Author's Note: Sorry. My mom was in and out of the hospital, finals came up, and I've been lacking motivation. And then I saw the promo for the FOP live action movie and decided it'd been too long since I updated.

So here's a long one. Also, because of the way the plot twisted, I have less plots to keep track of! YAY! I was starting to forget what was going on. (sweatdrop)

Please read and review! Yep. Also, you should try proofreading during Game of Thrones. XD It was…interesting.

Chapter Twenty-Six: As the Fey Turns

The deeper Timmy journeyed into the rain forest, the more he grew certain of two things. One, he would have loved a map. And two…there were things crawling and screeching he would not like to run into. This was the first time in a long, long time he was completely on his own and he reminded himself not to panic. He had no map, no directions, and only the vaguest sense of 'this is the right way'. Plus, after he found the clan chief, he was supposed to 'bring him his head'. Timmy had never murdered anything outside of a video game. Not to mention his parents might be in a completely different area and…

"Cosmo? Wanda?" he called. He doubted they'd answer, but he had to hope. "Guys? Anybody?"

Water dripped onto the leaves and a bird hooted nearby. Something slithered along and crackled dried and dead leaves. He stood perfectly still. Something hissed past his head, he jumped, and his godparents remained MIA. Shuddering, he continued along a beaten path with vegetation growing in random spots.

He traveled for an indeterminate amount of time. In his left front pocket, he found a compass, which might have been helpful if he had a direction. Groaning, he flung it away and smacked a few branches aside with his machete to quell his frustration. The path seemed endless; he had no guidance, and…were those distant screams? His stomach churned and he picked up the pace. In video games, if you ran toward the thing screaming, you'd usually find a boss. He wished he had battle armor and some really cool gear. He felt exposed and vulnerable.

Branches knocked his hat askew and he grimaced, turning to fix it. A tan colored, furry creature whipped past his left arm, and completely spun him around. He heard terrified bleating and what sounded like human voices. The hair stood on his arms and he swallowed hard. The only other humans he knew of in here were his parents. At least his parents weren't screaming…yet. Dubious, he looked at the machete. He was supposed to kill something that freaked out the animals and could be torturing his parents? That didn't seem fair.

"Guys? Guys!" he cried. He thought he heard a mute 'poof' and turned, but the scenery was the same. Mud was everywhere, thanks to the sodden ground. Otherwise, he saw green. Green leaves, green moss, and green birds beating a hasty retreat. A pink tube protruded from the ground and he pulled it out. His hands glowed green, overlaid with pink, and his heart pounded. Maybe…maybe they hadn't abandoned him. Maybe they were always with him, even if he couldn't see them. God, he hoped he was right. Because he didn't think he could face the alternative.

Creatures stampeded past and he found a wide circle cut out, with tall grass inside. The screams were closer and his mother yelped. Frightened, heart racing, he held out his hands and said, voice shaking, "Part! Split! Whatever, just do it!"

The grass parted like waves and, running on pure adrenaline now, he pelted through it, tripped, and rolled over. He landed in a clearing, the ground dry and dusty. It was hard beneath his feet and he pushed himself back up. Directly across from him was a large cauldron, steaming and with a merry fire underneath. A man with a bone through his nose, a necklace made of bones, and a loincloth sat in a wooden chair and waved idly, as if the stew and his amusement did not yet suffice. He was wiry and had to be three times Timmy's age. His eyes, once Timmy met his gaze, were dull and the pupils unfocused. His movements were lethargic and he held a club loosely in his right hand, resting on the ground. The chair leaned all the way back and, for a second, Timmy thought he could be dead. Then he jerked and stopped.

"Dude, that can't be the chief," Timmy said.

"What makes you think that?" a woman said and Timmy whirled, heart picking up again. A thin, well-endowed blonde woman held a spear and wore a leather outfit covering her to almost her knees. Her blue eyes pinned him to the spot and she looked at the man sleeping before the cauldron and then at Timmy. Her rounded face looked unassuming…until you stared into her eyes. Her gaze was strict and pointed.

"Uh, 'cuz he looks…" Timmy hesitated.

