(no subject)
Fandom: Fairly Oddparents
Canon or AU: AU of an AU
Fic: Briny Depths
A/N: Agnes Nixon was the real-life creator of One Life to Live and another soap whose title escapes me at the moment.
Also, I like how Wanda decided to turn the tables at the end. Seeing how Asmodeus planned to treat Timmy was the deciding factor. She can handle sacrificing herself, but she’ll be damned if she sees Timmy get hurt, too. Not if she can stop it.
Mama Wanda Bear. I love it.
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The Council wouldn’t see them. No matter how hard she, Cosmo, Timmy, and the twins tried to circumvent the magical barrier surrounding the Council chambers, the Council rebuffed them. How they’d managed to defeat the twins’ unconventional magic, Wanda had no idea. It might’ve been more a matter of their magic not being fully developed and easier to counter.
They had also run out of luck with Jorgen. Da Rules’ Enforcer was nowhere to be seen; his office was empty, and Binky told them tersely that due to the influx of godkids in Fairy World, things were going from bad to worse. They’d arrived to discover Binky buried in paperwork that kept multiplying. Within thirty seconds, the paperwork had buried Binky until they could only hear his muffled voice telling them to go away.
Timmy wanted to return to Earth and speak with his parents directly. Since it had taken four fairies to breach the Fairy World barrier physically, Wanda vetoed his wish immediately. Even if it was possible, it would be too difficult. Plus, by returning to the hotel, she’d be putting herself back into Asmodeus’s grasp. As they sat in the living room and brainstormed, she absent-mindedly ran her fingers over various areas on her body where Asmodeus’s minions had carved her up. She stopped when she glanced over and saw Cosmo’s alarmed look.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. It was a compulsion, though, that she felt powerless to prevent. Timmy, meanwhile, was brainstorming ideas on how to contact and check in on his parents and friends. Reopening the portal between worlds, albeit without physically moving there, would alert Asmodeus immediately. There was no way to circumvent it. After all, it was both a light magical intrusion and Wanda’s magic, which she was certain Asmodeus had set magical traps to detect.
The only way to check in on the humans required Wanda’s magic specifically. Her shared magic with Cosmo wouldn’t work. The last thing she wanted Asmodeus to know was that Timmy was actively trying to protect his loved ones while playing for time. Asmodeus would realize the game immediately. He’d already predicted that the Council wouldn’t intercede on their behalf. This would confirm it.
Her throat tightened, and she licked her chapped lips.
The twins watched her closely for what she didn’t know. She strove not to reveal her emotions, including whatever leaked over to Cosmo. If she was dealing with this, it would be on her own. She wished Timmy would stop throwing out increasingly insane and stupid ideas. None of them would work, and all of them would bring her squarely back to Asmodeus’s attention.
“Enough!” she snapped after ten minutes of pointlessly plotting. “Sport, there’s no way around it. There’s not much else we can do without the Council’s assistance.”
“There has to be,” he snapped. “I’m not handing you over, and I’m not letting anyone else get hurt, either.”
Wanda’s stomach churned, and she pressed a hand against her mouth as her breakfast threatened to resurface. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that Timmy’s friends were likely already in Lorenzo’s crosshairs. They already knew his parents had suffered due to her.
A small part of her, one she hoped wouldn’t gain any more traction, wondered whether it might be better to concede defeat. Timmy’s loved ones didn’t deserve to suffer because Asmodeus wanted to dominate her. At least if she handed herself over, there was a chance, however slim, that Asmodeus might release them. If she didn’t, then the Unseelie Court would keep playing games.
What was one useless fairy godmother weighed against six lives? She squashed the thought swiftly and crossed her fingers that Cosmo hadn’t heard it. The twins shifted uneasily in midair. They couldn’t hear her thoughts, but they sensed her turbulent emotions. What they noticed, they disliked. She wanted to comfort them, but other than lying by omission, her ability to deceive people hadn’t improved. If Poof saw through her, they would, too.
“There has to be something,” Timmy grumbled. “Can’t you disguise your magic?”
Wanda flicked the star on her wand’s tip. “Every fairy has a magical signature. It’s how they ‘sign’ their spells. It’s like how when we shapeshift, we’re always pink and green. We can’t change our colors any more than we can change how we seal our magic.
“Asmodeus knows the ‘flavor’ of my spells. The only reason I can tap into the hotel is because my magic is linked to it. As you saw with Cosmo, no one else has that ability. Cosmo’s magic is linked to mine, but not this particular aspect. This is…”
She hesitated and gulped. “This is tainted magic, sweetie. My magic within the hotel is corrupted because of how Asmodeus twisted it.”
She grimaced, rubbing her left arm self-consciously. “That may be another reason why I can’t raise my mental barrier against Cosmo. I’m missing part of my magic reservoir since it’s tied up with the hotel.”
