Disclaimer/Author's Note: I finished most of this in one day. I wanted to tell you guys that whereas SS made TOS P4 sound like it'd be an epic, I really don't have enough material to do that. So I had to rework everything and though I like how it'll be, it's not going to work exactly as I'd planned because I lost a lot of the story through time. Certain events ended up not being as important as I originally thought they would be.
Why am I telling you this? Because the end is near, actually. Not to freak you guys out, but it's about time this baby was finished. It's been over three years, if you count composition time. Of course, I'll have a special place in my heart for it, but I've moved out of my FOP stage, sadly. This is the true testament to how my writing style changed and how I matured.
And Fairly Oddparents will never belong to me as long as I shall live.
Chapter Thirteen: The Straw
A moonlit sky illuminated the piles upon piles of books in Sophie's room. The clock read two thirty two a.m., but its denizen lay awake. She sighed piteously, eyed the ceiling again, and rolled over onto her side. Wrapping her arms around a near by blanket, she clenched her eyes shut and began again. Tonight especially refused to yield slumber. She'd lain awake for over three hours now and only learned the ceiling holes, nowhere near dreamland.
The sensation, though hardly unfamiliar, annoyed her vastly. Her mind was amassed turmoil, darting here and there. No sooner had she chased one troubling concept away than another took its place. Wanda's situation weighed heavily and despite doing everything she could, she felt like a failure. Why had her books betrayed her? Surely books could solve anything- they had never failed her in the past. There had to be something she was overlooking that could make her godmother happy.
Other than reading and burying herself in another's misery, she threw herself headlong into aiding Wanda. It kept her mind off other things, like her sudden orphan situation. It blocked the little voice in her head that kept whispering this was partly Wanda's fault and temporarily halted her frustration with Timmy and Tootie for making their stupid sexual frustration public.
She had no idea what that was (only a little of what it entailed) and it irked her tremendously. Honestly, why couldn't they just listen to each other? Wanda was always going on about telepathy, so why couldn't they talk things out there? Why did she have to hear their stupidity? Not that she begrudged Tootie…but she hated losing place in her book because they sniped at each other again. Losing place in her book meant for an instant she remembered where she was and how she got there and she became completely miserable.
Sitting up, she glanced at the treehouse and wondered if it was a trick of the light, the pink pacing the room. A small electric lamp illuminated her tired features and the wand clutched in her right hand. However, the instant she looked closer, it was gone. She blinked, staring blankly.
A pink flash lit her room and she gasped, drawing back. Only Wanda could have that one. She opened her mouth to speak with her when words failed her. In fact, her eyelids failed her as well. No sooner had Wanda entered than fairy dust drifted over Sophie's head and she fell asleep.
Wanda waved her wand once more as insurance and the nine year old curled up in a ball. Sighing heavily, she looked away. If only she could fall asleep so undisturbed like that, positively magical. Sure, she could cast the spell over herself, but she'd already tried that. No matter what, Juandissimo tore through and she awoke shuddering. She strongly suspected he left his magic within her after his molestation.
Landing heavily, she descended and stroked the girl's hair. It wasn't fair for her to be stuck here like this, especially considering her past. Timmy and Tootie were far from hospitable and the only creature she knew was dealing with her own problems. In all respects, other than her books, she was alone. She'd never even asked for fairy godparents and she'd gotten a mess instead of supernatural solutions. When Wanda solved her own mess and got Cosmo on her side to boost her magic, she'd cure her parents, erase her memories of these last few months, and send her back. It was the least she could do.
Her breathing was regular and even like all calm children. Wanda had godparented so many children; she'd learned to detect the slightest signs of a nightmare. Fortunately, the sleep she'd put her in defied dreams. It was so deep; she wouldn't be disturbed in the morning by any arguments or evil tempered pregnant women (fortunately, they had only one). It was the only gift she could give her without a wish and she did it out of love and concern.
