The harsh rain had settled into a light drizzle by the time Timmy had made his way to the park. It was still gray and cloudy in the skies and rather humid all around. Timmy didn't bother to notice any of this, though. He still had his head wrapping around the fact that he had indirectly assisted with the massive takeover of Dimmsdale and the death of Trixie's mom. His friends were betrayed. His family was nowhere to be seen. But worst of all, his fairy godparents had warned him about the consequences of the kind of wish he made, but he still did not listen. As soon as they returned to him, Timmy vowed to immediately undo the wish. Until then, he had to figure something out on his own.

"It's him," he heard someone say from behind him.

The person's voice was faint and raspy, but did not sound much older than Timmy. Sure enough, when he turned around, he saw two kids his age sitting on an aged park bench that had long since been cleaned. They were wearing dress shirts, albeit untucked and dirty all over, one of them even had a hole. Their shirts were unbuttoned about halfway, and their hair had been sticking up all over. In fact, without their flashy purple jackets and shades, the two former co-presidents were virtually unrecognizable.

"Tad? Chad?" asked a surprised Timmy.

"I see he bothered to remember our names," said Chad.

"I suppose you're happy, though," said Tad, "Now that you and your best bud Gabriel are at the top and everyone else is miserable."

"He's...he's not my friend," said Timmy.

"Oh, really?" asked Chad, taking the usual condescending tone he once had, "If I remember correctly, you could never stop rushing to the guy's defense."

"You were basically his personal cheerleader," said Tad, "And that got you at the top. You may be happy, but do you have any idea how the rest of us have lived ever since those bag-things took everyone away?"

Timmy should have had no reason to care. These were the popular kids. Or at least they were. They made school a living hell for kids like him. But deep down, Timmy was not a bad person. He cared enough to listen to their tale of plight.

"You didn't care enough to stop them from killing Trixie's mom and taking their mansion," Chad ranted, "Or from taking her dad away. Did you know that's what they did to our parents? Rob them of their assets and lock them away in who-knows-where? And Veronica and a bunch of the other kids...the ones we thought were your friends...they were taken too. We barely managed to escape, but we definitely got beaten and bruised by those freaks in bags."

"Those things aren't human," Tad said, "And they definitely aren't..."

"Speak of the devil," came a voice from behind, "An' he shall appear."

The three kids turned to see an Asian man in combat gear leading Bagmen straight in their direction. The Bagmen appeared restless while the human, whom Tad and Chad recognized as Konda, was completely at ease. Even with the machine gun in his possession.

"You're Trixie's bodyguard!" exclaimed Tad and Chad simultaneously.

"No he's not," Timmy said, "He's a mercenary. He's the one who killed Trixie's mom!"

"I see another reason Timmy Turner should have been higher in th' food chain than th' likes of those two," Konda said, "You're th' smart one. Yet not smart enough to stay on Gabriel's good side."

Tad and Chad were clearly shocked by Konda's southern accent. Timmy, on the other hand, while he had never met Konda nor heard him speak, was fully aware his prim and proper tone from before Gemini Labs took over was all an act. A very carefully crafted and executed act at that.

"It's an honor to meet th' famed fairy boy," said Konda, "I am truly sorry for havin' to kill you for your crimes."

Within a flash, the Bagmen had surrounded Tad and Chad, who tried to run away, but were pinned down. The Bagmen proceeded to relentlessly kick the two boys wherever and whenever the opportunity presented itself, which was quite frequently. No amount of effort could stop Tad and Chad from puking up blood from getting too many blows to the stomach.

"Wait! Stop!" Timmy cried.

"It's too late for that," Konda said, aiming his weapon at Timmy, "Now, we have someone to visit, and I very much think you'd rather be there without a body full of lead. So don't you worry about those two...you just keep movin'."


Jorgen immediately appeared in the center of the Fairy World Archives, sending nearly every nearby sheet of loose paper flying with his booming entrance. The tiny fairy librarian he was there to see had almost lost his cap from Jorgen's entrance.