“Wish we could burn the hotel to the ground,” Timmy grumbled.
In the past, she would’ve cautioned him against such drastic wishes and then reminded him not to wish harm on others. Instead, she gave him a tight smile.
“Only if Asmodeus and his cronies are inside, hon,” she said. She wanted them dead more than she’d wanted anything else in her life. Attacking Vicky and Crocker was one thing. They hadn’t harmed her as badly as the Unseelie fairies had. She might want them maimed but not scattered all over Dimmsdale’s outskirts in pieces.
She thought grimly, All the king’s horses and men couldn’t put Asmodeus back together again.
“You got really dark there for a second,” Cosmo said. She shook her head. Timmy was confused, but she didn’t feel like explaining. If Cosmo kept wanting to call attention to their link without providing context, she wasn’t about to help him out.
“We can’t disguise your magic, we can’t pop to Earth and save everyone, and we can’t even check on them without Asmodeus knowing,” Timmy snapped. “What can we do?”
“Panic?” Cosmo suggested. Timmy ignored him.
“There has to be something,” Timmy snapped. “It’s not like you to give up.”
She sighed, shoulders sinking. “That was before I was tortured for six months, hon. It’s hard to have hope when you can’t escape, no matter what you try.”
Or who you goad on.
“But you escaped,” Timmy pressed.
“I wouldn’t have escaped if it hadn’t been for you,” she said. “My other option was bleaker if you recall.”
“You’re my fairy godparents,” Timmy said, exasperated. “You don’t give up when things get tough. You help me come up with solutions.”
“Short of badgering the Council to admit us…” she trailed off as an idea sprang to mind. A small smile curved her lips. “My mother mentioned telling everyone about the Council’s mismanagement of the situation if they didn’t at least listen to us. They haven’t. They’ve sequestered themselves in their chambers.”
“So?” Timmy said. She sensed he had the glimmers of her idea, but he hadn’t quite cottoned on.
“So, sport,” she said as her smile broadened. “What the Council did was inexcusable. They know it, too. The rest of Fairy World doesn’t. Yet.”
Timmy’s eyes widened.
“How do you think they’d take it if they knew the Council had hung me out to dry rather than rescue me?” she said. “They’re already pretty fond of us as a team. Blonda’s soap opera has been flaunting the Council’s lack of action. How much angrier do you think Fairy World would get if they knew the truth?
“The Council can’t be aware of what Blonda’s show is doing, or they would’ve put a stop to it,” Wanda surmised. Her eyes flashed dangerously. “We’re going to bring it to their attention whether they like it or not.”
“Through a soap opera?” Timmy said skeptically.
“Through Fairy World’s biggest soap opera,” she corrected.
“Or we could just wish that everyone knew about it,” Timmy said, rolling his eyes. “Why would a soap opera be better than that?”
“For one thing, hon, it’s a little subtler,” she said. She snorted. “For another, you’d be surprised at how many people are emotionally invested in those shows. If you wished everyone knew right away, it’d hit them like a tidal wave. They might be outraged on our behalf, but they might also resent you for manipulating them into finding out. This way, Fairy World gets the true story, and we play with their emotions.
“We can’t rely on everyone knowing who we are off the bat. This way, the knowledge will seep into the general population. You’ve seen how crazy humans are over their fandoms. Imagine that but with a hundred years more storyline.”
Timmy’s jaw dropped. “Like, the Marvel Universe times one hundred?”
“Something like that, yes,” she said, smiling wryly. “What do you say, sweetie? Do you think it’ll work?”
“Yes!” he said, pumping a fist into the air. “I wish Blonda’s soap opera writers and everyone else working with her knew about what happened with the Unseelie Court!”
Cosmo and Wanda raised their wands. Wanda knew Blonda’s story already involved the Unseelie Court. It shouldn’t be too difficult to change the plotline to include the very real, traumatic non-fiction behind it. Plus, a rabid fandom was exactly what they needed right now. No one got more shit done than rabid fans. They’d be foaming at the mouth for more, all the while furious that this was true.
She had a good feeling about this wish.
However, she couldn’t rest on her laurels. Instead, she brought them to Blonda’s set. Shooting had probably already begun, but hopefully, she’d be able to snag someone and discuss the matter in detail.
A small, sad smile crossed her face. It’d probably be a ratings bonanza.
Based on a true story, she thought. They wouldn’t even need to steal Asmodeus’s video clips to run with it.
Cosmo glanced worriedly at her. The twins had accompanied them, but that wasn’t why he was concerned. She was rubbing her left arm so hard that it was bleeding. Sighing, she conjured the gloves. She knew how much Cosmo hated them, but they were one of the few things letting her retain what little sanity she had.
