(…) means twin's telepathy and ((…)) means Cosmo and Wanda telepathy.

No, I don't own FOP or any reference to its varied characters mentioned herein, and unless the new episodes that follow 'School's Out' begin showing the love again, I wouldn't want to. So, for now, Butch Hartman can keep his name tacked on…even if it is for nothing more than the royalties at this point.

Oh…and I don't own The Big Comfy Couch either. That belongs to some broadcasting company in Tennessee I think. : )

Fairly OddParents : The Next Generation

Chapter 17. Enter The Villain

If Cosmo could have given the way he felt just then one word, he would have said, "Numb".

It was completely how he felt. There would have been no better word to describe it.

He was numb to cold and to hot, to light and dark, there was no physical sensation of touch anymore and he couldn't even tell if he was hungry or tired.

He'd managed to hang from the metal panel where he had been secured relatively well for the first hour, feeling little more than the occasional chafing from the snug metal wrist and ankle braces, but not long after that however, the tingling had begun. First his toes and fingers, then the rest of his feet and hands, and soon it had made its way up along his arms and legs to reach into his body. Loss of feeling occurred shortly afterward and there he hung…the little bit of breath he did need, just starting to get uncomfortable.

Without magic to alter physics and the demands of a fairy body, he seemed to weigh more then he might otherwise have felt due to floating, and breathing became a real necessity. He still needed to do far less than any human, but once again, without magic, there was no way to rearrange the laws of nature to circumvent that requirement of earth bound life. No fairy would have been able to go into space just then and survive.

Truth be told, however, Cosmo might have said that 'numb' worked well even if he wasn't hung up on a metal wall. It was hard to even feel anything emotional except misery without Wanda's presence. He'd tried to hold tight to his belief that Wanda was absolutely fine and would come to the rescue at any moment, but with each passing second, he found his resolve in that conviction getting weaker and less complete. He certainly didn't want to lose his hope, but it was so hard to think of anything else when a fathomless depth of emptiness and desolation was so actively trying to overtake him.

"Look alive little freak!" suddenly called minion number 16, Charlie, as he strode over to Cosmo with a happy grin. "Guess who's here to see ya'?"

Cosmo ignored him.

What was the point in answering? The human would just laugh at him anyway, so why give him the satisfaction of saying something worth laughing over?

"Aw come on now. Take a guess. I bet you'll get it right on maybe the hundredth try," laughed Charlie.

See? He didn't even have to open his mouth for the man to have something to cackle over. As far as Cosmo was concerned, if it didn't have anything to do with Wanda, then nothing anyone said was worth acknowledgement.

"You know, you're a real kill joy. Guess I'll just have to tell you then. The boss is here to have that special audience with you. And from what I hear, he's real eager to meet you. Still can't figure out why he'd want to see a dimwit like you though, but hey…as long as I get my paycheck, I guess it's not really my concern."

To Cosmo's right, the loud sound of whirling machinery began to grind and a large door was slowly drawn up and into a recess in the ceiling. As the door rose higher, it quickly became clear that there were people standing just on its outside. Well, technically, one stood and one sat.

The door was stopped once there was room enough for the man standing to get through without bending and this he did as he followed the other man who rolled forward in a plushly padded, electronic, wheeled chair.

Forward the two came, the dark eyes of the man in the chair glittering dangerously from behind black framed glasses as he took a calculating glance at the many fairies in their cells.

Cosmo noticed none of this. His head was still turned down. He did however hear the noise of the large warehouse door closing back up followed by the sound of the motorized chair moving closer to him. When it stopped just feet away from Cosmo, there was silence before a voice broke out in joyous glee.

"Yes! YEEEEEESSSS! I remember you! You ARE one of them!"

Cosmo blinked as the sound of the voice penetrated the dismal fog of depression that had been slowly growing in his head. Why was that voice so familiar?

"After all these years!" continued the man. "I've finally succeeded! Revenge is mine! Hehe hehe he he he he he he he he he he he ha ha!"

It was the laugh that did it.

Cosmo's eyes went wide as his head snapped up in a hurry to look in open astonishment at who it was that spoke before him. Somewhere in his head, the realization floated through and once his green eyes sent the conformation, the fairy's face fell in complete shock.

The years had not been kind to the man in the least, for Denzel Crocker looked, if it were possible, even more pathetic, wild and crazy than he had the last time he'd seen him. The man's hair, what was left of the patches upon his head, had turned snow white and seemed to shake about wispily with each shudder and uncontrollable jerk of the man's time ravaged frame. The once just very thin man was now nothing more than a skeleton slung over carelessly with a covering of loose pale skin and clothing. Even the man's teeth, crooked from twenty years before, were even more crooked now.

