A/N: Yeah, I deviated a bit from the original version of this. Oh well. XD
Timmy watched the vial fall as if in slow motion and when Doombringer crushed it and Wanda's hand alongside, Timmy's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know what would happen if Wanda's essence wound up on the floor instead of however Mama Wanda had transferred it. His hands shook and he looked at Doombringer's triumphant expression, Cosmo's dismayed one, and then back to Wanda.
Wanda was smiling. More color had filled in and she had dark gray pants instead of light gray, as well as heavier pink in her cheeks, eyes, and hair. If Doombringer's expression was triumphant, it was nothing compared to Wanda's, who looked malicious and content. Now that Wanda moved her hand, Timmy could see the pink liquid flowing through her fingers and back into her body. By breaking the vial, Doombringer had expedited Wanda's healing rather than preventing it.
"Well, shoot," Doombringer said and turned, perhaps to flee. Wanda plucked her wand out of the other woman's hand and snapped the choke collar in two. Except for the part the as-yet-unnamed villain had, Wanda was almost whole again. Surely the same thought had occurred to Doombringer too.
Cosmo rushed over to his wife. "Wanda, you're okay!"
"Not yet, hon, but I will be," she said and then her eyes narrowed. "Then we're going to have a good, long discussion about marriage jokes and inappropriate comments in front of our godson."
"Yay!" Cosmo said and then paused. "Wait. That's a bad thing, isn't it?"
Wanda's eyes blazed. "You have no idea how much trouble you're in, do you?"
"Not usually!" he said cheerfully, but quailed under the look she gave him. Doombringer lunged, meanwhile, aiming for Timmy's transistor rod. Timmy stepped aside, but Doombringer was much larger and had more reach thanks to her adult frame. She snagged the transistor in her hands and Timmy willed it to repel her. It seemed it worked similar to a wand, because it bounced her off the desks and into the wall. Doombringer snarled, her eyes flashing too, and produced butterfly nets. Cosmo's and Wanda's eyes widened and Timmy conjured up magical scissors. They had no effect on the butterfly nets.
It was Timmy's time to curse quietly, though he did so under his breath in the hopes Wanda wouldn't hear him and reprimand him for it.
"Magic has no effect on butterfly nets," Wanda said. "Nothing does."
"Duh, already figured that out," Timmy snapped.
"We're also going to have a long discussion, you and I, Timmy," Wanda snapped. "After I have that talk with Cosmo."
"Great," Timmy muttered. It looked like Wanda was almost restored and he was already in trouble.
Doombringer flung the nets toward the two faeries, who hastened away. Timmy remembered Crocker catching Wanda in a butterfly net and didn't blame her for the terror flitting across her face. Cosmo blasted Doombringer back and smiled weakly at Wanda.
"Does that count as brownie points?" he asked.
"Only if we get out of here in one piece," she warned.
Doombringer scowled and brought out a magical bazooka. It glittered with faerie blood and Timmy hated how he now knew that faerie blood glittered, the magic in it making it sparkle. He could've gone his whole life without seeing his godmother injured.
"Now, stay still…" Doombringer said and took aim at the two. They sprang apart in different directions. The fairy net splattered against the far wall and Timmy's heart pounded, hoping the net didn't somehow change direction and charge for the duo again. Meanwhile, Wanda flung a net of her own at Doombringer. Taken off guard, Doombringer flew into the wall again, smacked her head into it, and groaned, dazed. Timmy was glad Wanda was on their side, even if he was in trouble.
"Let's get out of here!" Timmy said.
"No arguments from me, hon," Wanda said and held up her wand along with Cosmo. The wand tips lit up for a second and then deflated. Timmy scowled, backing up and putting the faeries behind him.
"Oh, what is it now?" he groused. "What else could go wrong?"
"Sport, you always ask that and there's always something else," Wanda pointed out. She groaned, holding her head. "I'm still so tired…"
"Well, you can't sleep now!" Timmy said.
"It's a side effect of missing part of my soul," Wanda said. "Decreased energy. I don't know how much longer I can stay conscious."
It was time to take drastic measures. Timmy grabbed Cosmo and Wanda, held up the transistor rod, and wished desperately to be taken elsewhere from here. His heart pounded between his ribs and his breathing was shaky. Wanda trembled in his arms and her head sagged like she was about to conk out. Timmy crossed his fingers that she wouldn't, but it didn't look like luck was on their side.