"Stoned?" the woman supplied. "He's a figurehead. Let me guess- the troll sent you?"

Timmy swallowed hard. "Yeah. He told me to 'bring him his head'."

"Did he specify that it had to be separated from his body?" the woman asked.

Timmy thought about that for a second. "No. But I thought-"

"You're ten, right?" the woman asked and Timmy nodded. He saw, out of the corner of his eye, a glint of gold floating above his head and nearly collapsed with relief. The woman was a faerie in disguise.

"You're too young to kill anyone," she said and then smiled. "But I can't just let you leave with what you came for. It'd be unbecoming."

"Unbe-what?" Timmy repeated.

Yellow power covered the spear and she pointed it at Timmy's chest. "You don't have to fight me. But if you want your parents back…you'd better learn how to use that magic."

"I don't…I don't have magic!" he protested. "I'm just a kid, like you said!"

The woman smiled and it hardened the softer edges, turning it from a woman who could be kind and considerate (like Doombringer) to a woman who gladly watched someone kill themselves. She assumed an offensive stance and the golden aura enveloped her. "No. I said you were ten. I never said you were a child."

"But you said I was too young to kill anyone!" he said, retreating. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his parents tied to a metal fence. Sweat trickled down his neck and he brandished the machete threateningly.

"Hi, Timmy!" his parents chorused.

"Be quiet!" he hissed. He turned to look at them and the woman tapped him in the back with her spear. It didn't pierce the skin, but it left a burning sensation. Startled, he spun to face her and she smiled.

"Never turn your back on your enemy," she said. Timmy gulped and wished he had a spear. Or a sword. He imagined himself with it, the ends pulsating pink and green like his hands had before, and the weight in his hands changed. He ducked back just in time to avoid an attack and the machete was gone, replaced by the spear. He had no time to wonder at it- the woman charged, aiming for his chest.

How was he supposed to defeat her if she didn't give him time to imagine things? Isn't that how Cosmo and Wanda did magic? But they could react quickly, without stopping to think. And for all he knew, Cosmo never really thought about anything. They had millennia of practice. And…damn, it'd be nice if he had a shield!

On his right arm appeared a green shield and he thrust it in between the woman, her spear, and him. Sweat trickled down and he gritted his teeth. She aimed for his head, he blocked it, and she swept down low, knocking him out from under. He rolled and held out the shield protectively.

"You need not kill me," she said and smiled, showing eerily white teeth. "You only have to magically bind me."

There was a crackle, like electricity, and the sky darkened. Timmy looked up, distracted, and she barreled him over, sending him a few inches away from the cauldron. The man twitched and Timmy gulped, jumping to his feet. The fire at his back felt plenty hot and he bet the cauldron's contents would hurt if it spilled. That was it! The woman said she had to magically bind her…well, he bet that'd be easier if he hit her with boiling stew. He just had to get into position without her figuring it out.

"Hey, look, there's a set of really nice spears!" he called. She didn't look. Instead, smiling, she flung the spear toward his parents. Panic set in and he imagined pink and green hands pushing out, shoving the cauldron over and its contents at her. Then he imagined a barrier keeping his parents from being skewered. With the two things pictured at once, time slowed down and he lost track of what was actually going on. His head felt like it was being split and his vision greyed.

Screaming brought him back to his senses.

His vision took a while to clear. When it had, he saw the blonde woman on her knees with water and vegetables nearby. The chieftain had stood up and looked around quizzically, as if completely at a loss to figure out where the screaming was coming from. The woman had curled into a fetal position and Timmy imagined magical handcuffs around her wrists and ankles. Unfortunately, the idea of really hurting someone sunk in, even if it was to protect his parents, and he shook uncontrollably. Letting the ties 'snap' into place, he turned and headed for the fence. It looked like her spear had stuck in his shield.

He stopped a few feet away from his parents and the spear fell. To his shock, his mother wasn't bleeding. She didn't have any scratches. He looked at the ground and saw a dead leech. No wonder his parents hadn't been screaming- they weren't in any real danger. But then why had all the animals run? What was going on? The chief was a joke and the woman warrior went down…and…

"Hi, Timmy!" his father said. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Internet," Timmy said shakily. "What's going on?"