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Timmy’s mother hadn’t believed these scary creatures when they’d first captured them and rambled on about fairy godparents and fairies in general. She’d reprimanded them for repeating fantasy and thought that’d be the end of it. Then the Unseelie fairies had captured her and her husband, bound and gagged them before throwing them into the trunk of a car, and brought them to a hotel whose very presence radiated malice and cruelty. Timmy’s mother had wanted to scold them about mistreating people, but the words had died in her mouth.
They wouldn’t have been audible, anyway, due to the gag. Their captors had copped a feel as they shoved her toward the hotel’s main entrance and then whispered in her ear all the nasty things they had planned for her and her husband. She pretended that this was a nightmare. Timmy didn’t have fairy godparents, and these evil creatures were figments of her imagination. Clearly, she’d been working too hard lately.
That illusion lasted only as long as it took for their captors to toss them into a dungeon beneath the hotel. One of her captors had pawed at her again and told her that she was lucky that she was human and worthless. She wasn’t worth fucking into submission.
They then removed the gags and locked the door behind them. This was three days ago.
During that time, Timmy’s mother had been repeatedly groped and had her clothes ripped off for their titillation. Timmy’s father fared far worse.
They had broken limbs, sliced and diced him, and visited other torments upon him that he refused to mention. Mrs. Turner had, on the first day, been tempted to dismiss the idea of Timmy having fairies. By the third day, she couldn’t lie to herself anymore.
It terrified her for another reason. Fairy godmothers were supposed to be the epitome of goodness and light. They helped those in need and brought justice and happy endings. If Timmy’s godmother was anything like that, she didn’t deserve what these monsters had in mind.
Or what they’d already done.
Mrs. Turner had overheard (probably on purpose) two of their jailers discussing Wanda, Timmy’s fairy godmother. They’d only used her real name once. After that, it’d been “that Seelie slut.” They described in lurid detail everything their king, Asmodeus, and their higher-ups had done to her. Through the food flap, Mrs. Turner had seen them making crude gestures, too, to accompany their recitations. Mrs. Turner felt sick.
Their cell door opened, and Mrs. Turner scrambled to her feet. Oddly enough, her injuries had vanished, and her clothes were back to normal. A tall, brooding male with pointed ears, long black hair that fell to his waist, and cold green eyes entered the room. His skin was alabaster pale, and his features were cruel. He had a hawkish nose and an angular face. When he smiled, it looked like he had fangs.
His hair swept back from his forehead in a widow’s peak.
Mrs. Turner glanced around to see whether her husband had accompanied him, but the man was alone. He stood at least six and a half feet tall, and he radiated malevolence. His dark green robes swept the floor, and he twirled a wand between his thin, delicate fingers. Though his fingers were straight and slender, she had no difficulty imagining them becoming claws to slice into her flesh. She shuddered.
“Human scum,” he said as a way of greeting. “I am Asmodeus Konig. I am the king of the Unseelie Court. By now, I assume that you have heard of me.”
He scanned her features and scowled. “That interfering brat.”
His fists balled. “He must have used his godparents’ magic to heal you.”
“Who?” Mrs. Turner ventured.
“Your idiotic son,” he spat. “He insists on keeping my prize from me. He probably claims that he loves her or some such nonsense.”
Asmodeus scoffed. “She belongs to me. He has no claim on her.”
Mrs. Turner gathered up her courage. “I don’t know what’s going on here or why you’ve captured me and my husband, but--”
Asmodeus raised a hand. His eyes flashed. “You will speak when I give you leave to speak and no sooner. I need to figure out the parameters of your brat’s wish so I know how to circumvent it.”
He advanced on her, and her heart seized in her chest. If even half of the things she’d heard ascribed to him were true, Asmodeus was a truly despicable creature. The amount of damage he’d done was unreal.
Asmodeus pointed the wand at her, and horrific pain squeezed her stomach. Gasping, she fell to her knees and coughed up blood. Asmodeus scoffed.
“Disgusting, weak human blood,” he said. Mrs. Turner’s eyes watered, and he backhanded her. Oddly, the pain from her stomach cramps continued, but the physical blow’s pain abated right after it hit. Mrs. Turner wasn’t grateful, not when she felt like someone was about to puree her insides. She wanted to sob but couldn’t breathe deeply enough.
“So, that’s the wish’s nature, is it? Protected against physical attacks, but not dark magical ones. Clever, especially from a child who can narrowly scrape a D on a good day.”
Mrs. Turner could barely hear him. Her blood thundered in her ears. Asmodeus jerked her to her feet with the wand’s magic.
“It makes sense. The Seelie whore can’t hope to block our dark magic, but physical assaults are another matter entirely.”
He smiled cruelly. “We’ll have to get more creative with our attacks.”
