Mushroom portal of Fairy Realm
"Fairies are nothing but disgusting cretins that make the words innocent and childlike sound like a curse if it's used to describe them as such." Wayne grimly tells Numbuh Five as they drive their way through the portal, "Anything that they do, they're going to do it out of their own personal whim and fancy, uncaring of the consequences that comes with it and who will be affected…"
Grandfather didn't look his way, but his attention was brought to what Wayne was saying.
Abigail blinked as she thought about all the fairytales, unsure how much was real or not now.
"They once tried to entice my little brother with sweets in exchange for coming into their magical realm once. When Terry declined, they went from bribery to trying to drag him there." Wayne remembered the time when he was a twelve year old kid and he saw how the fairies tried to trick his little brother into coming with them, "I nearly got dragged into the fairy realm until mom and dad drove the fairies off and started putting anti-fairy countermeasures all over our house. The fairies were never able to touch us ever since those measures were put up."
Grandfather's beady yellow eyes flashed an intense light of hatred In them, but did not look over at Wayne. "They are the most heinous of creatures I have ever known." He snarled in anger while still looking off at the monitors with an intense look.
"True. If they weren't that important in keeping the world alive, they would have been wiped out first and foremost." Wayne grumpily remembered that for all the fairy shenanigans and atrocities they do, they're considered as essential to the world's magical side, "I can't wait to get out of this world once that whole otherworld colonization project becomes a success. The farther everyone else is from the fairies, the better."
Grandfather Allowed himself to smile for once, "I've been through two world candy wars, two depressions, three world candy famines, It's a shame I won't be around any longer to see outer space by then." He cackled in amusement at himself.
"Ugh… What's with the war and events about sugary treats of all things? Sure they are good to have once in a while but having them all the time will cause sickness of all sorts. Diabetes was rampant back then and I'm surprised that they can even find enough healthy people to fight in those wars." Wayne was disgusted that he had to remember that there were at least two wars that were fought over candy by people.
Grandfather gave a sharp look over at Wayne, "Why do you think the Mediterranean jello sea no longer exists?" He cackled in amusement.
Wayne can tell that Abby was not happy with knowing how many sweets were destroyed by the ancient villain but he can't exactly blame her. She's a KND operative and is an aficionado of all things sweet.
"History books in the Cartel said that the Jello Sea had the highest sugar level in it. So much so that if one were to directly take the jello from it and eat it directly without diluting it, there's a 10% chance that you'll get diabetes from it. Never mind the number of nations that want to lay claim on the region and the number of wars that happened there from the classical era." Wayne remembered his history on the Candy Wars and the Mediterranean Seas.
From the studies the Cartel conducted on the Mediterranean, the removal of the sea did cause the marine life that lived around it to be a lot healthier and the reefs to actually thrive better now that all the sugar was gone. Not only that, it made the place safer to traverse since ships don't break down there due to jello gunking the boats.
Grandfather's eyes bore directly at Wayne, "It was cathartic for me to remove that blasted sea of jello from existence, I had to witness my fellow men die In that war When I was drafted." The elderly man responded with disdain. "Say what you want about me, but I will not apologize for removing that blasted sea." Grandfather grounded out before calming his nerves to view the monitors once more.
"Well, I don't really have that much opposition over the Jello Sea's removal. It did more harm than good anyway." Wayne shrugged his shoulders and waved his hand on the comment, "It killed a lot of people in both peace and war. If greed did not kill its claimant, it would be the exploitation of the said region. That still didn't excuse the enslavement of the whole world though."
Grandfather didn't turn to look at Wayne, but he did let out a scoff. "That's a different story altogether brat." The Elder Uno spat out the word brat, "But for now, our attention needs to be on the here and now." He gruffly said.
"The fairy question, of course." Wayne nodded as he remembered that there are fairies that still need to be taught a lesson, "I can't wait to level that damned place."
Abbigail stayed quiet throughout the conversation, digesting the history that the fabled Villain went through. She still didn't like him or approve of most of his actions, But she could almost begin to piece together what made the man known as Grandfather.
He was still an awful person for what he did though as the Villain known as Grandfather.