"Oh, we're waiting to be sacrifices," his mother said nonchalantly.

"To what?" Timmy said, heart pounding again. The woman moaned and groaned behind him and he shivered, rubbing his arms. He glowed pink and green.

"That," his father said and pointed. Timmy turned and stared at the trees. At first, all he saw were tree tops. Then he looked up…and up. Red scales glinting in the sun, thousands of feet high, roaring as it tore up the forest…was a dragon. And dragons were, unless the rules had changed, impervious to magic.

"Oh, crud."

Tootie stuck to the back alleys and areas of little visibility. Stalking Timmy had its advantages. She was used to crawling around in the dirt and getting completely filthy. She was also used to cleaning up after her sister, whose garments were often covered in substances best left to the imagination. The lights were out on the street behind theirs and she ducked onto lawns, dashed through bushes, and otherwise scratched and bruised herself. There were police helicopters overhead and she had to time things right- it reminded her of a video game. (Maybe she'd been spying on Timmy too much if that was the first thing that came to mind.)

She knew Dimmsdale well and it was only a matter of time until she found the house behind Timmy's. The fence was rotted on the third plank from the right and she pushed it aside. The lights were off on in the Turner household. Maybe Vicky hadn't attacked Timmy there. That left only her house…and one chance to get in before the police caught her. There were cars everywhere near her house and the helicopter landed on the roof.

Maybe she could disguise herself. She glanced at her hands and projected a camouflage effect. Whatever surrounded her, hopefully, she'd blend in. She was none too confident in her abilities and she sincerely doubted she had real magic, but she also thought perhaps the rules didn't apply the way they had. Besides, she had to save Timmy. And she'd die for him if need be.

Ducking back through the fence, she continued along the fence. Lights swept the area and occasionally, she flattened herself to the ground. Even if the magic had worked, she had no guarantees. She alternated ducking and traveling low to the ground and squashing herself. Her heart was in her throat and she rubbed her palms on her overalls. She couldn't smell the sewers anymore, which probably meant the smell had ingrained in her nostrils. Ugh.

Once she reached the house directly behind hers, she rapped on the fence with her knuckles. The machine in her pocket beeped and she extracted it. Half of the boards were hollow and she pushed them aside. Then she immediately threw herself into the bushes before the spotlight caught her. Damn, it was scratchy. She could feel her neck and cheek bleed.

Squinting, she gazed up at the helicopter. If she stayed here long enough, she could count how long it took for the light to do a sweep and time herself accordingly. It appeared to take…a minute to do a full sweep and half a minute to reach her. She might be able to fling herself at the house before it reached her and then hang tight until she could get in through the backdoor. Assuming, of course, that the police weren't in her house too. Her head pounded and she bit the inside of her lip.

"I'm doing this for Timmy," she reminded herself. "No matter what weird thing Vicky is doing to him, I'll stop her."

After several sweeps, she mustered her courage and threw herself at the chimney. Her bound took her further than she had anticipated and she smacked into the side of the house. Head aching, she looked up and gulped. The spotlight had just missed her…and her skin had gone completely black, along with her outfit. From here, she could sort of see Vicky's room. The helicopter's blades stopped spinning. Sirens stopped wailing. There was utter silence, unbroken. Not even a cricket chirped. Tootie's mouth went dry and her knees buckled.

"I'm doing this for Timmy."

The back door was unlocked and she slipped into the kitchen. It was dark…and she stopped, hearing a gasp. The gasp was followed by a scream, but it wasn't Timmy. It was throaty and breathless, like the person had barely been able to give voice to the horror before being silenced. And Tootie knew it, not like she'd know Timmy or Vicky, but like a long lost friend. Her knees buckled again and she grabbed the counter to keep from falling over.

"If I rip them off, do they grow back?" Vicky crooned.

"Stop it!" Tootie heard herself scream. "Leave them alone!"

She was afraid to go upstairs and discover what was really going on, but she didn't see a choice. Heart in her throat, she headed upstairs and clung to the bannister.