Scoffing, he shook his head. “It’s a shame you’re human. Hurting you like his godmother would send a sublime message to your brat about defying me.
“I wouldn’t condescend to touch human filth, however.
“Did you know that your brat only has fairy godparents because of how neglectful you are? You leave him in the company of a sociopath and then wonder why he’s so miserable,” Asmodeus said, snorting. “It’d be touching if I cared one whit about him. Unfortunately for you, he’s in my way.”
He glared. “He engineered a rescue for that Seelie whore. My Seelie whore. If he’d loved her so much, he wouldn’t have let her get captured in the first place. Now he’s trying to atone--too little, too late.”
He squeezed the wand, and Mrs. Turner could breathe again. She doubted he’d done it out of mercy. It was probably, like everything else, to prove a point. He had injured her because he could because it amused him.
“The longer he procrastinates on returning my property, the worse the consequences will be.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Mrs. Turner said. “She didn’t do anything to deserve this!”
“I didn’t give you leave to speak, bitch,” he snapped. Raising his hand to hit her again, he hesitated and then flung her into the wall with his stolen wand. The wall, which had been concrete, turned into spikes that jabbed into her back and spine. Mrs. Turner screamed, collapsing onto the floor. As she fell, she felt the spikes tearing at her flesh and clothes. She was too stunned to cry.
“You should be glad your son is safe in Fairy World for now,” Asmodeus said. “The instant he sets foot on Earth again, I will kill him. After I give him to Lorenzo, that is.
“I assume you haven’t heard of Lorenzo, so let me enlighten you. Lorenzo is our resident anti-fairy pedophile. He desires boys aged between eight and thirteen and is obsessed with your son in particular.”
Asmodeus smiled cruelly. “You have no idea how badly Lorenzo wants to molest your son. I suppose I’ll let Lorenzo play with Timmy for a while before I decide whether I want to kill Timmy in front of his godmother.”
He snorted. “You’ll be long dead before then, so don’t worry. I don’t waste my time with humans.”
His smile broadened. “Do you hear that, Wanda Venus Fairywinkle-Cosma? The longer your precious godson stalls, the worse things will become.”
His eyes went cold. “And the worse you will suffer as a result. By the time this week is up, I’ll have you begging for death.”
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Wanda shuddered uncontrollably. Someone, most likely Asmodeus, had invoked her full true name. Knowing that she was tempting the fates, she squeezed her wand to produce an image of The Lotus Hotel. She, Cosmo, and Timmy were waiting for the head writer to appear, and they were cooling their heels in a meeting room covered in posters of famous storylines. Her surroundings blurred as she saw what Asmodeus wanted to bring to her attention, and she went cold inside.
Cosmo, beside her, leaned over to inspect her wand. Gasping, she erased the image before he or Timmy glimpsed it. As she did, Asmodeus’s warning reverberated in her mind. She was having a hard time fending off another panic attack. Lights flashed before her eyes, and it grew increasingly difficult to breathe. Her chest tightened painfully.
“Wanda!” Blonda called. Wanda heard her from a distance; her vision compressed to a thin red line, and it felt like she was trying to breathe water instead of air.
“What’s wrong?” Blonda said, her jovial tone turning frantic.
“She saw something on her wand, but before we got a chance to see it, she banished it,” Timmy said. Blonda glared at Cosmo.
“What was it?” she demanded.
Cosmo protested, “How am I supposed to know?”
Blonda groaned, facepalming.
“I wish we knew what it was!” Timmy said. Wanda whimpered, wishing she could breathe well enough to warn him off. Thankfully, the wish had followed Timmy’s desire to see what she had, not hear the rest. That was a small mercy.
Timmy blanched as he saw his mother slumped against the wall and bleeding from multiple wounds. The wall was spiked behind her, and it had ripped through her flesh. Wanda’s guilt threatened to consume her. Between revisiting that scene and repeating Asmodeus’s warnings, she felt wholly responsible for this mess. Her hands shook.
“I wish you’d calm down,” Timmy said, and Cosmo squeezed his wand. It was easier for her to breathe, but the guilt remained. Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she hugged herself.
“There’s more to it than this, isn’t there?” Blonda asked sharply. Wanda shook her head. She didn’t want to go into it, especially not in front of Timmy. He had enough on his plate.
“Wanda…” Blonda said in a warning tone. “Wanda Venus Fairywinkle-Cosma.”
Wanda shuddered. A heavy weight had descended upon her chest and threatened to suffocate her. She was second-guessing her plan. It might be too late if they waited until everyone in Fairy World was up in arms. However, they couldn’t depend on the Council. She didn’t know what to do.
Timmy glowered. “You’re considering taking Asmodeus up on his offer, even though you know what’ll happen.”
