"All right," Clara announced, reemerging from the hospital wing to find the large cluster of fairies waiting outside impatiently. Immediately, everyone paused what they were doing at the healing-talent's remark and gathered around to hear what she had to say. "I've assessed the extent of the damage and-"
"It's not good, is it?" Iridessa fretted, cutting off the fairy and earning shushing looks from the rest of the group. "Oh, right, too soon. Sorry."
"Right," Clara went on, folding her hands and looking down at the younger fairies calmly. "Now, before I tell you what can be done, why don't you explain what happened following the...incident. How long have they been like this? I would ask him myself but..." She waved a hand, not needing to explain any further.
"Well, it's kind of a long story," Tink admitted, looking to her friends for support. "But we will do our best to tell you what we know."
"Scarab?" Shade whispered, kneeling down before her. "Is it really you? Are you...okay?"
She frowned. "Uh, I'm pretty sure I'm me," she said, trying to lighten the heavy mood she could feel had descended on the forest. "I think I would know if I wasn't...but...what happened? Why...why are you all here?"
"The bracelets," Spurn answered, coming to stand before the two of them, taking the four rings, shattered and divided, and holding them out for her to see. "Do you remember them?"
She blinked. "Uh, yeah, of course, I do. I helped design them. Why do you ask? Did...did something happen to them? No, dumb question; what happened to them?"
"Scarab," Shade whispered, taking her hands again. She gazed at him, clearly concerned by his solemn mood. "The bracelets...they corrupted you. You...you went a little crazy in the head."
Her eyes widened and her wings fell against her shoulders. "What?" she gasped, twisting to face the Queen and her subjects gathered behind her. "I...I knew they were powerful, probably too much for anyone to control alone but I never imagined I would...I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"
Multiple pairs of eyes hastily darted in Tink and Bobble's direction; finding Tink staring back resolutely and Bobble already trying to sink away from the spotlight, pulling his jacket back over his wings and shrinking away from Clank's side. His work here was finished and...other fairies were beginning to gather, having clearly seen where the fight had ended. His hand went to his belt and he hastily shoved something out of sight behind his bubble dropper before any of them could see what it was.
However, he couldn't get far before the heavily accented voice of concern and panic sounded through the clearing and Fairy Mary was upon the group, frantically searching for her workmen, pushing aside anyone who, heaven forbid, decided to stand in her way.
"Tinker Bell! Clank! Bobble!" she cried, spotting the three of them near the front and darting over to them. Clank and Tink smiled reassuringly and Bobble froze in place, halfway to the shadows where he had clearly been intending to slink away unseen. "Oh, oh my poor dears, are you all alright?" she demanded in her typical I-love-you-so-much-now-don't-ever-do-that-again-or-I'll-ground-you-for-a-century motherly voice. "No one is hurt, right?"
"We're fine, Fairy Mary," Tink assured her.
"One hundred percent!" Clank added, giving her a thumbs up.
Mary snorted, now rounding on her third and final charge. "Phineas," she snapped, resting her hands on her hips and staring him down. He immediately recoiled under her sharp tongue and edged away, looking ready to turn and bolt as soon as he could. "I saw what ya did up there." She pointed to the air. "And that was very risky of ye. Ye put yourself in too much danger, bein' the Protector. Ye forget, there are fairies here in the Hollow who care about ya too. What would have happened if somethin' had happened to ya up there? What would we have done without ye?"
Bobble lowered his gaze to stare firmly at his shoes. "I'm...I'm sorry," he whispered. "R-really, I...I just couldn't...let anyone else get hurt fer me...fer my mistakes."
"Mistakes that we would gladly have helped you carry," Fawn interjected.
"You're not alone, Phineas," Spurn added. "You never have been. All of us would have stood beside you. We would have helped you if you had confided in us, if you had told us what you were going through."
"Aye," he muttered, shivering, though it was not cold, crossing his arms and backing even further away from them. "I know...but it's too late fer that now."
Silvermist frowned. "Why is he always so creepy when he says something like that?" she hissed and Clank nodded worriedly.
"What does that mean?" Tink demanded.
But Fairy Mary seemed to catch on quicker than the rest of them. "Well, come on then," she ordered. "Let's see them."
He blanched, grabbing the ends of his jacket and pulling down hard, as though resisting doing as she said. Scarab blinked at him, confused, while Shade looked almost as pale as the tinker. He knew what had happened.
"Bobble?" Clank fretted, seeing his best friend's hesitance. "What's wrong?"
Bobble didn't say anything, but the tears were already there before he could find the words and he choked, letting the waterworks loose and collapsing onto his knees before them. Instantly, his friends were at his side, all trying to diagnose what had happened and why he was in such a state.
"Oh my Hollow," Scarab breathed, hastily standing up now and hurrying over to join them, Shade right behind her. "It was you?" she gasped, staring down at him. "You're the one who broke the curse?"
He didn't even acknowledge her, his sobs too deep to hear anything more.
"But that means..." the animal-talent went on. "The Dragonstouch will have..." She took a deep breath to steady her next words. "Okay, take off the coat, right now."
