Author's Note: This chapter is going to have quite a bit of action, as opposed to the more slow-paced emotional ones that came before. I hope you all enjoy it! Please keep reading and reviewing!
Chapter Ten: An Epic Showdown
An unexpected fire drill has left Dimmsdale deserted, and Dee has a sneaking suspicion as to why it's happened.
She senses them before she can see them. The air ripples with energy, with power. The power of the three wands. She lingers in Timmy's old back yard. She thinks of him curled up in her heart, his little light flowing through it, restoring her. Those aggressors cannot be allowed to undo that progress.
It is time for war. It is time for the last great war before she can properly enjoy the eternal peace with her beloved.
Dee rises above the roof of the Chosen One's house. She braces herself to face the marauding army.
On the street in front of her are a trio of kids in fancy dress, clutching tiny models of the three wands.
"Meet the Turbo Sisters!" the redhead with the fire wand announces.
"Here to retrieve the boy we love!" the beauty with the wind wand explains.
"And engineer your demise!" the little one with the ice wand finishes. "Whatever that means."
Three young girls? Is that the best they can do?
Dee laughs. It's a long, booming, witchy cackle, right in their faces, and she can't stop it no matter how hard she tries. At the end, she coughs and splutters, and a spanner falls out. "This is going to be the shortest war ever!" she tells the morons.
By way of proof, three dozen Comforters spill out of her mouth and onto the road. Their arms morph into laser guns.
"Believe me," Dee adds, "I have many more loyal servants waiting to finish you off. So you'd better leave now before you're given a good thrashing."
"Oh, we're not going anywhere," says the beauty.
Thirteen soldiers in camouflage clothing emerge from the bushes. But that's not all. A swarm of fairies rises from the houses behind, the sky blackening due to their sheer numbers.
"And neither are we!" they shout.
The terror paralyses Dee. Why did that adorable boy have to have so many loved ones? Why are they all trying to kill her?
But her concerns are only temporary. Her will to fight has grown, not shrunk. She regurgitates almost all the Comforters she has left in her. "Don't mind me," she reassures the viewers when they curl their lips. "I'm just evening out the odds."
Two sides stare at each other. One is made up of a mish-mash of human beings, aliens and fairies – lots and lots of fairies. The other consists of a troop of machines led by their near-omnipotent commander, the murky abyss that children have nightmares about.
Who will make the first move?
"Give us the boy," Jorgen orders, "and no-one gets hurt."
"Why should I trust you?" Dee sneers. "Why should I do as you say?"
Vicky suddenly hollers, "Because if you don't, you're gonna feel the heat of my fire powers!" She blasts an inferno at the Darkness. It clings to the gloom and licks her innards with forked tongues.
Yet Dee revels in the wounding. It means the Comforters are adapting. The heat explodes from their mouths. Fireballs illuminate the sky, sending screaming fairies scattering with singed wings.
Vicky stares at the carnage, open-mouthed. "Did I say my fire powers? I meant your fire powers."
"Not so confident now, are you?" Dee leers.
"All right, time for Plan B," Trixie declares. "Prepare to be blown away!"
"Trixie, don't!" Tootie cries. "It won't work!"
But it's too late. She's put a whirlwind among the Comforters, propelling them in all directions. While it's still churning, Dee reaches out and sweeps it up. The machines fall to the ground – and then copy Trixie's manoeuvre.
Chaos ensues.
Doors snap off their hinges. Windows shatter. Metal grinds on the road. The gales howl. Fairies smash into the flotsam and jetsam. Bones crack. People scream. It's a cacophony.
By the end of it all, Dimmsdale is left in tatters. Houses have been razed to the ground (except, bizarrely, the Turners' house). The wreckage is piled up in the streets. The core members of the squad pat themselves down, checking for injuries. One in particular is frantic. "Where's my wand?" Jorgen asks.
"Oh, you'd like your wand, would you?" Dee sniggers. "The wand that just so happened to find its way into me?"
The Comforters' guns at the end of their arms turn into black wands. They have magic on their side and they're not afraid to use it.
