This chapter is a little longer, to make up for the previous one being so short!
. . .
. .
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The ether forced Timmy into a toxic, unnatural slumber. But the magic that engulfed his body kept him under even after the drug wore off. Awakening his subconscious as it took root, but keeping him under so that all that was around him ceased to exist. He saw twilight and felt nothing else.
Delirious, the boy's lids flickered gently as he stared skywards. When only dark greeted his awakening, he again blinked in order to regain perception. The spark in his mind collected suddenly that he was actually staring perfectly at his surroundings. The dark didn't obstruct his view, it was his view. Timmy grazed his hands to his sides and arched himself upwards, still seeing nothing. The dehydration in his throat and emptiness in his stomach was numb, and he momentarily thanked the new surroundings for taking that away. This aching in his head ceased as well, and the weight on his wrists felt like it had been lifted as he brought his wrist to cuff in his other hand and rub in soothing.
His wrist.
Timmy shockingly looked down. He was chain free. A shaky gasp escaped him as he jumped to his feet and bolted forward. Towards nowhere, really. But that didn't concern him as he knew had to stumble amongst something. The freak that chained him must've moved him while he was under. He'd stumble upon a door eventually. Although, it only took a few seconds for the boy to come tire with running into an endless void and stopped. At least he had the freedom of stretching his legs after what felt like ages.
With his hands palming his bent knees, Timmy looked up with a scowl. "Hey, bat wings!" He called. His voice bounced back in an echo from the void. "When does this end, huh? I already don't know what I do to deserve Vicky and Francis in my life, but I've never even seen you before! Where am I!?"
Nothing but his echo answered. Timmy stood straight and ran two hands through his grimy hair. Looking down at himself, for once, he felt disgusted to be so dirty. If it wasn't rightfully earned from a backyard session of amateur football with Chester and AJ, what significance did it earn? But no, he had a pungent odor from sitting in that cell for who knows how long, his clothes, smears of dirt from the floor, his hair beginning to string from grease, and a ring of sweat occupying his shirt's neckline. But at least the pain of hunger and lack of sunlight had ceased.
"Come on," Timmy called. "Come on, dude! What have I ever done to you!?"
That specific echo rang longer than the others, and he listened to it fade into nothingness in dull defeat. But as he concentrated on the noise, he began to release that amongst the echo, a faint white noise bornt out of it. A small wind, giving Timmy a crave for freedom. He ran forward again, looking for the source of wind. From the hinge crack of a door or something of another. He stopped violently in his tracks when the sound got smaller, nearly tripping off his feet completely. In a moment of composure, he began to pace backward trying to gain the noise in earshot again. Trying to gain a sense of direction as to where it came from. The noise, though the source was unknown and unlocated, gradually became louder again and Timmy huffed a breath into a smile.
"Come on..." Timmy said as he walked backward at a cautiously slow pace. His hands carefully outstretched. "Give me a door, and Vicky won't hear a peep from me for a month..."
The noise became more adamant and Timmy's smile faded. It wasn't wind.
The commotion had become less of a whistle and more intelligible an actual voice. A wavering one that was pitched enough to be mistaken as the wind at a distance. Practically a whistle as it broke unevenly in squeaks and hitching breaths. Someone was crying.
"Hello?" Timmy's tone instantly changed. "Is someone else there?"
"Hello?" It responded.
The voice was small, easily interpreted as a child. Timmy hitched a breath in excitement. "Hey!" Timmy called. "Hey! Where are you?"
"Over here."
Timmy turned around.
Where nothing had been before, a white dot took shape. Placed where Timmy had been not long before. But he didn't question it as he ran forward in desperation, overly happy not just to see another person. But another kid. He slowed down in reaching them, seeing the white dot materialize into the actual person. Hunched on the ground and facing away.
"H-Hey!" Timmy breathed. "Did he take you, too?"
The kid remained on the ground. At least, he thought it to be a kid. There wasn't a single hair on their head, and they were barefoot. They were draped in what looked like..? Like...
"Dude, why are you wearing a sheet?"
The child turned their head, eyes following the ground before brokenly looking up Timmy standing above them. As the child did, one look at their face, Timmy wished to take back his form of addressing.
"It's my hospital gown..." the girl spoke.
"Hospital?" Timmy asked. "Is that what this is all about, am I in a coma or something?"
The girl's eyes were tearful. "You haven't seen Luna have you..?"
Timmy's brows creased. "Who?"
