(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 9: The Moment of Truth
When it comes to creating the perfect love triangle - apart from the kind that is so often considered to be a cliché - there are certain elements that are essential for the ideal outcome.
The first necessary aspect are the three required dramatis personae for it to genuinely be considered a love triangle. Three children, a popular girl with no siblings but everything money can buy who yearns to join the unpopular crowd, but fears separation from her family, an unpopular boy with a sensitive demeanor, little wealth, and no brothers or sisters, and an unrelated unpopular girl who is true to her feelings - with a sadistic older sister - are ideal components of the perfect love triangle.
The second necessary aspect is the right distribution of love, denial, and repulsion. Ideally, the popular girl should hide her love for the unpopular boy behind a veil of indifference and a lack of care, and the unpopular boy will vie persistently for her affection, while trying to evade the affection of the unpopular girl. Ideally, the unpopular boy must have Fairy GodParents, though not necessarily the popular or unpopular girl.
The third necessary aspect is an ideal outcome for all in the triangle. The unpopular girl may not win the heart of the unpopular boy, but that doesn't mean she should sever all ties to him. Ideally, she should develop a sisterly bond with him, and perhaps develop romantic feelings for a boy outside the love triangle who has affection for her.
The Trixie-Timmy-Tootie love triangle is a textbook example of the perfect love triangle.
It was all a blur to Trixie. One moment she was standing at her bedroom window, staring down in horror at the scene outside, and the next thing she knew, she was running across the lawn towards the accident, still in the wedding dress.
Tootie was kneeling over Timmy, a look of utmost horror on her face. Trixie's father was standing to the side, frantically speaking to a shaking Theobald, who was explaining what had happened in a somewhat distant manner:
"I was driving down the street, minding my own business, when this kid runs in front of my car. I saw pink smoke, and somehow he ended up ten feet away. He looks like he's been hurt pretty bad, but he's unpopular... It's not too big a deal. Just give the family a few hundred grand, and they'll keep their lawsuits to themselves."
Trixie had one moment to numbly register, despite being from her father's side of the family, how influenced by her mother Theobald was...
Then she lost it.
Trixie ran up to the broken Timmy, all inhibitions gone. Tears flowed freely down her face as wails of despair escaped her lips. The walls surrounding her furnace-heart dissolved, letting her feelings for the boy who lay broken flow forth like a river demolishing the dam that held it back. A thousand unorganized thoughts flooded her mind all at once.
It's all my fault. If I'd told him sooner...
Don't leave me!
If I wasn't so selfish...
Oh God, don't let him die...
He wouldn't be like this...
If I'd told him at all...
I love him...
I need him!
I deserve this suffering...
I hate myself...
Trixie knelt down over Timmy's body. He had a bad scrape on his side, allowing blood to seep out onto the sidewalk, and his right leg was bent unnaturally. Broken. He wasn't moving.
He's dead, she thought glumly. I guess that's my lot in life.
---
Cosmo & Wanda hovered over Timmy, Trixie, and Tootie, disguised as gnats. They sighed in relief. They intended to poof Timmy away before the limo even touched him, but they arrived to see 'the magic moment' one moment too late. If they'd been just a moment earlier, he'd have made it out unscathed, his and Trixie's love would have been laid bare, and Cosmo & Wanda would have surprised Timmy with a new rule that Jorgen had just put into Da Rules.
At Cupid's request, of course.
I hope he makes it through, Wanda thought, noticing that while Theobald was standing at a distance, Nigel was actually pulling out a cell phone and dialing 9-1-1.
Dimmsdale Hospital was just a few blocks away.
Cosmo & Wanda smiled.
"Looks like he'll make it through, honey," Cosmo said.
---
Trixie looked up at Tootie. "What happened?" she asked.
Tootie cast a cold look at Theobald. "Don't listen to him," she said. "He's stretching the truth to make Timmy seem like the one who wasn't watching where he was going."
"Theobald drove into Timmy, didn't he?" Trixie asked, aghast.
"You know him?"
"He's my cousin... and, thanks to my mother, my fiancé."
"I have two words for that: 'eww' and 'sick'!"
"I know. Mom wants to keep outside influence out. ...So, what happened?"
"Well, Theobald - is that his name? - was just driving down the street. Timmy was running to your house. Theobald was driving slowly - I think he was going to pull over - then he swerved towards Timmy, driving like he was possessed or something. Then, just after he hit Timmy, the strangest thing happened. He was surrounded by pink smoke, and reappeared right here. Whatever happened saved him from the worst of it, but he looks pretty bad." As she explained it to Trixie, tears began to roll down Tootie's face, and her voice began to crack.
"He's not dead?" Trixie asked. She hardly cared that her voice was cracking from the grief she felt.
"No, but he's bleeding pretty badly," Tootie sniffled. "If an ambulance doesn't come soon, he won't live to see another day."
No sooner did she say that than they heard a siren blaring from down the street and a ragged coughing coming from Timmy. Tootie looked down at him again, and gasped softly.
"Trixie, look! He's waking up!"
Trixie looked down at Timmy, but her vision was blurry. For an iota of a second she thought she needed glasses, but it soon hit Trixie like the car that did Timmy. The haze of tears of grief of the accident and joy of his survival kept Trixie from seeing anything clearly; she cleared them away.
Timmy's eyes were opening.
Those eyes.
Those beautiful blue eyes...
They still held that sparkle of life.
But for how long?
In a location very alien to Timmy - and yet, somehow, strangely, much more hotly intimate and personal than even his bedroom - Timmy looked back and forth in bemusement.
Where am I? he thought. He remembered the impulse to tell Trixie how his love for her burned with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, the limousine that hurtled towards him, the terror he felt, the horror of never seeing Trixie's face again...
When he suddenly appeared here. In this realm where black was white, white was black, and where he was alone.
Completely, totally, uncompromisingly alone.
You are in your head, Turner.
Timmy froze.
Oh, great. So I'm not alone.
As he turned, the nothingness around him dissolved away. Beneath his feet appeared the asphalt of a parking lot. Before him, a large store appeared that made his blood turn to ice.
The Wall-2-Wall Mart.
But if I'm not awake...
There was only one time when Timmy saw the Wall-2-Wall Mart while having dreams.
