Cosmo continued to sob hysterically while the other two watched. Vicky shot Timmy a look that said 'I'll deal with you later, punk' and headed to the green-haired intruder, rolling up her sleeves.
"Who the heck are you?" She demanded. Cosmo sniffed.
"Not a fairy!" He exclaimed immediately. "DEFINITELY not a fairy!"
"Well, now that we've got THAT straightened up…" Timmy cut in, still in rage. "Would you mind explaining why you're here?"
"Oh, uh…" Cosmo blanked out, searching for a way to explain the situation to his previous godkid. His mind was empty… but what else is new?
"I… uh… I work at the cheese factory." He blurted, unable to come up with a better answer.
"…And?"
"And, uh… I was wondering if… I could borrow your…" He paused. "…Cow."
"We don't have a cow." Timmy grumbled, now just annoyed.
"Oh." Cosmo shrugged. "Then I guess I'm just wasting my time."
He skipped out the front door, closing it behind him. Wanda ran up to him, not without tripping a few times.
"COSMO! We weren't supposed to confront him yet!" She put an arm around his shoulder for support, making him stagger backwards a little bit. "Sorry, still haven't gotten this running thing down." Both were still a tad unstable.
"He, he, he… He didn't recognize me, Wanda!" Cosmo exclaimed, gripping her by the collar of her shirt. "He didn't remember meeeeeeeee-"
"Of course not, Cosmo. Jorgen terminated all memories of us from his mind. It's happened lots of times before to all our other godchildren… remember?" Wanda watched his face anxiously.
Cosmo sniffled sadly. "Timmy's different. Our godparenting jobs have always been failures… But not Timmy! He won us an award! He loves us no matter how many times I mess up! And his hat is pink!" He suddenly remembered something. "But, come to think of it… He wasn't wearing his pink hat."
"Well, uh… I guess he just needed a change. You gonna be ok, Goopy?" She asked him, using a nickname she only used when Cosmo was distressed.
"I knew Timmy wasn't going to recognize me. I really did." Cosmo sighed, looking her in the eyes sadly. "But… I guess… part of me still believed that somehow, he would… as if by magic, or something…"
"It's fine, Cosmo. We'll restore his memories in time, all right? I promise."
Elsewhere, Fairyworld was singing a different tune.
The disease had spread viciously, infecting almost 20% of the population. The high concentration of black magic also had an effect on the outside weather. The normally florescent hot pink skies had dulled down to a crispy purple with hints of raven clouds. Jorgen Von Strangle took a few minutes to stare up at the sky, smirking at what he considered to be an improvement in its color.
=POOF!=
"Jooooooorgeeeeen!" The tooth fairy suddenly shrieked, her cerulean hair astray, her eyes sleepless and clouded with worry. "What are you DOING?!!"
"Uh…" Jorgen suddenly felt incredibly stupid, having no idea what he had done wrong. "Sitting? Calmly enjoying a nice afternoon?"
"NICE AFTERNOON!?" Her voice made his eardrums burn with pain. He was almost impressed. "JORGEN, do you KNOW what's HAPPENED TODAY?!"
"Umm… Yes." He hoped it was the right answer. "I declared war on the Anti-Fairies. Is there something I have missed, honey?"
His disoriented girlfriend let out a muffled sob. "Jorgen… a fairy… a fairy died today."
Jorgen shook his head, laughing. "Don't be ridiculous, my little bicuspid. No fairy has died for over 12,000 years." Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Wait… It wasn't… because…"
"Yes, it is." The tooth fairy paused to wipe a stray hair out of her face. "It's because of the disease." She paused to catch her breath. "I can't believe you didn't know." She stared down at the floor, and suddenly exploded into hysterical sobbing. "I've never been so terrified in my entire life! WE'LL ALL DIE!!!"
Jorgen rubbed the back of his neck nervously, not knowing how he should react to her sudden breakdown.
Timmy woke up the next morning from a dreamless sleep. The framed picture of Trixie smiled at him from the nightstand, and in his semi-conscious state, he turned to smile back at it.
"Hi… Trixie…"
It took him about ten minutes for him to snap out of his daze. The events of the previous day came flooding back to him. Vicky torturing him, Trixie driving away, some vaguely familiar idiot finding his way into his house…
"TIMMY? Come down and eat breakfast!"
Without comprehending anything that he was doing, the adolescent flopped down the stairs, his head a wreck and his eyes still sore from all the time he had spent sobbing the other night.