"P-Please." She rolled onto her knees, tears falling in crystals across her face. "It wasn't my f-fault. I didn't mean too..."
"What wasn't?"
"The nurse was just adjusting my sheets..." the little girl cried. "I-I asked Luna if we could go back to the poppy field, but she said I should rest. I d-didn't want to go for long, just for a tiny while...I was just tired of the room. Luna told me I wasn't being considerate, and I never had been. I told her I didn't want her anymore...but, I didn't mean it...I never meant it..." Her voice drifted into a shaky whisper.
Timmy, though confused, looked on in worry. "I..I don't get it.."
"Please, you have to help me find her. Please, Timmy."
His eyes widened. "What?"
"I-I need-need L-Luna..." The little girl cried, pressing her grimy hands to her face.
"Okay...okay," Timmy kneeled down. "Don't cry, I..I'll help you get out of here."
"N-No..." she wept. "Luna..."
"Is Luna your sister...?"
Her hands left her face, and the gown-clad girl shook her head. "M-My fairy..."
Timmy's eyes clouded with vacant disbelief, though sympathy still had first resort. "Okay..." he humored. "I'm trying to get out..you can come with me."
"Luna..."
"We'll find her after, but, we gotta go. The freak with wings trapped us in this place, c'mon..."
The girl crossed her arms over her thin body, shaking her head in protest.
"What's your name?"
"Antoinette.." she said. "I need Luna.."
"Okay, well, there's no one here but you and me. She's probably outside, or something."
"I can't leave without her.."
Timmy croaked a sigh in frustration. "Okay, fine. I'll go find her and come back to get you."
The boy stood up to turn and leave. A shout of fear left past him though when an icy hand seized his wrist.
"NO!" A voice erupted out of Antoinette. One that was the furthest from a little girl. Timmy shuttered in fear, trying to pry his wrist free though her grip tightened. His face falling to horror as the tears once lining the girl's eyes were replaced with a black, terrifying mist.
"TIMMY TURNER, HELP US!" She roared in a venomously raspy voice. Her grip tightening and digging her nails forcefully into Timmy's skin. The boy hollowed out in fear and pain. Tugging his wrist desperately as she continued to snarl and hiss in trying to bring him closer. He hitched his breath in fear.
"Let go of me!" Timmy yelled tugging his wrist back.
The girl emitted a demonic growl. "HELP US!"
The boy fearfully slapped his other hand to the one that trapped his wrist. As soon as the skin of his palm met her gripping hand though, his sense of feeling regained as a burning sensation struck between the two and caused both to shriek. Timmy winced his eyes shut from the burning, but rounded in shock as a stream of grey smoke emitted from where he touched the girl.
Antoinette pulled back with another shriek, and Timmy shuttered in fear at the sight of grey running up her arm and leaving cracks in its trail as her skin hissed from the burn. Her black eyes looking from her skin to him, and she reached her arms forward and ran for him. Timmy stumbling backward before falling on his bottom and desperately scooting away. But by the time she reached him, the burn had emitted to her whole body, and cracks ran up the entirety of her skin.
"Help...Us..!"
She crumbled to ashes, and Timmy could only scream in terror.
. . .
Amongst the cell in his chains, Timmy's unconscious body shuttered.
Amidst the rocky mountains on the border of Anti-Fairy World, there was a faint eruption.
The arrivals were silent, listening for any other sign of life that was sure to give them a bitter welcoming. However, the area was soundless. Amongst a concaved edge of the mountain, behind a rock wall, a woman clasped her hands to the surface and peered over.
"It looks...deserted." Mrs. Turner said.
Wanda's head popped up from behind the rock as well. She looked down the edge of the mountain and came in contact with the wall of Anti-Abracatraz. "We're at the edge of the prison, I doubt civilians are allowed here."
"Don't let that mislead you."
The women turned around to face Jorgen and the others. He and Mr. Turner attached the velcro belts to their waists as they fastened the power crones and cellphones in the pockets.
"They may have guards at the entrance." The keeper of the rules looped the wire and microphone around his neck, before lifting the tiny earpiece to his ear. "But we can't take any chances of sneaking in anywhere else, you could end up smack-middle of the rigged corridors."
"Fine." Wanda said, waving a hand quickly. "Just give me the doohickies."
Mr. Turner did his own adjustment of the gadgets, tossing two belts to both Wanda and his wife.
