stronger than that of conventional friendship.
He loved Tootie.
Not as a potential romantic partner, but as the sister that he never had.
And he realized Tootie's reasons behind not returning Rudy's feelings: Rudy shared the same name as her lost little brother. Timmy could only imagine the pain that losing a sibling was for Tootie.
If it weren't for the difference in the nature of love, he would have assumed it would be like him losing Trixie.
Timmy pulled away from Tootie sharply.
"Timmy?" Tootie said.
Timmy didn't hear her. He had just processed a small, but crucial, fact regarding his attempts to gain Trixie's affection: although he had wished for everything he could think of to even get her to acknowledge him - from wishing he had everything the other popular kids had to wishing he was the "most wanted" kid on Earth to wishing he was the funniest kid on the planet - he had never, not once, relied on himself to win her over.
"I gotta see Trixie, Tootie," he said, turning to look at Trixie's manor across the street. "I'll be back."
The Master's wrath at the fact that his Contrarotus spell was thwarted completely by a pathetic human is believed to have been terrible to behold.
Trixie stood in her bedroom. She wore a white wedding dress that her mother was making her wear. It was necessary, her mother said, for her to look her best for the wedding.
To my own cousin, Trixie thought, sticking her tongue out in disgust.
She stood looking out the window, to look at where her beloved walked down the street. Tootie walked down the street on the opposite side. In the opposite direction.
Timmy and Tootie. Tootie and Timmy, she thought. No matter which way I turn it, it sounds like it's meant to be for the two of them.
Suddenly, Trixie realized something.
Wait a minute. I've been taking Timmy for granted. I assumed he would always be there, but he won't be after me forever. Sooner or later, he'll give in to anything Tootie wants, if he hasn't already, and then I'll truly have nothing. I can't give up on my last chance at having a true 'happily ever after' that easily. I've got to tell him how I feel. Oh, Timmy, my love, I'm coming!
She made for the door, but her mother came in uninvited.
Oh, smoof, Trixie thought. Wait a minute! Where'd that come from?
"Oh, Trixie, you look absolutely ravishing," her mother said, her eyes sparkling. "Theobald will simply adore you!"
"Really?" Trixie said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "Even though he's a close relative?"
Beatrix's expression changed as quickly as flicking a switch from 'on' to 'off.' "Close relative or not, and whether you like it or not, you are going to marry him on your 16th birthday, and that's final!"
"Why? To keep outside influence out?" Trixie said acidly. "'Cause that's not a bad thing."
"Shut up, Trixie! As your mother, I have the right to tell you what to do, what to like, what to say--..."
"And how to eat, and how to drink, and how to breathe--..."
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOUNG LADY!" shrieked Beatrix, slapping her daughter across the face.
Trixie brought her hand up to the mark on her face. She didn't feel the pain.
If she was anything apart from dishonest, she considered herself numb to pain, after enduring it for ten nonstop years.
"How dare you talk back to me like that!" Beatrix snarled. "I'm your mother! I carried you for nine months, fed you, clothed you, kept a roof over your head, and for what?" She growled frustratedly. "You so remind me of my sister sometimes..."
"Why? Because I can think for myself, and I'm not brainwashed by my wealth? At least I have an idea of what I want out of life, and it's not to be locked in an incestuous relationship."
Beatrix stood there, opening and closing her mouth dumbly. Her anger had left her almost speechless.
Almost.
"Just you wait, young lady!" her mother hissed after a minute or so of fumbling for words. "Theobald is due to arrive at any minute to see how stunning you are in the dress you will wear to your wedding to him tomorrow! Then, as soon as you two have returned from your honeymoon, you're grounded for--..."
Trixie never found out how long she would be grounded, because at that moment, there came from outside a dreadful squeal of tires, a scream of terror that was dreadfully familiar to Trixie, and a ghastly terrible noise.
(Note: Whoa, there's been some happenings in this chapter! And I leave it at an entirely inappropriate (for you) cliffhanger. But that's the only place I could find to leave one.
As for why Trixie didn't hear Timmy shouting 'GET OUT OF MY HEAD!', her mother shouted 'SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOUNG LADY!' at the same time. That's how it is.
I apologize greatly for the SUPER-long wait that some had to endure for this chapter.I swear, the next chapter will come up within a week. The next one I've been waiting forever to write. It's also the chapter when I'll reveal the Master Anti-Fairy's true identity! So, anyone who'd like to throw caution to the winds and guess, do so now!
I'll give you a good follow-up whether or not this chapter gets good reviews! May the Force be with you all!)