Yet in the quiet of the night, she was reminded of something else. Though she'd tried and tried, she'd never had a child of her own. She experienced it vicariously and sometimes, they truly felt like her own. Therefore when the time came to leave them, it ached like nothing else. She'd bonded to some of them and the knowledge that they'd forget her was almost unbearable. Sometimes she wondered what the point of it all was if their childhood was only happy because of that part they never recalled. How could you be happy if you couldn't remember being that way?
Sophie stirred slightly, the relics of her magic twisting and manipulating the spell. Wanda shivered, wishing she were stronger and her own magic more potent. It seemed there were many things she couldn't count on anymore, including her spells. Timmy would leave her eventually as would almost everyone except Cosmo. And even that was up in the air right now. She sighed, wishing she hadn't remembered how lonely it was being a fairy godmother.
Yet with Cosmo, it hadn't felt like this. Whenever she got sentimental, he'd start spewing random insanity just to cheer her. She shut her eyes, imagining him beside her. He'd tell her to stop watching Sophie and come to bed. There was no sense in thinking about things that were years off, he'd add. And she knew her imaginary version was right…but she couldn't bring herself to listen to him right now. Sophie was here, albeit asleep, and he was floating somewhere. The knowledge made her heart pang.
Wait, floating somewhere? That reminded her- hadn't she left Lorenzo in the abyss? She bristled, recalling how he'd gotten there in the first place. Didn't she have enough to worry about without fretting over leaving her godson alone? She shouldn't have to contend with his anti fairy trying to rape him at every time. In her right hand, her wand shot off warning sparks and she scowled, knowing she had to bring him back if only to make him realize how badly he'd erred.
Waving her wand grandly, she cast her mind for him and caught his magical signature. Along with this she caught a strange sense of guilt not related to his recent attack on Timmy- it was related to her. A little fishing around and she reached a strange recollection of him kissing her while she plainly unable to protest. The fury led her yank harder than usual and he entered with a loud pop, smacking hard into the carpet and landing face first. He was pale, trembling, and beyond her empathy at the moment. Scowling, she waved her wand once more and he rolled over, staring up at the ceiling incomprehensibly. Gibberish escaped his mouth and he sat up, staring through her. Okay…
Comprehension dawned on him and he jumped up, practically jumping on Sophie to envelope her in a hug so tight, she couldn't breathe. He babbled, apparently ecstatic she came to her senses and rescued him from that hellhole. Pressed up against his chest, she mentally remarked that she now understood Timmy's desire to stab him in the heart. She jabbed at him with her wand and he finally released her thanks to his sweater catching fire. Perturbed, he beat at it frantically while she drew several breaths of sweet, precious, life giving oxygen.
"You saved me!" he said once he'd fanned the flames. "I did not doubt that you would come to your senses and realize my proper place. Surely, an act such as mine did not merit such cruelty in the first place and you have discovered your mistake. There was no lasting damage-"
"Excuse me?" Wanda replied once she could breathe normally again. "You've scarred my godson for life and you tell me there's no lasting damage? You tried to feel him up after you kissed me and you insist you're in the wrong? I thought you were the more intelligent side of Timmy, but I see I was mistaken."
He scowled, his chivalry forgotten. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a shadow creep past Sophie's slightly ajar door and she swallowed hard. Only one other person lived up here right now and his presence would be most unwelcome right now. She sent him a weak telepathic message (weak thanks to the fact that neither of their partners were here to boost it), but he either disregarded it or never received it in the first place. Unfortunately, thanks to overtaxing her magic in the past few hours, she doubted she had the power to transport them elsewhere or sound proof the room. Experience taught her when in doubt, don't attempt it. Being stuck between two places hardly appealed to her.
Lorenzo glared in response, folding his arms across his chest. "Is that so, frach? I was smart enough to ensure my return."