Wanda glanced away. She couldn’t meet his eyes; he knew her well enough to guess what her true feelings were.
“Sport, your parents and friends are suffering because of me,” she said weakly.
She’d thought Timmy would snap back at her. Instead, his face crumpled, and tears filled his eyes. He jumped into the air and hugged her; he held her in place, so she was floating only a few inches above the floor. His whole body shook, and she realized he was suppressing sobs.
“Timmy?” she said, startled and unnerved.
“I don’t want you to get hurt again,” he whimpered. “I saw what it did to you. And what it’s still doing. I don’t want to lose you again. I love you and Cosmo so much.”
“Sweetie…” Her throat constricted, and she couldn’t speak. Cosmo’s eyes had also filled with tears. Blonda looked disconcerted, and she took her sister’s hands.
“Wanda, the martyr,” Blonda said softly. “We’re going to bring in the calvary. Don’t you worry.”
Wanda shook her head. Only by casting a soothing spell on herself was she able to speak again. “But will it be too late? He’s already attacking Timmy’s friends and family. The longer this goes on…”
“We’ll storm the Council if we have to,” Blonda said, squeezing Wanda’s hands. Her eyes flashed. “I’ll kill him if he touches you again.”
Wanda smiled humorlessly.
“I mean it,” Blonda said. “None of us here are going to let him lay a finger on you. Trust us, okay?”
Wanda nodded. Timmy squeezed her so tightly that it was hard to draw enough air into her lungs. She was disturbed and touched by how upset her godson was. He pressed his face into her neck, and she stroked his hair.
“Shoosh,” she whispered. “I’m okay, hon. It’ll be okay.”
“I love you…” he whispered. He shuddered and then swallowed hard. His voice became steely. “And no one here is letting you go without a fight.”
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Cosmo grimaced when he saw Sabrina arrive in the middle of the meeting. While he knew he ought to be glad she was making more of an effort to be involved in Wanda’s life, Wanda didn’t need the additional stress. It was hard enough for her to give an overview of what Asmodeus had subjected Wanda to without Sabrina listening in. Sabrina’s arrival prompted Wanda to become tongue-tied and falter.
“Hello, dearie,” Sabrina said. Cosmo glared while trying to make himself look unobtrusive. He wasn’t sure it was working.
“Hi, Mom,” Wanda said, her jaw clenched. She squeezed her wand and worked on her breathing to calm down. Cosmo squeezed her free hand and intertwined their fingers. She smiled at him.
The head writer, frowning, brought the conversation back on track. She had long white hair with a black dragon hair tie and her piercing ruby eyes fixed upon Wanda’s face. Her makeup matched her eye color, and she looked ancient. She’d probably been a head writer before he and Wanda were born. It wasn’t unusual to see older fairies in Fairy World--after all, before Poof and now the twins and Leander, he and Wanda had been among the youngest generation.
“You were talking about your youngest child,” the head writer, Agnes Nixon, prompted. Wanda nodded, pale. Cosmo squeezed her hand again, and she squeezed back.
((I love you, hon,)) she murmured in his mind. ((I’m glad you’re here.))
((I’m glad I’m here, too! Otherwise, I’d probably be dead!)) he replied, and she choked back laughter. She knew what he was thinking about, though, because her amusement faded as quickly as it had arrived.
She pecked him on the cheek, steeled herself, and continued.
“Leander…” she said, shaking her head.
“Ha, I knew I picked a good name,” Cosmo said.
Wanda smiled briefly. “I didn’t know I was pregnant with Leander. I suspected, but I was hoping I was wrong.”
She glanced down at the polished mahogany table. “I didn’t want to be pregnant again. I didn’t want to have him ripped from my arms the way the twins were. Or know that I was just being used as a broodmare.”
Timmy placed his hand atop her wand hand, and she offered him a weak smile.
“I assume Asmodeus had no idea,” she said. “He never would’ve laced the iron dagger with rat poison had he known it would affect his unborn child.”
“How is Leander now?” Agnes asked gently.
“He misses his parents,” Sabrina said, and Cosmo, Wanda, and Timmy glanced at her. It might’ve been his imagination, but Wanda had stiffened at her mother’s voice. Cosmo wished Sabrina would leave or pester Blonda. His dislike of Sabrina was cemented in how she treated Wanda; he knew many people hated him because he was stupid, so he didn’t take that personally. He did, however, take Sabrina’s lackadaisical attitude toward Wanda personally.
“He misses Asmodeus?” Agnes said skeptically, raising her eyebrows.
“Bad man!” Lily and Matilda said in unison. “Bad, bad man.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “No, Leander seems to think Cosmo is his father.”
Cosmo grinned. “I am. He even has the green eyes to prove it!”