As Wanda taped it around her waist and adjusted the wire attached to the equipment, she looked down at herself. Cosmo came around to meet her, drawing his wand from his pocket in nervous preparation.
Jorgen pulled the two fairies aside. "Remember, use your magic only-"
"As a form of defense." Wanda nested the earpiece into her ear. "We know."
The larger fairy looked over his shoulder momentarily, stealing a glance at the humans before settling his stern gaze on the godparents before him.
"I can't promise I'll be available constantly. Turner's mother may be able to read blueprints, but I know what lies within those walls better than anyone. Guiding a human through needs more of an effort than two fairies."
"We understand," Wanda said. "If all we have to deal with is avoiding some magic stimulation, we should be fine. We don't need assistance for that."
Jorgen pressed his lips into a thin line in hesitance. "You were right."
Wanda's eyes widened. She was certain that in over nine thousand years Jorgen had never spoken those words to neither her nor Cosmo.
"About what?"
"The anti-fairies will take any measures necessary to make opposites to our world. Because they despise us, but mostly for trickery. You need to take the right corridor, I guarantee it's the one lined with magic like you said."
Wanda looked to Cosmo over her shoulder. He too seemed disbelievable.
"Yes, sir." Wanda agreed.
The larger fairy looked down at the two of them, his face one of displeasure and more familiar to Cosmo and Wanda. He shook his head disapprovingly. "I thought least of all for Turner to be the chosen one in all of this. Let alone you two to be the godparents responsible for a fairy half-breed."
The fairies looked down, guilt-ridden.
"You two bumbling idiots might just be the most deranged set of godparents I've ever had the displeasure of training."
Cosmo and Wanda didn't look back, expecting their leader's common disparage.
He shook his head, "but never have I met any fairies who cared about their job more than you."
They looked back up in surprise.
"Go save him, or so help me, you'll be spending the next ten thousand years at the Fairy Academy."
Cosmo swallowed. "Yes, sir." He echoed his wife's words.
As Mr. and Mrs. Turner adjusted their equipment, Tracy unrolled the blueprints before her. Laying it out flat on the rocky ground as she sat on her knees. Observing it with stern focus, Todd stood up behind her. Knowing she was avoiding his gaze rather than actually making any essential planning.
"Honey-"
"Todd, please, let's just focus on getting Timmy back."
The man looked to the fairies behind them, and seeing them occupied, he kneeled next to his wife.
"I don't know what I'm doing here." He admitted. "I know that those things hate me.."
"Those things are living people. And Timmy is exactly like them." She spoke with a sharp tongue. "As odd as they may be. Why do you think we traveled halfway across the galaxy with a bunch of fairies? I'm done trying to make sense of everything, I just want my son back."
Todd sat down. "Tracy, I know no apology will earn your acceptance, but...I don't want Timmy to get hurt because of what I've done..."
Tracy stopped staring at the blueprints and looked to her husband.
"I'm an idiot." He agreed. "Life was going so well for me, I forgot that doesn't apply to both you and Timmy. And...I don't care if he has fairies that watch over him. I'm still his father, and I haven't been a good one lately..."
"Maybe when this is all over, you'll give him your office as an award..." she spoke sarcastically.
"Oh for goodness sake, Tracy." Mr. Turner argued. "For someone so concerned with only getting our son back, you seem fine to keep reminding me of what I did wrong. I know that I messed up."
"Yes, you did." She spat.
Todd's eyes softened in spite of his wife's cold demeanor, falling upon her face.
"I can promise you one thing," he spoke softly. "I'm not afraid. I may have been once, but I'm over it. I don't expect you or even Timmy to forgive me...just don't leave it like this before I go in there. We don't know what I could run into-"
"Don't do that." Mrs. Turner said. "You'll be fine."
He nodded. "I know." he swallowed. "Tracy, darling, you and Timmy are everything to me..."
"Todd.." she shook her head.
"You don't have to believe me." He said. "Every good thing I see in our son is from you. I didn't have anything to do with it...he's all you."
With a sparkle in her eye, Mrs. Turner's lips curved into a faint smile. Her hands left her lap and framed her husband's face, bringing her head in against his in a gentle kiss. He returned it, and as they pulled away, he mirrored her smile.
"I hear you." She said. He held a hand to her cheek.
"Ahem."
The Turner's looked over to Cosmo and Wanda, who waited not too far along for Mr. Turner. "It's time to go."