The enemies are left virtually powerless, so they try a different tactic. Begging. Mr and Mrs Turner drop to their knees before their robotic overlords. "Please, let's stop this madness! Just give us back our son!" the mother beseeches her foe.
"After everything you've done to me? Not in a million years," the Darkness refuses. "Timmy Turner was the first creature in my entire existence to treat me with any semblance of kindness, and I can't let him go or else I'll have no-one. Why do you want him back, anyway? To turn him against me and … and make him murder me? I definitely won't allow that."
"It doesn't have to be that way!" Tootie insists.
"Yes, it does! If you want Timmy, you'll have to go through me! And you nincompoops are clearly not up to the task!"
Tootie surveys the gaping vortex. You'll have to go through me … that's it!
She pops her wings out, takes off and flies into the mouth of the Darkness.
"Tootie!" Vicky screeches. "Where do you think you're going?"
…
Left. Right. Over. Under. Tootie flits this way and that as she dodges the remnants of past battles. A few stray robots, quite obviously defunct due to their dents and exposed wires, charge at her. Every time, a giant icicle to the chest stops them in their tracks. This girl is on a mission, and nothing is going to stop her.
And then she reaches the layer of absolute nothingness.
She halts and squints into the obscurity. What was she thinking? There's no way you could find a blue whale in here, never mind a ten-year-old boy. Besides, even if she frees Timmy, how will she spot the way back out?
"Give up, child! You'll never find him!" The Darkness's voice reaches her from everywhere. "You'll never find anything in this swathe of impenetrable obscurity!"
"Except that, genius!" Tootie points.
A heart-shaped grotto emits its overpowering pure white beams. She dashes towards it. Inky tendrils snap around her legs and yank her back. The girl scrapes them off. They freeze at her touch, so she snaps them apart. She blasts away, leaving a trail of coldness behind her so no vines can follow her.
She's reached the core of the Darkness. There's one patch that isn't dazzling her. It's a hole in the heart. Tootie hacks at it with icy claws. The Darkness writhes and yowls, but the girl ignores it. She enters.
There's a ball at the very centre of the heart, glowing brighter than all the rest, so brilliant that Tootie can barely look at it. There's nowhere else he can be. She claws at the lining.
"OW! STOP THAT NOW, YOU BRAT!" the Darkness shrieks.
Tootie ignores it, peeling away the layers to expose the lump of flesh underneath. There it is! His chocolate-brown hair comes into view. He has his back to her. She shoves some more of the Darkness aside and yanks him into her lap.
"Timmy?"
It's him, all right. But it's not the Timmy she knows. He's covered in dirt and almost skeletal. He's smiling in his sleep, away with the fairies.
He doesn't look like he's been tortured or abused or anything, but Tootie still has a bad feeling about this. She needs to get him out of there.
…
Peace, warmth, love – these are the facets of his life. There is nothing to do except simply be. There are no feelings besides this sweet bliss. It hangs in his ears, settles in his eyes, lingers on his tongue. It is everywhere. It is everything. It is her. It is him. They are the same. They are bliss.
Occasionally a ghostly memory flickers in the void. A brief hug. A stolen kiss. Enough to keep the smile on his face. Enough to keep the heavenly world in place. He is safe. Safe from what? Why does it matter? This is all there is, and it is nice.
And then it is spoiled.
A piece breaks away. The realm falls apart. Air hits his back. Cold. Too cold.
Hands are everywhere, ripping the sky to shreds, crumbling the ground. He is exposed. He is vulnerable. He is lost.
He cannot open his eyes. They are heavy with longing, longing for the tranquillity of old. Maybe if he ignores the tremor, it'll stop. Maybe the demon will leave him be.
No chance. It clutches him. It pulls him out. It is taking him away. He groggily kicks a leg out. It doesn't have any effect. The monster is clinging on to him. It is hurting him. Why is it hurting him?
A strange noise assaults his ears. A voice. A high-pitched voice, stirring a buried annoyance.
