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Act Eleven: Timmy
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The sun was blood red. As it peeked over the horizon line of low mountains in the distance, the thick clouds covered the sunrise like a foggy blanket, as if it were an enlarged fiery orb stuck at the far end of the sky. Beneath the red soaked skies, life appeared to return back to normal. People on their way to work roamed the streets and quietly drifting cars barely lit up the darkened roads.
Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda didn't feel so exposed as their skin tones blended in with the early morning darkness. Whilst they laid low underneath the reddened skies, the drab blue shadows cast over the Earth, and the dull lighting had been evidence of the dawn struggling to break. The street lights flickered on and off as if they were unsure whether or not the night had ended. And pedestrians walked by them like black silhouettes, with expressions on their faces that were blurred by the darkness that masked them. The quiet atmosphere was monotonous... but almost made haunting by these hazy overcast ghosts.
Anti-Wanda steadily paced along pavement closest to the road in order to avoid walking through any rays of light that may expose her. It was too early in the morning for many of the buildings to be open and streaming with life, but the few that had brightened fluorescent neon lights streaming down the pathways had made her too anxious. Anti-Wanda clutched at her arms as she kept her head down, looking warily from both sides to watch out for any unwanted attention.
As she concentrated on calming her nerves, she became surprised by a car quickly driving past her, drenching her whole figure in it's bright headlights. Anti-Wanda had to bite down on her bottom lip to stop herself from shouting out in sheer panic as she watched her shadow on the pavement grow ahead of her. The longer it stretched on the ground, the more she felt her presence becoming all the more helplessly exaggerated... into an open target.
Then suddenly, as soon as he immediately recognised the danger she was in, Anti-Cosmo appeared right behind her and cast his shadow over her. The back of his blue suit blinked in the light before it was washed over in darkness again. And since Anti-Wanda seemed to have frozen in fear, Anti-Cosmo remained still as a statue as he refused to move until she felt safe again. After a few short moments, Anti-Wanda felt the courage to peer to him over her shoulder, and in the corner of her eyes, she watched as Anti-Cosmo's hardened gaze soften as he met hers. He was towering over her as he appeared determined to protect her, like an illuminated knight with a slightly reddened glow as the car flashed its rear lights at him as it raced away.
For a moment, Anti-Wanda felt as if she was looking at a glimpse of his former self, made all the more intimidating by the harsh red highlights that accentuated his luminous emerald eyes. Then she couldn't help herself. She smiled, realising that his vigilant nature hadn't changed, and sighed before she whispered,
"Thank you." She told him sincerely and turned around to the front, darting her eyes over the area to see if anyone noticed them. When it was clear that they hadn't been spotted, Anti-Wanda hesitantly began to step forward again, with Anti-Cosmo close behind her. She spoke up again in a hushed tone, "I'm a little nervous about walking through the populated streets. Even with our wings tucked into our clothes, I feel like we stick out too much. I can't remember if Cosmo ever told me, but I don't know if this cloaking device can shield us from fairies and humans too."
"Well Anti-Wanda, to be brutally honest with you, I'm not willing to test out that theory." He snapped loudly and firmly, until Anti-Wanda stopped in her tracks for a moment to glare back at him. Quickly, Anti-Cosmo pressed his lips into a tight thin line as he realised his mistake, and hung his head a little as if he was a scolded child, "Sorry. I, um, forgot... we have to remain quiet."
Anti-Wanda shook her head dismissively before continuing onwards. Solemnly, Anti-Cosmo trailed close behind, as if he was unwilling to make the distance between them any further apart. He definitely felt uncomfortable with being in the wrong, as it felt incredibly foreign to him. He rubbed his arm dejectedly, and squinted his eyes at his dragging feet before quietly speaking up again,
"I just... I'm worried about you. That's all." He whispered truthfully, and took a slow intake of breath to regain his determination before remorsefully telling her, "I know we're no strangers to dangerous situations like this, but this is the first time that I don't have the capacity to think of a way out of tight spot... that's if we're going to be put into one. I feel like I've been stripped of everything I've put my faith into, and I hate the fact that it could potentially hurt the both of us. And I... I really don't want you to be put in danger because of me again."
Anti-Wanda kept her pace steadily forward, but her gaze wavered to the side of her as she momentarily took this in. For a moment, she wondered if it would be best to say anything back to him, but as much as the quick pace of her heartbeat begged for her to do it, Anti-Wanda remained cautious. She took to the route ahead and shook off her temptations to completely give in to him. After all that had happened so far, Anti-Wanda knew that her indecisiveness wouldn't help matters at all.
So she turned her head slightly without wandering her gaze from the road ahead, and told him sternly with a glazed emotionless expression, though her tone was less confident than before,
"...you should concentrate on finding Timmy for now."
Anti-Cosmo didn't pick up on her unsteadiness, and had only nodded slowly in response and left it at that.
For a while, they wandered through the main streets of the city under the darkened guise of the red sun and remained in a somewhat uncomfortable silence all the way through. Anti-Cosmo kept opening and closing his mouth as he internally struggled with his desire to talk to her, but his nerves kept holding him back. He knew that speaking up freely was easier now that he was unintelligent enough to reject the urge to reflect on everything he said, but that had terrified him as well. Anti-Cosmo latched on to the fear that he may say something he would later regret, and he was already treading on incredibly thin ice around Anti-Wanda.
Anti-Cosmo momentarily thought back to when he finally told Anti-Wanda about his kiss with Wanda, and how he was stricken of the appropriate words he wanted to tell her to make things right. But the horrified expression on Anti-Wanda's face was too heart-wrenching, and that was the moment he knew it was something he definitely wanted to avoid in the future.
So he clamped his mouth shut for a short time, and resisted the temptation to push the subject any further.
As they exited the city streets and approached an area with smaller buildings and less crowds of pedestrians, Anti-Cosmo took unstable steps forward as he could clearly see Anti-Wanda in the daylight. Their surroundings had become less dense, and the dull monotone of the shadows lifted as the sun peaked through the curtain of clouds, draping Anti-Wanda entirely in it's fiery glow.
Although there were fewer people around, Anti-Wanda took more cautious steps ahead as she ducked her head away in an attempt to isolate her from the intruding daybreak. As she did this, Anti-Cosmo resisted the urge to laugh, and broke into half a smile as he rose an eyebrow at her. He strode forward with ease to walk by her side, and dared to bend forward to suddenly level himself and find her gaze.
"You look really suspicious right now." He commented light-heartedly, and flashed a fang as his half-smile widened.
"I do? I'm... seriously trying hard not to be." Anti-Wanda peered to the ground in disappointment at herself.
"If you look like you have something to hide, then you'll look even more guilty." He told her with slight pride that he could at least remember that much from his reduced intellect. Anti-Cosmo straightened his back as he gazed ahead with a small shrug, "Really, the harder you try, the obvious it gets. Just... do your best to act calm."
"But the harder I try to look calm, the more panicked I seem, right?" Anti-Wanda said with slight annoyance, "It's a little more difficult than that for me."
Anti-Cosmo felt a little on edge by the irritated tone she had put on, and remained silent for a moment as he uneasily searched every part of his brain for some kind of solution to calm her down. And when he couldn't think of anything solid, he resorted to Wanda's advice and relied on the first thing that came to his mind. He coughed into his hand in an attempt to clear his throat and gather his confidence before turning over to her again,
"Look, if you're really getting worried about being confronted by humans, why don't we transform into our human disguises? We'll slip by them without anyone knowing the wiser."
"You know we can't." Anti-Wanda said impatiently, clearly uncomfortable with the fact that she had to act as the brains and guide him through this instead of the other way around, like it had been before, "Remember earlier when we changed from our orange prison jumpsuits back into our old clothes? That little bit of magic we used almost brought the entire fairy army down on us. We can't afford to use any more magic here until we find Timmy. Otherwise... we may as well have a target painted on our backs."
"That was just the once though, right?" Anti-Cosmo shouted louder than he hoped as he barely masked his desperation to sound as domineering, "We've made some distance now, we can risk a little costume change."
"It's happened more than once." Anti-Wanda told him with a hardened stare, "Back when I was with Cosmo, when we used our magic to shrink our size, Jorgen was almost right on top of us. We can't afford to take risks now."