They started at her sudden firmness and Bobble weakly looked up at her, the distinguishing line between where his tears ended and his goggles began almost invisible. "W-why?" he hiccuped. "It's...it's already too late to save 'em. I...I had no choice."
"It's not too late until I say it is," Scarab snapped. "Do it. Please."
"Bobble."
"Phineas, please...do as she says."
He sniffed, obeying and shrugging the jacket back off. It fell away, exposing his wings for the first time since he had fallen. The girls gasped, recoiling, their hands already over their mouths to disguise their horror at the sight. His wings, the beautiful tall appendages, had been reduced to little more than fire and ruin. Black lines ran through every curve and swirl and small chunks near the roots had been burned away entirely. Even from a quick glance, it was obvious that they would never be strong enough to support any kind of flight.
Bobble was literally grounded for the rest of his life.
"Oh no!" Fawn cried. "Your...your wings!"
"Not again," Tink moaned.
Bobble didn't have it in him to reply, he just knelt there, too afraid to look up, too afraid of what he would see.
"Does it...does it hurt?" Sil asked, kneeling down beside him to put a hand on his shoulder.
"N-no," he admitted and perhaps that in itself was a small mercy. He didn't know if he would be able to stand it if he was constantly in pain as well. "I can't...feel anythin'. It's all gone, Miss Sil. Everythin'. I've...I've lost...everythin'."
"Oh, Phineas," Fairy Mary sighed.
"Bobble, I'm...I'm so sorry," Tink whispered. She felt guilty, guilty knowing that something similar had happened to her but that she'd been okay, but Bobble...Bobble didn't have a sparkling magical twin. There was no way for him to recover from this.
"Can ye, can ye help him?" Fairy Mary pleaded, looking up at the four Protectors surrounding them desperately. "Clarion!" she begged. "He's still one of my charges! Please! Say ya can do somethin'!"
"No," the queen whispered. "I'm sorry, but our abilities to heal only go...so far."
Bobble shook, clenching his hands into fists against his knees. "No, no, it's okay," he said softly. "I can...I can manage without 'em. Zarina prefers to walk, doesn't she? Well, if she can do it, so can I."
"You may not have to," Scarab interjected, looking down at his ruined wings thoughtfully. "We may not be able to fix burned wings...but I think I know someone who can."
"Hmmm," Clara hummed, making some kind of note on her clipboard. "Well, I would say your friend is a very lucky fairy. Most would not have made it as long as he did by simply pretending to be all right. Fire-talent is a nasty business, something that we healing-talents haven't had to deal with in centuries. In fact, I think there has only been one fairy one history to know how to fully heal a Dragonstouch."
"And who is that?" Bobble demanded, appearing behind her, hobbling down the stairs on his homemade crutch. Clank and Rosetta ran to help him as he reached a particularly large gap and he instinctively went to straighten his wings...only to remember that he couldn't. Two thick braces prevented him from this action (used to help stabilize what was left of the appendages in hopes of regaining at least partial flight, and less pain, in the future) and he thunked down onto the main level much less gracefully, Clank already in a position to help steady him should he require assistance.
"Let's just say, the Queen isn't the only one to know a thing or two about Protectors," Clara smiled. "After all, he was one of us as well. The only one to ever know how to cure a Dragonstouch is the one who inadvertently created it in the first place..."
"...Scorpion."
Waves bashed against the rocky shore, dashing to a million single droplets of mist and rain and disappearing into the great shroud of fog rolling amid the stormy cove. Off in the distance, the faintest tingle of a bell could be heard from a corrupted pirate ship and a sea captain still on the hunt for the heart of the Hollow and the secret to flight and conquering the world-something that he would never be able to attain; not so long as Neverland kept him at bay.
A small creature scrabbled across the land, a resonating ticking coming from deep inside its throat as it pushed its snout against the sand and made its way down the soggy beach.
The baby crocodile paused upon reaching an uneven bush and snorted, checking the air, much like the actions of a dog or even a cat. He squeaked, pushing in closer to the weird fern, tail wagging hopefully as a well of gold suddenly exploded through the darkness and a laugh filled the serene.
Moments later, a sparrowman stood there, chuckling as the crocodile excitedly pressed against him, licking him up and down and rumbling excitedly.
"Well, hello there!" the fairy laughed, raising his hands to defend himself against the slobbery tongue of happiness. "Aren't you a friendly little one?" He wiped now-drenched blond bangs out of his dark eyes and smiled out at the water, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
"Say, little guy, do you know how long I've been gone?"
The crocodile blinked, sitting down on its haunches to wait, cocking its head in confusion.
"Yeah, me neither," the sparrowman remarked. "Oh, well, guess we'll find out here sooner or later, right?" He reached for the nearest piece of driftwood-just the right size and right shape to be a walking stick. "I think I should get going though," he added, wrinkling his nose as lightning let up the darkened clouds across the ocean. "A storm's rolling in."
"I have to get back to Pixie Hollow," he muttered, though he didn't know who he was talking to when the only one out there was an animal. "Scarab's coming back. I have to warn them that they are all in danger!"
FIN?