"You're coming home, Timmy! You're coming with me! It's over!"
Who is she? What is she doing to him?
And what's "over"?
…
Dee is upping her game. Since that child escaped with her little light, the heart has darkened considerably. She can't lose him again. She won't lose him again. And she doesn't care how many people are injured in the process of getting him back.
"Return to me now!" she barks to her Comforters. "Throw the girl out, but don't let Timmy leave!"
Tootie overhears the command and picks up speed. It's futile, though. They're already amassing. The lines of beady green eyes seem to stretch on forever.
Her plan was stupid. Her plan is going to backfire. Timmy will be taken back so the Darkness can resume whatever it was doing to him. It will tighten security. She will be attacked by its slaves, or worse.
Her boosters splutter out as her heart is sinking. I'm sorry, Timmy. I've failed you.
And then it hits her.
She knows the machines are coming for her.
She knows where they're coming from.
She knows where she can leave.
Tootie doesn't stop. She doesn't fly away either. She dives straight at the Comforters, ready for the onslaught.
They try to use Vicky's fire against her, but she cools the air around her. The flames freeze as soon as they start to burn. With her free hand, Tootie shoots out a series of cutting snowflakes. Arms are coming off and heads are rolling. They barely seem to be putting up a fight, no matter how much the Darkness bellows, "STOP THAT THIEF!"
Once she reaches the back of the army, Tootie stops the blitz. She clicks her heels, quickens and follows the line of Comforters, which promises a path to the outside world. She's made it into the circle of debris, which now looks so much more familiar. She retraces her journey through the arrows, grenades and spent missiles.
Not once does she loosen her grip on Timmy, even as he starts smacking her head and back. "Help!" he wails.
"Don't worry, we're almost there," she reassures him. She makes a beeline for the familiar shade of red until it is all around her.
A small patch of blue sky is just about visible. The vortex pulsates and constricts. The patch flickers and shrinks. The jaws are closing!
Tootie clicks her heels again, powering up her rocket boosters even more. She's practically at warp speed. Her face aches, but she's going to make it.
"Get ready to see the light!" she squeals to her one true love.
He shakes his head and lets out an unintelligible cry, thrashing in her grasp.
As Tootie careers out of the tiniest of holes, Timmy is ripped from his paradise.
…
Too hot! Skin burning! Fire! Put out the fire!
"Calm down, Timmy! Stop screaming!"
"We're here now. You're going to be fine."
Lying on his back, on the ground, on asphalt, scorching asphalt. People everywhere, people looking, people touching, stop touching! Screaming – who is screaming? He is screaming. "Get away! Get away!" Hands clasped over his head. Hide me. Hide me.
"Timmy, relax! We're trying to help you!"
Who is that nag? Why does he feel guilty for screaming? Why is guilt trying to eat him?
"Wanda?" The name is familiar for some reason.
"It's going to be okay, Timmy! Just let us help you. Open your eyes!"
He does. The light! The agony! He shuts his eyes. His hands cover them.
"I can't! It stings!" Too loud, too shrill! He doesn't care. It's the truth.
"Open your eyes!" Again. A different person? Pressure, too much pressure.
"Leave me alone!" Where's Dee? I need Dee!
"Turner! Do what she says!" Bulk bearing down. Uh-oh. Scary man!
Head turned away. Arms up, palms open. "Don't hurt me!" he sobs.
"I'm not hurting you – you're hurting yourself! Listen to me! The Darkness is not your friend! It's killing you! Your life is at risk and we need to see what it's done to you so we can save you! So open your eyes – NOW!"
Silence. You must obey the scary man. Or he will punish you.
"Okay. Okay. I'll try." Rapid breathing. Heart racing. Open. Pain. Shut. Try again. Open. Pain. Shut. Fluttering eyelids – less pain, less pain. You can do this. The stinging subsides. He forces himself to look around at all the people.
…
The relatives, friends, enemies and fairies all gasp.
"Never in ten thousand years have I seen…" Jorgen doesn't finish his sentence.
Timmy's eyes are completely black.