"How annoying." Anti-Cosmo seethed. He couldn't stand how Anti-Wanda used Cosmo as a reference... or the fact that she mentioned Cosmo's name at all. His frustration deepened as he looked over their surroundings, observed the repetitive structures of each building that lined up against each other, and Anti-Cosmo wanted nothing more than to point the boiling anger at the pit of his stomach at this aspect, "What's more annoying is how every single human house in this suburban jungle looks the damn same! Really, how hard should it be to find Timmy's home? I mean, it's hard enough trying to find one small child, but how in the hell are we supposed to remember where he lives too? It's as if every single time we take one step forward, we're forced to take two steps back! Damn it!"
Immediately after Anti-Cosmo's tone of voice raised, Anti-Wanda warily turned over her shoulder and noticed one or two heads had turned over their way. A sudden wash of unspeakable dread drained the colour from her face at the prospect of being caught, and in an instant, she saw an upcoming darkened alleyway to the side of them.
Without a moment to spare, Anti-Wanda quickly pushed her hand against Anti-Cosmo's shoulder and shoved him back until they were both covered by the safe shadows that the alley had brought. Anti-Cosmo didn't have the chance to shout in surprise as she did this, since she swiftly placed her open palm over his mouth to muffle his voice. Anti-Wanda pushed him against the brick wall with her other hand and pinned him there until he was rendered helpless, unable to move away from her or make any unnecessary movements. Anti-Cosmo was caged by her, encased in the darkness, a prisoner by default.
For a moment, Anti-Wanda peeked out of the shadows to look out at the street, and she tentatively watched the remaining pedestrians walk by them. It seemed that had been successfully engulfed in the darkness, and Anti-Wanda breathed out a sigh of relief when they appeared to be in the clear.
Unbeknownst to her, Anti-Cosmo hadn't moved an inch, in every way. He felt his heart completely become immobilised in his chest. He couldn't even feel himself blink as his widened eyes were locked on her, even as her fingers brushed against his lips when she brought them away from him at last. And when she turned herself over to him, her eyebrows furrowed upwards into a frown, clearly displaying all of her worry for him. Then, the palm that pushed his torso against the brick wall inched from his chest to lightly touch over his jawline. Anti-Cosmo felt the air from his lungs being drawn out his mouth as he felt her fingers gently move over his ear, until the last of his breath emptied his throat as her thumb softly descended over his cheekbone.
Anti-Cosmo's mind was completely barren of all logical thought. There wasn't a sound in the air. And that pit of anger he held in his stomach had subsided and become completely forgotten.
"Easy now." Anti-Wanda said quietly as she slowly took away her hand from his face, "Breathe for a moment, collect your thoughts, do anything you need to do as long as you stop drawing attention to yourself." Then, her frown quickly diminished as she dared to smile in encouragement, and gently whispered, "Keep up your nerve. You can do it, you always can. It's always been within you."
Anti-Cosmo couldn't feel any anger at all within him, it had depleted the moment that Anti-Wanda had clutched on to him. The world and everything around him became insignificant the moment that she captured him in the shadows of the alleyway, even as he could barely make her out as they hid well within the safe interior. What mattered most to him at that point was the fact that Anti-Wanda had shielded him away from danger, and put aside all of her doubts about him for one moment in order to ensure that he was protected from harm.
Another car drifted by them. The window was rolled down, and the radio was quietly playing "Ooh Child" by The Five Stairsteps. Clarence Burke, Jr.'s soulful voice echoed down the alley.
Things are going to get easier... ooh child, things are going to get brighter...
The city walls stopped closing in on Anti-Cosmo. He felt the hope in the lyrics speak out to him, and urged him to hover his hand out towards her. Anti-Wanda watched as he attempted to reach out and touch her face, but gently, she refused it. She took his hand down, gazed at her fingers clasping over his, and silently inched a few steps forward. Anti-Wanda wanted to let him know that he wasn't going to be the one to make up her mind. Slowly and tentatively, she slipped her arm through his, and loosely held on to him. Hopefully, she thought, this would tell him that she was the one ultimately in command of her own decisions.
All of Anti-Cosmo's sceptic thoughts and all of his doubts were wiped clean, with Anti-Wanda protectively hanging on to his arm by his side. It was as if their secluded place in the alley became a whole new world made just for them, as they concealed themselves from the rest of society. No one existed, no lives mattered more than the two invisible anti-fairies, using the darkness as a veil to hide them from the rest of the world.
Then, Anti-Cosmo couldn't restrain his nagging thoughts as a question was burning in his mind,
"Have I always been prone to resort to my short temper like that?" He asked her in utter defeat. Anti-Wanda puckered her lips to the side in thought for a moment before coming up with her answer.
"Well... yeah, more or less. Only this time, you have less of a creative vocabulary, so you're lashing out at the world with shorter words, and with... more, um..."
"Childish outbursts?" He said to her with his eyebrow raised. Anti-Wanda quickly turned her head to him as her mouth hung open to protest, until Anti-Cosmo interrupted, "It's alright, you can say it. It really is as bad as it sounds. And surprisingly, I'm actually finding myself to be more aware of my idiocy." Then, he turned over to Anti-Wanda with a fanged half-smile, "To be completely truthful, I'm also a lot more appreciative of your... tenacity."
"Tenacity?" Anti-Wanda asked, and let her head tilt slightly to the side in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"You know, your perseverance. Your stubborn persistence to stay by my side and keep me out of trouble." Anti-Cosmo looked at her with a hopeless smile and told her with a slight shrug, "I've said this before, I'm simply amazed that you've stood by my side through everything I've put you through, and I don't mean everything that's happened in the last 24 hours, I mean through everything we've been through in the last... ten thousand years..."
Anti-Wanda's playful smile widened over her misshapen teeth as she cheerfully pulled on his arm, and said with a laugh,
"You make it sound like you've put me through absolute Hell all these years!"
"Well... haven't I?" Anti-Cosmo asked her uneasily.
As Anti-Wanda turned to him, she was surprised by how completely serious he suddenly became. His eyes were full of so much fear and internal turmoil over everything that had happened. It was ironic, he felt, that throughout that time as an unintelligent person, Anti-Cosmo had never seen things so clearly. It was as if he'd stepped out of his everyday life to look at everything from a simplistic point of view, and he hated everything he saw.
"Anti-Cosmo," she breathed with a sad frown, and paused for a moment. When she spoke up again, her quiet voice sounded distant, "I suppose I owe you... more of a clear answer."
"That's not what I'm asking from you..."
"I'm giving you one anyway." Anti-Wanda told him firmly and gently pulled on his arm. Although Anti-Cosmo didn't want to push her, he still couldn't help the uncontrollable curiosity that begged him to ask her how she felt about him. It took Anti-Wanda a few short seconds to clear her throat, and clear her mind, before she spoke up again as she caught his curious gaze, "Do you remember what we were talking about just before you told me about what you did with Wanda?"
Anti-Cosmo blinked at her.
"Yes, you said you didn't have much of an idea of what marriage was, and you were scared about marrying me."
"Um, yeah, that was part of it." Anti-Wanda said with a sigh and a sad smile, and shook her head at the fact that Anti-Cosmo seemed to emphasise the only negative aspect of that conversation. She squeezed his arm to comfort him, "But I followed that up by saying that although our marriage isn't perfect... when it all comes down to it, I'm simply happy just to be with you."
"Oh." Anti-Cosmo said in surprise, and his eyebrows rose as he suddenly recalled that part of the conversation. He was shocked at himself that he'd forgotten the most comforting part of their talk, although he also remembered that moment had been spoiled for him once he was knocked to the ground by Cosmo.
Suddenly, Anti-Cosmo stiffened as Anti-Wanda brought herself closer to him, and wrapped his entire arm in a tight embrace. Hesitantly, she spoke hoarsely as if there was barely any air left in her throat,
"Then, when we were locked in prison, you said you'd wait for me if I ever told you to leave. At the time, I felt so much hurt that... I didn't want to give you the satisfaction of knowing that in the end, no matter how much hurt I really felt..." Anti-Wanda brought her eyes up to lock her gaze with his, and told him quietly as her voice faltered, "...I'm still in love with you."
Anti-Cosmo didn't dare to move an inch.
It was as if time had moved backwards to the moment when he first heard those words from her, and how incredibly floored he was by the concept of it all. Anti-Wanda still loved him. She said it as if her heart was practically on the tip of her tongue. And, for a few short moments, Anti-Cosmo couldn't believe this was real. Yet the way she held him close to her, as if he was restrained in her embrace, made it easier for him to believe that this was truly reality.