As Wayne's Tank traveled through the interspace between realms, Grandfather's eyes peered into the monitors that were used for navigating the windowless vehicle. Many thoughts and memories ran through the elderly Uno's mind as he watched the kaleidoscope of colors swim by as the tank traveled through the interspace, Balthazar's mind dredged up old memories he wished were different.
Beatrice was like his sun to his pitch black heart, a light that bleed through the years of hate and annoyance he held within himself. A state of mind he held in the belief against unruly children, and their incessant attitude of lazy attitudes and whining. His mother was strict and harsh, but taught and raised to hold the valuable standards of hard work.
It was a harsh era of poverty, his family having fallen back during the hard times. He does not know the fate that befell his aunts, but he did know one went to the far east while the other went to south America to find some hogwash treasure heard through rumors.
His father had lost his life during the first candy world war over in Europe during the forties, a war sparked from fighting over the rights to the lush plains of golden taffy grass that was situated between France and Germany.
The death of his father left only him and his mother to fend for themselves in a poverty stricken United Kingdom, he was practically just a child when it happened. They both had to work just to have some bread and decent water to live by, with the occasional scrambled eggs and overly dehydrated and thinly sliced meat. Candy was a commodity he saw no reason to spend his hard earned pound of coin on, a detestable delicacy of the hedonistic to spend on for a sliver of happiness.
What a pathetic substance, brought to earth so long ago!
He earned every scrap of pound he could get, toiling away at the coal mines with just his hands like every other child.
Grandfather took a look down at his hands, the calluses left over from years of working so hard. The Elderly Uno let his hands rest back down and glanced back at the monitors showing the interspace, his beady yellow eyes glared outward intensely at the kaleidoscope of colors that made up the passageway.
Balthazar's mother unfortunately had passed away during his late teens, succumbing to the rampant fructose lung disease among the workers that slaved away in the sugarcane processing factories. Another notch of hatred he had towards the delicacy of sugar, it brought nothing but trouble in his eyes.
Beatrice was the light at the end of the harsh road of his, a beacon on a stormy coast that never eroded nor broke from the harsh weathers of reality. He was miserable just trying to eke out a living, but she would always insist on looking at the positives. Grandfather dwelled through his memories of how she first met her, a simple woman selling watercress bread on the streets by the market stalls.
Balthazar stymied a smirk that almost crossed his face, he starkly remembers how Beatrice described him. A stubborn tree that the axe of poverty could never chop down, a sturdy oak tree that could never be felled by the harsh winds of life.
She gave him a happy life, he gave her a sturdy shoulder to lean on that life could never whittle away at. Life however liked to throw curve balls, as a second candy world war had engulfed Europe. The Spanish sparked the second candy world war, claiming the sole rights to the harvesting of the Mediterranean Jello sea and the jolly rancher fish within it.
Drafted into service before he could begin a family with his wife, Balthazar inwardly sneered at the thought of adult men fighting a war over some god forsaken jello sea.
He's rather glad he burned away that detestable sea of jello during his reign of evil, all that remains now is a watery sea with natural fish life.
Balthazar had survived that rather pointless war, coming back home to a relieved wife and a better future to look forward to. Beatrice gave him two boys, a fact he was glad for compared to how tough it was back then for childbirths.
Grandfather's mind scoured through the memories he could still recall, how he lost his light to that hedonistic realm of creatures. Balthazar's beady yellow eyes bore down at the incoming entrance to the fae realm, a land of amoral creatures with kleptomania on abducting humans. His eyes had an intense light in them as he glared at the monitors, showing the incoming destination of the Fairy realm.
Yes, now he remembers almost quite vividly of that dreadful day, Monty has just turned five with Benedict almost reaching four. If memory serves correctly, it was that woman that now goes by granny stuff'ems that babysat his boys while he went searching for Beatrice. His wife had left in the morning for groceries, and never returned when night time came.
With a babysitter to watch his boys, he had spent all night searching around for traces of Beatrice. His heart raced as he began to panic when morning came, he had not been successful in getting a clue as to where she went or disappeared off too.
Balthazar had to pay Olga extra for the extended time of watching his boys; he couldn't give up and lose Beatrice so easily, Grandfather had gone through too much for life to throw some sick joke at him and spit in his face as an insult to injury.