"Are you all right, Timmy?" Mrs. Turner asked, worriedly watching her son poke his breakfast cerial with a complete lack of interest. "You haven't touched your food."
"I… I had a bad day."
"But, Timmy, it's only 7:12 in the morning!" She replied, looking at her watch. Timmy sighed.
"No, I mean, yesterday. I can't remember a cruddier day."
"Well, what happened, sweetie? Maybe we can help."
"No, mom. You can't."
The bus came, and he stumbled onto it, hardly caring as he flopped down in his normal seat. Chester and AJ didn't notice anything wrong with him, being too busy in their horribly-done re-enactment of Crash Nebula meets the Crimson Chin.
"I'll take care of this one, Chin!" AJ hollered, making his action figure rise in glory. "TASTE INTERGALATIC LASERS, BRONZE KNEECAP!"
"No, Crash! I can handle this guy."
"Are you kidding!? You got the last guy! It's my turn, Chester!"
"How would you know!? Does your sissy-pants space suit have a built-in clock!?"
"Well at least my main weapon is actually intimidating! Whoever heard of defeating bad guys with an oversized mandible!?"
"The Crimson Chin rules!"
"Crash rules, the Chin stinks!"
Timmy rolled his eyes. There was something familiar about their conversation, but… ah, heck. He was too tired to delve any deeper into his mangled thoughts.
Timmy turned around in his seat. Trixie Tang sat in the very back of the classroom, deeply absorbed in a book she was reading. She noticed him staring and looked up, then turned her head away in disgust.
"She hates me…" Timmy whispered sadly, unsure of why he was talking to his pencils. They couldn't solve his problems.
He took another backwards glance towards the room behind him. Chester was glaring at AJ and vice versa, the two apparently not having made up after the little dispute. Elmer rubbed at his boil with an eraser, staring up at the ceiling with a dorky smile. Sanjay rested his head on his elbows, eyelids sagging, looking slightly ill. Veronica held a mirror to her face, re-applying her makeup while she waited for class to start. Timmy gave a melancholy sigh and turned around to face the chalkboard, still a bit depressed.
"Good morning, class!"
Ms. Waxelplax walked into the classroom. She looked the same as she had three years ago- her hair was in the same ridiculous style, and she was still reasonably chubby (but she had lost SOME weight since then).
"Veronica, put your cosmetics away…" She began.
Hesitantly, Veronica consented, first double-checking herself in the hand-held mirror to make sure nothing was wrong.
"Chester! AJ! Quit glowering at each other and face the board!"
They did so, but not without an audible "HMPH!" and an extra glare to top it off.
"You know the rules, Sanjay! Keep your elbows off your desk!"
"But Ms. Waxelplax!" He protested, still with an accent. "I do not feel good!"
"Then you can go to the nurse." She sighed. "I'll write you a hall pass."
Sanjay's eyes widened, and his glasses slid to the tip of his nose. "NOOO!!" He shrieked. "ANYTHING BUT THAT!"
"Then follow the rules and pay attention!" Ms. Waxelplax ordered. "First off, today… You'll all be taking that big Algebra test…"
Thirty minutes, twenty-nine tests and only twenty passing grades later, Ms. Waxelplax had already gotten them all passed out.
"Oh, geez. I got a B-." Timmy frowned. "And I studied all night with my parents!" He turned to Chester and AJ. "What did you guys get?"
Unfortunately, his two best friends weren't paying him much mind.
"How does she get her hair to stay like that?" Chester whispered to AJ, their conflict forgotten.
"Probably an excessive amount of hair spray." AJ replied. "What do you think, Elmer, Sanjay?"
Elmer gave a shallow nod, still somewhat distracted by the ceiling. Sanjay gave an inaudible grunt in response, followed by a mad coughing fit.
"…You okay, dude?" Chester asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're not going to suffocate, are you?"
Sanjay shook his head, and forced a weak smile. "I am fine, Chester, thank you for asking."
"Sure doesn't sound like it." AJ commented.
And he was right.
The library assistance club had an early closing that day. Elmer, AJ and a few other assorted nerds left the library, talking amongst themselves. Sanjay had suddenly come down with a cold fever and his cough had worsened. They figured he had to rest a while- so naturally they were taking him to the nurse.
"I feel absolutely fine." The stubborn kid kept insisting. "PLEASE, don't take me to that horrible place! NUUUUUUUU…"
AJ ignored his pleas of mercy. "You look positively horrible! Come on, we can have the club meeting another day."