"Yet you couldn't exercise enough self control to keep your hands to yourself for a minute," she hissed, shutting the door. It smacked in Timmy's face and he muttered under his breath, but craned his head to listen in. She sighed, not having to see it to know what he was doing. She hadn't spent thousands of years godparenting not to know when children were listening in.
"You were not present in the first place and-"
"That doesn't mean I wasn't going to return!" she shot back, folding her own arms across her chest. "What, you thought you'd get a little picnic with him while I was gone? Were you thinking at all? You knew that was the rule we agreed to and yet, you thought nothing of breaking it."
Turning away from her, he faced the window. Sighing lightly, he leaned against the sill and stared at the empty treehouse. His long brown hair settled down around his waist and his hands splayed, knuckles whitened. His cold blue eyes swept the outside before answering as though calculating his response. Were Timmy able to see this, he would have attacked in lieu of another reaction. Wanda, however, possessed more patience, though her temper was waning.
"It was not that I thought nothing of it…but that I thought everything of it and him. You know how I feel about him, Wanda," he replied and if he thought this would sway her, he was sadly mistaken. A dull thud pounded against the door and the two jumped. Timmy was snarling at the door and threatening the creatures behind it. Wanda almost wished Tootie were home to distract him.
"I do and that was why I stipulated that. If you love him, you should be able to comprehend the damage you've done. You should be able to understand the best thing for him is to let him grow up uninhibited by your advances, Lorenzo. You've already hurt him so badly," Wanda whispered, shutting her eyes. Sophie stirred again, reaching her fingers out and inadvertently stroking her godmother's wings. The pink fairy shivered, moving away before anything else happened.
"And whose fault would that be?" Timmy snapped and though she outwardly ignored him, she hung her head. Hers, of course. Cosmo had tried to convince her otherwise when he trained under The Other, but she knew the truth. She knew she'd brought this upon them and she regretted it every day, but that didn't give him the right to bring it up, now of all times.
Terrible, horrible guilt threatened to suffocate her. She'd caused Timmy to make the wish in the first place, tore Sophie from her parents, and led to everything else. How could she have foreseen it? Despite what Cosmo had insisted, she ought to have known better. She was the smart one; she should have stopped herself.
If Lorenzo heard him, he made no show of it. Instead, he spun around, his hair twirling in a circle. She felt his scrutiny and shivered, clutching her wand. Too many times had that same gaze held her own and it usually spelled trouble, or, in the very least, a denial. Lorenzo never saw things properly. He never quite grasped that this was wrong and he couldn't forever justify his actions. But he was part of her godchild too and she had to try to adjust him properly because that was her job as a godmother. If he lacked morals and common sense, which was something she should be able to remedy.
"You do not think it is possible for him to share that affection, do you?" he murmured sadly, leaning against the wall. Behind the mask, she caught sorrow and remorse. The more he wanted him, the further he drove him away. She almost pitied him.
Wanda opened her mouth to lightly break the news to him when Timmy wrenched the door open and switched on the light. Every inch of his body quaked furiously and he glared hatefully at the two. Apparently used to this, Lorenzo's expression never faltered, but Wanda cringed. Suddenly, uncomfortably, she was aware she had no one to defend her here. Lorenzo might, but he'd be too busy defending himself. She was literally alone and she loathed it.
"I'd rather slit my wrists and jump off the roof, thanks," Timmy snarled. "And it's nice to see you were thinking of me, Wanda, when you arranged for him to come back. You already knew he was going to try to rape me and you never thought to, I don't know, stop him? Or maybe you just needed entertainment since Remy took Cosmo away."
The instant the words left his mouth, he knew he'd made a mistake. Wanda looked like she'd been slapped across the face and the hand holding her wand abruptly released it. All the color drained from her and she plummeted out of midair, using it as an excuse to retrieve her wand and escape. However, unlike her normal poofs that were usually accompanied by a "pop", this was muted. Lorenzo pivoted, staring in her absence across the room to his sire, mouth agape.