"Whose faeries are they?" Vicky hissed, her voice full of menace. "I know you know."

"Let them go!" Her counterpart screamed, like Vicky was hurting her, and Tootie shuddered. Pieces were starting to fall into place, but her mind wouldn't let her hold onto them. Her fingers slipped on the bannister and she collapsed onto the floor. Her breath came too quickly and she almost wished it had been Timmy in danger, anything but this.

"Are they your faeries?" Vicky crooned.

"NO!" Tootie screamed and dashed up the stairs. She burst into her bedroom to discover Vicky with Cosmo and Wanda in a butterfly net and her younger self curled up in a ball. Tootie felt her stomach and remembered being kicked, hard, and then smacked to keep from rising. Cosmo and Wanda were silent, eyes wide and pleading. Vicky had reached through the net and torn Cosmo's left wing until it was tattered, barely hanging to his back. Tootie swallowed back nausea.

"What's this?" Vicky said, looking from the younger Tootie to her. She glanced at Cosmo and Wanda and then punted Wanda until the net flew back, hitting the wall and making the faeries collide with it particularly hard. They yelped and clung to each other.

"I know you two aren't doing this," Vicky said and twirled their wands on her fingers.

"Leave them alone!" Tootie snapped.

"What's that?" Vicky feigned ignorance. "You want me to sell them to the highest bidder?"

She was so afraid. At some point, Fairy World had stepped in and taken Cosmo and Wanda away. She didn't recall exactly when. But facing her sister down, with her younger self incapacitated, was sapping her reserve. Timmy could confront Vicky…but Tootie had problems. Timmy didn't hear the screams at night, didn't have to live with her, and he was so much braver. Then again, he still had Cosmo and Wanda.

Vicky picked up the net and shook it. "You think the wings grow back?"

"It's…it's your fault I'm so miserable!" Tootie said. Her teeth were chattering and she was shaking so badly she could barely stand. "It's your fault I lost them!"

"Oh, so they are yours?" Vicky said. "Hmm. Should I sell them or use a blowtorch on them?"

Timmy had Cosmo and Wanda. It wasn't fair. His parents never paid attention to him and left him with Vicky, but her parents were petrified of Vicky and never paid attention to her. Timmy didn't have to live with Vicky. Timmy didn't have to wonder at night if Vicky was going to sneak in and do something horrible to his stuff or to him. It wasn't fair that Tootie had lost Cosmo and Wanda because of Vicky, while Timmy got to keep them to fight her off.

But…she loved Timmy. And she wanted him to be happy.

At your expense?

The pivotal moment was soon at hand. She shoved Vicky away from the butterfly net and stood protectively in front of her godparents. Forces gathered and she only had a minute before she'd lose them again. She kicked the butterfly net off them and felt the slim magic she had been left with. Lashing out, thinking only of keeping her godparents away from Vicky, she said, "I wish Vicky had never captured you and no one remembered anything!"

There was an odd sensation, not the usual undercurrent of a wish. Magic with the force of a tidal wave ripped through the room and Vicky vanished, along with her past self. She flew back into the wall and collapsed, stunned. Cosmo and Wanda stood independently, their wands glowing blindingly. Winds whipped through the room and she could only see the bright yellow glow, nothing else. She couldn't move. The fury deafened her and when it finally passed, she didn't at first notice. Groaning, she slumped onto the floor and felt a soft hand touch her cheek. Startled, she jerked and slammed into the wall.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" Wanda said and Tootie opened her eyes. Part of the wish hadn't worked. She still remembered losing them…but they hadn't gone anywhere.

"Did we miss something fun?" Cosmo said and Tootie looked up. Cosmo was sitting on her bed…that was sideways on the floor. Everything in the room was in shambles.

"Hey, look, a note," Cosmo said, ducking under the bed. "'You have created a paradox'. Wanda, what's a paradox?"

"A paradox…" Tootie said softly. If she had lost her godparents, that meant they'd go to Timmy. But she hadn't lost her godparents, so Timmy never got them. Yet if Timmy had never had them, then Cosmo and Wanda couldn't have been captured, which meant none of this could have happened because Tootie couldn't have gone back in time to prevent losing them. Wow. It was making her head hurt a little.