Wanda groaned. “Hon, he changed his features to resemble ours. He’s seen you and knows you; thankfully, he has no idea who Asmodeus is. I don’t intend for that to change.”
Any time soon…she thought, and he scowled. She shifted uncomfortably, removing her hand from his. She was pulling away from him again.
“I must say that it makes a compelling story,” Agnes said. “We can drop one of our other, less interesting plotlines for that. I know some of them haven’t been gaining traction, and our audience would appreciate it if we dropped them.”
Cosmo nodded, distracted.
((What do you mean ‘any time soon?’ You’re not going to introduce them, are you?)) he asked, alarmed.
((I don’t want to talk about it,)) she said. She tried to push her feelings away, but he chased after them. He wouldn’t let this one go. There was something very worrying about her comment, and he intended to figure out what she meant.
Since she wasn’t answering him via thought speech, he pressed the issue aloud. It’d be harder for her to avoid him when everyone could hear them.
“I want to talk about it,” he said, and Wanda facepalmed. “Asmodeus and Leander are never going to see each other. The only way they could would be if Asmodeus ran into one of us, which will never happen, right?”
“Let it go, Cosmo,” she said from between gritted teeth.
“Asmodeus can’t reach Fairy World, and we’re not going down there and handing Leander over,” Cosmo said.
Timmy watched his godparents warily. He didn’t know what was going on, but judging by the shrewd look on Sabrina’s face, Wanda’s mother knew exactly what Wanda was doing. Wanda found herself the focus of intense scrutiny. It didn’t help that Blonda, too, was giving her a strange look.
“I didn’t say we were,” Wanda retorted.
“And we’re not handing you over,” Cosmo added. Timmy’s eyes widened; Wanda avoided looking around the room. He’d hit a sore point, and her irritation filtered over their link.
“You’re not handing yourself over either,” Timmy said, folding his arms across his chest. “If that’s what Cosmo is getting at.
“The whole reason we’re here is to pressure the Council into doing something. Not so you can throw yourself away.”
“Self-sacrifice,” Agnes mused.
“We’re not doing that,” Timmy, Cosmo, Blonda, and Sabrina snapped. Wanda winced. The twins floated closer to their mother and blew the others raspberries; it wasn’t because they’d done something wrong, but they were picking up on Wanda’s anxiety.
Cosmo held out his arms, and Lily floated into them. They’d barely known each other a day, and she trusted him. Then again, babies were quick to trust, even these two were overly attached to their mother. Cosmo hugged Lily.
“Oh, no, I meant story-wise,” Agnes hastened to add. “I’ll bring this to the other writers, and we’ll have a meeting about it. In the meanwhile, avail yourselves of our food and whatever else you may find.”
Agnes poofed off, and Wanda glowered at Cosmo. Cosmo stared back, alarmed but also trying to stand his ground. He knew her too well, and if she wasn’t happy with how he’d pushed things, he would cower and beg for forgiveness…later.
“You’re not giving that monster what he wants,” Blonda said, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m not losing you again. There’s another way to rescue Timmy’s friends and family. There has to be.”
“I still think I should’ve wished everyone in Fairy World knew about it,” Timmy grumbled.
Wanda rubbed her arms. “I don’t think forcing the information on them is the right way to go about things, sport.”
“I do! Done!” Cosmo said, and Wanda’s jaw dropped. He held up his wand and granted the wish. For a few seconds, she gawked at him. She was upset, but she couldn’t access that right now. Instead, she was too shocked to speak.
“Well, well,” Sabrina said, amused. “That might’ve been the brightest thing Cosmo’s done all day.”
“How can you say that?!” Wanda said, appalled.
Sabrina smirked. “Now, all of Fairy World will hold you accountable and keep you from rushing off to Earth and Asmodeus. Not just us.
“The show will help generate resentment over your mistreatment. It will stoke the flames; people react differently to media than to non-fiction. If we can make it personal for them, then they’ll feel that much more strongly about it.
“Your initial idea wasn’t a bad one, Wanda, but it didn’t go far enough. Now, it does.”
“But I didn’t want…” Wanda faltered.
Timmy looked satisfied. “Outmanuevered again.”
Wanda groaned, burying her face in her hands. “I hope you two know what you’re doing.”
“We never do!” Cosmo said cheerfully. “We just let everyone else deal with the consequences! Hey, that should be our motto!”
Wanda didn’t respond other than to sink further in her seat and moan.
Blonda snorted. “It’s not often Cosmo outwits you, Wanda.”
“Don’t remind me,” Wanda muttered, shaking her head.
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Lorenzo disliked Timmy’s friends with great intensity. They were no substitute for the real thing, as he’d griped to Asmodeus. If it hadn’t been for Lorenzo’s guidance regarding Wanda, Asmodeus would have tossed the pedophile anti-fairy out on his ass. Unfortunately, without Timmy or Cosmo, Asmodeus had no other expert on Wanda. The Fairy World barrier was impeding his progress, too, but it could be circumvented if he applied enough pressure on Wanda.