In his 'Just the Two of Us' nightmares.
It was the place where everything went wrong. When he somehow felt the urge to break up with Trixie, after spending six hours being the only human being left, apart from her, on the planet, and therefore her boyfriend. When she was overcome with the urge to see his head separated from his body. To see every atom of his existence torn from each other forever.
Do what your name indicates, and turn, Turner, said his voice.
Slowly, reluctantly, with the same caution one would exhibit with disarming a bomb that could annihilate the planet itself, Timmy turned.
He saw Trixie.
But it wasn't Trixie.
Now, he saw it. Somehow, the being that was putting these nightmares in his head was beginning to reveal its true colors. Maybe it was the crimson gleam in the eyes, or the look of intense sadistic pleasure on her face, or the buzz saw that she held in each hand, but Timmy could tell now that this was not Trixie.
Wait. Scratch that. He could tell this was not how Trixie would act. Ever.
"Who are you?"
"I am your worst nightmare," said the fake Trixie, but the voice didn't sound like Trixie's own. It was darker, lower, harsher - though still teenage - and above all else it sounded masculine. The tone of the voice was flat and unwavering, but had the same quality of hearing someone shouting complex expletives and death threats at you from the other end of a long, long tunnel - a subtle indication of menace and malign intent.
"Wh-what are you?" Timmy prayed that he didn't sound as fearful to this... thing's ears as he did to his own.
"I am not a Fairy," said 'Trixie.' "I am not a Pixie, or an Anry, or a Faiti. One could even go so far as to say that I do not truly exist at all. I do lack the Fairy counterpart needed to qualify me as existent."
"...
"So, you're an Anti-Fairy?" Timmy asked.
"Indeed," said the Anti-Fairy disguised as Trixie. Then it said, in an impeccable imitation of Trixie's voice, age ten, "Why is that loser talking to me?"
Then suddenly it clicked for Timmy. There was no dawning moment of comprehension for him.
Suddenly it all fell together.
"You did that? You kept me from actually reading Trixie's mind that one time and made me think Trixie really hated me? And you were putting these nightmares in my head?" Timmy accused.
The Anti-Fairy nodded.
"Why?"
"It was primarily to ensure that you never find happiness with Trixie. Your love for her is my weakness."
"How?"
The Anti-Fairy made a look of sinister intent on his face; the fact that he still had his Trixie façade up made it even more horrible. Even as he gave Timmy that look, Timmy saw him fading into nothingness once more, leaving him to look at, hear, and feel nothing.
That's for me to know...and you to forget, said the voice, even though Timmy could not feel the presence of the person before him, behind him, or anywhere near him. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a resurrection to attend to.
Then pain danced through his body, and seared through his side and his right leg.
He coughed raggedly. He heard a voice saying something, and quickly identified it as Tootie's. She sounded anxious about something.
He opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was...
"Tr-Trixie?"
Yes, it was her. But not at all like how he had seen 'her' just moments ago. Her face was puffy and her eyes were red, and tears were streaming down her face, which had so much mingled despair and hope that he was almost driven to tears for her.
Trixie's crying? he thought. Is the sky falling, Chicken Little?
Then he could hear an ambulance's siren as blackness engulfed him and he fell into unconsciousness.
"Quick, Anti-Cosmo!" snarled the Master from his throne. "The time is right!"
"For the resurrection?" asked Anti-Cosmo.
"Yes, Anti-Cosmo." The Master raised the wand in his hand, and a large cauldron appeared in the middle of his throne room, a fire crackling beneath it. For an instant, the darkness about him deepened and swirled, giving him the appearance of an obsidian cyclone through Anti-Cosmo's monocle.
For Anti-Cosmo's monocle does not help his vision in the usual sense, although his vision in that particular eye is rather poor. It has been constructed by one of his ancestors, and was passed down several generations until his own.
But it is more than a family artifact.
It is enchanted.
Looking through it, Anti-Cosmo is able to see the magical signature of any being, whether they are an Anti-Fairy or a Fairy or Pixie or Anry or Faiti, or even human.
This is how Anti-Cosmo sees various magical beings through his monocle.
Fairies appear as beings of rosy light.
Anti-Fairies are seen as beings of azure light.
Anries appear to shine with a violet light.
Faities look to be composed entirely of mauve light.
Pixies, true to their dull, bureaucratic outlook, appear as beings of dull and grey light.
Lawn gnomes are perceived as maroon-glowing creatures.
The stronger their magical abilities, the stronger their glow. No two magical creatures have the same level of luminescence. Save Fairies and their Anti-Fairy counterparts, and vice versa.
He even sees Ghosts as emerald light beings and humans as a bland white through his monocle. Even identical twins have unique signatures.
But the Master Anti-Fairy is an anomaly. Through Anti-Cosmo's monocle, he appears as an event horizon. The Master Anti-Fairy is seen as a being of nothingness.
A black hole in the fabric of magic.
Then the Master raised his wand again, and almost the entire throne room, save the floor, around them vanished.
At that moment, Anti-Cosmo felt a magical pulse from the Master that projected a message to every Anti-Fairy in the Antiverse saying come to the throne room immediately.
There was a chorus of anti-poofs and countless clouds of pale-blue smoke in the air above and around the Master and his second-in-command as the Anti-Fairies arrived.
"Put me in the cauldron, Anti-Cosmo!" snarled the Master. "Do it! Now!"
"Yes, Master!" said Anti-Cosmo. "And the Thermos?"
The Master set the dented Thermos on the throne next to him. "Punish any Anti-Fairy who touches this Thermos in any way you see fit, Anti-Cosmo."
"Yes, Master," said Anti-Cosmo, taking the small form from the throne and hovering over to the cauldron.
Within, he saw boiling water that strangely enough emitted no steam.
"Master, are you sure that--...?"
"Anti-Cosmo! I am immune to pain now! We musn't waste time! Drop me! NOW!"
And Anti-Cosmo did; the force of the Master yell had caused Anti-Cosmo to flinch involuntarily and drop the Master Anti-Fairy into the cauldron with a hiss and a splash. Anti-Cosmo flinched back to avoid the scalding droplets.
After taking a moment to recompose himself, Anti-Cosmo began the ritual.
Trixie sat in the hospital waiting room, doing exactly what people in the waiting room were implied as being required to do there: wait.