Todd gave a small nod, looking to his wife once more before drawing his hands back and lifting from the ground. He followed Cosmo to the mountain's flat edge, as Tracy approached Wanda.
"Be careful, okay?" Mrs. Turner said.
"You too." The fairy agreed. "We'll be in and out."
The human looked to her left pocket, tugging at the flap of her son's cap that stuck out after holding onto it since Cosmo returned it. Taking the hat in both her hands she stared down at it as she handed it to Wanda. The fairy carefully took it in return.
"In case he needs help remembering."
Wanda attached the cap's buckle to the belt loop of her pants.
"I trust you," Tracy said.
Before Wanda went to meet with the rest of the rescue team, she squeezed Tracy's hand in return.
Meeting Wanda at the slippery edge of the mountain, Cosmo and Todd looked downwards. The slope edged all the way down the left of the main entrance into the prison center.
"Looks safe enough." Mr. Turner said.
"Yup." Cosmo agreed.
"Hold it, you two." Wanda stopped. "For all we know there are guards down there, we don't need to get caught at first hand. I'll go first and give you the okay."
The men didn't protest as Wanda sat on her bottom and began to scoot herself over the edge. On the slope of the mountain, she edged little by little with the palms of her hands and feet linked with the ground. Taking very little movement, one of her feet suddenly gave way, and with a gasp she slipped downwards. Sliding down the rest of the way.
"Wanda-!" Cosmo called in worry.
She reached the end and fell forward with a yelp, landing face-first behind a bush of blackthorns, nearly piercing herself from a near miss. She groaned from the impact, rolling over onto her back to face the red sky above. She scowled at it angrily and sat up.
"Wanda? All good down there?" Todd's voice ran through her ear.
She rubbed her shoulder in pain. "Yeah, off to a great start..." she levitated slightly off the ground to peer over the bush. The entryway wasn't far along, so she'd been lucky to have not been spotted by the two guards that stood watch.
"It was a near miss, they could easily have seen me," Wanda spoke. "Come down carefully."
There was no response on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Watch out!"
Wanda took a large blow from behind as two bouldering impacts hit her at once with audible yells. Falling flat once again, she looked up at where they had landed nearly completely over her.
"I'm working with two morons.."
"Hey, what's going on over there!" A gruff voice called from beyond the bush.
"Shoot." Wanda pushed herself out from under Todd and Cosmo. She peered over the bushes and saw that two anti-fairies' attention had been caught from the sound of Cosmo and Todd's grand entrance. They left the door and quickly approached the bush.
"Jorgen, Jorgen we're already caught what do we do?" Wanda spoke.
"What? What did you idiots do?"
"Eat spikes!" Mr. Turner suddenly yelled. Wanda and Cosmo both ducked in fear as Todd took a lone branch and swung it across the open air above them. The sound of two anti-fairies choking out in impact was heard. In a startling revelation, Cosmo and Wanda looked over the bush at the two anti-fairies, now out cold.
Wanda looked at Mr. Turner. "What the heck was that?"
"They're the size of my son." He retorted, dropping the branch and standing up. "What's some magic against a little muscle?"
He made way from the bush, Cosmo and Wanda in following.
"Told you we might need him," Wanda spoke to her husband.
Cosmo was the least impressed. "Yeah, well, we haven't gotten Timmy yet.."
Wanda shook her head and lifted a finger to her earpiece. "Never mind, all good on this end. The guards are down, we're heading in."
Walking up to the door, Todd didn't hesitate in grabbing the large hoop handles and tugging it open with a large grunt. The double set opened with a long creak as the three stood in motionless staring at the dark interior. The doors came to a halt in a thud, yet the red skyscape of outside let little to no light in anyhow. It was dim but just dim enough for the fairies to see another set of doors across the way that led to the main chambers of the prison. Implemented against a wall that led along either direction.
"I guess we're splitting off early.." Wanda said, being first to venture inside. She looked both ways in caution, though the interior felt more empty and more hollow the further she let herself in.
"Hope you're right when you said that the traps are in the left corridor..." Todd agreed as he and Cosmo edged in as well. "Otherwise, I'm toast."
"I got word from Jorgen. You're just gonna have to trust me."
The man looked to the long left of where he had to go, then to the fairies who waited to split off.
"I'm in earshot if there's a problem. Stay low." He said to them, turning to leave.
"Why'd you come back?"
Todd stopped where he was, turning back around. Cosmo stared at him coldly.