He had scoured the lands of the United Kingdom, delved into bars to keep an ear open for clues, searched through the supernatural community for assistance in finding clues. A bone was thrown from the supernatural community of all things, talks of how Faeries and their kind would lure in humans to the fairy kingdom.
Balthazar would have called it hogwash for such a thing to exist, but he stilled his tongue when he knew the supernatural exists in the first place. He took the info with payment in return, an arbitrary payment of two kilos of iron. A pittance for any lead to find and save his wife, oh what a fool he was when it had been too late by then. The information broker of the supernatural kept his end of the deal for the info exchange, there was no reason for him to go back and take his anger out on him when he came back from the fairy Realm.
He had razed and burnt that realm to a crisp upon learning his wife's fate, lost to the transfiguration the realm put on humans when they stayed too long. Beatrice would not remember him, not even if he brought her back home in her transformed state.
Grandfather inwardly snarled at what had befallen his dear wife, but his lips curled at the cathartic feeling he had when he brought his retribution unto the fairy Queen. That damnable, pardon the language, wench had turned his beloved wife into her childish surrogate daughter with no memory of ever being his wife. Beatrice had ceased to exist by the time he arrived in the fairy realm, replaced by a fairy child of the name Bellatrix.
He can still vividly remember his 'excursion' through the Fairy Realm, his mind and will too stubborn to be swept up by the nuances of the fae and their trickery.
Many decades ago
Wearing his tattered jeans with suspenders over his shoulders, Balthazar took the collar of his white tee shirt to wipe the sweat off his brow. He let go of the collar to scan the hilly fields of the countryside with his hand over his eyes to block the sun, in his other hand he held a sturdy hiking stick to help climb the steeper hills throughout the country. The man looked for any evidence of a mushroom circle, as told by the information broker he had paid off. He was growing scared and desperate to find his dear wife, but now it had been over four days and now he's stuck searching for a blasted mushroom circle.
Balthazar brought his hand down away from his forehead to pull at his beard and straighten it out, before marching off to find the mushroom portal that would take him to some god awful fairytale land of sorts. His mind dwelled on how his boys were handling this, they were young, too young to grow up without their mother.
The adult man's thoughts were halted when within the corner of his eye he spotted what he came looking for, Balthazar made a beeline for the circle of mushrooms that grew just outside a thicket of trees. With his feet just meters away from the circle, he took out the vial of pixie dust needed for him to get the mushroom portal to open up. Balthazar eyed the vial he had paid the info broker for, before popping the cork off to begin pouring the substance on the rim of the circle.
He backed away when a burst of light emitted from the circle, Balthazar peered into the circle when it calmed down. He could faintly see enormous trees with creatures of the mythological. He steeled his mind and body before taking a plunge through the portal, not knowing what to expect within the realm of Fairies.
Balthazar would find his wife Beatrice, and he would burn whatever or whoever touched a hair on her.
Back to the Present
Fairy Kingdom Tree Palace, Throne Chambers
Titania, the Queen of Fairies and Fae alike, had an ever impish and pleased look as she watched her subjects indulge themselves with games and sugary foods. She had seen it all, the growth of mankind and the bottomless despair that would gnaw at humans from time to time, era to era. She relished in taking humans away from that dreary Earth, and partake in a realm of everlasting joy.
She loved to spread the joy her realm offered, but Titania could only spread her influence so much. The latest endeavor she had pulled off was rescuing those teens from overworking themselves, all they ever did was fight off adult tyranny. She wanted those teens to feel like kids again for once, and now was the time to stop them from becoming boring adults.
Titania shifted on her cushions that made up her throne, and situated herself to lay on her side while she lounged in delight. Her thoughts drifted back to the horrid time when she took in her poor little Bellatrix, the woman had seemed happy on the outside but on the inside she just knew the human needed a new lease on life.
What better than to make a miserable human living on Earth into one of them and live with her, she always wanted a surrogate too anyways. Her fellow Fae does it all the time with the changelings, it wouldn't hurt for her to have a try at it.
…But….
She gained a daughter, but lost a good chunk of her realm to a forest fire by that accursed man. The fairy realm had nearly recovered from the loss, but the mental scarring that man put on her and her subjects was eternal.
Those accused yellow eyes and black silhouette, the excruciating fire that left a permanent burn mark on half her face and body.
