The storm drifted closer as the four fairies hurried across the seasons. Ominous rumbles of thunder made their presence known, though Spurn assured the nervous tinkers that it was merely a squall and that it would pass soon enough. They had plenty of time to meet with the Queen before anyone got wet and there was no need for alarm, although, Clank had momentarily panicked when they'd hurried back to tell him what was going on. He had overcome those concerns quickly, however, insisting that he was going to come along as well.

"Whatever 'as to do with my best buddy 'as to do with me too," he had stated, already hurrying after the rest of them before they could say anything to try and protest or talk him out of it.

Spurn had merely glanced his way before shrugging disinterestedly, muttering something about "all of the hollow knowing at this rate," and putting on a burst of speed that left all three of them trailing in his dust. They caught up with him not far down the path (well, Tink and Bobble did, Clank finally managed to chase them down, huffing and puffing, when they realized he wasn't right behind them and had all but heaved Spurn back to prevent him from leaving without them).

Several heads turned in their direction as they passed, but they didn't think too much into it. Spurn was still a relatively new fairy to those who resided in the Hollow and was often the topic of conversation amongst the younger fairies. The Queen had concocted the story of his late-night arrival, of how his seedpod had drifted off to the far shores, and how it had taken him this long to find his way to the Hollow on foot. She neglected to mention that he was her brother, though that was probably for the best, as it would raise a number of questions that she was sure Spurn wasn't ready to try and answer.

So, it was a great surprise to most of the fairies when Vidia had agreed to take the sparrowman under her wing and "teach" him everything he needed to know about being a fast-flying talent. At first, Clarion had suggested he lay low as a Tinker, but Spurn had merely shaken his head and had shot Bobble a subtle wink, claiming that that field was already being taken care of. Besides, it was well-known around the hollow that Spurn was one of the fastest fairies to arrive in nearly half a decade. Even Vidia had to admit she was often impressed.

"He doesn't need any coaching from me," she'd once told the awestruck crowd. "The sparrowman is a natural!"

A natural everything, but they hadn't needed to know that.

Another bolt of lightning drew their eyes skyward and Clank nervously moved closer to his friends as the first few drops of rain began to splatter across the grasslands. Tink and Bobble both scowled at the storm, separating quickly to avoid a rather large droplet knocking them both from the air.

"Keep up," Spurn snapped. "We need to beat this storm. It's imperative that we figure this out before anything else happens!"

"Figure what out?" Tink called, taking the lead and pulling ahead of the two males. The sparrowman did not reply to her question immediately and she found that very suspicious. "Spurn, what's going on?"

"Your book-talent sparrowman may have found something," the prince answered evasively, flicking off a smaller raindrop and combing a hand through his dark hair. "I don't know all of the details, and naturally he doesn't understand the nature of the context, but it might just be the key to understanding what happened between Shade and Scarab all those years ago."

The tinkers shared an uneasy glance.

"But we know what happened to them!" Tink protested. "Scarab told us! They were in love but they each were born as Protectors. Shade was Death, Scarab was Life. They ended up fighting over the Hollow and Scarab won, banishing Shade from Pixie Hollow for as long as he would live. Which...apparently is a lot longer than most fairies."

"But don't forget he isn't whole anymore," Bobble reminded her. "When I fought him last, it was like fightin' thin air. He wasn't...solid fer a good portion of the time. It was like he was a phantom or somethin'." He shivered at the remembrance.

"And then I just thwacked him with my hammer and down he went!" Tink chuckled, very proud of herself for that moment. "He had no idea what had hit him! Tinkers-can't-be-heroes my foot! I happen to think we were extra heroic, thank you very much!"

"Yes," Spurn exhaled loudly, dragging the conversation back to the point at hand, "and you both fought most admirably, but I do not think you know the entirety of the story. You know how the tale ends, but you have not heard how it began."

"Uh..." Tink began, unsure how to respond to that. Fortunately, the prince didn't seem to pay any mind to her hesitation, already moving quicker. They were over Autumn now. She could see the light-talents already hard at work preparing the rainbows for the upcoming festival. It was only a short time away now, which only made more glad that her share of the work around the Nook was completed and ready for inspection.

There were certain others who hadn't even begun, despite Fairy Mary's gentle, yet stern, reminders.