"What?" Todd asked in disbelief.
Wanda arched her head back in frustration. "We don't have time for this-"
"Why'd you come back." The green fairy asked again. It was evident he wouldn't let Mr. Turner anywhere near his godson's rescue until the fellow man answered him in return. Mr. Turner looked once to Wanda, who looked rather uncertain, and back at the green fairy.
"Father to father," he said. "You should know."
"That's no excuse."
Todd didn't seem angered in the slightest from the way Cosmo had been treating him. That was what wretched Cosmo, thinking that he may have not been taking this as seriously as he seemed to be. And Cosmo was not prepared to save Timmy on simple hope that the boy's father had his whole heart in this rescue. Not at all until he heard it.
"Because I couldn't stay away." Todd responded. "So if you don't mind, I'm gonna save my son whether you're happy I'm here or not."
Wanda interfered quickly before Cosmo could argue. "Good luck."
"Likewise." Todd said.
The man disappeared into the darkness, and Wanda tugged at Cosmo's arm.
"C'mon." She encouraged, leading him down the right of the corridor. The front hallway didn't have much depth, and they reached the other end within a minute. Coming to where the long hallway awaited them.
Cosmo clutched Wanda's hand in nervousness, and she squeezed it in return.
"Jorgen, we're here." Wanda spoke into her mic.
"I hear you." He responded. "As long as Turner is on the other end, he's not going anywhere. Don't rush this."
"We don't know what they've done to him, I'm not slowing down anything." Wanda protested.
"Wanda, listen to what I say. We take drastic actions in Fairy World to keep intruders out, you can only imagine what they do here."
Wanda sighed. Cosmo looking at her in waiting.
"Okay. We've got it."
Both fairies drew their wands, slowly edging in.
"Wanda, how do we know-"
"You should feel it instinctively, Cosmo. Just think of your training."
Cosmo's hands shook with his wand aimed outwards. Sweat yielding his hairline as the tip of his wand glowed faintly in forging some light for him to see. Anticipating his fairy instincts to set off at any moment. But even then, how quick could he be? Wanda had far better instincts than he did ever since the academy. They were trained militarily in case of any threats down on earth. Now was no exception.
"I can't feel anything, Wanda." Cosmo spoke nervously.
"Sh, sweetie."
"But-"
"Cosmo!" Wanda grabbed hold of his arm and threw both of them against the ground in panic. Cosmo looked up to watch a dark blade of magic fly over them in an attempt to have hit him. Wanda groaned loudly as she lifted him from the ground.
"Cosmo..focus."
"But, I didn't feel anything."
"What?"
"I didn't feel it coming. Except for you pulling me down.."
At that very moment, there were large tremors that surrounded them. Cosmo and Wanda turned away from each other in quickly raising their wands combatively. Though the sound was quick to end as soon as it started. Wanda jumped back in startlement against Cosmo as a rush of wind ran by her face, watching as a black blade hit against the wall and disappeared in a puff of smoke. She hadn't felt that coming in the slightest.
"I told you." Cosmo whispered.
Wanda held her wand higher. "It knows we're intruders, keep going."
The fairies made way deeper into the lengthy corridor, no other sign of magic seeming to hit them as they floated for what felt like minutes.
"Maybe we should go faster." Cosmo said in a low voice.
Wanda held her wand in a batted position over her shoulder, her eyes slit as the faint glow from her wand twinkled against the heated gaze that her pink orbs gave off in the darkened hallway.
They floated for another few minutes.
And luck couldn't describe how fortunate Cosmo had suddenly been.
His wand had been raised at the perfect angle as he held it combatively to the left of his head. So when a magic beam came to strike him, it hit his wand's end that protected Cosmo like an impending shield. The dark blade disappearing with an audible ding from the impact of Cosmo's wand.
He and Wanda stopped in startlement.
"I definitely didn't feel that." Cosmo said, looking down at his wand.
"What is going on?" Wanda asked. "We're succeeding through dumb luck, that can't last long."
"Why can't we feel it?" Cosmo asked.
It was a long minute of ponderation before worry washed over Wanda's face.
"No, no, no." She worried. "We're such idiots!"
"What? What's going on?" Jorgen asked.
"Jorgen, we're in Anti-Fairy World for crying out loud!" Wanda said. "We can't sense this magic, it's black magic!"
Cosmo looked behind him at Wanda, but his gaze soon fell beyond her in growing worry. "Wanda-Wanda!"