He needed another way to deliver a message. Wanda had opened the barrier enough to permit images and sound to percolate. If Asmodeus could find a way to forge a link to her magic, he could force it to open on her end, too. There might be another path.
They were meeting in his study, which he used to suss out particularly thorny issues. Old, forbidden texts lined the bookshelves above his desk. His family had purloined them from the Seelie Court before Fairy World’s existence. The study was small, with a window on the far wall opposite the door. He’d drawn the curtains on the window, which meant the only light came from a candle he’d lit and then placed on the table. Asmodeus kept the temperature around 50 degrees here since the cold helped to facilitate his thinking.
He sat in the room’s only chair and left Lorenzo standing. Lorenzo’s back was to a large cabinet containing Asmodeus’s formal garments and dark spellbooks. It also now contained stolen Fairy World wands, including Wanda’s. He particularly prized that theft.
The study was cozy enough that Lorenzo was pressed against the cabinet when Asmodeus pulled his chair out from beneath the desk. Unfortunately, Asmodeus had been forced to move the chair to face his minion when it seemed Lorenzo might have valuable insight on Wanda rather than another rambling diatribe about Timmy’s friends.
He held up a hand to interrupt Lorenzo mid-rant about something--whatever pedantic thing it was, Asmodeus had ceased caring five minutes ago.
“Do you still have a link to Timmy Turner?” Asmodeus said.
“It depends on the universe,” Lorenzo said. “I’ve never had a stronger link than with my sire in my home universe, but sometimes, I can connect with his counterparts.”
“Have you found any common thread between the ones where you can connect with him?”
Lorenzo frowned. He folded his arms across his chest and contemplated the question seriously. Asmodeus had noticed that, like Timmy, Lorenzo had ADHD. It was hard to get him to focus on one thing specifically without branching off on a tangent.
“Cosmo and Wanda have been compromised somehow,” Lorenzo said after a minute’s lapse. “In my world, Timmy’s relationship with them was damaged when I materialized and killed his parents. In the last world I visited, an evil organization tortured Wanda and forced her to kill Cosmo.”
Asmodeus snorted, at first simply amused by the idea of murdering Cosmo. Then his eyes widened. “I thought you couldn’t kill off one half of the Bond without destroying the other half.”
“Cosmo, unfortunately, continued to exist. His soul wasn’t destroyed, only his body,” Lorenzo said. “The do-gooders placed his soul within another body temporarily until he could be resurrected.”
“Is it possible to place his soul in an empty vessel and then not resurrect him?” Asmodeus said, musing to himself. “If I could destroy Cosmo’s connection to her, she’d be that much more vulnerable. She wouldn’t be able to protect Timmy as well, either. Or vice versa.”
“I like where this is going,” Lorenzo said. “You already have Timmy’s friends and family at your mercy. Wanda’s suffering because she knows they are. Remove her support…”
“And I remove all obstacles to her,” Asmodeus said. He whirled on Lorenzo. “Can you draw on Timmy’s connection to his godparents?”
“Not with that damn barrier in place. I can’t even attempt it with Fairy World blocked off.”
“It all comes back to that damn barrier.”
Asmodeus pounded his fist on the table in his study. “I was hoping you could lock onto Wanda’s magical remnants in the hotel and use that to hotwire a connection to Fairy World. She’s done it from Fairy World, so I don’t see why it can’t be accomplished in the opposite direction.”
“If I help you with this, what’s in it for me? There’s no guarantee Timmy will leave Fairy World’s sanctuary and pursue his godmother. He didn’t leave it before to rescue her.”
Asmodeus growled. Loathe as he was to admit it, Lorenzo had a point.
“I’ll let you watch as I degrade and debase Wanda,” Asmodeus offered. “I’ll even let you join in if you so desire.”
Asmodeus snorted. A quick glance at the human-sized anti-fairy revealed his arousal. Like the Unseelie king, Lorenzo was turned on by the idea of abusing Wanda. This, Asmodeus could work with. Lorenzo might not be sexually attracted to her, but he clearly felt watching and then possibly tormenting Timmy with it later was sufficient.
Asmodeus’s amusement sharpened. Thinking about what he intended to do with his property once he had her back stiffened him. She had no idea what she was in for. Next time, he would pound her into the wall and leave her screaming for mercy that he didn’t intend to give. She’d be especially miserable if he could dispatch Cosmo, too.
Without Cosmo and with Wanda in Asmodeus’s grasp, Timmy would be defenseless, which would satisfy both of them.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Lorenzo said.
