The sky was nothing more than a giant black blanket that loomed overhead as Anti-Cosmo paced around in the depths of Anti-Fairyworld, deep in thought. "A few more weeks, and every last creature in the universe shall have kicked the bucket." He mused, only to himself. "Now, where is that buffoonish hillbilly I call a wife? She disappeared without a reason."
He stole a quick glance around the rest of Anti-Fairyworld, scanning for others.
"Come to think of it, I seem to be the only one here. Where could all those moronic pixies be???"
He took a minute to dwell on that, then shrugged and POOFed up a chair and a piping hot cup of tea while he continued work on that Doomsday device- for although he was evil, he was also a brilliant, sophisticated young fairy that could probably make great contributions to the good of fairykind if given the chance.
=ANTI-POOF!=
"Welcome back, dear." He greeted, not looking up from his work. "Where were you?"
There was no response. Instead, there was only a blank and empty silence. Anti-Cosmo finally looked upwards, noting his wife's abnormally dark expression. "Why the long face?"
Suddenly, behind Anti-Wanda, every single other Anti-Fairy in the universe materialized, each with equally solemn faces.
"We're not about to follow through with this crazy scheme." One spoke up. "That boy's death put the icing on the cake. You're insane!"
"We're rebelling!" Chanted a nameless one towards the back.
"Down with Anti-Cosmo!" Chorused several at once.
Anti-Cosmo blinked in surprise, but other than that, his expression never faltered. He kept his cool, not even the slightest bit alarmed (if he was, he sure didn't show it.) "My friends… Let's not be hasty, shall we? For who are you to assume that your leader doesn't have great, bountiful plans for us all in the future?"
"The nature of the Anti-Fairies is to prank, not to kill." It was the Anti-Jorgen, a plucky, petite fairy in a tutu. "Without humans or fairies, our whole way of life will vanish!"
Anti-Cosmo glared down at the little fairy. "I recommend silence on your behalf… You know, I have enough black magic coursing through my veins to reduce you into a smoldering pile of ash."
Anti-Jorgen's brief flash of courage vanished, and he stepped backwards, flailing his arms in self-defense. "ACK!" He squawked, terrified. "DO NOT SQUASH ME! FOR I AM PUNY!"
Panicked, he retreated towards the very back of the crowd where he could not be seen.
Anti-Cosmo cleared his throat for attention, first taking a nice, refreshing sip of his tea. He then turned to Anti-Wanda, smirking, overly full of himself. "You going to stand up for me, dear? I'd love to hear what you have to say."
"Y'know, sweet stuff, actually, I twas thinkin'… you sure do love the thought of killin' off all dem humans and fairies…" Anti-Wanda began, phrasing her sentences carefully. "And come to think of it, you're absolutely wrong! Without them around, we'd be left with nothing to do!"
"Nothing to do? Don't be silly, luv." Anti-Cosmo slowly rose from his soft, comfortable chair, not yet provoked. "I'm sure if you all re-think your decision, you'll realize just how ingenious a plan it is. This is the opportunity we've been dreaming of for centuries! Think of the possibilities!"
"Think how bored we'll be in three years!" A voice from the crowd called out.
"We don't want to kill people, you nutjob! We're just mischievous. It's our nature."
Several other taunts reared up from the crowd. Anti-Cosmo floated emotionlessly, watching them all through flat, depthless eyes, his calm never faltering…
Until he finally snapped.
"SILENCE!" He shrieked, causing all glass (including his own eyewear) in a miles' radius to shatter. He released his hold on the teacup, causing it to fall to the floor dozens of feet below him, and burst into thousands of tiny pieces.
Instantly, a hush fell among the others as they watched him curiously, waiting for his next move. Blood boiling, eyes bulging, fists clenching into tight balls, Anti-Cosmo spoke softly and furiously, as if muttering a curse.
"I've been sitting here in Anti-Fairyworld for years, absorbing black magic that you've all been shedding like sweat. It's like gunpowder; dropped easily, but simple to collect, and best of all, it fuels massive explosions and heavy siege." He chuckled in a somewhat sophisticated manner, but it was quick and tensed, sounding maniacal. "Well, you've finally gone and tested my patience one too many times. I would've let you all rule at my side. I would've given you all positions of power in my new world order. But no, you all had to question my reasoning… And for it, you'll all suffer… Oh, yes you will!"