Cosmo swallowed nervously.

"C…C…Crocker?"

"Ah ha! You do remember me! Its all the better!" cried the man joyfully. His mood shifted down quickly however as he took on a suspicious look.

"Except…I'm still missing one," he murmured half to himself. "I can't be finished if the last one isn't here. My revenge won't be complete with out her."

Crocker stood from his chair as quickly as his crooked and bent frame would allow and he stared into Cosmo's eyes with a burning glare.

"Tell me where she is," the man said in the fairy's face.

Cosmo, his nose wrinkling, tried to turn his face away as best as he could, but being shackled where he was allowed for only so much he could move at the moment.

"Phew!" said Cosmo. "Two words for you Crockpot. Breath…mint. You should try one some time."

Crocker growled.

"You are going to tell me now," he thundered.

Cosmo gave the man an 'I'm really grossed out now' look even while a little deep seated pride cheered at his continued ability to irritate the human. "And do you think you could maybe say it instead of spraying it too? I did already have a bath just last week you know."

Though Cosmo could have almost happily gone on with this familiar little game, happy only because it was the first recognizable thing other than Wandissimo he'd seen since he'd been captured, his mark was far from being in a cooperative mood.

Crocker had been pushed as far as he would allow himself to be and with his plans so close to being completed, he was not about to let Cosmo gain any advantage. He leaned even closer into Cosmo's face and whispered with clearly vicious and deadly intent, "Where. Is. She."

A shiver ran up Cosmo's spine at the look on the man's face and menacing whisper, and the fairy could not help but shiver nervously. A voice like that spoke volumes more than any yell could, and recognizing that he was not going to get any further with making fun of Crocker, Cosmo looked away from him dejectedly.

The game was definitely over.

"I…I don't know who you're talking about. You've caught us all," said the fairy.

"Liar!" roared Crocker. "You know exactly who I'm talking about! The fairy with the pink hair. The one you were always with!"

Yes, Cosmo knew exactly who Crocker was talking about. All too well.

Fear swept through him at how much Crocker seemed to want Wanda and Cosmo refused to meet the man's eye.

"I don't know what you're talking abou-ack!…"

Crocker grabbed Cosmo by the throat at that and the collective gasp of all the fairies watching echoed through the room.

"Tell me the truth!" came the menacing whisper again.

"I did," insisted Cosmo with weak convincing.

The fairy suddenly felt Crocker's fingers start to close on his neck, but Cosmo refused to say anything more. He was not about to tell this crazy reject of humanity anything about his Wanda. No way.

The fingers around his small neck grew tighter with surprising strength and the fairy closed his eyes against it as he tried to think of anything else possible to help him ignore the danger and pain he was in.

Cheese, his mother, corn, his nickel Philip, pudding, the first time he and Wanda had…well… It all made its way across his mind.

After several more moments, the choking pressure stopped and Crocker let go to sit unsteadily back in his chair.

Cosmo took a deep breath in relief. At least that was over.

Crocker, with several tired breaths of his own, stared at the fairy in front of him before he gave a wicked smile.

"Well then. If I can't hurt you into talking, I guess I'll just hurt someone else!"

Cosmo blinked. He hadn't thought of that possibility.

"Bring out another from the same containment unit that he was in," ordered Crocker.

Several minions rushed to do as they were ordered, but once inside, there was a confused scuffle. The men had intended to grab the nearest to the door, the little powder blue haired fairy. But when it was done, the men came out…with Wandissimo held tightly in several pairs of capturing tongs.

The black haired fairy fumed furiously, fervently cursing in both English and Spanish, as the men brought him over and not without a little trouble managed to restrain him to the second metal panel beside Cosmo.

Cosmo, for the first time since his capture, gave a wide grin and started laughing even though it hurt his sore throat to do so.

Crocker and the men looked at him in stunned bewilderment.

"What's so funny?" asked Crocker angrily.

Cosmo stifled his giggles long enough to say, "You actually managed to pull out the last fairy I would be worried about seeing hurt."

Wandissimo shot Cosmo a stiff glare and growl as Crocker frowned.

"How about killed?"

Cosmo's laughter died immediately and he looked at Crocker in a whole level of shock.

Wandissimo? Killed? Crocker would kill him?

Cosmo had never liked Wandissimo. Not from the first second he had ever seen the posturing pretty-boy flexing like a paragon of Adonis-like beauty. Of course the fact that the fairy had even had the opportunity to date Wanda, not to mention try to steal her away on more than one occasion, did not help Cosmo's view of the tanned fairy in the least. The thing though was, he was still a fairy. And he didn't deserve to lose immortality through a forced death.