They crashed…somewhere. Timmy couldn't immediately identify his surroundings and it took a while for them to assert themselves. Once he had, he gaped. It looked like his bedroom, but it couldn't possibly be. For one thing, that would mean they were back home, without Wanda's last soul sliver. For another, he hadn't been aiming for his room. He'd been aiming for another universe. So unless the transistor had somehow misread his intentions, which he doubted, something else had gone awry.
Wanda was unconscious. Her breathing was strained, too, which told Timmy what she'd done with Doombringer had taken a lot out of her. He winced in sympathy. Maybe he should treat her better. They both should. Wanda had taken a considerable risk to keep Doombringer from attacking him.
"We can't be in my room," Timmy objected. "So, where are we?"
"You took a wrong turn," an unfamiliar female voice said and Timmy whirled, putting Cosmo at his back but still holding Wanda. He placed her gently onto the bed, where she curled onto her side in a ball.
"Who the heck are you?" he demanded.
"My name's Chloe," the girl said, revealing herself from the shadows. "The transistor responded to your need for safety rather than your need to locate whatever it is you wanted."
"How do you know what a transistor is?" Timmy demanded. He glanced uneasily at Cosmo and Wanda; hopefully, being in the same room with this girl with one of them stuck in faerie form wasn't enough to lose them forever. Jorgen had charged him with restoring Wanda, which he couldn't do if he lost them. Timmy's mouth dried out.
"In another world, I'm your god-sister," Chloe said. "But this isn't a safe place to be."
Timmy's mind took a hard right turn of its own and then screeched, the tires skidding. He gawked at Chloe. "God-sister? Okay, one, I don't share. Two, get your own. Three, how is that even possible? That makes no sense.
"So, what, are we related or something? I'm not an only child in this universe?"
"No," she said, refusing to elaborate.
"No to what?" he asked, exasperated.
"Look, I don't have time to explain," Chloe said and glanced at Wanda with a frown. "She's in bad shape. She's not going to wake up any time soon."
"How do you know that? She was awake just a few minutes ago!" Timmy said. "Why don't you start giving me some answers, sister?"
He spat the last word as if it were derogatory.
"I will as soon as I can," she promised. "But right now, we have a big problem."
"Oh, really?" Timmy said and arched his eyebrows. "What?"
"Oh, Timmy!" Tootie called.
"Twerp!" Vicky chimed in. Timmy held up the transistor rod. They needed to get the hell out of Dodge before the Griffin sisters caught up to them.
"That won't work here," Chloe said softly. "You'll need to figure out another way to leave. And you'll need both faeries at full power for it. I'll hide Wanda; Cosmo's already disguised."
So he was. Timmy looked around and found Cosmo disguised as a green alarm clock. As far as disguises went, it wasn't the greatest, but he guessed it would do.
"I can hear you, twerp," Vicky said in a singsong voice.
"Since when do Vicky and Tootie work together?" Timmy asked Chloe. "They hate each other."
"Ever since Vicky…" Chloe trailed off and opened Timmy's closet. She stashed Wanda inside, which made Timmy feel guilty again, because he couldn't remember the last time he'd cleaned his closet out. It was full of wishes and dirty clothing, the latter of which he'd just wished elsewhere and Cosmo had been too lazy to clean and put away. At least this version of Timmy, if there was one and he hadn't just taken his spot by jumping to this universe, was also slovenly.
"Since Vicky what?!" Timmy exclaimed, not troubling to keep his voice down. "Why won't you give me some answers?"
"Abducted Tootie's faerie and enslaved faeries and mankind," Chloe said in an undertone, shutting the closet door and standing in front of Timmy defensively.
"She did what?!"
"You died in this universe defending Cosmo and Wanda," Chloe spoke quickly as Timmy could hear the girls clattering up the stairs. "Vicky's not going to be happy to see you again."
"When is she ever happy to see me?" he pointed out.
"Good point," she said. "Oh…this would be better if you hid, but they already know you're here."
"Let me get this straight—I'm stuck in an alternate universe that doesn't have my godmother's soul sliver and I have no way of getting out until Cosmo and Wanda are well enough for me to travel," Timmy said. "So I have no idea how long I'll be stuck here."
Chloe nodded, looking morose. "That's about the size of it."
"Then why are you here?" Timmy asked.
"This is the last known whereabouts of Cosmo and Wanda. Not your Cosmo and Wanda," she said, amending quickly. "The Cosmo and Wanda who are staging a rebellion."
"You're going to start making sense soon, aren't you?" he asked, shaking his head.