Perhaps the head of the Guild would permit her to pick up some of the slack. The Hollow knew he'd done it enough times for her. She owed him that much at least.

But there wasn't any time to ask about it now. The tree was in sight and even from where they hovered, Tink could clearly see the glow from the Queen's wings. It wasn't a typical gold-the color of peace and joy a fairy typically reflected. Her serenity had faltered, replaced with an eerie iridescent yellow-the tell-tail sign of fear.

It was so unusual that Tink had almost forgotten what it looked like. But to see it on the Queen...something must have been very wrong.

And she wasn't the only one to notice. Behind her, Clank and Bobble gave each other concerned glances and hastened to keep up with the rest of the group.

"We're here," Spurn announced, touching down first and hurrying to stand with his sister. The tinkers landed behind him, startled to find not only Queen Clarion waiting on them, but Scribble and Nyx as well. Spurn had warned them that this meeting was bigger than just the four of them. But it also meant possibly exposing the truth to even more fairies, which could, in turn, cause many more problems; the most obvious of these being Nyx's rapid fury at being betrayed after dedicating so much time to figuring out what had been going on around the Hollow, not to mention Scribble's lack of ability to keep a secret. "Sorry for the delay. We...had to pick up an extra member."

"Thank you for coming," Clarion responded, smiling at the three. "Please don't worry. I've already alerted Fairy Mary of our meeting and she is not expecting you back until this evening. I assure you, this will be worth your time. And Clank?" she added, noticing the sparrowman hanging back from the rest of them. "It's perfectly all right. Pay no mind to my brother's irritable choice of words. You are a part of this as much as anyone else, and as such are welcome here as well."

"Uh...Queen Clarion?" Nyx interrupted suddenly, pushing her way forward to gawk at the three of them. "No offense, but why exactly are they here? I don't think they know anything about the moon's cycle." She stared at them suspiciously, possibly trying to decide whether or not they knew more than they were telling. "Though, granted, I don't think Specs over here does either." She jabbed a thumb toward Scribble who only clung to one of his thick books, hovering back near the pixie dust with just as much confusion as the rest of them.

"Um..." Tink stepped back, shooting Bobble a questioning look. He returned it and she could see the way he automatically tensed. What were they supposed to say? Nyx didn't yet know of their involvement in the whole world-ending-thunderstorms that had wreaked havoc on the seasons, or how she'd been one of the ones hive-minded to capture them. As far as she knew, the weather had been a random phenomenon and the confrontation had been wiped entirely from her memory. If she found out about it now...well, Queen Clarion had once warned them to keep what had happened a complete secret. Why would she risk throwing that rule out the window now? "Ah..."

"They've been helping me with some research of my own," the queen quickly covered. "You see, I too suspected something to be off with the seasons and I asked these three to look into it for me. And? What have you discovered?"

Clank gawked, not catching on immediately to the queen's bluff. Tink blinked, the gears already turning in her brain. With another glance to her redheaded friend, she realized she wasn't the only one scrambling for an answer.

"We...found something!" she blurted, startling all of them. "Uh...out by the meadow! Um...the seasons were...all wrong and leafy and..."

"Exactly!" Bobble exclaimed and Clank furiously nodded in agreement.

Queen Clarion said nothing as Nyx raised a questioning eyebrow and Scribble opened his mouth to make some kind of scientific fact that none of them really wanted to hear.

"Don't," Spurn warned, pointing sternly at him.

"Er...yes, sir," the sparrowman whispered, plopping down on a mushroom cap to wait.

"Okay, wait, back up," Nyx interjected, fiddling with her spear impatiently. "Where exactly did you say this was?"

"Uh...well...you see, the thing about it is-" Tink backtracked quickly.

"We don't exactly know where it was, to be frankly honest-" Bobble tried to finish.

"We couldn't find it again when we looked for it," Clank blurted.

Nyx appeared unmoved as all three tried to talk over the top of each other. "Really? None of you can remember where this spot was? Now, normally I would find that highly suspicious, but since it's the three of you, I'm going to give you a pass this time."

"Thanks?" Clank tried.

"That wasn't a compliment," Bobble hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

"Oh."