Anti-Wanda bashfully ducked her head beneath his gaze as she couldn't quite take the way he looked at her then. The fear had been replaced with so much love for her, she felt as if her face had burnt red with colour. Anti-Wanda leant her head against his shoulder, and attempted to hide her blushing. Then, she quietly continued from there,
"It took all that I had within me not to answer you back while we were locked up in prison. I could hear how upset you were... I could hear it in your voice, I knew how much it really hurt you as much as it hurt me... but I kept silent. I wanted to know for sure that I could make my own decisions with my life, I wanted confirmation in my faith that everything would work out between us." Anti-Wanda sighed again as she tried to be as open and honest as possible with him, and took a deep intake of breath before her muted voice slightly rose, "So I've kept silent... kept you at arms length... until I knew for sure that I'm capable of thinking reasonably... instead of thinking only through my feelings."
Suddenly, Anti-Cosmo carefully shrugged Anti-Wanda off his shoulder to catch her gaze, and stared at her with shocked, widened eyes. When he spoke, he could barely make a sound,
"Anti-Wanda... are you saying..."
"Yes, I've been trying to use my brain." She rolled her eyes at the obvious with a sarcastic smile, although her face was still flushed with an abundance of colour, "You're not the only one who feels like they've changed throughout this whole ordeal. Man, do I have to spell it out for you?"
"No, this is good." He said incredulously as his fanged smile grew larger, "I'm glad you're starting to think for yourself. I've been worried for so long about how you seemed to be happy enough doing whatever I told you to do. I want you to be more independent, I want you to do everything you want to do, instead of idly sitting on the sidelines, waiting to aid me in my personal goals." Anti-Cosmo brought his free hand and placed it softly over her shoulder, and protectively held on to her as he told her with genuine sincerity, "I don't want to tie you down. I've never wanted that out of you. More than anything, I want you to be happy doing what you've always wanted to do, regardless of what I want."
"I... really appreciate this." Anti-Wanda sighed with total happiness. For a moment, she gazed away from him as she finally slipped her hands from around his arm. Then she slowly grasped a hold of his hand on her shoulder. As she clasped his hand tightly, and as she felt extreme comfort from the feel over his slender fingers in her palm, she looked to him with luminescent rose eyes piercing through the darkness, "Until today, I've never been given a reason to think selfishly, since what made me happy was seeing you achieve your dreams and aspirations. And when I asked you what you'd do if I wanted you to leave, even in the face of separation, you still gave me my freedom in hopes that it gave me happiness."
She lightly stroked her thumb over his hand as she took a slow step towards him,
"That's when I thought... Anti-Cosmo, in all the time that you've known me... have you ever thought about what you want for yourself?"
It didn't take Anti-Cosmo more than a second to figure out what he wanted more than anything at that moment. As he slowly placed his free hand to Anti-Wanda's bare shoulder, and as he let his fingers lace through her blue curls spilling over her collarbone, his eyes squinted as he couldn't restrain the desperation in his voice,
"I want you to stay with me."
Anti-Wanda smiled as she gazed at his hand that she had clasped in hers.
"You said that when I left with Cosmo earlier, didn't you?" Anti-Wanda asked quietly, and somewhat distantly, "That was the only moment when I truly saw what you wanted. It took... everything I had to stay mad at you. And I could see it took everything in you to stop yourself from following me. In the end, you still respected what I wanted."
Anti-Cosmo remained silent as he remembered the exact moment when he reached out for Anti-Wanda's hand, desperately hanging on to her in a feeble attempt to keep her near him. He remembered how hopelessly lost he felt, and how his feelings took complete control of him. It was something new and foreign to him, but he also remained silent in knowing... he wouldn't have done it any other way.
"I've not been fair to you." She whispered sadly as she avoided his gaze, and vacantly stared at the ground beneath them, "I was so confused... distracted by everything I love about you in another man... and I had the audacity to be blinded by anger when you were the one to act upon impulse when it could have easily been me, stumbling like a drunken fool... kissing anything that remotely reminded me of you."
Despite how solemn Anti-Wanda had sounded, Anti-Cosmo smirked into a sarcastic smile as he raised an eyebrow at her, and gently pulled at her blue curls as he feigned annoyance.
"You would have, huh?"
"I would have... yeah, I might've kissed a hat rack if you left your bowler hat on it!" She couldn't help the urge to laugh aloud at the entire concept, and loosely held her fingers over her widened smile in an awful attempt at withholding her laughter, "And who knows what might have happened if I'd have been transported to England. I would have been completely overwhelmed by how many people had an accent like yours. Oh man, I would've kissed the Queen!"
Suddenly, Anti-Cosmo burst out into laughter alongside her. He brought her hands to himself to hold on to his sides to keep himself from splitting, and Anti-Wanda felt she could barely breathe as she desperately tried to wipe away the escaped tears from her eyes. As Anti-Cosmo held out his arm to lean his palm flat against the wall for support, while Anti-Wanda collapsed against it as she threw her head back against the bricks, her blue curls were pushed forward to frame her heart shaped face.
Eventually, as their laughter died down, Anti-Cosmo could only smile at his wife. As Anti-Wanda messily wiped the last of her tears along her forearms, and as her shoulders rose with the last of her escaped giggles, she smiled back with her usual, cheerful toothy grin.
"We're just a couple of idiots." She commented light-heartedly.
"Yeah." Anti-Cosmo gave her a hopeless smile, as he knew he had to agree.
Anti-Wanda was so incredibly relieved, as was Anti-Cosmo, by how easily they found themselves to be laughing alongside each other once again. It was as if nothing had changed between them all this time, despite what they had been through. And once everything they wanted to say to each other was out and in the air, it was as if everything was clearer, everything was better.
Slowly, Anti-Wanda pushed herself up from the brick wall, and turned over to Anti-Cosmo with her hands clasped together in front of her. She kept her careful gaze on his, and refused to move her eyes on him, as she approached him closely, until they were only inches apart from one another.
"So, here's my answer. Simple and clear." Anti-Wanda brought her face close to his, and lightly brushed her cheekbone against his as she moved her lips next to his ear, and uttered the words, "I forgive you."
Anti-Cosmo breathed out as if he'd just discovered air for the first time.
With no time to spare, as Anti-Wanda gradually moved away from him, Anti-Cosmo halted her before she could move any further away. On impulse, he caught the side her neck in his palm as he buried his fingers through her hair, and stretched his thumb over her jawline. The warmth of her cheeks grew hotter as colour rushed to her face, and his mouth dropped slightly as he stared longingly at Anti-Wanda's lips through heavily-lidded eyes. He'd slowly pulled them apart with his thumb, traced a line over the indentations on her bottom lip where her teeth usually lay, and eyed the deeper indents at each corner of her mouth, knowing full well how those were caused.
And gradually, Anti-Cosmo leant closer to her, slowly closed his eyes, wrapped his free arm around her waist, and pushed his fangs down where these indents lay.
Anti-Wanda clasped on to his broad shoulders for support, as she almost leant back by how forceful Anti-Cosmo's kiss had become. It was as if she could feel how much he wanted this, and how much he longed for this, so she couldn't restrain her smile. When Anti-Cosmo could feel Anti-Wanda's lips widen against him, he pulled back curiously to find her in an almost dazed state of happiness. Anti-Cosmo flashed his fangs in a hopeless smile as he slowly breathed out, and simply looked at her. She was emanating happiness, and it shot through his fast-beating heart. He could've held her like that for a long time.
"I... hope this means you're not warming up to my idiocy." Anti-Cosmo said half-heartedly as he tangled his fingers through her blue curls, "I'm telling you now, this is a refundable trait. As soon as we find Timmy, we're picking up everything we've left off. That spot on our couch is practically still warm."
"I can't wait." Anti-Wanda said softly with an upbeat grin. And as much as she wanted to stay in his arms like that, she slightly pulled herself away from him, and peered over his shoulder at the brightened neglected world outside their alleyway, "But here's a question, any idea on how to find Timmy at this rate?"
"Hmm." It took a moment to fully force himself to unwrap himself from around his wife, but as he pulled away and stepped back slightly out of the shadows, Anti-Cosmo looked around at the empty streets. The sun painted the sky in every shade of orange, and speckles of red clouds decorated the space above them. The streets were eerily quiet, and devoid of any life as the road stretched out towards the distant horizon. Anti-Wanda peered around the edge of the alleyway and darted her eyes to every direction, until Anti-Cosmo pointed towards a large house at the far end of the street, "Does that house look familiar to you?"