Waiting was killing her.
The only reason they'd taken her to Dimmsdale Hospital was because she said that she was Timmy's girlfriend - though she'd gotten more than a few odd looks, because she was still wearing the wedding dress - and Tootie had tagged along to see if the boy that she'd been in love with for ten years, and that she had just begun a sisterly relationship with, would survive.
On the other side of the waiting room, Trixie saw a black-haired man she took to be Timmy's father, trying to comfort his sobbing brown-haired wife. Trixie didn't say anything to them. She couldn't say anything, except perhaps, "Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Turner, that your son got run over by a car because he loves me?"
So she said nothing.
At that point a doctor came out, holding a clipboard labeled 'Patient DFK-6498: Timothy T. Turner'.
"Who's here for Timothy Turner?" she said.
"We are," Timmy's father said as he, his wife, Trixie, and Tootie stood up.
"We have stabilized his bleeding and bandaged the wound," she said, the smile and compassion evident in her voice. " His leg was broken in two places, but we have it in a cast and sling. It is entirely likely that he'll make it through. Seeing as he should be in a lot worse state than he is - judging from the nature of the hit - someone up there must like him."
And me, Trixie added in her mind. I can't see why, but someone up there likes me.
Timmy's mother let out a ragged sigh of relief. "Oh my little boy," she sobbed. "He's gonna make it."
"Can we go see him?" Trixie asked, hoping that the answer was...
"Yes, you may," said the doctor, leading them down the hall to the room where Timmy lay in state.
"He's unconscious right now, since he woke up before the procedure," said the doctor. "We had to sedate him so that we could fix his side injury and broken leg without waking up the whole hospital.
"Well, here we are," she said, outside room A-113. "Now, only one to two visitors are allowed at a time, and I think it's most appropriate that the parents be the first to visit. No offense to either of you," she added to Trixie and Tootie.
Timmy's parents entered the room where Timmy was recovering.
For a minute or so, Trixie and Tootie sat in silence in the chairs outside the room, listening to the sobs of joy of Timmy's mother, crying over how happy she was that her son survived the accident, and his father swearing that he and his wife would never take Timmy for granted ever again.
Then, just before Timmy's parents came out of the hospital room, Trixie turned to Tootie.
She had to know...
"Why was Timmy running to my house?" Trixie asked. A part of her was thinking Why are you asking that Trixie? while another part of her was saying How can he still feel that way?
"...
"To tell you that he loves you," Tootie said.
There. In seven simple words. Tootie demolished any self-esteem that Trixie had hastily assembled before she came to the hospital.
The doctor turned to Trixie and Tootie. "Will both of you be going next, or one at a time?"
"You see him first," Tootie said, nudging Trixie as she pulled out her cell phone. "I'm gonna tell Sammy & Chester about what happened," she added.
The doctor lead Trixie into room A-113. There Trixie saw Timmy, lying unconscious. His right leg was wrapped in plaster, his face had developed a few bruises that Trixie had not noticed before. His shirt was off, revealing the bandages wrapped around his midsection.
With no one in the room to watch her, she lost her self-restraint.
She cried over his still form.
"How can you love me?" she asked herself more than anybody. She closed her eyes to stem the flow of tears, to no avail. "How, when I never even acted like you existed to me? How, when all you get out of me is 'not worthy' and 'empty bus seat'? How?"
"Because I know there's good in you, Trixie," said a weak voice from the bed. She opened her eyes...
And looked into Timmy's perfect blue ones.
There wasn't a thought that went through her head at that point. It was clouded by smoke. All that mattered was Timmy.
Ensuring that she didn't touch his wounded side, she embraced him.
"Oh Timmy," she sobbed into his shoulder; he had to have been wearing a shocked expression, why wouldn't he be? "You couldn't be more wrong about that. There is no good left in me! I'm always so horrible to anyone in the 'lower class', and I can't feel anything; I'm not allowed to. I'm not my own person. A person wouldn't act like that. I'm a-a machine of popularity, that's what I am!"
And that was true; she had no true heart anymore; from the moment that her mother began to drill into her that she was a member of the most popular family in Dimmsdale, she had a furnace-heart, that was fueled by a power source her mother had strongly protested against if it was directed at anyone with a lower level of popularity.
Her love for Timothy Thomas Turner.
And that fire with the strength of a thousand suns burned within it everyone and everything that Trixie despised among all others: her 'friends' Tad, Chad, and Veronica, her popularity, her status as the most popular girl in the city...
And especially herself.
"But I do feel something," said Trixie. "Something that has kept me going for the past ten years. Something that I can't live without. Something that I feel for someone that I shouldn't feel for them."
She could see the question in his eyes, those deep, beautiful cerulean eyes. He wanted to know.
She knew. He wanted to know everything about her.
She could have stared into those eyes forever. But she was just fooling herself, and deceiving him some more.
That had to stop.
Here...
And now.
Anti-Cosmo closed his eyes, raised his wand, and uttered, "Bone of Fairy, unknowingly taken..."
He sent his mind to Fairy World, where he located Jorgen von Strangle's office - which was little more than a weight room with a desk in the middle - and from there it was a cinch to locate the drawer in his desk labeled 'Teeth I Knocked out of Puny Fairies' Mouthes in a Display of My Muscles' Muscular Strength', and anti-poofed a few of the teeth into the air over the boiling cauldron.
Anti-Cosmo opened his eyes again, and the teeth dropped into the cauldron. Several Anti-Fairies 'ooh'-ed and 'aah'-ed at the hissing sound that followed.
Anti-Cosmo then hesitated for a moment, but any worry for himself evaporated like the water in the cauldron wasn't. This was to help the Master Anti-Fairy, and it had to be done.
With a twist of his will, his obsidian wand became a handgrip of steel and rubber, with a hole on one end. Anti-Cosmo pressed a button, and a crimson blade of light - with a five-pointed star at its apex - emerged from the hilt.
Anti-Cosmo, holding the lightsaber in his left hand, held it over his right wrist. "Flesh of Anti-Fairy, willingly given..."
And without a second's hesitation he brought the crimson blade down, vaporizing the cuff of his sleeve and disintegrating flesh and shearing bone; and away fell Anti-Cosmo's right hand, smelling of charred skin. It landed in the cauldron with a sickening splash and a loud hiss.