"We're out of time," Chloe said and flung Timmy under the bed. There were multiple dust bunnies and he tried hard not to sneeze. It was difficult and every time he thought he was safe, another sneeze threatened to creep up on him.
The door cracked open and Timmy saw Vicky and Tootie's shoes. He also saw a figure floating in midair, who must've been Tootie's faerie.
"I know I heard him," Vicky growled.
"You heard me throwing my voice," Chloe said and Timmy winced. She was almost as bad a liar as Wanda.
"Yeah, right," Vicky said, clearly not buying it. "What are you doing here, twerpette?"
"Looking for Cosmo and Wanda, same as you," Chloe said and Timmy could almost feel her heart racing.
"They're not here," Vicky said, disgusted. "I have alarms set up all over Dimmsdale if they ever show their sorry faces around here again."
She snorted. "At least I killed their godson."
The alarm clock growled and Timmy winced, facepalming. While he appreciated Cosmo's anger on his behalf, if he blew his cover, it wasn't going to help anyone.
"Huh, a green alarm clock," Vicky said musingly. She picked it up and it vanished in her hands. Cosmo had transformed into a dust bunny under the bed with Timmy.
"A magical green alarm clock," Vicky amended. She whirled on her sister. "Is Cosmo here?"
"No," Tootie said and although Timmy could hear the lie in her voice, Vicky couldn't. Thankfully, Tootie was able to pull it off easier than Chloe.
"Right," Vicky spat. "Let's keep looking. And if you get in my way again, twerpette, there will be consequences."
He didn't see Chloe nod, but he assumed she did. It wasn't until he heard the footsteps fade that he dared to breathe again.
"I'll figure out a way to get you three to safety," Chloe promised, ducking under the bed after she was sure the others were out of earshot. "But you have to be careful."
She paused. "Find Crocker. He'll help."
"What?" Timmy said, not certain he was hearing her right. "Since when has Crocker helped with anything?"
"Since he sided with Cosmo and Wanda after regaining his memories," Chloe answered. "If you can find him, he'll help. Good luck."
She tugged him out from underneath the bed and retrieved Wanda from the closet. Wanda was down for the count and Timmy grimaced.
"She might be asleep for a while," Chloe said. She opened the window. "Be careful jumping out."
"We're on the second floor!" Timmy objected.
"You still have Cosmo," Chloe pointed out.
"Oh, yeah," he said and then grimaced, feeling stupid he'd forgotten. "Cosmo, I wish you were a trampoline."
"Or a parachute," Chloe muttered, but Cosmo paid her no mind. Chloe sighed, sounding so much like Wanda when she was exasperated that Timmy did a double take.
"Good luck, Timmy Turner," Chloe said and pecked Timmy on the cheek. Then she pushed him out the window.
Timmy landed badly, regardless of Cosmo the trampoline. He bounced off him and sprained his ankle. Hissing, he tried to put weight on it and fell over.
"I wish my ankle were healed," Timmy muttered, irritated. Cosmo granted the wish and Timmy glanced back up toward his bedroom. "I sure hope Wanda will be okay."
"You don't trust her?" Cosmo asked and Timmy scowled.
"I don't trust anyone who claims to be my godsister and then gives me absolutely no information about it," Timmy retorted. "And I'm kinda disturbed that Vicky murdered my counterpart here. I mean, I know she's evil, but I didn't think she'd start killing people."
Cosmo had no response for that and he shifted into a parrot. Timmy blinked; Cosmo looked like he had when Crocker had possessed them. As far as covers went, it probably wasn't that bad. Green parrots were a thing, but it still gave him the creeps, both Cosmo's disguise and relying on Crocker of all people to help them. He would've expected Tootie to turn traitor to Vicky before Crocker started protecting faeries. It boggled his mind.
The streets were gloomy as he walked along. Then he realized he didn't need to walk.
"Cosmo, I wish we were wherever Crocker is," he said and Cosmo held up his wand. They appeared in front of Dimmsdale Elementary School, which made Timmy roll his eyes. He should've known. Crocker was nowhere in sight, though, and a magical barrier surrounded the school. Cosmo eyed it uneasily.
"I don't know if I can go in there," he said.
"Crocker's banned magic?" Timmy said and shook his head. "That's more his speed than protecting faeries."
"Present wand for identification," a robotic voice said and a faerie robot identical to Wanda appeared on the barrier's other side. Cosmo beamed.