Anti-Wanda rose an eyebrow as he'd pointed out an isolated house situated right beside an outstretched pair of train tracks. There wasn't anything special about that house that stuck out to her, and as she squinted her eyes towards it, she turned warily to Anti-Cosmo who had already began to wander out of the alleyway towards it's direction.
"Anti-Cosmo, what are you suggesting exactly?" Anti-Wanda asked cautiously as she quickly caught up to his quick pace. And as Anti-Cosmo crossed the road with Anti-Wanda tentatively latching on to his arm once again, he turned to her with an untroubled smile.
"C'mon, love, what have we got to lose? Let's just check it out..."
"Are we really going to go from home to home until we find the correct house? Is that what you're telling me?" Anti-Wanda quizzed him as they carefully approached the pathway leading up to the front door of the house. When Anti-Cosmo looked from both sides of him to see if the coast was clear, he met up with Anti-Wanda's sceptical gaze and smiled again.
"Would it be stupid of me if I said yes?"
Anti-Wanda furrowed her eyebrows in exasperation, and only sighed as Anti-Cosmo caught on to her arm to lead her gingerly across the yard towards the side of the house.
The street light at the end of the pathway was flickering on and off, blinking in their eyes every so often as they ducked underneath the windows of the front rooms. Anti-Cosmo lead her away from the front door and cautiously dived through the bushes leading up to the balcony situated on the other side of the house. As Anti-Cosmo peaked over the cover of the bushes, and once he concluded that there was no one around to spot them, he held out his hand for Anti-Wanda to hold as he clutched at the trunk of a nearby tree, leaning directly on to the balcony porch.
"Do you have any idea how big this town is?" Anti-Wanda whispered to him in a sharp tone as they struggled to make their way up the side of the tree, "I'm pretty sure it takes over, um... sixty-percent of the Earth!"
"I really don't think it's that large." Anti-Cosmo rolled his eyes, although he wasn't all that sure of this himself. As he hopped up to a sturdy branch that lead straight on to the balcony, he carefully pulled Anti-Wanda up beside him and protectively clutched on to her as the branch dangerously shuddered through every step that they took.
"I'm sure it is that big! Earth looks so tiny from Anti-Fairy world, this planet can't hold more than a few cities, surely." She whispered sharply as they carefully shuffled across the branch.
Anti-Cosmo jumped from the edge of the branch and landed safely on to the darkened balcony, and crouched down to hide himself from the intruding sunlight. Then he held his arms up, ready to catch Anti-Wanda as she leapt out of the tree and landed in a messy heap on top of him.
"Anti-Wanda, I may be stupid, but I still have some kind of concept of perspective." Anti-Cosmo told her quietly as he staggered to his feet and brushed himself off. As Anti-Wanda wandered to her feet and followed his steps close behind him, Anti-Cosmo approached the glass balcony doors and pushed his face against the panes to peer inside. The bedroom inside looked fairly large, with one source of light coming from the far side of the room. And as soon as Anti-Cosmo spotted a small silhouette standing in front of it, he took this as an opportunity. "Here, let me show you."
Slowly and silently, Anti-Cosmo opened the balcony door and cautiously swung it open for them to step inside. Anti-Wanda hesitantly kept herself hidden behind Anti-Cosmo as he turned her over to the small figure on the far end of the bedroom.
"You see that little kid over there?" Anti-Cosmo asked her in the quietest voice he could create as he pointed over to the figure, "He looks pretty small from where we're standing, right?"
"Yeah, that's true. I didn't think human children could be that tiny!" Anti-Wanda said with her mouth agape in awe.
"That's what perspective is. That little kid is small because we're far away from it. If we walk closer to it, then it'll start to get bigger. Come on, I'll prove it."
Slowly, Anti-Cosmo took careful and gradual steps towards the small figure with Anti-Wanda anxiously close behind him. As they stepped closer and closer to the child, Anti-Wanda's eyes widened in surprise as she squeezed Anti-Cosmo's arm in complete amazement.
"Oh wow, he's growing!" She whispered, although the volume of her voice unintentionally rose from her astonishment.
"You see?" Anti-Cosmo smirked with pride at his ability to gather that much information after all that's happened, and he could feel his ego returning just from that small personal victory.
Suddenly, without warning, the little kid turned around on his heel towards them, and crossed his arms,
"You're smart enough to know what perspective is, but you're not smart enough to recognise the little kid you've been staring at this whole time?"
Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda felt their mouths drop open in utter shock.
"Timmy?!" Anti-Wanda shouted as she jumped back with surprise. Meanwhile, Anti-Cosmo felt unsteady on his feet as he warily stepped towards Timmy with complete bewilderment.
"Timmy! It's you!" He breathed as if he'd just been punched in the gut.
"Yeah, why are you surprised to see me?" He asked with an eyebrow raised, and took a step backwards as he warily looked over how awe-stricken they both looked. It wasn't lost on Timmy when he noticed the dark circles around their eyes and how pale their faces had become.
"That's incredible! The first house we break into turned out to be the right one!" Anti-Wanda turned to her husband as she attempted to balance herself on his shoulder. Then her eyes gleamed with pride for him as her grin widened, "You're smarter than you look, Anti-Cosmo, you must've known that this was Timmy's house all along!"
"Hate to wound your ego, but this isn't my house." Timmy suddenly interrupted them, and in unison, the anti-fairies turned over to him in confusion, "This is actually my friend AJ's house. Are you saying you guys had no idea where I was all this time?"
"AJ?" Anti-Cosmo squinted his eyes for a moment as he thought to himself, and wondered why that sounded so familiar to him. Suddenly, as the cogs turned in his mind, and then as the answer hit him like a ton of bricks, Anti-Cosmo's head shot up as he yelled in total surprise, "AJ... of course! You wished you could go to AJ! Wow... that's so stupid!"
"Hey, you're the one that granted the wish." Timmy said with annoyance. As he unwound his arms to drop them by his sides, he looked over their fatigued appearances once more before he commented, "I was just as surprised to be here as you guys are. Originally, I wanted to wish for a jet ski and get out of that lodge. It was getting a little suffocating in there." As Timmy's voice trailed away, he remembered exactly what happened the last time he saw Anti-Cosmo, and looked over to him warily, "By the way, did you fix things with Wanda after..."
Suddenly, Anti-Cosmo hurriedly waved his hands dismissively at him as he felt himself working up a cold sweat under the hardened stares of his wife and Timmy.
"Yeah, it's all... look, don't worry about it, everything's fine now." Anti-Cosmo assured him desperately as he felt Anti-Wanda's suspecting gaze burning a hole on the side of his head.
"Good, I'm glad to hear it." Timmy said truthfully and sighed, then he lazily rubbed his eyes in a vain attempt to rid the dark circles from underneath his eyes, "I was worried about you guys all night. I barely slept."
"We've been up all night too, looking for you." Anti-Wanda told him as she finally approached him. As she could finally see Timmy safe and sound before her, she felt that she could relax for the first time all night. Then she quickly glanced around the room, "So you slept here?"
"I did." Timmy answered, and eyed the sleeping bag underneath his feet, "AJ kinda freaked out when I suddenly appeared in his backyard, but he let me sleepover after I convinced him that I was trying to hunt down Bigfoot."
"Wow, really? Did you catch him?" Anti-Wanda stared at him without an ounce of sarcasm in her wide eyes.
"No, Anti-Wanda, I'm just really terrible of thinking up lies on the spot." Timmy told her as he pressed his lips together to restrain his laughter at how gullible Anti-Wanda really was, before turning towards Anti-Cosmo to stare at him accusingly, "You didn't exactly give me any time or warning, since a second before all that happened, I was trying to think of a way to fix the mess that you made with Wanda. Next thing I knew, I was squatting in the bushes outside of AJ's house."
Anti-Cosmo rubbed the back of his head as he felt ashamed by how he handled that situation, and quickly looked to the side to avoid Timmy's incriminating gaze. There wasn't much Anti-Cosmo thought he could say or do to make up for that, so the best he could do was shrug slightly and bask in his own humiliation.
"Sorry about that... I was pretty frazzled." Anti-Cosmo said as he finally managed to bring his eyes up.