"You said you had news for me," said Jorgen.

"Well, it's both good news and bad news," the librarian replied, adjusting his over-sized eyeglasses, "The bad news is we still have no identity on the Commander. If he turns out to be human, I'd love to study how he hides himself from our fairy surveillance teams."

"Then what is the good news?" asked Jorgen, "And it better not be one of those 'At least we're not dead' types of good news!"

"Better," the librarian replied timidly, "After careful research and using the process of elimination...we know which artifact the Commander is seeking. And we can confirm that is is indeed hidden somewhere in Dimmsdale. Actually, it was because we narrowed our search down to Dimmsdale that we were able to figure out which artifact it was to begin with."

"That actually is good news," Jorgen said, finally smiling for the first time since the Gemini crisis started.

"Not when you learn which artifact he is after," the librarian replied.

The librarian held up a worn-out book, opened on an equally worn-out and dusty page. Jorgen leaned in closer to see the sketch of the artifact in question, along with its description. Almost immediately, his usually tan skin turned pale.

"This...this cannot be!" he exclaimed, "The Fairy Council had this sealed away thousands of years ago!"

"That's what I had thought as well," the librarian replied, "But once I learned what it was...I began to feel it. It's still active. It knows what's going on in the worlds around it. Whatever magic the Fairy Council used, it seems to have only contained the artifact rather than permanently destroy it."

"Then this is now officially a top-priority crisis," Jorgen said, once again resuming his serious and gruff demeanor, "We can NEVER allow it to be released into any world. Finding the artifact is now your ONLY priority! No one in this library rests until it is found! And when it is, I want the entire army sent down to guard it from the Commander. He must NOT get his hands on it!"

"And what are you going to do, sir?" the librarian asked.

With his back turned, Jorgen replied, "It won't be easy, but...I'm going to the Fairy Council and do what I can to get answers out of them. They can be a very stubborn bunch. They may not want to be very open with me once they learn their greatest failure was their inability to seal away our most dangerous foe."


Timmy, at gunpoint, had been pushed into the lobby of the Gemini Labs established in Dimmsdale. There were no lights on. There didn't need to be. Unlike most of Gemini's locations, this lab's lobby had been surrounded by windows, so the moonlight presented all the light needed in the lobby. Bagmen followed behind them. It didn't take long for them to drag Tad and Chad to wherever they had been keeping the rest of their prisoners. Konda told Timmy to halt about halfway through the room, while Konda himself proceeded forward. As he walked up the stairs to the balcony, Gabriel had entered from that same floor, leaning both his hands on the balcony railing. Several armed soldiers were lined up next to him and Konda, presumably local feds who were intimidated into Gemini Lab's servitude.

"And here I thought we were friends," Gabriel said.

He didn't seem agitated by Timmy's betrayal. Rather, he appeared to be amused.

"Some friend you turned out to be!" Timmy shouted, "I should have listened to Trixie the night she warned me about you!"

"Ah, but you didn't," Gabriel said, "And thanks to that, our community has become much more progressive, paving the way towards true equality."

"Cut the bullshit!" Timmy shouted back, "You don't give a damn about equality! You don't even care about being progressive! All you want is to be at the top! You didn't change the system at all! You hardly even fixed it! You just took out one group of assholes and put yourself in their place! You want the whole system to be a pyramid! You want to oppress others, no matter what lies come out of your mouth!"

"Harsh words for someone who helped place me there," said Gabriel, "If I recall, I was put here through a democratic process. I didn't take power! You gave it to me! And you did so for the sole purpose of knocking the 'in' crowd down a peg or two."

"Knocking them down a peg means making them wait in line just like every other kid, or not being able to buy passing grades," Timmy retorted, "NOT killing them or locking them away for their 'crimes'!"

"Oh, but Timmy, Timmy, didn't you want nothing but bad things to happen to them?" asked Gabriel, "Didn't you wish for them to suffer?"