Elmer nodded in agreement. "My boil can wait." He said in his horribly nasal voice, drawling out the world 'boil' as he always did.
"It's a good thing Timmy decided not to come." AJ was saying. "Well, Sanjay, as much as seems to render the reliability of my intellect, I can honestly say that I have NO idea what kind of disease it is that you have."
"I'm not siiiiiiick!" Sanjay whined. "DON'T HOSPITALIZE ME! I DO NOT WISH TO BE BEDRIDDEN!"
They were about halfway to the nurse's office. Sanjay was trying as hard as he could not to pass out, but it was very difficult. He hoped none of the others could hear his ragged breathing or sense his wooziness.
"Look, we're almost there. Just another hundred yards." AJ murmured.
"To where?"
"The nurse's, of course."
"The who?"
"The nurse, Sanjay…?"
"Oh yeah… Yes…"
The office door was barely in sight. The outside world seemed to blur by as the boy felt increasingly light headed. His vision seemed to be spinning. He couldn't focus, nor did he notice the skyrocketing of his temperature. The pain came all at once, then… suddenly… left. His skin stopped burning, and the tight muscles in his chest stopped straining.
Sanjay collapsed to the floor as his breathing came to an abrupt end. The world vanished into nothing. It felt peaceful. Serene. He was floating in a painless world. All the suffering was over.
Timmy sat, eyes widened, as he stared unblinkingly at the television screen. He was in his room on the bed, cowering in fear. It was a sickness, and it was infecting the whole world. Thousands of people had already died. No one knew what caused it… it was almost as if people acquired it by magic.
"This is sad." He mumbled, pulling the blankets up to his neck. He was trembling all over, wondering if he would be next. Hopefully doctors would figure it out, and then he could go back to his worry-free life.
"At least it hasn't affected anyone I know."
As if on cue, his phone rang. Timmy picked it up, grateful for a distraction.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Timmy. It's… it's AJ."
"Hey AJ!"
"Listen, uh, there's something you should know about."
Timmy's eyes increased to twice their normal size. "IS TRIXIE OK!?"
"Trixie's fine. But there's something else you should-"
"YOU'RE GAY?!"
AJ pulled the phone away from him and stared at it, annoyed. "NO! Would you calm down and listen to me?!"
"Sorry."
"……Anyway… uh, we were at the library assistance club this afternoon. Why weren't you there?"
"Oh, I was… grieving. Over Trixie." Timmy sighed. "You have no idea, AJ. I live a terrible life."
"Oh yeah, Timmy. You have it real hard." AJ seemed angry. Timmy was puzzled. AJ wasn't the type to get all sarcastic… "At least you weren't hit by the plague."
"That? Yeah, I'm… happy for that, at least."
"That's not the only reason I called. Sanjay's in intensive care. He passed out in the hallway, stopped breathing entirely. Seconds away from death! We had to go find someone who knew CPR! Timmy, he won't be the last one, either."
Timmy stared blankly at the wall. "So what you're saying is that we're all going to die a very quick and painful death?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
Outside, in the hall, Timmy's dad caught every word.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed in a high pitched voice, sounding not unlike a very frightened little girl. He then collapsed to the floor in an unconscious blob.
"Thanks for letting us stay with you, Mama Cosma!" Cosmo chirped innocently, still sounding as if he were five years old.
"Anything at all for my little Cosmo-lulu…" She replied, hovering up to the second story. "After all, it's only until your godson comes home from school. Then WANDA can leave."
The pink-haired pixie herself sat at the kitchen table, humming a random tune while she tried to ignore the fact that there was someone in the same house who hated her guts. Of course, she knew Cosmo couldn't care less. Her husband had been high off of cheese for the past three minutes and was currently skipping around the house instead of using his wings (he had reverted back to fairy form already), for unlike Wanda, he had finally gotten down the concept of walking and running.
"I forgot how fun this human stuff can be!" He chirped as he came to a halt in front of the refrigerator. He opened the door and pulled out three bags of sugar. Wanda stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Cosmo?!" She demanded. "First of all, what are you doing with all that sugar?! Second of all, why was it in the FREEZER?!!"
"Everything tastes better that way!" Cosmo shoveled several spoonfuls of the stuff down his throat. Instantly he took off at record speeds, literally bouncing off the walls.