"No kidding." Timmy crossed his arms together and frowned.
"I won't make any more mistakes like that again, you can trust me on that." Anti-Cosmo told him sincerely as he brought his hand down to ball it into a fist, gesturing that he was determined to make things right from then on. And in an instant, Anti-Cosmo strode toward Timmy to take him suddenly by the shoulders, and Timmy leant backwards as he was instantly intimidated by Anti-Cosmo's hardened stare, "Listen, Jorgen's hot on our trail, and we tried reasoning with him, but it's no use. The guy's stuck on the idea that Cosmo and I have switched appearances, so we don't have any other choice but to make your wish to return everything back to normal right now."
Timmy pursed his lips as he brought his hands together to fidget with this fingers, and remained in an uncomfortable silence underneath Anti-Cosmo's frightening demeanour. As Anti-Cosmo's grip on his shoulders tightened with impatience, he squinted his eyes at Timmy in total confusion, and looked up and down at him for some kind of sign. But Timmy remained vigilant, and mute.
"What are you waiting for, kid?" Anti-Cosmo urged him as he failed to mask his anxiety.
Timmy silently looked for the right words to use in order to break the news to him. So he squared his feet on the ground as he mentally scolded himself to be courageous, and finally looked into Anti-Cosmo's desperate eyes.
"I don't know... I should talk to Cosmo about this," Timmy said, somewhat quietly and reluctantly, "He was the one who wanted me to make this wish in the first place... so I'd feel better about making this wish if we consulted Cosmo first..."
"Oh, for..."
All of a sudden, an intruding noise sounded from the other side of the bedroom door, and all three of them darted their heads towards it. They froze on the spot, as they momentarily processed the fact that AJ was gradually climbing the stairs towards his bedroom. Suddenly, without a moment to spare, Timmy shoved Anti-Cosmo's hands off from his shoulders and grabbed a hold of his wrist. And once he took a tight hold of Anti-Wanda's arm with his other hand, Timmy pulled them with full force and lead them to the en suite bathroom on the far side of the bedroom, and quickly slammed the bathroom door behind them to lock it.
Timmy leant his ear against the wood to brace himself, and very quietly heard the sound of shuffling from the other side. It was definitely AJ, Timmy concluded, and he held his breath as he heard AJ momentarily hover in the room, before he left the room again once he acknowledged that Timmy must be preoccupied with the bathroom.
As Timmy breathed out into a deep sigh, Anti-Cosmo suddenly towered over him, and his enlarged shadow engulfed him entirely. Timmy was filled with dread as he backed up against the bathroom wall and found himself cornered, and locked into Anti-Cosmo's terrifying glare.
"Listen up, kid." Anti-Cosmo hissed through gritted teeth as he grasped a fistful of Timmy's collar, "Anti-Wanda and I have already been captured and sent to jail, so those fairies are more than a little anxious to get us back behind bars, so if you don't want the consequences to fall upon Cosmo, your precious fairy godfather, then I suggest you start wishing, pronto!"
"It's a little more complicated than that!" Timmy dared to defend himself as he held up his hands in surrender, "I want to hear this from Cosmo himself, and I want to make sure he doesn't end up getting hurt. Surely you can wait just a little longer until we've sorted things out?"
Anti-Cosmo held Timmy's gaze for a moment, and he knew deep down, he was stuck. Timmy didn't look like he would be pushed around by anyone, and Anti-Cosmo didn't have the time to press him any further. He knew he needed him to make this wish, so he found himself at the mercy of Timmy's terms, whether he liked it or not.
Anti-Cosmo dropped his clothes in total disdain, and turned to Anti-Wanda with a snarl. She could only shrug helplessly in reply, as she knew they both had no other choice. Timmy patted his clothes down, and asked them warily,
"So, where is Cosmo and Wanda?"
"I don't know!" Anti-Cosmo shouted over his shoulder as he crossed his arms in a sulk, "I imagine they're still looking for you!"
"Then let's go find them." Timmy said calmly, completely dismissing how childish Anti-Cosmo was acting at that moment. Then, with extreme caution, Timmy cracked the bathroom door open by an inch to peak through, before whispering over to the anti-fairies and flicking his eyes quickly to the side, "You guys go out the window and meet me outside. I'll say goodbye to AJ and meet you there in a couple minutes, then we can go look for them. Does that sound good?"
"Sounds like a plan." Anti-Wanda nodded with satisfaction as she peered over to Anti-Cosmo for confirmation. And as soon as she looked over to him, Anti-Cosmo quickly turned away as if he shrugged the matter carelessly off his shoulders and headed straight towards the window. With a roll of her eyes, she followed quickly after him as she figured he was simply brooding over the fact that nothing was going his way.
Anti-Wanda and Anti-Cosmo managed to climb out the window, jump into the bushes below them, and pace back to the street without getting noticed by anyone nearby. The street was still fairly empty, and the street light had finally decided to turn off while the sky grew brighter to welcome the morning. Anti-Wanda idly leant against the street light, and rested her head back against the pole as her eyes wandered to the barely visible moon in the sky. As she dreamily kept to herself, and as she felt a clearly lighter atmosphere all around her, Anti-Cosmo lingered next to the train tracks beside AJ's home, and peered along the rustic boards. And the fading aesthetic reminded him of a certain location...
"Do you think Cosmo and Wanda would try looking by the abandoned train tracks again?" Anti-Cosmo asked from afar, and snapped Anti-Wanda out of her idle thoughts.
"It wouldn't hurt to try." Anti-Wanda called back with a lazy shrug, "By the way you found Timmy just now, I have no doubt in your intuition."
"That was incredibly lucky, huh?" Anti-Cosmo said incredulously, as he could barely believe it himself.
"I wouldn't say it was luck as much as it was your good senses." Anti-Wanda told him with an encouraging smile, "You've got to wonder, maybe intelligence isn't the only thing you excel in. I mean, you've always have an ability to trust your instincts."
"You think so?" Anti-Cosmo honestly never gave it much thought. After finding Timmy as fast as he did, he genuinely put the thought aside to wonder about it later. He was torn between the idea of accidentally coming across Timmy on an incredibly lucky whim, and the idea that there was something within him that pointed him to that house. At that moment, he didn't know the answer indefinitely, but he knew he'd be a fool if he ruled it out completely.
Just then, Timmy walked out of AJ's home as he waved goodbye to him and shut the front door behind him. And as soon as the door slammed shut, Anti-Cosmo's foolish mind drew a total blank, and he forgot all about it.
…
It took a few hours to reach the abandoned train stop by foot, and in that time, Anti-Cosmo had been given time to lament to himself. He wasn't capable of thinking of too much, and he often became distracted along the way, but in all of that time to walk to the train stop... he thought about nothing but Cosmo.
Timmy and Anti-Wanda were occupying themselves with silly conversations while Anti-Cosmo trailed behind with his head tucked down to the floor, and while he stared at his sluggish feet as they dragged themselves over the ground, he isolated himself from the two as he kept his thoughts to himself. Anti-Cosmo recalled how this whole situation started; how he was greeted by Cosmo on his door step, and as he was challenged to a childish game of chess. He recalled the utter humiliation of succumbing to this challenge, and afterwards, his slow realisation that the reason he couldn't come up with any witty insults or clever put-downs was all because of Cosmo.
He took away his intelligence. He took away his pride, his confidence, his faith in everything he believed in about himself... and in doing so, he hurt the woman he never in his life wanted to hurt. Anti-Cosmo couldn't stand for it. It had become beyond personal. Every step Anti-Cosmo took as an idiot became an assault on his ego, and every breath Cosmo took was a slight on his pride. That pit of anger returned, and boiled at the pit of his stomach as it grew and grew the more he dared to think of his name.
Cosmo... Cosmo... Cosmo...
The unrelenting anger prompted him to clench his fists by his sides, furrow his eyebrows in a permanent state of fury, as he glared at the route ahead... and anticipated the dreaded moment of seeing his despised counterpart once again.
Finally, they arrived at the train stop. And surprise, surprise, Anti-Cosmo thought with utter disdain, his instincts were right again. There they were, hovering above the platform as they desperately searched every inch of the area. Timmy cried in happy surprise as he saw them ahead, and almost flew through the entangled foliage that covered the train tracks beneath his feet.