"Well, well, Timothy, you certainly have a way with words," he snapped, glaring. "Or were you hoping that she'd shove you off the roof herself? If you keep shooting your mouth off like that, you won't have too long to wait."
"What the hell do you care? You trained me to kill her, for God's sake! You should be happy she's upset! You used to be when I was your whore!" Timmy retorted, eyes narrowed. He glanced towards the treehouse, but there were no lights. Wherever Wanda had gone, either she preferred the darkness or she wasn't there. His conscience swung and smacked a home run in his soul.
He had no business saying that and he knew it. But when he was around Lorenzo, his brain short-circuited. Besides, it pissed him off that she'd planned to have him resuscitated without asking him. He'd killed him to get rid of him, not to share a goddamn house with him. What the hell was the point of killing him if he just came back to bite him in the ass?
And Wanda had let this happen, too. But the instant his mind touched upon that, it veered away again. He wanted to blame her badly because that meant he didn't have to think about his own role in the sordid affair, but blaming her for Cosmo's attack wasn't right either. He'd seen them and he knew how deeply they cared for each other, but he couldn't help himself. In that moment, he hadn't thought at all. He wanted to hurt her as badly as the thought of being betrayed had hurt him. From the looks of things, he'd done that too.
"My insults were meaningless because I was the villain. She cared naught for me nor I for her. Timmy, she loves you. I'm not saying you should go up there and apologize (supposing that's where she is), but if you value her as anything more than your easy solution to life's problems, then you ought to keep your damn mouth shut. You're lucky she tolerates you, considering how others in this house regard you."
Timmy swallowed hard, for once acknowledging his creation might have a point. Tootie was in and out and he basically never saw Sophie outside of mealtimes. Gary could go to hell as far as he was concerned and he'd rather not have to set eyes on Lorenzo again as long as he lived. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.
Glaring at him, he turned his back on him, left the room (and Sophie alone with his creation) and took the steps two at a time. Disregarding the summer breeze outside, surprisingly chilly (probably thanks to Wanda), he hugged himself and glanced up. Tonight the treehouse felt forbidding and unfamiliar and when he ascended the steps, they suddenly grew slick and he fell, unable to grab hold. Well, that answered one question. Only magic made dry wood as slippery as polished metal.
Above him loomed a pink fairy, eyes narrowed to slits. Wand clutched in her right hand, it illuminated her trembling body and a few warning sparks landed on a nearby tree. Timmy gulped, noticing how quickly it and the surrounding branches caught fire. Though she doused the flames, her eyes never left him and her body continued to quake furiously. Her fingers tightened on her wand like she'd love to do so around his neck.
"I don't know what you think you're doing here, but leave. Now."
Her words left no other option, but Lorenzo's rang through his head. The thought never occurred to him that trying to mend the damage while she was still enraged with him might not be a great idea, but then again, he seldom thought before he acted. If he had, he wouldn't be standing out here with a furious faery fanning flames and glaring daggers at him. He also wouldn't be mourning Tootie's loss while alternatively insulting her presence. Poor, stupid Timmy Turner.
"I wanted to apologize," he called, voice cracking. A hard, heavy object sailed through the air and if he hadn't the common sense to avoid it, would have landed on his head and rendered him unconscious. It was a book from Lorenzo's library; he recognized it. Blinking, he glanced at it and then the creature levitating another to smack him upside the head with.
"I will say this again- leave. Now. I cannot be held accountable for my actions or the randomly falling objects that might find your head a suitable center of gravity. Nor can I be held accountable if you spontaneously combust because I find it entertaining," she growled, practically flinging the last word at him.
"I didn't mean it, Wanda, really…" he replied, sidestepping another object, this one their old fishbowl. The bowl shattered on impact; pieces flew everywhere. Timmy dodged a few shards and the rest, swayed by a mysterious breeze, managed to miss him. (Lorenzo still had the vestiges of his old magic, much to Wanda's disgust).