"All right, fine. You can have your pass, but Queen Clarion!" the scout protested, spinning back on the golden fairy once again. "What does any of that have to do with what Scribble was telling us? Last I checked, and I'm no expert, but, the moon doesn't have anything to do with plant life! That's all the sun's job!"

"And yet they are both connected, are they not?" It was easy to tell that the queen was trying to dodge the question. She was trying to protect them. "Darkness and light both require the other to thrive. Shadows need the light to cast a reflection and yet, if there were no darkness, how could there be a morning?"

"Huh," Nyx frowned. "Well, that was...oddly specific."

"Actually, I-" Scribble tried again, standing up and flipping through the leaflets.

"What did I just say?" Spurn groaned, turning back to him again.

"To...just sit here and wait?"

"Precisely."

"You're hiding something," Nyx said bluntly, her eyes moving back and forth from the teens to the queen and over to Spurn and back again. "All of you. You're not telling me something. Okay, come on, what's the big secret already?"

"There's no secret, Nyx." Clarion remained impassive as she bluffed her way out of the question. (Tink had to wonder how many times she'd had been forced to give similar excuses when she had been a Protector way back when, and then when Spurn had turned out to be one also, and every day since then). "Just a minor misunderstanding. There's nothing to be alarmed about. I'm sure the moon is just fine. However," she added quickly, seeing Scribble open his mouth to protest at her brushoff, "I would like the two of you to keep an eye on it for me. And if it gets anymore off course, I am giving you permission to do what you think you need to protect the Hollow."

"I will," Nyx responded determinedly, slowly starting toward the edge of the tree, wings already spread to fly as the first droplets reached the tree. She signaled for Scribble to follow and he did obediently, hurrying after her. "Oh, by the way, Tinkerbell," she caught herself, backtracking to plant herself in front of the blond, "did you ever find out what was causing those weird storms? It's been unusually quiet around here lately."

Bobble tensed even more. It was hard to tell if he was even breathing.

Tink stood her ground, refusing to let her gaze drift toward him and betray them all. "I did," she lied cooly. "It was just an anomaly in the weather patterns. I had one of the storm talents correct it. It's all good now." She gave a weak thumbs-up, guilt gnawing at her insides. It wasn't a total lie. She had asked a storm-talent to assist. It just hadn't been an official one.

"Good."

And then she was off, yelling for Scribble to keep up, and the poor sparrowman nearly dropped all of his books and papers as he scrambled to leave. He was so in love with her and it was so obvious to everyone there that she was just as aware, even if she refused to acknowledge it.

"The coast's clear now," Spurn announced a moment later, just as soon as the two were out of earshot.

"Oh, thank the Hollow," Tink sighed. "I thought we were goners for sure."

"It's okay to breathe now, Phineas," Queen Clarion commented kindly, noticing his ashen expression and the severe lack of inhalation and exhalations cycling through his body. "They've left."

He nodded, but did not loosen his stance one bit, even when the others stepped forward and Spurn went to take one of the books Scribble had left behind, tossing it down on the table before them and gesturing for them to have a seat. His sister shot him a look that he blatantly ignored as he too sat down and flipped the book open to nearly halfway through, to a page wrinkled and torn with age and wear.

"Uh...what's this?" Tink asked, pulling it closer and making room for her friends to see as well. It almost looked like...

"The original details of the two Protectors before they were chosen?" Spurn inquired, answering her unsaid thoughts without a moment's hesitation. How had he... ? "Yes, that's them. Carefully preserved for hundreds of years just in the event of something like this."

"Wait...did ye say before?" Bobble interjected, leaning up and grabbing the book in confusion. "But...I thought...Protectors are usually chosen at their arrival, aren't they? I mean, that's what happened with me."

Queen Clarion nodded. "Yes, and for the past several ceremonies, that is what has happened, but according to these notes, Shade and Scarab were the exceptions. Their powers developed at a later time, well after they had been assigned to their guilds."

"Scarab was an animal-talent," Bobble muttered, carefully turning the page without really paying attention to what he was doing. "And Shade was a tinker like us."

"Right."

"He said somethin' to me, back when he was usin' ye," the sparrowman went on, flicking his gaze to Spurn. "He said that tinkers could never be the Protectors of Life. What did he mean by that? I mean, it's wrong, isn't it? It has to be."