"Timmy?" Wanda called out in desperation as she turned towards the sound, and the moment she saw him running at full speed towards her, Wanda's face almost broke into happy tears as she darted immediately towards him with her arms open wide, "Oh thank goodness, Timmy!"
"Hey, Timmy!" Cosmo shouted in equal relief as he began to fly towards Timmy, "I'm so glad you're okay!"
The moment that Wanda caught Timmy in her tight embrace, and the second that Anti-Cosmo laid his furious eyes at his counterpart grinning in relief in the distance, Anti-Wanda jumped backwards in complete surprise as Anti-Cosmo ran past her at a terrifying speed. She watched in horror as Anti-Cosmo's wings sprung from his clothes, as if she had just witnessed the image of a frightening dragon unfurling his large wings for the first time. And she shouted in terror as he leapt directly towards Cosmo,
"No, Anti-Cosmo!"
As soon as he heard her blood-curling scream, Cosmo barely managed to turn slightly to see Anti-Cosmo come up from the side of him and knee him in the stomach. Cosmo shouted out in extreme pain as he doubled over, and dropped to the ground in a defeated heap.
"Cosmo! Oh no, not again!" Wanda yelled in disdain as she protectively clutched on to Timmy to keep him safe. Timmy looked over to her with a horrified expression, and warily asked her,
"Again? This has happened before?!"
As much as Timmy struggled within her grasp, Wanda pulled him off to the side of the platform and clasped on to him with all of her strength, as she wasn't willing to see him get hurt in the midst of this fight. Then, she fought the urge to avert her eyes from the horrendous sight of her husband struggling in pain on the ground, and clutched on to Timmy in fear for both of them.
"Anti-Cosmo... what the hell..." Cosmo staggered to his knees as he spat to the ground, and winced in pain once more before bringing his head up to lock eyes with Anti-Cosmo, who only glared with utter hatred in return, "...do you... seriously want to start this again?"
Anti-Cosmo snorted with disgust, and hovered to the floor to square his feet on the ground, and forced his trembling fists to remain by his sides. He itched to use them, but he managed to restrain himself as he felt his voice rip through his throat when he loudly shouted in fury,
"Your 'ingenious' plan got Anti-Wanda and I captured, dammit!"
For a moment, Cosmo looked at him with a completely dumbfounded expression, before he quickly remembered what Anti-Cosmo was referring to. He immediately remembered how he had pinned Anti-Cosmo down in Timmy's bedroom and forced him to swap appearances against his will. He recalled how Anti-Cosmo willingly went along with Cosmo's proposal as Jorgen grabbed a hold of him, and sent him to jail in place of Cosmo... when, ultimately, Cosmo could have gone along to prison and made an escape just as easily.
"Are you serious?" Cosmo spat with animosity, "You got out of jail in the end, didn't you? What does it matter if I swapped places with you? The plan worked out!"
"What if it didn't, huh? What if those guards found out about your 'brilliant' cloaking device and prevented us from breaking out?" Anti-Cosmo seethed through gritted teeth. Then, he took a quick, sharp step forward as he furiously continued, "You sly son of a... I bet you were hoping we'd get stuck in prison! You planned for that to happen so we'd be out of your way, didn't you? How idyllic. With the enemy safe behind bars, you'd be free to use that smart, manipulative brain of yours to find your godson and reconcile with your wife."
Cosmo's eyes widened as he couldn't believe what he was being accused of. It took more than a few seconds for Cosmo to restrain himself to his spot, and keep him from flinging his entire being at Anti-Cosmo with full force. But he kept pushing Cosmo's resentment further as Anti-Cosmo dared to slowly smirk, as if he was practically laughing in his face.
"I'm right, aren't I?" Anti-Cosmo glared at him with a shrewd half-smile, "You're a real narcissist, Cosmo."
Suddenly, everyone jumped and shouted in surprise as Cosmo instantly flew forward at an incredible speed, and swung his arm out to punch Anti-Cosmo squarely in the face. Anti-Cosmo immediately anticipated that reaction, and as quick as he saw it, Anti-Cosmo retained his smirk and stepped to the side as Cosmo's fist flew right by his head. And just as quickly, Anti-Cosmo threw himself to the floor without a moment to spare, took a firm hold of the ground and tucked his legs in to briskly kick his feet up towards Cosmo's head.
Anti-Cosmo's smirk abruptly faded away as he saw Cosmo successfully duck to the side in time to avoid this attack, and as he shouted in total surprise, Cosmo managed to swing his leg around as he saw the opportunity to land a swift and heavy kick to the side of Anti-Cosmo's torso. He flew to the side like a rag doll.
"Anti-Cosmo, no!" Anti-Wanda cried in terror as she squeezed her hands together in a tight embrace.
Whilst Anti-Cosmo struggled to regain a steady stance in mid-air, Cosmo took advantage of this opportunity once again and leapt towards him in the air. Cosmo was only a few inches away from him when Anti-Cosmo suddenly swung his legs to the side, and swiftly swept at Cosmo's feet and sent him spiralling upwards until his legs were thrown above his head.
Cosmo's cried out in surprise as his head flew forward, and quickly became an open target for Anti-Cosmo to land a harsh punch towards his face. Thankfully, Cosmo's mind worked faster than Anti-Cosmo's movements, as Cosmo brought his hands down to the ground to hastily push himself backwards into the air, and missed Anti-Cosmo's attack by a clear few inches.
For a few confusing seconds, Anti-Cosmo looked desperately to the sides of him as he suddenly lost sight of Cosmo, and as soon as he heard the sound of Cosmo maliciously grunting above him, Anti-Cosmo leant back and jumped unsteadily backwards into an uneven back-flip before Cosmo could land a devastating blow to the top of his head. However, while Anti-Cosmo had teetered backwards and slipped for a split second while he had his legs in the air, Cosmo quickly grabbed hold of Anti-Cosmo's ankles and threw him towards the sky, and back down again to slam him down against the hardened concrete.
Anti-Wanda covered her eyes as she whimpered helplessly from the sidelines, whilst Anti-Cosmo arched his back from the sheer pain that shot down his spine. And before Cosmo could land one final punch to his head, Anti-Cosmo managed to roll over to his side just in time. Cosmo paused in mid-air the moment he saw Anti-Cosmo avoid his fist, as Cosmo learned from their earlier fight that a punch towards the ground could mean potentially cracking his knuckles against the floor once again.
Anti-Cosmo barely managed to stumble to his feet as he held on to his stomach and breathed heavily, which was painful as he felt a sheering throb every time he took an intake of breath. Cosmo hovered in the air as he looked down upon him, and took a quick break to catch his breath in return.
"I planned to put you behind bars? Is that what you think?" Cosmo asked with curiosity.
"That's... that's right..." Anti-Cosmo managed to spit out through each of his deep breaths.
"You suspect... that I purposely planned for your inevitable capture, where you'd end up being far away from me, where you'd be far away from my wife... and where you'd be unable to interrupt our lives any further?" For a moment, Cosmo looked to the side of them as he seriously considered this, before he surprised everyone when his eyes darkened as a sinister smile dared to upturn his lips, "Well... I suppose there's some truth to that."
Immediately, the anger within Anti-Cosmo's stomach ripped through his entire being.
"You..." Anti-Cosmo seethed through his gritted teeth, grinding them to the bone as he maliciously leapt towards the sky, "...you bastard!"
Anti-Cosmo instantly went to punch the side of Cosmo's face, to which he stepped to the side once again to avoid it entirely. However, when Cosmo went to punch the side of Anti-Cosmo's shoulder, Cosmo was halted immediately as Anti-Cosmo caught his fist in his hand. Without a moment to spare, Cosmo attempted to punch the other side of Anti-Cosmo's shoulder, where he was met yet again with Anti-Cosmo's other hand. Cosmo struggled against him as Anti-Cosmo grappled his fists within his hands, and he pushed back with an equal amount of unrelenting force.
And there they were; hovering in mid-air like two tenacious forces colliding against each other, pushing with all their strength with only their immeasurable hatred to power them. The air around them sizzled with an intense burst of magical tension, as if the harder they struggled to push against each other, the more magic would surface from deep within themselves into a bubble of electrifying current.
Above them, storm clouds circled around them as the sky had disappeared into a grey blanket. With the sun nowhere in sight, and as the winds gradually picked up all around them, the foliage actively rustled against the heavy magical current that shrouded the scene in slight darkness. Wanda and Timmy watched in horror from the platform as their hair flew around their faces, picked up by the harsh winds that forced them to their knees. They were almost afraid to approach Cosmo and Anti-Cosmo, as the overpowering tension in the air seemed to physically repel them.