She turned around to see that where they came from was no longer accessible. Evidently large shock waves of black magic shot across the corridor's entryway fanatically in erratic patterns, the blasts slowly increasing faster and faster and making way along the walls towards Cosmo and Wanda.
Wanda whipped around. "Cosmo! GO!"
The fairies took off, racing down the long corridor in panic as the blasts increased their pace, trying to catch up to its targets. The fairies flew fast, arms outstretched as they desperately longed to meet the end of the dreaded lengthy corridor.
Cosmo, who remained ahead, looked behind him in fear.
"Don't look back Cosmo, keep going!" Wanda encouraged desperately.
Unbeknown though amidst their panic, Cosmo wasn't looking back at the danger, but rather at Wanda.
He continued to look between the beyond of the endless corridor and his wife. The black magic gaining on her though she didn't look back. As Cosmo's fear for her being behind him rather than his fear for his own safety began to take over, his flying subdued less and less.
At the notice of his slow pace, Wanda shook her head adamantly. "Cosmo, faster!" She yelled.
He looked back and forth in panic.
"Cosmo, keep go-!"
A magic blade instantly took Wanda at the side of the head, and she fell to the floor with a heavy thump.
Cosmo came to a screeching halt midair.
"WANDA!"
For a moment, she was motionless on the ground.
It was barely two seconds between the time Cosmo was in the air to have descended to the ground, just avoiding the overhead blasts by a stray hair on his head. He plummeted towards Wanda with open arms as he desperately threw himself over her against the ground to further be shielded by any blasts. On all fours, he dragged her off to the side with an arm holding her limply underneath his body, as he crawled underneath the hovering blasts that continued to go over their heads. He perched her against the wall in sitting as he kneeled by her front.
"Wanda, oh geez-Wanda!" Cosmo shook her shoulders. Her head bobbed down in her blackout.
Her husband took in a sharp breath in fear, pulling her into his arms.
"W-Wanda..don't..." he whispered as he swayed back and forth on his knees with her in his hold. "You're okay, you're okay, you're okay..."
She croaked a small sound as she regained consciousness, having been out for only a few seconds. "I'm fine...Cosmo, I'm okay.."
He pulled back with a shutter.
"I'm okay..." she repeated with a small wince. "My magic is just shorted out..." She pulled out her wand and held it in both hands, watching as the star point twitched in an attempt to regain power, before dying out completely.
Cosmo's first instinct, no doubt, was to panic. But knowing Wanda, knowing how she'd want to handle the situation rather than however she may, was to look to the best way out of the situation.
"It's okay," Cosmo nodded in nervousness. He pulled out his wand. "It's okay, we've got my magic still. I can fix it."
"No, sweetie, remember.." Wanda spoke tiredly. The shortage of her magic caused her great frailty that she could feel pummeling in her system. "It doesn't work like that.."
Cosmo lowered his wand in frustration, and even as mature as he would try to act, he couldn't hide the pout that came from his height of vexation. They stood there, and from having cowered to the ground, the blasts overhead of them stopped from their targets suddenly out of sensation. The fairies stood still, and as Cosmo continued to look down at his wand with disappointment in both himself and the stupid rules, Wanda put her hands on top of his.
"I'll only slow you down..." she said.
Cosmo lifted his eyes to her's in worry.
Wanda took in a breath, regaining awareness from the hard hit. "Go find him.."
His wide eyes didn't leave her face, and he shook his head in protest, his green hair bobbing as he did so.
Wanda lifted a hand to his face. "Listen to me.."
"Are you nuts?"
"Listen to me." She urged. "I know you think I won't, but I will. We'd have better luck if we split up just for the time being."
"Wanda..."
"Hey," she smiled gently. "They can't sense me anyway, I've got no magic to trigger an alarm now. I'm practically invisible."
She was trying to find a way around his stubbornness. And Cosmo, in his truly underestimated mind, knew it. Not because he knew common sense, but because he knew Wanda. Whom he was just not prepared to leave at the most incapable she's ever been. He was never prepared to leave her, no matter how immensely and beautifully strong she was.