Anti-Cosmo floated there panting for a few seconds; this wound would not easily heal. Although Fairies and Anti-Fairies (as well as any crossbred offspring) are notoriously fast healers and can recover from life-threatening injuries in a matter of hours, severed limbs heal in much the same way that humans' do: slowly.
Perhaps the Master would see to it after his resurrection.
After a few seconds' recovery, Anti-Cosmo anti-poofed the lightsaber in his remaining hand back into a wand, and, ignoring the tears rolling down his face, continued, "And... (here's the tricky part) blood, of the Fairy counterpart, forcibly taken..."
Anti-Cosmo closed his eyes, and sent his mind out to... he didn't know where the Master's Fairy counterpart could be found. Taking a risk, Anti-Cosmo went out on a limb and began a mental chant.
Please bring a sample of the Master Anti-Fairy's Fairy counterpart's blood here...
Please bring a sample of the Master Anti-Fairy's Fairy counterpart's blood here...
Please bring a sample of the Master Anti-Fairy's Fairy counterpart's blood here...
There was an anti-poof before Anti-Cosmo, who opened his eyes. Hovering over the sizzling cauldron - which, he noted detachedly, was the exact shape of Cosmo & Wanda's fishbowl in Timmy Turner's bedroom - was a small shapeless blob of a viscous red fluid smaller around than a circle made by a child's forefinger and thumb.
The blood of the Master's Fairy counterpart... Anti-Cosmo thought. It must have been separated from him somehow. He lowered his wand, and the blood lowered into the cauldron as Anti-Cosmo shouted to his brethren, "Anti-ladies and Anti-gentlemen, my Anti-brothers and Anti-sisters - and my beloved Anti-Wanda, of course - lend me your Anti-ears! THE MASTER OF ALL ANTI-FAIRIES IS REBORN!"
There was a deafening cheer from the Anti-Fairies around Anti-Cosmo and the cauldron, which began to glow a brilliant white.
A column of eternal fire erupted from and engulfed the cauldron. An unholy rumble echoed in every direction as the flaming pillar spiralled into infinity. Anti-Cosmo, out of reflex, anti-poofed to his Anti-Wanda's side; it wouldn't do for him to be incinerated like that.
The Anti-Fairies began to chatter in confusion; what was going on? Their Master was supposed to be resurrected, not burst into flames like this.
The flames died out.
The Anti-Fairies, who had been watching the ascension of the flaming column to the point of vertigo, looked back down at where the cauldron was.
It wasn't there.
In its place was... something. They could see a small, slimy, blue something, surrounded by dark smoke, lowly moaning as it bended and flexed its limbs sporadically. Batlike wings poked out of its back, too small to do it any good, with or without magic.
And it was growing.
After a few moments, the small creature had grown to the size of an average Anti-Fairy, and gained recognizable features. Midnight-blue hair sprouted from its head and fangs protruded from its upper jaw, as the clouds of darkness began to swirl around its body and some point over its head. Its eyes were closed, and it was hunched forward in a fetal position.
But it didn't stop growing there; it grew and grew, from the mere one-and-a-half-foot height of an average Anti-Fairy, to the five-foot-nine height of an average teenage human male.
The dark clouds were jet-black by now, and had taken on identifiable appearances. The clouds about its torso would form its clothes, and a tall crown-like formation over his head would become its hat.
The creature straightened up, and the dark clouds dissipated, revealing its T-shirt - which was eerily the exact color of its hair - and its pants, shoes, and hat with five crownlike points on its top - all of which were as dark as night, save a crimson band about the base of the crown-hat on its head. A shadow stretched from its shoulders as a cape; behind this cape unfolded a pair of very large bat wings.
Through Anti-Cosmo's monocle, it was seen as a being of nothingness with violet light swirling through its form.
The Master of All Anti-Fairies was reborn as an Anry.
---
The Master reached up with clawed fingers, running his hands over the top of his head. He felt his fingers roll through a full head of hair. Next, he brought a hand up to his face, feeling every groove and curve and form on his face, recalling what it was like then...
And noting the differences that age brought.
And speaking of age, his wings were now far larger. As a test to see how much wind they could hold - and to see if he could fly if his supply of magic were somehow cut off - he flapped his large bat-wings a few times.
He snapped his eyes open. His mismatched black-and-white eyes with their blood-red scleras, watched as the smoke that was all that remained of the cauldron he was reborn in blew away.
This was good.
The Master raised his right arm, with his palm facing him. He brought his left arm up, and an obsidian wand with a foot-long handle and an upside-down, five-pointed star on its tip appeared in his left hand.
He plunged one of the two leading points deep into the area just below his right wrist, and dragged it straight down his forearm.
The Master watched detachedly as the blood that seeped from the wound was not blue as cobalt glass, as Anti-Fairy blood was, but red as rubies. Like Fairy blood.
And human blood.
This, too, was good.
Now that his Fairy counterpart's blood ran in his veins and he himself was an Anry, he had no fear of death if his Fairy counterpart were to die.
Say, from a Verbus Mortus spell.
In seconds, the wound had sealed itself up again, with no sign of a scar.
Then the Master let his eyes roam over the Anti-Fairies, reading their expressions of awe, fear, and reverence. Some were even bowing. He sent his mind outwards - it was so easy now, he was almost startled; but then, he had spent only a single day in his natural form - and read their true thoughts.
Analyzed their true hearts.
He was disgusted.
These fools were obsessed with bad luck, Friday the 13th, black cats, and the like. They did not live for supremacy; they lived solely to ensure that bad luck and only bad luck had supremacy.
Insolent fools, he thought.
Anti-Cosmo floated forwards. Tears of mingled joy and pain streamed down his face as he held out his right arm - still lacking a hand - and said, "Umm, Master?"
Without a word, the Master waved his wand, and a new hand appeared in place of Anti-Cosmo's old one. It looked like he was wearing a silvery glove.
"Thank you, Master," said Anti-Cosmo, his eyes alight with admiration of his new appendage. "It's beautiful..."
The Master Anti-Fairy smirked. His voice sounded much lower now that he was in his teen years. And more menacing. "It is simply repayment of this, Anti-Cosmo," he said, gesturing towards his body, whole and freshly made. Then he turned his head towards his throne and raised his hand, and the Thermos, which lay on its side on his throne, floated over into his hand.