But Timmy was determined to fight against the tides.
"Guys, stop this!" Timmy shouted from within Wanda's arms, "I don't know what happened while I was gone, but nothing is going to be solved if you two keep fighting like this! This is all meaningless!"
"Meaningless?!" Anti-Cosmo shouted in pure rage.
Suddenly, as a response to this, Anti-Cosmo quickly pulled his hand away and Cosmo was forced to stumble forward. As Cosmo fell head first towards him, Anti-Cosmo heavily kneed him in the stomach, and Cosmo's eyes flew open in insurmountable pain as he doubled over. Then, Anti-Cosmo turned to his side with his elbow raised high, and quickly peered over to Timmy, "What do you know of meaningless, kid?!"
And briskly, Anti-Cosmo elbowed the side of Cosmo's face with unrelenting force, and Cosmo felt his cheekbone crack against it as he was thrown to the side into a stumbling wreck. But Anti-Cosmo hadn't stopped there. He threw himself forward to punch and kick Cosmo in the gut, and Cosmo could barely avoid the onslaught. Whilst he threw an attack Cosmo's way, Anti-Cosmo seethed over to Timmy with utter disdain through his gritted teeth,
"Cosmo passed on to me his title as worthless idiotic trash, ripped my pride apart and shred my identity to pieces, and you find it within your right to tell me that beating him within an inch of his life is meaningless?" Anti-Cosmo's hoarse voice sounded as if he spat out the words, "No, Timmy, this is justice!"
"Justice?!" Timmy spluttered in total disbelief.
Suddenly, Cosmo managed to capture one of Anti-Cosmo's punches in his fist, and as Anti-Cosmo looked towards him in surprise, Cosmo squeezed it hard in response. Then, as his head turned up to look at Anti-Cosmo through the messy curtain of his green hair, Cosmo growled as if his voice had been ripped to shreds,
"What does an anti-fairy know about justice?" Anti-Cosmo's eyes widened in terrifying shock as Cosmo squeezed his fist harder and harder, "How can someone so hell-bent on his own personal dictatorship have any sense of justice?!"
The instant he finished his sentence, Cosmo swung his free fist to the side, and harshly punched the side of Anti-Cosmo's face. Anti-Cosmo slammed to the ground and lay in a heap, as if he was completely immobilised the moment his head cracked against the ground. Timmy couldn't take this anymore. He struggled all the more from Wanda's grasp, and finally ripped free of her and ran out of her arms to hover on the edge of the fight. But he was halted the moment he saw the amount of scorn emanating from Cosmo's eyes. It was as if he was a completely different person, and Timmy was terrified.
Cosmo hovered ahead of Anti-Cosmo's shattered body, and he lifted his head as if he was intentionally looking down on him.
"You're just a tyrant, Anti-Cosmo. That's all you are." Cosmo stated simply. Anti-Cosmo staggered to his knees and scowled with disdain, both at Cosmo and at his own defeated position, as Cosmo squinted his eyes towards him as if he was disgusted to even acknowledge his presence, "You're obsessed with your own totalitarian beliefs. You, a fascist with his own self-appointed laws, has no authority to judge what is right or wrong here. Yes, so I might have entertained the idea of putting you away for good, so I might have had an underlying intention when I practically handed you over to the authorities, but let's be honest here... am I the real narcissist here?"
Cosmo slowly approached Anti-Cosmo, as he felt Anti-Cosmo was no longer a threat as he bent over his broken body, and inched his face closer to his to glare into Anti-Cosmo's eyes.
"In the long run, I'm doing the world a favour by putting you away." Cosmo told him harshly as he lifted his head, and practically looked down his nose at his counterpart as if he had just wiped him off the sole of his shoes, "You're a menace to society. And it'll be a cold day in Hell before I see this world, my godchildren and my wife at the mercy of your corrupted rule."
"That's it!" Timmy suddenly shouted from afar, "Cosmo, I wish that you'd stop fighting!"
All of a sudden, Cosmo felt as if his entire being had been cemented to the ground. He was stripped of his freedom to move, and his overwhelming scorn that pushed him to strike out against Anti-Cosmo had diminished in a single second. His arms were locked into place, his legs were still, and only his eyes could manage any sort of erratic movement.
Cosmo struggled to turn his staggering gaze over to Timmy as his eyes flew wide open in complete shock. He couldn't let go of his immeasurable surprise as he was forced to back down. His mind whirred, emphasising the indisputable fact that Timmy was sticking up for Anti-Cosmo, the ultimate enemy in his eyes. Frozen on the spot, Cosmo stared incredulously into the frightful eyes of his godson, and he felt his heart sink despairingly for him within his chest.
And suddenly, Anti-Cosmo leapt up from the ground, and tackled Cosmo with an elbow to the groin. Cosmo felt as if his eyes had been thrown out of their sockets as he felt the most excruciating pain take over his entire body, and his legs crippled beneath him as he sunk to the ground in agony.
"Anti-Cosmo, will you stop it!" Timmy yelled at him in fury.
"I didn't hear you wish for it." Anti-Cosmo said plainly as he gave Timmy a quick dismissive glance before turning back to Cosmo's writhing body at his feet, "I've had enough of this cretin lecturing me. Honestly, those tedious speeches about righteousness are just so boring. I know where my principals lay, and if they seem immoral to you, Cosmo, then... what can I say? It's simply within my nature."
Cosmo coughed out a reply,
"You're... twisted..."
"Well, I do my best." Anti-Cosmo said with a fanged smirk.
As Anti-Wanda stepped back at the horror that was unfolding before her, she failed to hear a soft noise sounding through the shrouded foliage at the bottom of her heels. It wasn't until it became all the more rapid and prominent when Anti-Wanda finally looked at the overgrown ground beneath her and noticed a metallic-like machine beeping at the soles of her feet. For a few short moments, Anti-Wanda only stared at it in complete confusion, after she concluded that it was nothing that she'd ever seen before in her life. As she took a quick step forward to avoid it, she suddenly tripped over a loose wire that wrapped around her ankle, and she cried out in surprise as she fell head first on to the ground.
Anti-Cosmo instantly turned around on his heel the moment he heard Anti-Wanda's cry.
"Anti-Wanda, are you alright?"
Wanda approached her warily as she was closest to her, and momentarily wondered if it would be alright if she offered her a hand to help, until she noticed exactly what had caught on to Anti-Wanda's ankle.
Wanda wanted to scream. She wanted to cry out in warning to the others, but her voice hitched in her throat as her ankle had been caught in the same way and pulled her off of her feet. Without any sort of warning, Wanda was yanked backwards to the ground, and she shouted out as she hit her head hard against the ground, successfully knocking her out.
A butterfly net sprang from the ground, engulfing the girls entirely in it's giant netting, and the boys could only watch helplessly as they jumped out of their skins in complete shock. And when the reality of the situation fell upon the boys at last, Cosmo and Anti-Cosmo struggled against their own pain to leap into action after them as the net dragged Wanda and Anti-Wanda into the density of the foliage.
"Wanda!" Cosmo yelled desperately after her, and scrambled on the ground in a frantic attempt to grasp the remainder of his strength to launch himself into a daring rescue.
"Cosmo, what did you do this time?!" Anti-Cosmo accused him as he focused his anger on to Cosmo to mask his unyielding dread of losing his wife once again.
"Oh no, I think I know what's going on..." Timmy whispered under his breath, and before Cosmo and Anti-Cosmo could dive into the bushes after their wives, Timmy managed to grab a hold of their ankles to quickly halt them in mid-air.
"Timmy! Let go!" Anti-Cosmo yelled as he desperately attempted to shake him off.
"You can't! Or else you two will get captured too!" Timmy warned them with terror washed over his expression. Cosmo noticed this immediately, and froze in his tracks as he felt his heart in his chest shrink all the more as he turned towards Timmy to face him warily. In the back of his mind, as much as Cosmo wanted to deny the indisputable truth that cruelly dragged his wife away, Cosmo had a faint idea of what might have happened. And when he finally managed the courage to speak up, his voice was barely audible,
"...Timmy, what are you talking about?"
Immediately after Cosmo dared to ask, the phantom sound of Mr. Crocker's laughter echoed from afar, as if his haunting voice was carried along by the violent winds.