It took years for Cosmo to understand that what everyone else thought of him and Wanda didn't matter. Cosmo's heart oozed with love for his wife. And the love she bestowed upon him in return, made him feel as close to heaven as he could get. The male fairy meant everything he attempted to say when they lost Timmy to the darkness. His life would not be what it is, would not have fulfilled it's absolute glories, if it weren't for Wanda. Cosmo loved Timmy unconditionally, but he certainly would not have him without his wife. Their godchildren, every single one, were matched with Cosmo and Wanda as a team. Not one or the other individually. Cosmo had all to thank Wanda for by nearly being at his side through everything. Especially sticking with him when had acted so dumbly and carelessly and put their love aside for a matter of making jokes to feed his stupid pride. It made him wonder why in all the universe she would choose to stay with a low life like him. Just as when they were in their adolescence and Cosmo didn't think he'd ever have a shot with her, while so many other fairies of higher quality loved Wanda as well.
But, Cosmo loved Wanda in ways that other people could never.
And Wanda wanted him just as much. Cosmo just didn't know how to Wanda he was the ultimate winning in her life, and exceedingly the rarest and perfect of souls she had earned, but never thought she deserved. Wanda still stayed, because hardships wouldn't matter. She couldn't stop loving him and would fight to get things right until it killed her.
That is why anyone who dared, let alone thought they could hurt Wanda, immediately owned Cosmo's darkest hatred forever. That included himself, even if he'd never dare want to hurt his love. And even with their godchild in danger, Cosmo was still not prepared to leave his wife like this. Not on the little green fairy's life.
"I'm not leaving you." Cosmo protested.
"Then I'll go back the way we came." Wanda said, trying to find a curve around her husband's stubborn devotion to her safety. "Cosmo, Timmy needs you."
"And you need me." Cosmo defied. He wouldn't deny it. Having Wanda in his life the longest, he came to learn over years of experience that Wanda needed Cosmo exceedingly in ways that are blind to the eye.
"Right now," she whispered. "I need you to carry on. If I come with you, it won't do any good. I'll just slow you down without my magic."
She reached her hands to her waist, detaching the velcro belt and then looping it around Cosmo's waist, attaching it tightly and making sure the crone and cellphone remained secure. She unlooped the inductive coil from her neck and put it around his.
"But," his large eyes blinked as Wanda took out the earpiece and brought it to the left of his head. "But you need it, to get back.."
"You need it more Cosmo, to find Timmy." His wife said, settling the earpiece in his ear. Her hand trailed to his cheek, stroking it gently. She looked down the long corridor and pointed. "You can make it by yourself if you army crawl the rest of the way. Don't fly, it'll make you an easy target. But-But watch out for the end, Jorgen said there was magic there that acts like a trip-line. It could short out your magic just as easily."
"What about you?"
Wanda sighed, wondering if Cosmo had paid attention to anything she was saying. "Cosmo, I keep telling you I'll slow you down. And for all we know, Timmy's life may be hanging on a thread. I'll just go back the way we came and lay low. I'll wait as a lookout out front for you guys."
"Promise..?"
"I promise." She gripped her hands to both sides of his head, bringing his forehead against hers as she closed her eyes. "Don't you dare go and do something stupid..."
His hands gripped her upper arms as his eyes closed too. "I won't."
"Don't get into harm's way." She said firmly. "Grab Timmy and get out. I don't care if he doesn't remember. You take him and you two come straight back to me."
"Okay.."
Wanda's brow creased in worry as she breathed shakily against her husband.
"Bring him back to us.."
He nodded heavily. "I will, Wanda.."
Cosmo opened his eyes to look at her's. A moment of gazing into the precious pink they held, he tilted his head in anguish.
"Lamb chop.." he whispered as he leaned in.
They kissed fervently. Gripping to one another desperately and breathing choppily into it. Their eyes constricted shut as tears threateningly squeezed out, knowing they needed to leave one another, but just couldn't.
"I love you.." Cosmo whispered against her lips as he continued to kiss her.
Still holding his face to keep his lips to hers, Wanda carefully got to her feet with her husband's assistance. They broke apart breathlessly and Wanda's hand ran through Cosmo's hair once.
"I love you, too."
A moment of silence passed as they held on to each other.
Wanda nodded.
"Go."
She unlinked herself from Cosmo too fast for his liking, and he silently gasped. He remained on the ground as Wanda inched herself along the wall from where they came. She looked back, urging for Cosmo to continue with a hand wave though he didn't move. He wouldn't budge until she willingly walked out of his sight.
She continued along the wall, edging more and more and got faster the bolder she got. Cosmo's eyes didn't leave her until he no longer had any choice, as her figure eventually disappeared into the darkness.
And he was alone.
To be continued...