"Why, hello! How's my little Cosmo-Lulu doing at the doctors?"
Mama Cosma floated in the room, nonchalantly shoved Wanda away from her son and looked him in the eyes. "I came as soon as I heard the news! I'm just glad you made it out ok."
Cosmo said nothing. His gaze rested on the floor, his wings drooped as if they weighed a ton, and although his eyes burned with realization and pain, for some reason, he found it impossible to cry.
"Well, what's wrong?" Mama Cosma stared at him harder, concerned. "The doctors said you were perfectly fine!"
Cosmo looked up at last, but for some reason, his expression had hardened, and he was suddenly angry. "Why do you hate Wanda?" He demanded.
"Why?" She chucked. "Oh, Cosmo! It's not necessarily Wanda that bugs me, but you have to understand I'd despise anyone who stole my little boy away from me for almost ten thousand years! Why do you ask?"
The room was silent once more. Cosmo glowered up at her, using a tone that he'd never, ever used with his mother before.
"Go away."
"Excuse me?" She demanded, eyes widening.
"Go away, mama. I don't want to see you right now."
Wanda looked up in time to catch a glimpse of his mother's face right before she gasped, and eventually, hurried out of the room, on the verge of a breakdown.
Wanda almost felt sorry for her.
Almost, but not quite.
"That was pretty.. p-pretty harsh, Cosmo." She acknowledged, leaning back into the hospital bed, refusing to accept reality. Cosmo was still a little confused to all these new emotions and what they meant. All he could do was nod.
=POOF!=
It was the other nurse, Romja, the significantly bossier of the two. She glowered at the fairies before her, eyes ablaze with irritation and disbelief.
"You know, I can't believe it." She snapped at them, angrily. "Because of you both, your godson's dead, the Anti-Fairies escaped, and little boy green sent his mother home crying just for trying to comfort him. You've lost all my sympathy."
Wanda floated upwards, getting a little upset herself. "You're blaming US!?!" She demanded, yelling through all the tears. "Listen, you're in no position to be blaming, little missy. We came to the past to stop everyone- including you- from dying… it wasn't our fault the magical seal broke! It would've been destroyed by the black magic anyway! We came here to stop it, but we didn't go far enough into the past. Our godson dies, Cosmo's overprotective mother trashes on me again, and you blame US. It's ridiculous!"
Romja turned her nose up during the rant, barely listening. "But, you know, the whole reason I came was to dismiss you. My co-worker Linka would've done it, but she's come down with some foreign disease, which is amazingly ironic considering what she does for a living… Anyway, you can go now." She announced. "You're both physically fine. But you have got some SERIOUS anger management to do."
She disappeared once more with a flash, leaving her company gaping with disbelief at what they had just been blamed of.
"W-what do we do now?" Cosmo asked of his wife, regaining his composure a bit as he calmed back down.
"Well, according to Da Rules…" Wanda sighed as the rulebook magically appeared in her hands. "…If a child dies while still in the care of a godparent(s), the fairies must give up godparenting permanently and avoid any further contact with the human world..."
Cosmo suddenly sat upright, eyes wide. "WANDA!" He cried. "My Timmy senses are tingling!"
"Cosmo, Timmy's gone. Those are probably just your pudding senses again. You've gotten them mixed up before."
Cosmo shrunk back slightly. "But… But… Oh, ok." He laid back down in his bed, wanting to rest a little before leaving the hospital. But a few seconds later, it was Wanda's turn to realize something.
"Did that nurse say that the other nurse- Linka, or something- came down with a foreign disease?"
"I think so."
"Do you think… it could be…?" Wanda let her sentence hang.
"Cheese?"
"No, I mean, do you think it could be the disease caused by the Anti-Fairies' black magic? If so…" She hurried her words together, as if in a panic. "Then the sickness is affecting us fairies already! We don't have much time!"
Cosmo groaned tiredly. "What are we supposed to do, Wanda?" He asked. "The illness is going to wipe us all out and all of mankind will be doomed, blah blah blah…"
"We came back in the past to stop the disease- so hypothetically, that's what we should be doing now."