The Earth stood still beneath them all. Through the harsh laughter, the sound of Wanda's voice cut through to Cosmo's mind, and echoed a previous conversation he had with her, as if it were mocking him:
"I checked the train stop earlier but Timmy wasn't there. It was messier than usual, for some reason, but nothing was especially amiss..."
Cosmo swallowed a hard gulp as he finally concluded the unwanted truth... it was a trap.
"That was a butterfly net." Timmy observed as he looked at the ground beneath them, and wondered how he hadn't noticed the overgrown masses of foliage had been tampered with to hide any thick layers beneath it. With fear in his voice, Timmy turned over to Cosmo and Anti-Cosmo with dismay, "My crazy fairy-obsessed teacher, Mr. Crocker, must've been tailing me and figured out where I hang out. I thought it was a pretty safe place, since it's so far out of the way of the city... but I guess I underestimated him. And now he's got Wanda and Anti-Wanda... if Crocker finds out about you two as well, he'll capture you guys too. Then they'll be no chance of saving them. So... you can't go chasing them right now."
Cosmo simply froze in terror as all traces of colour emptied his face. The tone of his skin fell into a sickly, ghostly paleness as his eyes vacantly stared at Timmy, and he hesitated to acknowledge what had to be done next. Anti-Cosmo, on the other hand, wasted no time in being upfront with Timmy, and grabbed him by the shoulders as he looked to him with desperation emanating from his expression.
"Timmy, you have to wish us back to normal, now!" He begged him as he fell to his knees in a broken mess, and cried with utter despair, "I have to figure out a way to save my wife!"
"No, wait!" Cosmo quickly interrupted them.
Timmy turned to Cosmo in surprise, and saw the sheer terror in Cosmo's eyes at the very prospect of making this wish. Immediately after he recognised the horror-stricken expression that had taken over Cosmo's expression, Timmy knew then... it was much more complicated than he suspected it to be. He took Cosmo's well-being into account first and foremost, as he knew that was something Wanda would want him to do in the event that something might happen to her.
Timmy dismissively shrugged off Anti-Cosmo, much to his dismay, and calmly turned his attention to Cosmo. Timmy carefully approached him, lifting his hands up in surrender as if to tell him that he wouldn't do anything that would startle or harm him.
"What's wrong, Cosmo? You can tell me..." Timmy asked him gently, as he tried not to be too harsh with him.
"I... I don't know if I'm ready to go back to normal yet," Cosmo reluctantly admitted as he ran his hands through his hair and clung on to his head with frustration, "But... I don't know I'm fine with being smart either."
"Cosmo, I'm sorry this is hard on you, but you have to make up your mind, and quickly," Timmy told him firmly as he slowly placed his hand supportively on Cosmo's shoulder, and tried very cautiously to approach him in the most appropriate manner, "We have to save Wanda. You know we have to do this, right?"
All of a sudden, Timmy was sharply knocked to the side as Anti-Cosmo shoved him away, and ripped Cosmo's attention away from him as he grabbed a hold of Cosmo's collar to bring him precariously close to his infuriated glare.
"I don't have time for this indecisiveness!" Anti-Cosmo seethed as Cosmo leant backwards with unease by how dangerously close Anti-Cosmo seemed to be from head-butting him, "You either think of some kind of plan now, or you tell Timmy to change us back to normal so I can take over everything from there. Which is it?" Cosmo gazed to the side as he attempted to avoid Anti-Cosmo's eyes, and Anti-Cosmo gripped him tighter, "You have ten seconds to decide. I have no problem with forcing Timmy to wish for this anyway."
Cosmo remained silent and vigilant, as he was frozen in his internal battle with himself. His breath was uneven, and he vacantly stared away from Anti-Cosmo with watery eyes to fight back the urge to give in to the panic that was overwhelming him. Timmy managed to stumble on his feet when he noticed just how much Cosmo was opposed to returning back to his original self. It was worrying, Timmy thought, that even in the face of danger for his loved ones, even as he had all the intelligence that could ever want, Cosmo was still reduced to a lost child when it came to his own life.
"Cosmo..." Timmy whispered in empathy.
"Pathetic." Anti-Cosmo spat in disgust before he shoved Cosmo away. Then, he immediately turned to Timmy and pointed his wand to glare an intimidating reddish hue towards Timmy's head, and threatened him as the wand began to glow brighter within his tightened grasp, "Alright kid, I'll give you two choices: you can either make this wish with both of your legs completely intact, or you can make the wish with your legs broken. I'm more than capable of making the latter a firm possibility, and I promise you, it won't be quick and painless. So, which will it be?"
Timmy squinted his eyes shut as he readied himself for the onslaught, and Anti-Cosmo's eyes lit up with devilish delight at Timmy's resistance. This moment had reminded them all that Anti-Cosmo's pure evil nature hadn't diminished along with his intellect, as Anti-Cosmo couldn't help his uncontrollable malicious grin growing wider at the prospect of torturing him, and his cold heart beat faster in his chest with excitement as he raised his reddened wand into the air, ready to swipe his destructive magic upon him.
Before Anti-Cosmo's wand could descend towards Timmy's cowering figure, Cosmo quickly grabbed a tight hold of Anti-Cosmo's arm and thrust it away with a harsh pull behind his back. Anti-Cosmo winced as he resisted the urge to shout in pain, as Cosmo forcefully bent his arm uncomfortably in an agonising position.
"You'd best leave him alone if you know what's good for you." Cosmo threatened him with disdain. Before Anti-Cosmo was given a chance to give any sort of reply, Cosmo quickly lunged himself forward and head-butted Anti-Cosmo square against his forehead. Anti-Cosmo stumbled backwards, and before he could maintain his balance once again, Cosmo stopped him with a swift punch to the gut, and rendered him to his knees in a broken heap.
"What... the hell is wrong with you?" Anti-Cosmo asked him through his heavy breaths, and rested his throbbing forehead to the ground as he clutched his stomach, "You're more willing... to settle the score with me... than to ensure your wife's safety?! And you call me... twisted..."
All of a sudden, Cosmo's anger completely consumed him as he seethed through his gritted teeth, and thrust his hand forward to take a tight hold of Anti-Cosmo's wrist to force him on to his feet, before throwing him at full force towards the overgrown shelter in the distance.
Anti-Cosmo felt his spine snap in two against the wooden shards of the shelter that cracked upon impact. And when he slumped to the ground and fell to his knees again, Anti-Cosmo's head hung in utter defeat as his shoulders quickly rose and fell with every short and painful breath.
"Why... won't you... help her...?" Anti-Cosmo struggled to ask.
Cosmo's temper consumed him once again as he stepped forward towards him, clenching his fists into balls so tight that his fingernails dug deep into his skin and drawn blood within his grasp. And as he felt completely numbed from the pain, his voice ferociously ripped from his throat as he shouted with unrelenting fury,
"Because being smart doesn't solve everything!" Cosmo stumbled forward as he looked helplessly over at his trembling hands and at the small cuts he had unintentionally created, "Isn't that what you told me? Anti-Cosmo, as much as I don't want to admit this... but you were right. How can I help anyone when I know that I'm useless no matter what I do?"
Cosmo tightened his hands back into fists, and vacantly looked on to the distance as the harsh winds brushed his hair over his eyes.
"How can I know that I'll be able to save Wanda... when ultimately... she'd be better off without me..."
"Damn it, Cosmo, will you stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about your wife!" Anti-Cosmo yelled impatiently as he staggered back to his feet, "Don't you want to see your Wanda alive again?! You can figure out your pitiful identity crisis once our wives are safe!"
Cosmo remained silent. He didn't feel as if he owed Anti-Cosmo any kind of explanation, or owed him anything for that matter, but at that moment, he felt no other feeling within him than the horrifying dread that came from feeling lost and alone.
"We really don't have time for this, guys!" Timmy yelled at them in an attempt to break them up, "We have to take action now and figure out where Crocker's secret base is. Nothing will come from all this fighting!"
As quickly as Timmy had shouted to them, Anti-Cosmo forcefully jumped forward to swing a punch against the side of Cosmo's head, and as he felt no reason to defend himself or fight back at that point, Cosmo was thrown backwards to the ground, and lay limp on the floor as he finally gave into unconsciousness.
And Timmy looked on, feeling ignored and hopeless.
…
Act Twelve Preview: "She Remembers..."
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