Wanda popped to Cosmo's side to inspect the note and frowned. Another note drifted down and then disappeared before Cosmo had a chance to read it, although Wanda's quick gaze had scanned and filed away the contents.

"It says we were reassigned…but we're still here…" Wanda said, confused.

"Is that a paradox?" Cosmo asked.

"Yes…" Wanda said and stared at Tootie. "Hun, what's going on?"

"Uh…" Tootie smiled innocently. "I have no idea?"

(In the present)

Finally, the traffic had cleared and Doombringer was back to her lair. Once she stepped inside…the world wavered and she lost her footing. Her vision blacked out and she tasted metal. It took a while for the dizziness to dissipate and once it had, it took a while longer to stand. She stood, back to the wall to support herself, and stared down the corridor. It looked abandoned, like it had when she first encountered it, not cleaned up like she had forced Juandissimo to do.

The lights were covered in dust and cobwebs and the lights that turned on flickered.

"Hello?" she huffed. "Anyone?"

Normally, half breeds would have flocked to her by now. Instead, her voice rang out in an empty hall. "Juandissimo?"

She didn't expect him to come, although it would have been soothing. There was a silent pop and she whirled, discovering Juandissimo, pale and bloody, behind her. She suppressed a shiver; the last time she'd checked, he'd turned tail and run. Why was he answering her summons again? What the hell was that ripple?

"Si?" he said. "There is a summons to Fairy World and I must go, but I shall return."

"A summons?" she repeated. "You serve me." At least, he did as long as she had Remy and his magic in the palm of her hand. She was on her way to finding out how to wield the dark magic and use it to control faeries everywhere. She was manipulating godchildren to use their magic to help her find the missing book. Juandissimo didn't pop off to Fairy World.

"I must go," he said. "To discuss the temporal rift."

"What temporal rift?" she said. Her mouth hung open and she shut it hastily.

"You do not remember?" he said. She shook her head.

"I will explain later," he said. "I must go."

His expression darkened. "Don't you dare lay a hand on Remy while I am gone."

He disappeared and she bit the inside of her lip until it bled. Not only was he vanishing against her orders, but he was ordering her around? Stomping her feet, she headed for where she knew the prisoners were. Seeing them would right the world, even if it was starting to grow increasingly wrong. Going down a level, she reached the prisoners' quarters and found a man in her way. Isaac.

"You wanted it to be real," Isaac said and smiled insanely. "So it was."

"What was?" Doombringer demanded. "What's going on?"

"You created a world in which Cosmo and Wanda are Timmy's godparents…and also Tootie's," he said. "And since Tootie's godparents' existence hinge on your decisions, that means this warehouse is the nexus of the temporal split."

"My decisions?" she snapped. "This is your fault."

"No," he said. "You didn't think these things through."

He vanished into thin air and she snarled, reaching for him but coming up empty handed. Enraged and frightened his words had a ring of truth, she proceeded into the cells. She found Remy as she had expected, glaring at the television and looking thoroughly bored. Further along, she looked in on where Timmy and Tootie should be. They were both gone and the cell showed no signs of occupancy, no signs of Cosmo digging his way free. Her heart stopped for a second and she shook the bars. This couldn't possibly be her fault. No.

"NO!" she screamed.

Terror gripping her, she kicked, shook, and snarled at the bars. No. She couldn't possibly have lost her precious foothold on a single gamble. The fantasies Timmy and Tootie were supposed to use to develop their powers were only supposed to be fantasies, not rooted in reality. Isaac had lied to her. Yes, she had wanted them realistic, but not at such a great cost. Screaming, she punted the bars, jumped back from the pain, and gritted her teeth. The half-breeds, Cosmo, Wanda, Timmy, and Tootie were all gone. Remy and Juandissimo were all she had left.

Perhaps she should have known better than to trust him. After all, she had met Isaac in Retroville and she knew Timmy's dealings with Jimmy Neutron there. But he had been so willing to help…and she wasn't really good at mind games, beyond the obvious. Why would he ruin her? Was it a game to him? And what was she going to do now that she had lost her advantage?