"Hi, Wanda! Have you met my wife, Wanda?" Cosmo said and Timmy groaned, facepalming. They didn't have time for this. He needed to get back to the alternate universe which had the last silver of his godmother's soul and finish this. (Then again, why was he in such a hurry to do that when, at the end of the road, lay Wanda's lectures? He wasn't going to go out of his way to avoid reuniting Wanda with her soul, but he also wasn't looking forward to being reamed out, either).
"Just present your wand!" Timmy snapped.
Cosmo did so and the robot's eyes scanned it.
"Identity confirmed. Cosmo Cosma," the robot said and then turned on Timmy. "Identity: Timothy Tiberius Turner. Status: deceased."
"I'm not dead! I'm right here!" Timmy protested. "See? Flesh, blood, and bone! My heart's pumping and everything!"
The robot frowned exactly like Wanda would have done and its palm flattened, revealing a dart gun. Timmy's heart pounded double time.
"What the heck are you-?" He didn't get a chance to finish before the dart stung him in the arm and everything went black. He thought Cosmo squawked in dismay, but that might've been his imagination.
"Scans indicate this is, indeed, Timmy Turner," a mechanical female voice informed Crocker. Crocker scowled, folding his arms across his chest. Cosmo and Wanda, his Cosmo and Wanda, were fussing over the boy. Meanwhile, another Cosmo, disguised as a parrot, hovered nearby and looked stricken. He also kept trying to chat up the other Wanda, which was going nowhere fast.
"Keep him locked up in case he's an imposter," Crocker ordered his computer. His Cosmo and Wanda looked up, dismayed.
"You can't do that!" Wanda protested.
"We haven't seen our godson since, well…" Cosmo faltered and looked pained. His face was pinched and he'd blanched. They were clinging to Timmy, who remained unconscious, the only saving grace of this situation.
"You can't possibly think that's Turner," Crocker scoffed. "You know what happened to him."
"We saw it happen," Wanda snapped, practically spitting flames at him now. "This is another version of our godson. You can't just lock him up."
"And you can't be so naive as to think he's not an imposter here to seize information," Crocker fired back.
Wanda's eyes flashed as Timmy stirred in her arms. "You're not locking him up and that's final. He's not an imposter and your machine proved that."
Crocker glowered. He hated when Wanda used his logic against him.
"Fine," Crocker snapped. "He stays. But what…?"
Crocker's gaze flitted to the alternate Cosmo, who was flying around the room now and looking disconsolate.
"I don't know," Wanda said quietly. "But I also don't know where his version of me went."
"She's at Timmy's old house," the alternate Cosmo said, sounding morose. "She's in the closet."
"She's what?!" Wanda exclaimed, outraged.
"We were hiding her from Vicky and Tootie," Timmy said, coming to and landing right in the middle of the argument. "It's not like we had a lot of time to think of places to hide her."
"You'd better start explaining, Turner," Crocker warned. "Or else."
"Or else what?" Timmy countered, puffing his chest out and straightening up in Wanda's arms.
"You don't want to know the 'or else'," Crocker warned.
"Maybe I do," Timmy challenged. Crocker ought to have known better. Turner had a serious lack of common sense.
"Can you bring the alternate Wanda here? Maybe I can get the truth out of her," Crocker growled and his faeries nodded, complying despite not putting it in wish form. He didn't technically have to do that anymore; one because they weren't his godparents and two because they were technically rebels. Maybe they were worried about the alternate Wanda too.
She appeared and collapsed into Timmy's arms. Her colors were off and she looked in poor shape. Crocker faltered and looked at Turner, whose blue eyes blazed defiance and hatred in equal measure. Crocker felt wrong-footed. Clearly, he'd touched a nerve. Then again, he hadn't known how deeply the boy cared for his faeries; he'd only heard about how deeply his faeries cared for him. To hear that Timmy had sacrificed himself for his faeries was one thing. To see proof it could be possible was another story altogether.
"You might as well tell him what happened, sport," Wanda said, her face creased in anguish. She was taking pains not to look Timmy in the face. Denzel pitied her. It must've been hard to be reminded of why they were exiled on Earth in the first place.
"Okay, so, Wanda left me and Cosmo for a while, because she wasn't feeling appreciated," Timmy said and winced. To Crocker's surprise, his Wanda was nodding in sympathy. "Mama Cosma jumped her and removed her soul; she split it into four parts. One of those parts is within Cosmo, but the other three got loose. We have three quarters of Wanda's soul right now, but the other quarter is in another dimension we can't reach right now."
Growling, Timmy smacked a brown rod into his palm. It looked like a magic wand without the tip. "We wound up here by accident."