That accursed man
Grandfather of Time
Titania shivered in fear as she could remember the day vividly as if it were yesterday, a human man overtaken by such hatred and evil. What seemed like only a normal man, became the bane of fae folk and fairy kind alike. His name became synonymous with fear, her kind too scared to utter his alias nor his normal name.
She could remember that day so well, that she wished she couldn't remember, but it would be forever burned in the recesses of her mind.
Back to the past
Banquet hall of the Tree Palace
"Say ah!" Titania chirped in fondness as she held a spoon full of jelly up to her new surrogate daughter Bellatrix.
The reborn Fae smiled before opening her mouth with an ah sound, Titania fed Bellatrix the honey sweet jello with a delighted look between them.
The Queen of Fairies was indulging herself in spoiling Bellatrix, the former human having no longer any recollection of her human life. The Fairy child's memories only having just come into existence, of a lavish and happy new life.
Bellatrix let out a soft hiccup, excusing herself of the sound. Titania chortled in amusement as she spent time with her surrogate child, before spotting one of her pixie messengers flying in through the windows. Titania excused herself from Bellatrix to eat on her own for now, while she addressed the incoming message the pixie was flying in with.
The fairy queen had some of her personal guards stick around with Bellatrix while she attended her duties, she gestured for the pixie to follow after her to the throne room. "So what news do you bring me, little one?" Titania asked the pixie as they traversed the hallways.
The pixie responded with a bit of chirps and squeaks, earning a worried look from Titania as she listened in on the pixie's language. "Are you sure it's a human?" She asked with caution, earning several more mutterings of squeaks
Titania's face grew concerned as she listened to the pixies tales of what's been going on, an angered humanoid with a black silhouette cowl on. "How far away is this man?" Titania asked with a pensive look.
The Fairy Queen's eyes widened in fear when the pixie informed her how close he was, having reached the last wall with nary any trouble. Titania began running up plans on what to do, she had never expected anything like this to happen and she was running out of time before the human reached her palace.
With Balthazar
He had asked, inquired, and kept his patience when conversing with the fae, but each time his temper grew when he asked about a human woman that may have passed through. The childish antics of the fairies and pixies grinded on his nerves, their incessant pleas of playing games and partaking in tea parties.
He had a wife to find and save, but the damnable creatures treated his search as some game. His skin itched as he tried to get his nerves calm, the hours he spent traversing the forest fairies was exhausting.
The one time he managed to glean some passable info from a dullahan of all creatures, his worry and anger turned into hatred and boiling fury. His description he gave the dullahan allowed the creature to point him towards the largest of trees, a palace tree with multiple walls to block unwelcome intruders. What the dullahan informed him afterwards put a sick feeling within his mind and heart, humans cannot exist within the fairy realm for too long less they become something else beyond recognition.
It had been too long for his wife the Dullahan had told him, and apologised profusely for his loss before excusing itself out of his sight.
His entire world cracked and shattered at the thought that his beloved Beatrice was gone forever, he had lived a life of toil and anguish with the one light in his life to just simply disappear because some Fae wanted to take his wife in for some fun and amusement.
Balthazar's mind felt like it had been doused in fire as he listened to the inane laughter of the Fae creatures throughout the fairy forest, it was all just some sick joke he desperately wished for himself.
The more he asked around for a second witness, to a third, to a fourth, all the way to the blasted twentieth Fae creature, the answer was unanimously the same. A woman by Balthazar's description had been whisked away by the queen for an extra special Occasion.
THAT WENCH TOOK HIS BELOVED BEATRICE.
It had to be some bad dream he was in, but he kept pinching and punching himself to wake up only to realize he was not dreaming up some nightmare.
He would BURN this place, make them all realize their TIME for play was done. No more fun TIME, the fairy forest will be RAZED to the barren earth it rested on. Balthazar was BURNING with anger, an annoyance of a pixie flew in front of him with a curious gaze.
Balthazar snapped his arm out and grabbed the small pixie's body with a fire engulfed silhouette hand, his gaze locked onto the whimpering creature with seething anger as his hand clenched the creature with malice. TIME to show these creatures the consequences of their actions, he would BURN them all with harrowing scars.