"I don't think-" She paused. Cosmo had just done a flawless triple backflip off one of the walls and was now cartwheeling towards the spot where she sat. Alarmed, Wanda held her hands up to block her face in defense, but Cosmo hadn't crashed into her. He stopped on a dime, and was looking up at her with eyes twice their normal size.
"HIIIIII, WANDAAAAAA!" He exclaimed, his face mere inches away.
"Yes, uh, hello, Cosmo."
They stayed in the same position for a while. Wanda blinked. Cosmo did not. He simply stood there, staring at her with a goofy grin. His wife started to sweat, wandering if there was something wrong with him…. Err… something else.
"Is there something wrong, sweetie?"
"Course not, pudd'n!" All at once he flopped on the floor, squeaking uncontrollably.
"That's it. No more sugar for you."
=MUSCULAR POOF!=
Wanda coughed as the fairy dust suddenly vaporized out of nowhere. Jorgen Von Strangle stood a few yards away as the dust cleared, holding his large wand staff, glowering at the two, looking more enraged than he ever had towards them.
"YOU TWO! FAIRYWORLD! NOW!"
The two nodded, a bit confused, but too scared to argue.
=POOF!=
"We're in court?" Wanda demanded, confused. Cosmo merely grinned. "Whoopee! Can I be the defense attorney?"
"Cosmo! Wanda! Do you know why you were summoned?" Jorgen boomed, his angry voice reaching every ear for miles around. Every fairy in the universe was gathered around after preparing for war.
"Uh… no." Wanda replied. "And I speak for both me and Cosmo."
"That's fine. You can do all the talking." Jorgen stomped up to her, looking them both intensely in the eye. "Getting back on topic, the Anti-Fairies were in fact the source of this plague. And do you know who their leader is?"
Cosmo took a wild guess. "Santa?"
"WRONG! LET ME SHOW YOU!" Jorgen raised his staff wand. The star at the end became a little screen, which glowed with such brilliance it projected a bigger version of the image on the ceiling of the courtroom.
"It's the Anti-Cosmo!" Wanda cried.
"Right you are! Once the magical seal that kept the door to Anti-Fairyworld closed was broken, Anti-Cosmo used the black magic that had built up over time inside Anti-Fairyworld to intoxicate the air around us. No one but the Anti-Fairies can survive a disease of this magnitude."
"Is there anything we can do? What else do you know about the disease?" Wanda demanded, subconsciously pushing a nervous Cosmo away from her.
"Not much. Some puny paramedic fairies studied a few victims of the disease and they've determined that nobody infected will last more than a few more weeks. We have very limited time before we're all doomed."
From somewhere in the crowd, the distressed cry of Juandissimo Magnifico could be heard. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" He shouted, about to sob. "I AM TOO SEXY TO DIE!"
Jorgen glared at him. "SILENCE, HANDSOME FAIRY!" He turned to face Cosmo and Wanda again. "Find Timmy Turner. Restore all of his memories that we've erased magically. Don't tell me it's against Da Rules. CURSE DA RULES! If we all die, there won't BE any more rules, especially in a world controlled by the Anti-Fairies!"
Wanda shook her head. "WAIT A MINUTE! Why Timmy?"
"For reasons I cannot explain… That kid is the only hope both worlds have." Jorgen lifted his wand, and aimed the powerful beam at both fairies. "Now, GO!"
With a brilliant flash of light, Cosmo and Wanda were gone. Jorgen's words echoed throughout the Fairy court.
Find Timmy Turner…
The bucktoothed boy himself sat in school with ten minutes until the final bell. Elmer and AJ were visiting Sanjay at the hospital, who had briefly regained his consciousness for a while. Chester sat at the back of the room, biting his nails and looking from left to right as if the sickness had taken on a material form and was coming to get him. Trixie Tang still seemed upset. He had caught her looking at him sadly several times, but she'd quickly turn away and glare at the wall. Veronica appeared to be absent, like many others in the class.
They waited for their teacher in depressing silence. There were too many empty desks whose residents were sick in the hospital. Too many vacant gaps without much hope for survival.
Finally, the door swung open, and in walked…
"FAIRY-GOD-PARENTS!!!!"
…none other than their former teacher, Denzel Crocker.
"Hello, students! Geraldine couldn't make it to school today, because she too is a victim of incredible illness…"
"It's Crackpot!" AJ cried.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Chester wailed.
Even Trixie couldn't stifle a gasp.