"I shall return, my servants," said the Master. "I must inform our allies of my resurrection."
And rather than disappearing in a cloud of black smoke or pale-blue smoke, the Master phased away to his next destination, as though he wasn't even there.
As though he didn't exist.
"You're her best friends!" Beatrix shouted at Tad, Chad, and Veronica as they sat on the couch in the sitting room. "You should know her better than most people! I didn't force your parents to drive you here just so that you three could sit there and not tell me anything! Why is she going to the hospital to look after that Toner boy?!"
Tad said, "Umm, it's actually Turner--..."
"THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT!" Beatrix yelled at them, and they quivered in their seats. "What is important is that you three tell why she's even ten feet from him, NOW!" On her last word, she slammed her fist on the table, and the house shook around them.
Nigel tapped his irritant wife on the shoulder. "Umm, honey, you get more flies with--..."
"SHUT UP, NIGEL! TELL ME I'M PRETTY!" Beatrix shrieked, her left eye twitching slightly. Nigel slowly backed away, mumbling a quick "You're pretty," before hurrying to a small chair in the corner of the room.
"Now..." Beatrix hissed, leaning in to Tad, Chad, and Veronica's faces close enough to kiss them. "Why is my very popular daughter following a boy from the very bottom rungs of popularity to the hospital?"
"She likes him," blurted out Veronica. She wanted Timmy, and would do anything to get him, even rat out her 'best friend'. Tad and Chad gave her horrified looks which she ignored. "And she totally doesn't care about the whole popularity thing, because she's so totally in love with him, y'know?"
Beatrix gave Veronica a skeptical look, as if she didn't quite believe her.
Tad & Chad were dumbstruck. Tad was the first to say anything, "Veronica! You swore you wouldn't tell anyone!"
"What?" Veronica said, confused. "You totally said, and I totally quote, 'You won't tell Trixie what we discussed here, will you, Veronica?' You so didn't say that I couldn't tell Trixie's mom, so I didn't, y'know, break my promise."
And she knew they were in big trouble there.
"You knew?" Beatrix said. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because," Tad said. "She's a friend. And I don't mean that we only like her because she's popular like we are."
"It was like that at first, though," Chad continued. "Then, after a little time, we realized we would never sell her out like that."
"She became a real friend to us," Tad added.
"But we're not her friends," Chad said.
"What do you mean?" Beatrix persisted.
"She hates us," Tad said. "I think that we embody popularity in her eyes. She thinks we're keeping her from Timmy--..."
"Who?"
"The 'Toner boy'," said Chad coolly. "Like Veronica said, she really likes him, and she thinks her popularity is what's keeping her from being with him."
"Well, it isn't," Beatrix said, and Tad, Chad, and Veronica gave her surprised looks.
"It's his unpopularity that says that they shouldn't be together! It wouldn't be good for the family bloodline if we had unpopularity tainting it," Beatrix snarled.
"Unpopularity isn't genetic, Beatrix," Nigel said, standing up and walking towards Beatrix. "And who knows? It might be good to introduce some diversity into the bloodline. I mean, look at your family history. At least a third of the marriages in your family involved inbreeding!"
"So?" Beatrix asked coldly. Tad, Chad, and Veronica expected Nigel to back down.
They were wrong.
"So, I think I actually love our daughter, unlike you," Nigel said. "All you seem to care about is how her social life will affect yours."
"I do care about what she wants!" Beatrix shouted.
"So, do you know what she wants?" Nigel replied, barely raising his voice.
At this point, Tad, Chad, and Veronica knew that Beatrix had no leg to stand on in her argument.
"Uh...um..."
"Beatrix, I love you," Nigel said. "But I think that you put too much emphasis on material possessions. I think you should consider yourself lucky that our daughter - our little girl - has really fallen in love, unlike all the arranged marriages our families went through."
"So you're complaining about our marriage now, when you had the chance to 16 years ago when we said our vows?"
"I'm not complaining about our marriage, dear," Nigel said, now standing directly in front of Beatrix. "I'm just asking you to get your priorities straight, and ask yourself what's more important: Trixie's popularity, or Trixie's happiness?"
Tad and Chad could see that Beatrix seemed to be waging an internal battle; they could just imagine what she was thinking about as though all of her rouge and mascara and lipstick were translucent: if Beatrix refused to allow Trixie to be with Timmy, then she would have to put up with a daughter who would either hate her mother forever or take a long walk off the nearest and shortest pier; but if Beatrix however reluctantly allowed her daughter to be with Timmy, then Trixie would be forever grateful to her mother, whether or not she was disowned.
Finally, Beatrix Tang made a decision that would affect her family forever.
This is how it feels to be Timmy Turner, right now:
Here, now, in seven simple words, Trixie has changed your world.
"I'm in love with you, Timmy Turner."
The true meaning of these words eludes you, as the scope they imply is too great even for your adolescent mind to comprehend.
"For--... For how long?" you hear yourself asking.
"Since the first day of kindergarten," she says, her voice thick with tears.
So the girl that you love more than anything else in the universe - the girl who was everything that was ever loved by anyone to you - has been lying to you from the moment you first set eyes on each other.
And you're not even mad about it.
Only stunned.
"Wow," is all that you have to say. Words have failed you.
"But I shouldn't love you, Timmy!" she says, almost hysterical. "You think I live the perfect life, but that's not true. Nothing could be further from the truth. You live the perfect life; you don't have to worry about conforming to the norm of popularity; you don't have to worry about playing video games, watching action movies, or reading comics like Skull Squisher or Crash Nebula or Space Wars. You live a care-free life, and--..." Then she breaks down, wiping the tears away from her eyes in vain.
Accidently wiping away her eyeshadow.
And you find her even more beautiful.
"Ohh, Timmy, I don't deserve you at all!" she says, embracing you again. "I've been so horrible to you for ten years. Tootie is the one who deserves your love. Tootie is the one who you should be with, not me." She buries herself into your chest, and you hear her mutter something that sounds like, "I hate myself..."
You raise your hands, placing one on her back and moving it back and forth in a comforting way, and caressing her perfect, silky-black hair with your other.