"Is that why she's unconscious?" Crocker growled.
"She protected us from Doombringer," Timmy said, perhaps realizing he'd omitted part of his story. "But the magic exertion was too much for her and she passed out."
"It would be, if she isn't whole," Wanda agreed. She flitted over to Timmy, again not looking him in the eyes, and held up her wand. Something appeared on the screen, but she didn't tell him what. Crocker, annoyed at being left out of the loop, leaned over to see what Wanda was watching. He didn't recognize the man in the wand, though it resembled an older, uncouth Timmy Turner. Yet there was something about the man that made him shudder, something "off".
"Is it the man you're shivering over?" Crocker asked Cosmo, who had shuddered and reached for Wanda's hand.
"He's damaged it somehow," Wanda said and frowned. "That shouldn't be possible."
"Who are you talking about? Who damaged what?" Timmy demanded. Crocker's machine reached out to trap him and Wanda burned off the arms. Crocker sighed. She was awfully protective over Turner. Denzel wondered whether Wanda had ever been that protective over him.
"I'm not sure I should be the one to tell you this, sport, but seeing as you'd have no other way of getting the information…" Wanda frowned. "There's a child predator in the last dimension who has part of my counterpart's soul…but he's damaged it."
"It's still whole, isn't it? Even if it's damaged?" Timmy asked, sounding frantic now. "He didn't break it into more pieces, did he?"
"I couldn't tell from a brief glance," she admitted. "All I know is that it's jagged now. It shouldn't be."
The alternate Wanda stirred in Timmy's arms and said sluggishly, her words slightly slurred, "Lorenzo didn't damage it. Cosmo did."
"What?!" Crocker, the alternate Cosmo, Timmy, and Crocker's faeries exclaimed in unison. Crocker scowled. That was highly annoying.
As for what that meant, they weren't about to get any answers, because Wanda fainted not long after pronouncing such an unusual thing. Timmy looked uneasy and shook his godmother, but she didn't wake. He scowled and looked up at his godfather.
"Cosmo, you idiot, what did you do?" Timmy snapped.
Cosmo twisted his wand in his hands and looked uneasy.
"Never mind that now," Wanda said firmly. "We need to figure out a way to break through Vicky's forcefield around this universe to send you and Cosmo on your way."
"What about you guys? Don't you need help?" Timmy pressed.
"More help than you can give us, hon," Wanda said and tears pricked her eyes. Cosmo hugged her and she sighed. "This isn't your fight. We'll do what we can. We've been cut off from the Fairy Council and Jorgen, but once we can get in contact with them, once the forcefield around this universe and particularly on Earth has been destroyed, things will be different."
She frowned, looking at Crocker. "And a lot of memory erasing will be going on."
"I don't want to forget about you again!" Crocker objected.
Wanda wiped at her streaming eyes. "We'll do what we need to do."
"You're not the one whose memories are getting erased!" Crocker objected.
"I don't know," Wanda said. "I've seen some things I'd sooner forget."
A tense silence fell.
"Um, anyway," Timmy said after a minute where no one spoke. Crocker was hurt Wanda wanted Crocker to forget them again and Cosmo and Wanda were nursing their pain over losing Timmy. "How do we find this forcefield and shut it off?"
"Oh, we know where it is," Wanda assured Turner. "It's just getting there, in and out, without getting killed, that's the problem."
Timmy grimaced. "Lemme guess-Vicky has it surrounded by tons of guards and she has death traps everywhere?"
"That's about the size of it," Cosmo said.
"Let me be the distraction," Timmy said and Cosmo and Wanda looked shocked. "No, seriously. Vicky won't expect me to be back, which means she'll be too surprised to stop you guys from shutting off the forcefield."
"Sweetie," Wanda said and gasped back a sob, "Vicky killed you last time. What on earth makes you think it won't happen again?"
"Because," Timmy said and clenched his jaw, "I have Chloe and Crocker to help me."
"I didn't agree to help you!" Crocker objected, outraged.
"You want your Cosmo and Wanda to be happy again, don't you? It's the only way to save them," Timmy said. "Or don't you love them?"
Crocker growled. He did love them, but he wasn't sure whether his love for them was superseded with his need to possess them.
"Well?" Timmy pressed when Crocker hadn't spoken. "What's it going to be?"
"I'll help you," Crocker said through gritted teeth. Like hell he was losing Cosmo and Wanda again, though. He'd just have to figure out a way to doublecross Turner before he lost his faeries for good.