"Why?"
"Because if we don't, there will be no more humans…"
"So?"
"…Or fairies…"
"So?"
"…Or pudding."
This got his attention. "Whaaaaat?! You never told me that before!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…" Cosmo clawed at his pillow in rage. "WHY IS THE WORLD SO CRUEL!?!"
"Are you going to sit here and rant, or are we going to start searching for a way to stop all the destruction?"
"Right behind you, lambchop!"
Timmy curled up in a still ball, breathing heavily, rubbing his own arms rapidly to warm himself up- to no avail. It was freezing outside. The wind was starting to howl, the clouds were darkening, and rain was beginning to fall in bucket loads.
"Cosmo! Wanda!" He called out again, but his voice was lost in the roar of the winds. "Can you guys hear me??!"
There was no reply- unless you counted a sudden clash of thunder in the background. Timmy cursed under his breath. How on earth did such a storm start so fast? It had been perfectly calm some ten minutes ago.
"SOMEONE??!"
The wind became increasingly harsh as time progressed. In fact, he had to clench his eyes shut to shield them from the debris that got caught in the wind.
"…Anyone…?"
The droplets fell like rocks. The onslaught of rain felt like millions of tiny but still painful pinpricks that beat against his skin.
"They're not coming." Timmy whispered in realization. "They… They forgot about me, or something… they don't care anymore…"
'What are you talking about??? They're Cosmo and Wanda! They're your godparents of four years! They can't just stop caring!'
"How do you know?! You're just my stupid subconscious! You don't even know anything!"
'If they knew you were in such distress, they'd have come already.'
"They should be looking out for me! Do they think I'm dead, or something!??"
His slightly psychopathic rants were interrupted by a numbingly loud and seemingly nearby bolt of thunder. It struck a tall tree not more than nineteen feet away. The flames rose, burning through the leaves. And thus the wildfire began- it spread throughout the entire tree, burning it to a singed crisp, then moved on to the next. A few of the deadly flames were doused by the onslaught of heavy rain, but not enough to stop it completely.
Timmy felt the world spinning around him, making his mind ache and his body numb. There was extreme heat, but there was also bitter cold. His skin burned with pain, his ears rattled with an overload of sound, and he was blind in the eyes until the winds were calm enough to where he could open them. Somewhere in there, he collapsed to the ground, feeling his head plow into what was left of the grass.
But louder than the sounds of the wind and rain and thunder, standing out from the ear-splitting chaos, cried a single menacing voice that cut into his mind:
"Looks like your time is up, Timothy. Even as we speak, I'm having a jolly old time sucking out your life force and using it for my own purposes. Fancy that! It's too bad the other traitors in my species won't be around to resurrect you a second time."
'Anti-Cosmo! I have to stop him!'
Despite the pain, he tried once more to rise to his feet and face the oncoming terror- but his body wouldn't cooperate. He stayed motionless against the ground, awaiting his demise.
"TIMMY! Oh my gosh!"
It was a friendly voice, a female voice. One he recognized. He wracked his failing brain for an answer. Who was that, who was calling his name from so far away?
He felt his head being lifted, a trembling hand being lifted to his face to gently stroke his cheek.
"I-I can't believe it! Timmy… I… I…"
Timmy felt his face twist into somewhat of a pleased smile. He liked the sound of her voice. He wasn't sure who it was, for his brain was starting to malfunction, and the world was drifting slowly away.
"Please wake up! You're alive, you've got to be!"
'Alive… is that what I am?'
"TIMMY! Open your eyes! It's me, Trixie!"
From somewhere in his freezing chest, Timmy felt his heart speed up, as if by natural reaction. His eyes opened halfway, then closed again.
'Trixie. Trixie Tang. I remember her. I like her.'
The cold, the winds, the rain… the world. They were all fading. Slowly but surely, the pain was lifting. He stopped trying to live. It wasn't worth it.
"Good-bye, Timothy." Anti-Cosmo's voice rang. Timmy ignored it.
'Well, this is it for me.'
Only a few bits of energy remained in his body as he took a moment to think about the world, and what had seemed to transpire too quickly.
But before he gave up on living- one final thought caused his eyes to swell like saucers.
"TRIXIE TANG?!?"