He released the pixie in his hand to the ground, his gaze snapped down to see a withered up old Pixie with burn marks all over its body. His mind was too occupied with what came over him, all he cared now was to turn the forest into Ashes.
With Queen Titania at the Fairy tree palace throne
Titania combed through her fingers through her foliage-like hair as she sat atop her cushions, surely she had enough time to think on how to deal with one human adult.
The Queen of Fairies thoughts were brought to halt when the tree wall of her throne chamber became nought but fiery ash, in an instant a hole had been burnt with a hovering humanoid covered in a black silhouette. Titania breath hitched, believing she was looking at death itself.
Titania crawled backwards on her throne of cushions as the man in the silhouette hovered into her chambers with an intense cloak of fire, the fairy Queen yelped in feught when she fell off her throne and onto the floor. Her mind raced through on ways to survive whatever was hovering in front of her.
The man in the silhouette stopped just short a few feet away from her in the air, his yellow eyes felt like it dug into her very soul. The man had a sneer directed at her, Titania gathered up her strength to speak as best as she could. "P-p-please, I-I-I mean no harm…" She tried to reason with the person, her throat felt dry with fear as the silhouette man lowered himself down before walking towards her.
Titania held out her hand for him to stop, "Please, Any ill will you think I did unto you, please, reconsider." She pleaded with the man, only for her plees to fall on deaf ears. Titania let out a shout of fear and pain as the silhouette man grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up, "urk, please, urk, mercy, urk." She strangled out her plea.
The man brought her up nose to nose with him as his yellow eyes bore into her immortal soul. "MY WIFE. BEATRICE. YOU TOOK MY WIFE!" The man yelled into her face, making her realize what was going on.
Titania let a nervous smile show, "You…you…you mean Beatrix now?" She stuttered out. "She's…she's…" the fairy queen let out a pained yell as the man in the silhouette grabbed her face with his other hand, and began to burn her face with his fire.
The man gave her a furious glare at her one visible eye as he burned away her skin, making her scream out mercy in vain. "YOU WILL NOW LEARN THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS WENCH!" The man yelled into her face as she screamed in pain as the fire ate away her beautiful skin, something she had used to take pride in until now.
Titania didn't know how long the man had burned her for, but all she remembers after that was waking up to that very same man standing at the burnt hole in her throne chamber walls.
She could only lay there as her body felt the excruciating pain of having been burnt so badly, the man's eye bore at her suffering form as the fire ate away at the forest in the background.
"Killing you would be a mercy you wench!" The man spoke with an authoritative voice, "Keep your hands and your kind away from Earth!" He demanded with a booming yell of anger. "Otherwise. I'LL FINISH THE JOB!" The man in the silhouette yelled before disappearing through the hole in the wall, a fiery streak of fire that whizzed off and way.
Titania delicately touched her face, only to yelp as she touched her raw and burnt open tissue and muscles on her face. She could heal from this, better than how humans would, but she would forever have the burn marks.
A remainder of the consequence of her actions.
Back to the Present
With Titania
The queen of fairies delicately touched her face, still feeling the burnt skin from all those years ago. Many years ago in fact, surely that human man was deceased by now. Those humans never lived for too long, most never reaching the triple digits in age.
Titania was confident in her actions of warping every Teen on Earth to her realm, it would be her nice gift to them for all the boring lives and tiresome days they grew up with. Beatrix was off hosting the extravagant Weekly Tea party, with many new guests now.
Now that she thought about it, whispers through the grapevine had told her that…
That man….
That man had two children, followed by them having their own children….
Surely neither of them acquired the same fire, nor fell within the age group of teenagers, the odds were too slim for her to abduct That Man's grandchild.
Right?
The Intersect of realms
Grandfather's mind drifted to dark thoughts of what he would do to that detestable wench, he had spared the destible woman's life and now they are on the clock to prevent what happened to his wife befall every teen from Earth.
This time he would finish the job, and no one better get in his way. That woman wanted a surrogate? Well now her 'daughter' can take her place once he reduces…
…oh…right, almost nearly forgot he no longer has his powers.
…maybe he could try goading William into doing it…
Author's note; Thank ya'll that reviewed on the previous chapter. It helps to know people are actively reading it at the very least and enjoy it to some extent!