A wary smile formed. She might have lost almost everything, but Juandissimo and Remy were within her grasp. Godparents would do anything for their godchildren, wouldn't they? They were almost like parent-child and parents, if their children were threatened, could be unpredictable. All she needed to do was up the ante and she'd be able to bring back everything she'd lost. Remy didn't have to suffer needlessly. It no longer mattered whether the godchildren possessed their godparents' magic. For this to succeed, it depended on Remy being unable to defend himself.

Damn it. She had been so close to the real power. The magic the godchildren had was closer to the elemental magic the faeries had scorned. Any aberrant magic would have done, in sufficient force…and now, all gone. How could this have happened? How could she have let it happen?

Whatever else was true, this wasn't her fault.

One minute, Wanda was beside Anti Cosmo and Anti Wanda and the next, she was shunted into Fairy World. The darkness still coursed through her and she felt weak, this time accompanied by a phantom sensation, like she had been recently severed from her limbs. Yet a cursory look told her they were still there, despite the feeling that her hands were doing something else somewhere else. Her mind was full of half memories, strange recollections she hadn't witnessed yet that had happened to her. It made her shiver and she looked at Cosmo, beside her. His hair was its usual vibrant green and he showed no signs of their recent turmoil.

She didn't understand. On one hand, they had been in Doombringer's clutches and she had to rescue her godchild, along with Tootie. On the other, they were here now and what had occurred recently lost its magnetism, like it was being rewritten. She saw Tootie in her mind's eye and remembered losing her, yet, at the same time, not. Her mind hurt holding the contrary memories in place. Did Cosmo recall too?

"Silence!" Jorgen thundered and the assembled group, every faerie in Fairy World plus whomever had been yanked off Earth, quieted. Wanda sensed the anti faeries still there, within the throng, although she couldn't sense her husband with her magical senses. The telepathy was down and yet, it was alive somewhere. There was a strange multiplicity developing within and without, as if she had become Wanda "A". Without thinking, she reached for Cosmo's hand and squeezed. Cosmo squeezed back and smiled.

"Due to the recent temporal shifts, we have had to quarantine certain areas!" Jorgen yelled and produced charts. Retroville appeared on one levitating screen, Brightsburg on another, and Dimmsdale on the third. The charts changed to maps with particular areas pinpointed- almost every area in Dimmsdale was lined in red. Retroville had Jimmy Neutron's house isolated, along with his friends', the Candy Bar, and school. Wanda felt like someone had hit her in the stomach. It was everywhere their magic had penetrated and, as if on the heels of this thought, Fairy World itself appeared on a fourth screen.

"We have no idea what caused this, but we believe it has something to do with these two," Jorgen said and, raising his wand, pointed at Cosmo and Wanda. Cosmo beamed and Wanda suppressed a groan. She saw Vicky in her mind's eye and then it was gone. She shook her head.

"Until we know more, these areas are off-limits!" Jorgen called. "Under no circumstances are you to grant wishes leading into them or otherwise interact with them. That is all!"

He pounded his wand and the crowd dispersed, everyone but Jorgen, Cosmo, and Wanda. They appeared at his side and he scowled.

"There are now two sets of you wandering around Dimmsdale," he said. "I would advise you to stay away from them."

"But what if-" Cosmo started and Jorgen glared.

"No."

"I don't know how this happened," Wanda protested.

He stared at her and then Cosmo. "The recent past has been rewritten, but not everything has changed. I will keep my eyes on you."

Cosmo took out his eyes and stared at himself. Wanda rolled her eyes and poofed them back into his head. He whined and grabbed her hand.

"C'mon, I wanna meet myself!" he said.

"Jorgen said no," she said, scowling.

"Aw, you take all the fun out of things," he said. "You're such a boring nag."

Wanda gritted her teeth and looked away. Maybe Wanda "B" was having better luck.

"We're not going," she repeated.