"Why do you love me?" she asks.
And to you, there is no need to think about the answer at all.
"Because I know that you deserve love," you say, speaking your heart. You have been going over this in your head for years now; now is the time to put it to the test. "I know that being popular is a real stinker, and I know that you can't be yourself when you are as popular as you are, and I know that you like comics and action movies and stuff like that." You notice her looking up at you in shock, her face red and puffy from her crying. "Don't worry. Next to the friends I got, that's pretty much normal to me. I wouldn't let things like that make me think any less of you. I knew that you didn't mean it when you rejected me or said 'no' or 'not worthy' to me; I knew you had to have some feelings for me somewhere. I mean, you did kiss me that time."
"Well, I kind of lost control of my feelings there," she says. The tears have stopped, but she still sounds teary.
"But I liked it," you continue. "No, I loved it. I wanted more of it. I want more of it. What do you want, Trixie?"
She pauses for a moment. "You, Timmy," she says. "I want you. I need you, Timmy! I can't live without you!"
"And you can have me, if you really want me. Listen, Trixie. If that limo was heading for you and I knew I would die if I pushed you out of its way, I would have done it. I don't care if we're on opposite sides of the popularity chart from each other. I don't care what Tad, Chad, Veronica, or your bodyguard have to say about me. I don't even care if I lose all my credibility in Dimmsdale from saying this, but: I'm in love with you, Trixie Tang. Now and forever."
And you mean every word of it. In your heart, you know you would never let harm come to her.
This is how it feels to be Timmy Turner, right now...
---
This is how it feels to be Trixie Tang, right now:
You take in every word that Timmy has said as though it were water. As though those words alone can keep you alive for a moment longer.
And as far as you are concerned, they can.
Never before had you realized just how deeply he cares for you. Before you had thought, He's in love with me. That's good. But never before have you realized you are more to him than a simple object of lust.
You are the very reason he exists.
You are everything that he has ever loved.
And what's more, he doesn't care about your popularity.
Right now, neither do you.
All you know is that your mother will kill you when she sees you again.
So there is no choice at all.
And there is no need for words.
You slowly lean down to embrace him and let him wash over you and wash away all your worries and concerns.
Then an odd feeling comes over you. It is like your brain has become a house, and all of your memories are different rooms in the house, and the door leading to the basement has been locked for years. The feeling is that of the door suddenly becoming unlocked and memories that you have forgotten have suddenly been recalled.
And you remember them.
Your Fairy GodParents.
Then you hear twin poofs overhead and two cheery voices calling out your name.
And Timmy's.
"Hey, Timmy & Trixie!" they say.
You start, turning around and looking up at Cosmo & Wanda.
"Cosmo? Wanda? What are you doing here?" you say. But you are not the only one who said it. You look over at Timmy.
"Uhh, Trixie, Cosmo & Wanda. They're my Fairy GodParents," he says, before turning to Cosmo & Wanda. "Good-bye, guys. I never thought I'd lose you like this, with you two poofing in when you're not supposed to been seen by anyone but me."
So it's my fault that Timmy's losing his Fairy GodParents? you think. Do I really deserve him?
"But Timmy," Cosmo says, a smile apparent on his face. "We aren't supposed to leave yet. There's a new Rule."
A new Rule?
"Whoop-dee-doo, another Rule that'll make sure that I can't make any wishes at all for the rest of your tenure as my GodParents," Timmy drones out.
Wanda poofs up Da Rules and turns to a specific page. She says, "Actually, the new Rule says, 'If a GodChild is in love with another child - who returns those feelings - who has Fairy GodParent(s) or had the same Fairy GodParent(s) as the former child at an earlier time, those two children shall be permitted to share the Fairy GodParents, regardless of past misdeeds'!"
You feel your heart skip a beat; you could possibly be reunited with the Fairy GodParents who were so loving and caring towards you - and for whom you reciprocated the feelings - and whom you unfortunately lost due to a careless mistake. I do believe in Fairies, you chant in your mind, recalling the reason you lost them. I do believe in Fairies. I do believe in Fairies.
"So, you guys aren't going away forever? And I can share you guys with Trixie?" Timmy says, a smile evident on his face. You love his smile. You love his bucked teeth. You love his blue eyes. You love everything about him.
"You bet, sport!" Wanda says, smiling down at you both. "And don't worry about people hearing all this talk about magic. I sound-proofed the room--..."
"You mean 'sound-poofed', baby," says Cosmo, eliciting a chuckle from Wanda.
"Yes, sweetie, I meant 'sound-poofed'," Wanda continues, giving Cosmo a soft look. "Sound-poofed the room so that no one outside can hear what's happening in here until you leave, Trixie."
"Ohhh, Cosmo! Wanda!" you exclaim, jumping up to embrace them. Ah, that floating feeling from contacting a Fairy while jumping. How you love it. "You have no idea how much this means to me! I love you guys so much!"
"Ohh, Trixie," Wanda says, hugging you back and letting you feel the warmth and motherly love your mother never gave you. "We love you too, and we'll never stop!"
Letting go, you drop back to the ground, landing on the seat beside Timmy's hospital bed. You cannot believe your fortune; less than an hour ago, you'd thought you would lose Timmy forever; now, he knows of your love, would do anything for you, and you remember Cosmo & Wanda, your Fairy GodParents. You can't imagine that this is the same day, let alone the same hour.
"Oh, and Timmy, Trixie, Cupid apologizes for putting you through any pain these past ten years," Wanda says. "I know you think he wanted you to be with Tootie, Timmy, but he wanted you to rely on yourself, and be yourself, so he acted like--..."
"I understand, Wanda," Timmy says. You understand, too. "It was reverse psychology!"
"That's right! And your prize is...!" Cosmo says in a game-show-host voice, raising his wand, the star glowing.
Wanda raises her hand. "Uh, better not do that, sweetie," she says. Cosmo lowers his wand, looking dejected. Then Wanda kisses him on the cheek, and he perks up.
Timmy looks at you, putting his hand to his head and miming talking into a telephone, "Hello, Heaven. You must be missing an angel, 'cause there's one here with me right now."
"Hmph, that's a pretty corny flirt, Timmy," you say. Then you lean over him, a flirtatious look on your face. "I loved it."