"I protectyou, I defendyou, I keep you from making the worst decision in your life and committing murder, but you don't care. You lash out at me, condemn me, and insinuate that the heaviest loss in my life is my fault because I take masochistic pleasure in other people's pain. I do all I can to help you, I even showed you one of the most painful moments in my life and you hurt me again?
"I don't know what I'm supposed to say, but I do know one thing. I need a break. If you can't watch yourself long enough to spare me, then by all means, snap at Lorenzo. I won't stop you. I won't stop him from raping you again like I did today. You're welcome, by the way.
"You're not appreciative of anything. You were hurt, yes, but you're not dead. We stopped you from committing suicide and you reward us by being just as selfish as you were then. We made the best of a bad situation and you act like we let you do whatever you wanted.
"I won't pretend what you said didn't hurt, Timmy. I would rather you left me alone. To put it bluntly, I can't stand the sound of your voice right now."
With that, a magical shield enveloped the treehouse and flung Timmy aside. The treehouse vanished, replaced by empty space. Whether she'd relocated the house or simply hidden it from view, he couldn't tell, but he knew one thing. He wasn't going to see her for a while.
Morning dawned bright and early, the brilliant sunshine lighting up every corner of Timmy's room. He moaned, curling up further in the covers. In due time, he fell asleep again, mindless of the fact Wanda's normal waking never took place. By the time he awoke, it was around eleven and Sophie was pounding on his door. Since the shy nine year old only spoke out when it was important, he blinked, confused. Last night's events hadn't set in yet.
"Wake up!" she roared and, to his surprise, a second fist joined hers. The door handle jiggled and Gary, Sophie at his heels, burst into the room. Mousy brown hair neatly pulled back in a ponytail contrasted his greasy, slicked back raven hair. The two themselves were a study in contrast, but their tempers matched evenly. Sophie tapped her foot agitatedly and Gary, never one to sit by, darted forward, ripped off the covers, and snarled in his creator's face. Timmy stared back, nonplussed at having his imaginary friend in his face merely seconds after reawakening.
"Where the hell is she?" he growled, face literally five inches away. Bewildered, he continued to stare back. Where was who? Tootie? She vanished randomly. Vicky? Well, who cared? Wait…who were they talking about?
He managed a weak "huh", utterly lost. Gary sunk a fist into his stomach; Timmy bolted into alertness and glanced at Sophie. The nine year old twisted her hands and toyed nervously with her hair. All the while, she glanced out the window and then at them. Pissed and tempted to punch his creation back, Timmy instead followed her gaze. The treehouse was missing…still.
Perplexed, guilt nagging at him, he blinked and it reappeared- completely empty. Brown and blue eyes widened in shock and he found himself being dragged out of bed in his pajamas, down the stairs, and outside. Sophie muttered darkly under his breath but they ignored her. There were more pressing matters at the moment.
A thorough search of the treehouse told them everything personal had been removed. It resembled his hang out three years ago and he shuddered, sensing nothing remotely like them here. It was like they never lived here.
Sophie was analyzing what little she could and came up empty as well. Befuddled, she glanced at Gary, advancing on his creator. Timmy instinctively retreated to where their bed had been. Its absence disturbed him and further enraged him.
Growling, he kicked and punched at him, sending him into the wall. The two exchanged blows while Sophie shut her eyes, concentrating on the magical signature and where it might lead. It grew fainter the farther she tracked it, but it was still there, accompanied by an almost imperceptible male fairy she knew to be Cosmo. Wherever Wanda had fled to, she'd taken him with her. She shuddered, glancing at them. This did not bode well at all.
"Guys? I hate to interrupt your strange bonding rituals, but I don't think Wanda's coming back."
The words hit them like a ton of bricks and they halted immediately, staring blankly. At once, Gary accused Timmy and they began to argue, their voices filling the room. She stomped her foot, but unable to distract them, she slammed a chair down. The resounding echo silenced them effectively.
"Maybe ever. I think she went after Cosmo's soul."