"No one knows for sure," Clarion interjected before Spurn could answer. "There have been...very few Protectors since the guild was created. And none who have returned from Fairy's Haven and rejoined the rest of the Hollow. I asked Scarab what had gone wrong and she had reminded me that Protectors are...different. Most prefer to go their own way, especially when there is no apparent danger to face."

Tink frowned. "But I thought there always had to be danger for a Protector to be chosen. What were they here for?"

"We don't know. We were never in danger during their stay and never did we have any reason to feel the urge to call them for assistance. Besides, Scarab never really liked to be interrupted while she was training. You've met her so you know exactly what I mean."

"Yeah, a real pleasant one she is," Clank scoffed.

"Yes, she is definitely something, but can you really blame her?" Tink asked. "When we were there, she had just found out her long-lost boyfriend was back from the dead and was trying to take over the world and we were there to keep him from doing that. I would have been a little hostile if that had been me and Terrence had miraculously come back after being gone for a hundred plus years."

"Right," Bobble mumbled, looking down at his hands and away from the page. "Terrence. Of course. Aye, ye would fer sure."

She didn't hear him as she expectantly reached to snatch the book back from him and began scanning the next page. "So, according to this, they kept track of each others powers as they discovered them. Shade was first. He began showing signs of prophecy-dreams or visions of the future that tended to come true-and then discovered he could harness the wind like a fast-flying talent. Scarab's first power was water, but she accredits that to being friends with a water-talent sparrowman. It looks like the order a Protector receives their talents solely depends on who they spend time around to learn from."

"I learned water-bendin' pretty early on," Bobble offered. "After I met Miss Silvermist on my first day explorin' the Hollow."

"So, that fits that theory then," Tink commented. "There's also something here about a Duality spell, good for splitting talents-but I don't understand what it says. I..." She squinted at the inking. "I think it's written in some kind of weird language. I can't decipher it."

"It's a code," Spurn guessed. "Something only the writer would be able to understand. Both Clarion and I have been trying to unriddle it, but so far, we've been unsuccessful."

Tinker Bell frowned and slumped back in her seat disappointedly. "I was afraid of that."

"Don't get ye wings all in a knot," Bobble suggested quickly. "I've seen that handwritin' before!"

She lifted her gaze half-believingly. "You have? Where?"

"I...I think it's Scarab's," he answered, blinking and double-checking himself, running a hand over the parchment. "Aye, I'm sure it's hers. But what would she be doin' with a spell like this? To split talents?"

"Maybe trying to do the same thing we are," Tink supplied. "She might have been trying to find a permanent solution to reducing herself back to one talent. Something more powerful than the talent-dust."

"More powerful and more dangerous," Spurn warned. "It's never wise to tamper with magic in such a manner. Bad things can happen to those who get too hungry for power. Scarab was almost drawn to the dark by such means."

"And we are forever grateful that she was not," Clarion added, giving her brother another you're going-to-scare-them-to-death stare that he pointedly did not meet. "But the point of showing you this is to prove that there may be a permanent way to get rid of your powers if you should decide to go that route. The talent-dust was quite clever, but Fairy Mary is right. It won't last forever. And fairies will start to get suspicious. Sooner or later, they will find you out. You remember what happened the last time someone found out the truth."

Both Bobble and Tink winced.

"But there is another option," the queen went on, drawing their gazes back to her as she looked over at Bobble. "I am aware that Scarab offered you a place at the Haven and she volunteered to train you to control your talents. She assured me that she can teach you to suppress the nonrequired ones until the time would come in which you would need them. But you turned her down."

Bobble frowned. "Aye? I did. I wished to stay here in the Hollow. After spendin' all that time defendin' everythin', I didn't want to just leave."

"A very honorable request," Clarion agreed, nodding her approval. "Well, perhaps, since Scarab is the original author, then she might be able to tell you more about what the codes mean...and give you a chance at the normalcy you desire."

"Wait," Tink interjected, startled onto her feet as she spotted the mutual agreement spawning between the two. "Are you suggesting...?" She trailed off there, but it didn't matter. Bobble was already nodding, slowly pushing the book back to Shade who took it without a word.

"She is, lass," he finished, giving her a nervous smile as he too carefully stood and Clank stared on, bewildered. "She's sayin' we need to take a second trip to Fairy's Haven."