And, for the first time ever, you and the love of your life share a kiss.
And everything is perfect.
This is how it feels to be Trixie Tang, right now...
Trixie walked out of room A-113 on a high. She felt as giddy as a Chip Skylark fangirl who had just gotten the singing sensation's autograph.
Trixie knew just how strongly her feelings burned for Timmy, and how strongly his burned for her. There were no secrets anymore; they would never keep secrets from each other. Not even the secret of having Fairy GodParents. They loved each other too much to deceive each other anymore.
They would start going steady the instant he fully recovered.
And they knew it. They didn't even need to decide on it.
The decision was made that first day of kindergarten.
Now that they knew how important they were to each other, neither would ever leave the other's side.
Ever.
They needed each other, since they were both half of one person. Trixie chuckled to herself as she recalled Cosmo & Wanda describing themselves to her as 'two halves of a whole idiot'.
"And what is so funny, young lady? Something your little 'boyfriend' said?" said a very familiar voice.
Then Trixie looked up, and saw her mother.
"You could say that," she said simply.
There was a tense silence in the air as thick as Cosmo's skull.
"Beatrix Elizabeth Tang the Second," Beatrix finally said.
Uh-oh, Trixie thought. She only says my name like that when I'm in trouble. Big trouble.
"Your friends have betrayed you," Beatrix said to her daughter. "They told me how you feel for Tommy Trumbull."
Tad, Chad, and Veronica betrayed me? "Timmy Turner--..."
"The only reason I'm not shouting 'That's not the point', young lady, is because we're in a hospital," Beatrix hissed. She almost sounded more menacing than when she was shouting. It was at this point that Trixie saw Tad and Chad behind her mother, in addition to her father. And Veronica was nowhere to be found. Tad, Chad, and her father all looked... relieved?
I can see why Tad & Chad would look that way if they didn't have to deal with me anymore, Trixie thought. But why my dad? And where's Veronica?
"How much does he mean to you?" Beatrix asked.
"He means everything and more to me," Trixie said, her heart pounding against her ribcage. And she may have sounded corny, but it was true.
"Well, your father and I were talking after we found out how you feel about him," Beatrix continued. "And frankly, your father just wants you to be happy."
Trixie remained silent, not knowing what her mother would say next.
She was shocked.
"I had no foot to stand on in our argument, and I - however reluctantly - conceded to your father's and Tad & Chad's demands. You can go steady with him. Your marriage to Theobald is indefinitely postponed."
"What?"
It was a natural response to a natural surprise; her mother would really let her go out with Timmy? And Tad & Chad wanted her to?
"I said you can go out with Timon, or whatever his name is! But the second you two break up, you are not allowed near him ever again!"
"Oh, thank you, Mommy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Trixie squealed, hugging her mother about the waist. Beatrix looked surprised; after all, Trixie hadn't called her 'Mommy' in almost twelve years. I guess I'll make sure we never break up, then, she thought. Then something startling happened.
Beatrix hugged Trixie back.
She seemed to realize what she was doing, though, because she then pulled herself away, brushed off her skirt, and said, "Don't read too much into that, Trixie. It was a one-time thing."
"Thanks anyway, Mom," Trixie said, turning to Tad & Chad.
"We were rooting for you two the whole time, y'know," said Tad.
"We wouldn't have ratted you out if Veronica didn't say anything," added Chad.
"Where is she, anyway?" Trixie asked.
"The second your mom decided to let you go steady with Timmy, she just went berzerk and ran off down the street," Chad said.
"I always knew she was the crazy one," Tad added.
Then something no one expected happened.
Trixie threw her arms around Tad & Chad, tears of joy in her eyes. And as this happened, she felt her furnace-heart transforming, the whole of her being becoming a true person.
Rather than an embodiment of popularity.
She was her own being, at last.
"You guys are true friends," she said.
"We never weren't," Tad said, patting her on the back.
---
Tootie walked into Timmy's hospital room. He looked pretty bad, but still looked like he'd pull through.
"Hey, sis," Timmy said to her as she came in, refering to the strength of their friendship now.
"So Vicky's your sister, too?" Tootie said, giggling.
"Icky Vicky? No way! Just the thought of being around her makes me oh so sicky!" Timmy replied, quoting the Chip Skylark song 'Icky Vicky'. Timmy and Tootie laughed for a few seconds.
"So, what happened?" Tootie asked.
"Well, I told Trixie that I love her," he said.
"And?"
"And she loves me, too."
"I figured. Her mom is out there. She very reluctantly gave you her blessing. Veerryy reluctantly."
Timmy chuckled. "I guess I owe her one," he said.
"I guess. ...Tad & Chad were supportive from the beginning."
"Really?" Timmy said. He didn't expect that. "And the crazy one?"
"Crazy one?"
"Veronica?"
"Oh! She quote-unquote 'went postal' when she found out Trixie's mom allowed you and Trixie to go out. We don't know where she ran off to."
"I'm not surprised that she ran off. She likes me."
"I'm guessing you don't like crazy girls like that?"
"Why would I be? I bet all she wants is me from the waist down!"
There was an uproar.
"Well, that's good to hear," Tootie said. "Get well soon, Timmy." And she kissed him on the cheek.
Timmy reached up to feel the spot where Tootie had kissed him as Tootie left the hospital room.
---
A few hours later, Tootie had found Sammy & Chester in the park. She had developed a friendship with them the same as Timmy over those three years, only not quite as strong.
"Hey, lovebirds. What's up?" she said. They looked up from their makeout-fest, and were surprised to see Tootie standing there.
"Hey, Tootie," said Chester, still holding hands with Sammy. "Sorry I couldn't make it to the hospital. Will Timmy be alright?"
Tootie smiled. "He'll be just fine," she said. "In fact, he just got Trixie Tang as a girlfriend."
"He did?" Chester said, looking surprised. "That's great!"
"Yeah," Sammy added, smiling. "I hope they're happy together."
"Me too," said Tootie, walking off, wandering aimlessly through the park.
I suppose it's better to wander aimlessly through the park than to spend the day with Vicky, she thought. Then she spotted someone walking down the walkway in the opposite direction.
Rudy Reed.
Perfect.
"Rudy!" Tootie called out.
---
"Rudy!"