Both Timmy and Konda looked at Gabriel in surprise. Konda though Gabriel was talking nonsense, but Timmy knew exactly what he was talking about.

"How...how do you know about that?" asked Timmy.

"About your fairy godparents?" asked Gabriel smugly, "We know more than you can possibly imagine."

"You mean you know," Konda said, "What kind of talk is that, anyway? Goin' on about magic and wishes an' all that junk?"

"I'm sorry, are you paid to think, or are you paid to kill?" asked Gabriel, shutting Konda down.

Gabriel then proceeded to lift his hand, motioning for Konda and the soldiers to ready their weapons.

"Ready!" shouted Konda.

"You were such a fascinating boy, Timmy," Gabriel said.

"Aim!" shouted Konda.

Konda and the soldiers aimed their weapons at Timmy Turner, all prepared to fire at once.

"Farewell, old friend," Gabriel said.

"Fire!"

Timmy closed his eyes and bent down with his hands over his head, preparing for the worst. At the very least, it would be over quick. But he felt no such pain. He didn't feel an end. Instead, when he opened his eyes, a majestic light had surrounded him, shielding him from the incoming bullets, redirecting them through the Bagmen, filling them with holes.

"Oh shit! No!" growled Gabriel, "Konda! Take cover! Don't look at those creatures!"

In the future, Konda would be grateful he did not question Gabriel during this moment. He would have died there if he did. He followed Gabriel down to the ground, keeping his eyes closed and his face peeled to the ground, not witnessing what had been happening. The bags on the Bagmen had all fallen to the ground. As the legends were told, there were no men inside. No human period. Nothing but a void. Nightmarish creatures, with no solid form to touch, emerged from the Bagmen. Their true forms, these ghostly figures, had seen the soldiers looking at them. The soldiers were shaking in their boots, some trying in vain to shoot them down, others dropping their weapons altogether and running towards the door. Neither method was successful. The creatures charged towards each soldier, filling their heads with the darkest nightmares that could emerge from their subconscious, driving each and every soldier mad enough to end their own lives with whatever weapon they could find, though some found it more relieving to jump from the balcony without landing on their feet, deliberately breaking their own skulls.

During all this chaos, Timmy looked up at the source of the bright light that had protected him. Three fairies, one with pink hair, one with green hair, and one with only one tooth, had cast their magic around him. Timmy had never been so happy to see them in his entire life.

"Cosmo! Wanda! Poof!"

"Hang on, sport!" Wanda said with a smile, "We're getting you out of here!"

As quickly as they had arrived, the fairies and Timmy had vanished, along with the light that had been cast in the very center of the lobby. Gabriel and Konda got up to look at the damage done. They saw the windows had all shattered, the Bagmen leaving their suits behind, and every soldier with either a bullet through their heads or a smashed skull.

"What th'...What th' HELL JUST HAPPENED?" asked Konda.

"That, Konda," said Gabriel, "was the magic and wishes you were so quick to mock earlier. I suppose for someone as street smart as yourself, you're quite ignorant of the supernatural."

"Now wait just a goddamn minute, boy!" Konda said, pointing his gun at Gabriel with his back turned, "I only work for th' Commander! Nobody else! Not yer father, not Ramsey, and especially not a cocky little child! Don't think I'm not aware of yer little secrets! I know what you are. What you and your father both are! I don't take orders from a SHADOW!"

For the first time ever, Gabriel had not been calm. He turned around, and Konda could clearly see he pushed a few of the wrong buttons. For the first time, Gabriel was angry.

"Who are you calling a shadow?!" roared Gabriel, "Do you think you can talk to me that way as you want?! Do you have any idea what I could do to you were the Commander not to forbid me from doing so?!"

After a moment of dead silence that seemed to be longer than it actually was, Gabriel calmed down as Konda lowered his weapon.

"You would be wise to refrain from that in the future," Gabriel said, "Now I'm going to get a clean up crew to dispose of these soldiers. You call the Commander and ask about a contingency plan...what to do now that Turner has escaped."