Well, at least not by Crocker's hand.

Cosmo gave a heavy sigh.

"Alright. I'll…I'll tell you what I know." he said sullenly.

Wandissimo looked on in disbelief.

"What? No! You can't…"

Cosmo ignored him.

"She's still out there. But I don't know where. Without magic, she's probably hiding." Cosmo gave a smug smile. "I bet wherever she is, you'll never find her!"

Crocker raised a hand and at the silent order, several minions held their electrically charged pronged weapons close to Wandissimo. The weapons had all been turned to a far higher setting than the fairies had seen before now and yellow-white lines of killing power danced and jumped between the tines at the end.

Cosmo looked at the arcing electricity in wide eyed fear.

"That's the truth! I don't know exactly where she's at right now! I swear!"

It was, technically, the truth. Sure he could have said at which house they were working, but who knew if she was there right now? Who knew if she was even alive right now?

There was silence as Crocker studied Cosmo for several moments quietly.

The minion Mike, who had followed Crocker in, leaned down towards the other man and asked, "Sir? Do you really need that one thing that's still out there? Isn't this enough? I mean, how much difference can missing one of these things make?"

"Oh yes! I have to have her in my little collection. No doubt," responded the old man.

"But if she's in hiding…"

"It won't matter. We'll still get her!"

"No you won't!" cried Cosmo in indignation at their apparent dismissing of his wife's abilities. Dead or not, he wasn't going to let them think she was anything but the best there was. "She's one of the smartest fairies in all of Fairy World! You'll never figure out where she is!"

"You may be right, little fairy. Although, I think even if we don't go out to find her, she may come to us."

Green eyes went wide again.

"Sir?" asked the minion slightly confused.

"Yes…" continued Crocker with a small, sly smile. "I would think that if they've worked together one time, then they've probably worked together other times as well. And based upon this stupid fairy's insistent belief in his friend's intelligence, I would imagine that they might be very concerned for each other. She may even come looking for him."

Crocker smiled at Cosmo. "What do you think my little friend? Gotten a little close to your fairy compatriot over the years? Maybe…too close?"

Cosmo looked in dread fear at the man and Crocker laughed.

"That's what I thought," said the human with a malicious vindicated grin as he turned his chair to move away.

"Come everyone. We have a party to arrange for our coming guest."

When the room was clear of all but two guards, Wandissimo looked over at an utterly miserable Cosmo.

"Idiot! Why did you not lie and just let them kill me?"

Cosmo didn't even bother looking at the new wall ornament hanging beside him.

"Magoo, I don't want to see a fellow fairy, even if it is you, as odd as that sounds, dead. Besides, if they didn't get anything from me after they killed you, then they might have just killed another…and then another… I couldn't let that happen. It wouldn't…it wouldn't be right. There's a lot more lives at stake here then just the one everyone hopes is coming. And…some…some things are just…just bigger than one fairy's wife."

With that, Cosmo let his head drop, tears just beginning to slide down his cheeks as Wandissimo stared at him awestruck.

The needs of the many, outweighed the needs of the one.

Even Cosmo understood that. He also admitted that he could be a notoriously selfish fairy at times. He certainly did look at what was his and what he could get out his life. But there were moments when there was a greater good to be considered, and now was one of those times.

There were over a thousand fairies held against their will in this room and Cosmo was sure that Crocker would have little, if any, problem ordering the death of them all just because one fairy refused to say anything about another fairy. He was selfish, yes, but even he could not hold so many lives against one. It just wouldn't be fair. And what about the godchildren? Assuming these were all active fairy godparents, then there would be well over a thousand kids in the world with no one to turn to for wishes or fun or help. How would Fairy World cope with that? How could they possibly find that many replacements on that short of notice? Who would be left to help the children with the Vickys and Crockers and Benders of the world?

If she wasn't caught first, and if she was still alright, Wanda would come. She'd use her head and figure out some way of finding them all, or maybe find his trail of fish shaped bushes (providing the mutant birds hadn't gotten to them first) and she would try to rescue them. But she would be walking right into a trap. One, he understood, he had practically set out for her. But he'd had to in order to save the others. To give all of them some chance.

He only hoped that when it was all done and they were all, with any luck, free, she'd forgive him for betraying her. If she didn't, well, he wasn't sure he wanted to make it out of this if that would be the case.

Not living at all, would be far more preferable to living without her forgiveness and love.