Rudy turned around, surprised. Tootie was actually calling out to him? But she didn't like him enough to actually do that.
Didn't she?
Tootie ran up to him. "Umm, hey, Rudy," she said rather awkwardly.
"I heard about what happened to Timmy," said Rudy, feeling ten times as awkward. "I'd have come to the hospital, but I had to help my dad fix a leak in the roof."
"It's the thought that counts, though, huh?" Tootie said. After a moment of tense silence, she continued, "Timmy's Trixie Tang's boyfriend now."
"Really?" Rudy said. "He finally got what he wanted, huh?" And when will I?
"Yeah" Silence. "So... n-nice day, huh?"
"Any day's nice when you're around, Tootie," Rudy said, before he could stop himself. Stupid! he thought, though, much to his surprise, Tootie actually blushed!
"That was pretty corny, Rudy," she said. Rudy chuckled nervously to himself, lowering his gaze to look at Tootie's feet.
"I liked it," said Tootie, unknowingly repeating what Trixie Tang had said to Timmy just hours ago, putting her hand under his chin so that he could look her in the eyes again. Rudy was shocked when Tootie removed her glasses, letting him stare into the bottomless pools of amethyst beauty that were her eyes.
Will she...? Rudy thought, but his thoughts were interrupted when Tootie pressed her lips to his.
She was kissing him.
And when the reality of it finally sank in, Rudy kissed her back.
They only pulled apart when the need for oxygen overwhelmed them.
Rudy was almost afraid to say anything, as though saying even a single word would cause this whole scene before him to shatter into a million pieces, from which he'd never be able to reconstruct such a scene in reality.
He had to know, though.
"So, does this mean...?" he said.
"Yes, it does," said Tootie, kissing Rudy again, then replacing her glasses. "Wanna see a movie?" She asked.
"Do I ever!"
As has been stated before, the Trixie-Timmy-Tootie love triangle is a textbook example of the perfect love triangle, with its ideal players and its distribution of emotions and its ideal outcome for its players.
It worked perfectly.
In the Bermuda Triangle, where no man dares enter, two islands can be found.
These are no ordinary islands, as no other islands in the world - or in the rest of the universe, for that matter - are inhabitated with wishes that a foolhardy child wished for, then later tired of and unwished.
One is Timmy Turner's Unwish Island.
The other is Tibecuador, which Turner wished into existence to make his 'perfect' older brother, Tommy, credible - Tommy was supposedly working there.
Was.
Before I destroyed him.
Unwished Wishes are normally stored in a locker in Fairy World. However, Turner has so many, that a larger space was required.
Like an island.
How do I know all this?
Because I am an Unwished Wish.
Dark Laser. Imaginary Gary. The Pumpkinator. Just a small handful of my brothers and sisters.
None of us truly exist anymore.
And my status as an Anry does not change that.
I am still an Unwished Wish, and I still do not exist anymore, the Master thought to himself as he spoke with Imaginary Gary outside the Club 'We Hate Timmy'. Being Timmy's old imaginary friend, Gary bore an uncanny resemblance to Timmy Turner.
I guess that makes two of us, the Master thought. He had told the Pixies, the Yugopotamians, the Yokians, and the Gigglepies of his resurrection.
Now he was telling the Unwished Wishes.
His only true allies.
"You've been resurrected? Cool..." said Gary, smirking evilly. "Nice to see you in your true form, Master Anti-Tim-Tim."
"Please, call me 'Master Anti-Timothy', not Anti-Tim-Tim, or Anti-Timmy, or Anti-Tim. They sound so... informal."
"Yeah, sure, whate--... I mean, of course, Master," said Gary, bowing to Anti-Timothy when he saw him raising his wand at him. Anti-Timothy heard him thinking, Yeah, sure, Anti-Tim-Tim. I wonder what's in that Thermos in his hand?
I'll pretend I didn't hear that, Anti-Timothy thought as he said, "Will you tell the others of my return?"
"Of course, Master Anti-Timothy. Where are you going?" Gary asked as he saw Anti-Timothy fading to his next destination.
"Why, to go ghost, of course," said Anti-Timothy, who faded completely from Unwish Island, and appeared before a mansion in Wisconsin. The mansion of Vlad Masters.
Also known as Vlad Plasmius, the Wisconsin Ghost.
(Note: So it's been nine days since I promised that I'd post within a week. Not quite as late as many of you probably expected, but at least you didn't wait a month, right?
Quite a few things happened in this chapter, huh? Timmy & Trixie become bf and gf, as do Tootie & Rudy, the Master Anti-Fairy - or rather, Anti-Timothy - is resurrected and journeys to meet up with Vlad Plasmius of Danny Phantom fame, and Beatrix Tang flips out! Not to mention TWO 'This is how it feels to be...' moments! Whoda thunkit?
As an explanation for why Theobald's limo almost ran over Timmy, Anti-Timothy used Contrarotus on the driver, and made it drive into Timmy. Originally, a random car was to come out of nowhere after Timmy & Trixie have a tiff, and he'd push her out of the way and get hit in the process. I really wish I could have found a way to put that in, but hey, you can't have everything.
And I'd like to congratulate the last two people to guess Anti-Timothy's identity: Behemoth and Red Panda Bear (though you got it on your second try). I would like to show you guys a picture of Anti-Timothy I drew in Paint, based on a screenshot of Timmy from 'A Mile in My Shoes' (which partly inspired Anti-Timothy; Lord Voldemort is also to blame):
img344. imageshack. us/ img344/ 4292/ masterantifairy4ce. png
Just Copy it into your Address bar, remove the spaces, and hit Enter.
Looking back, his eyes became that way when he lost his heart. That is more of an amalgam pic, in retrospect; back then, Anti-Timothy had Timmy's eyes, but they became the way they are now after he lost his heart.
But this isn't the end. Not by a long shot; it just the beginning of the end. You won't see the ending for a few chapters yet! Mwahahahahahahaha...!
Anyway, I'll keep on writing this if people keep on reviewing this! May the Force be with you all!
Edit 7-10-06: Fixed some things up; added mention of Tibecuador and the cancellation of Theobald's wedding. Also, anyone who wants to use the "'Just the Two of Us' is a nightmare" idea, go right ahead! I'm not stopping you!)