"Why?" Cosmo said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Meanwhile, Wanda "B", who didn't even know she had that designation, was busy checking on Vicky's current prisoner. Cosmo was playing with Tootie and for a split second, she felt like the universe had rippled. She had memories of another time, when she was Timmy's godmother, but she knew that hadn't happened because they hadn't been reassigned. They'd had a few close calls with Vicky, but Tootie had kept her mouth shut and protected her godparents. Whenever that weird twinge came up, Wanda would dismiss it. After all, they'd been subject to a few magical historical rewrites too. It was probably related to that.

The prisoner was dehydrated and hallucinating, so appearing in her normal form wouldn't affect him or break any rules. She gave him water and checked his vitals- usually, Vicky's teachers suffered the brunt of her punishment. This one happened to be her math teacher, who had been hanging here since January. Eventually, someone would notice he was missing…and not be too afraid of Vicky to discover where he'd gone. Until that day, Wanda ensured no one died under this roof, either through neglect or torture. She wouldn't put much past Vicky.

((You're coming back now, right?)) Cosmo whined via telepathy. It was odd- for a few minutes a day, she felt like they shouldn't have it and that they should be having marriage troubles. Then she questioned why she'd think that, because they were as good as they had been thousands of years ago and nothing had ever happened to make her doubt them.

((Of course, pudding,)) she said and popped back into Tootie's room. Tootie, dressed in Faerie Princess garb, smiled and Wanda smiled back. She settled on the bed.

"Now, where were we?" she asked.

"You were the dragon," Cosmo said and Wanda snorted.

"Because the last time Cosmo was the dragon, he almost burned down my room," Tootie groaned. Wanda rolled her eyes.

"All right, all right," she said and shifted into a small dragon, in contrast to the larger dragon Cosmo had created and which had destroyed her room. It was the size of a large dog.

"Back, ye strange dragon!" Tootie said, holding up a fake wand. "Or I'll blast you!"

"Dragons are impervious to magic!" Wanda replied. "And I'd like to see you try."

"Oh, yeah, well, I wish I had a sword!" Tootie countered.

Cosmo raised his wand and Wanda cleared her throat.

"Remember what we talked about last time?" she reminded him.

"What? It's not like she killed anyone," Cosmo said but produced a toy sword. Wanda smirked and resumed pretend menacing her godchild. She flew around and blew smoke.

"Hit me with your best shot!" Wanda taunted.

Thunder boomed and Tootie blinked.

"Wow, guys, you're really going all out," she said.

"We didn't do that," Wanda said and flew to the window. Cosmo popped to her side. Outside, the sky had grown incredibly dark and foreboding, with lightning flashing and thunder accompanying. It had been a perfectly clear night before.

"Weird," Tootie said.

"Yeah…" Cosmo agreed and his wand shot off random sparks. The trio jumped and stared at him.

"Something strange is going on," Wanda said. "But I don't know what."

She looked toward Timmy's house and used Tootie's telescope to discern details. She didn't know why, but she associated rogue magic with Timmy. Unfortunately, the curtains were drawn and shy of going over there herself, she couldn't tell anything. Frowning, she withdrew and stared at Cosmo.

((I keep thinking of Timmy as our godson, but Tootie's our goddaughter.))

((And I keep thinking of Phillip! I miss that nickel.))

She looked again at the Turners' household and her wings twitched. Sometimes, it felt like she was somewhere else or doing something else.

((I felt split, like we should be somewhere else…))

Cosmo didn't answer, not even offering a joke. His gaze went beyond her, to the Turners' household, and she knew he was echoing her sentiment, even if he couldn't verbalize it.

"Hey, uh, guys, can we get back to playing?" Tootie asked.

"Of course, honey," Wanda said and flew back to menace her goddaughter again. It must be nice to be Cosmo and have no real thoughts.

((Wanda…I feel like the darkness is coming for me.))

You couldn't lie mind to mind and Wanda had to suppress a shiver, because she knew all too well exactly what he meant. She could see Cosmo in her mind's eye with black streaking his hair and then that led to confused images. There was a sense of wrongness here, like they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, except they had been since Jorgen had assigned them. There was no reason they shouldn't.

((Don't be ridiculous,)) she replied, but her heart wasn't in it. Thunder boomed and she shivered, uncertain why.