Poor Cosmo! So sad to say that I think this may be the last we see of Cosmo for another two or three chapters. I'm soooo sorry! Please don't kill me! I hate the idea too, but I need to catch Wanda, Tammy and Tommy up to him and it will take a little bit of writing to do so! Unless I make the next chapter or two really, really long ones. I mean like twice as long as usual. Do you all really want me to do that? Or should I keep the consistency of length that you all have come to expect of me? Hmmm. Guess I'll just have to see.

Okay! Thank you time!

Commander - (screams like a little girl) Eeeeeee! Oh. My. Gosh! You marked ME as a favorite author? I'm so squealing in delight right now! I can't believe it! The first FOP author I ever added to my favorite authors list just added me to her list! I don't know what to say! Thank you, thank you, thank you! (bows down before greatness) Okay. Wild happiness has abated to an acceptable level once more…Ahem… Anyway, you're welcome for the burst of nostalgia. I was really racking my brain coming up with something a little old lady might watch that early in the morning when I remembered my grandmother and her game show addiction, lol. So I used that. It was either that, Matlock, or Murder She Wrote. Lets see who knows those two! Lol. And yes, I'm still totally thrilled you still like this!

Band Geek 727 - Thank you for having such confidence in me. Not that I'm a praise hog in any way, but I have such a terrible time with rejection, lol. Oh yes. Bad Wandissimo. Very VERY bad Wandissimo. That doesn't mean I'll always do that to him of course. This story, for example, has him in a rather uncommon spotlight which you will see later. But oddly enough, I was tossing around the idea of doing a Wandissimo fic where he gets his own happy ending of sorts. It was sparked by a little something I have plotted for him a few chapters from now. But NO! Not with Wanda. I just can't bring myself to do a Wandissimo/Wanda thing. Jeez. Another idea to add to the growing list. At this rate it will years before I get them all done!

Aerinsoul - Yeah, it did seem like a filler, but I'm not one to rush things. There's a grand order to my scheme after all. Okay. Maybe not 'grand' but there really is an order to it all. Besides, the trees were very happy after last chapter. Don't know about now though…Lol. So you'll just have to be patient a little longer. "though with the Vic-Bot's nasty personalities, I wondered why Wanda hasn't thought of it before…" Hey. She's just as much a fairy as any of the others and prone to occasionally forget things if she's not around it constantly. Besides, she's had several god children in between the "Timmy" and "Twins" years. She was just too busy working in the present to consider the past. Ha ha! Big Daddy stooping down to mug me…I'd feel honored that a big mob boss would take time out of his busy schedule to mug little ole' me! He wouldn't get much though, lol. Okay, I updated. Can I have my cheesecake now? Pleeeeeeeeeease?

Kraven the Hunter - Lol. I know. I was just kidding about tasting the mastermind. And of course you were right. He has finally made his emergence. And I do wish they would ease up on the marital jokes. Once in a while is one thing, but they're definitely overdoing it. Half of them aren't even funny. They're more cruel then anything. Ah well. I plan on keeping up the wishing that someone gets things back on track…soon.

Amras Felagund - I'm not sure I would want Vicky as a sister-in-law either, but you know what love will do to people. It will totally blind them to all other things. Lol. Um, I think I'll chose to be flattered that you would have copied this story and just changed Tootie to Trixie for your own enjoyment. Personally, I think its still a feasible idea. It might require a little rewriting of Chapter 16 and 18 and possibly a little bit later on...but it's nothing that isn't possible without destroying the whole roll of the story. I may even consider doing that for anyone interested. "BTW, you said in an email that you think Timmy/Trixie is a great couple. Then why'd you make Tootie the mother in this? Out of curiosity."… Truthfully, when I started the story, I didn't even think of using Trixie or Tootie. I never intended to even mention their mother during this, but as I started to flesh out the later chapters and some ideas popped into my head, I found it would help to make a choice and use a namable person. I however, did not make the official choice myself even though my first instinct (based on the way I look at the interactions of the show) said Tootie. I left that up to the readers. They voted and I went with the winner. Their choices were Trixie, Tootie or to leave it a nameless 'its anybody's guess' mystery. If they had chosen a nameless mystery, I would have written it that way and chucked whatever I couldn't successfully write without mentioning a name. I do still think Trixie and Timmy would make a great couple and will (and have) read several Trixie/Timmy fics. This now of course includes your in progress Timmy/Trixie (ahem…plug!) fic! I try to be an equal opportunity pairer. M/F, M/M, F/F, regular characters with regular characters, regular and mixed… it makes little difference to me if its well written and at the very least enjoyable. Hope I've satisfied your curiosity.

Trixie21