“I assume you know where her suite is?” Asmodeus said, raising his eyebrows. “That’s where her magic lingers. If you have any results, let me know immediately.”
Lorenzo nodded.
“Dismissed,” Asmodeus said. As Lorenzo squeezed his way to the door, Asmodeus held up a hand to halt him.
“Tell the sprites to bring in one of the godmothers,” he said. “I can’t have Wanda. Yet. But I have needs that must be attended to.”
Lorenzo smirked. “I understand perfectly.”
Asmodeus smirked back. “I thought you might.”
This wouldn’t be as satisfying as conquering Wanda, but it’d have to suffice for now. Lorenzo left, and Asmodeus stroked himself. He imagined bending her over the desk and taking her as she struggled. He slipped his hand beneath his pants; he was hot and throbbing.
Whatever small amount of solace she was enjoying in Fairy World was about to come to an end. She couldn’t hold out for much longer. And once she was his again…
Then he could plot to overthrow Fairy World when he wasn’t so distracted by claiming her.
A surge of hatred flooded him. Cosmo. That little fucker. He had access to her, and he wasn’t taking advantage of it the way Asmodeus would. Cosmo had probably convinced himself that he loved her or some such nonsense.
She didn’t deserve love. She deserved to be pinned down while Asmodeus had his way with her. He was painfully hard, and he grinned when the door opened to reveal Lorenzo shoving a godmother into the room. Like Wanda, she’d lost her crown and wings. She had curly blonde hair and a long rectangular face. When she looked up at him, she froze in terror.
He didn’t need the geas to compel her; she knew she was disposable. Moreover, she was only a temporary substitute for Wanda, and she knew that too. He cornered the terrified Seelie fairy, ripped her clothes off, and forced himself on her.
All the while, he imagined her screams as Wanda’s powerless struggles against him.
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Once they’d finished meeting with the head writer and then the writing group beneath her, Wanda chose to check on Leander. He had grown a little since she’d last seen him, but he remained tiny. It worried her. She might not be as attached to him as Cosmo was, but if the child died, Cosmo would probably be devastated. She didn’t want to see Cosmo get hurt.
Raising her wand, she produced an image of Timmy’s friends and family. She was tempting fate by reopening the link, but she was too anxious to stop her impulses.
Cosmo, Timmy, and the twins arrived behind her. The view shifted suddenly, going from the basement to her suite. She blanched, fearing she knew where this was headed. The others were clueless, but that didn’t matter. Her wand dug against her palm; she gripped it so tightly that she lost feeling in her right hand.
Asmodeus appeared, and she screamed, squeezing her wand before he realized where they were. They reappeared in her living room, which, while not ideal, was better than him discovering there was another baby fairy in existence. It wouldn’t take much for him to put two and two together.
“I suppose I should have waited until your curiosity got the better of you,” Asmodeus said smoothly. Her heart hammered between her ribs.
“You had to check on Timmy’s friends and family. I know you feel guilty. You should. Lorenzo already had his pick of the litter.”
Her stomach churned. Timmy and Cosmo were watching her, and she shook her head. She didn’t want to explain. Besides, with her luck, Asmodeus would gladly fill them in.
“It was Chester, by the way. Lorenzo’s first victim. If you were curious because I know you were.
“As for Timmy’s parents, well…the human body is amazingly fragile. Once I discovered dark magic works against them, it was easy to figure out exactly how to hurt them. Lorenzo knows this, too.”
Asmodeus laughed. “I’m sure he and Chester had such fun together, although I know Lorenzo wants your godson.”
His smile evaporated, and his eyes grew cold. “The bitch I had earlier was no substitute for you, and Chester is no substitute for your godson. I don’t care about Timmy one way or the other, but you are my property. Lest we forget.”
“I’m not going back,” she said, but her voice was weak and tremulous. Asmodeus laughed in her face.
“We’re not letting her,” Timmy added, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Cosmo joined her on the other side with his arm around her waist.
“Oh, is that so?” Asmodeus said. His expression darkened. “You may be able to wish away Chester’s abuse on a technicality, but you can’t save my other victims. They’re only here because of you.
“You will return to me. You and the twins. And you will be punished accordingly.”
He smiled coldly. “Humans have been raped to death. I’m sure fairies are made of sterner stuff, but I enjoy seeing how far I can break you.”
He vanished, and Wanda collapsed onto the sofa. Her wings no longer supported her. Distantly, she heard Timmy ask, “Did Lorenzo hurt Chester?”
She nodded.
“The way you were?”
Another nod. Tears streamed down her face. Perhaps it was better she didn’t know which godmother he’d assaulted today; having a name made things so much worse.
The twins burst into loud, raucous sobs.
“Bad, bad man hurt Mama!” they cried in unison. She didn’t know how to explain the nuances of the situation, and she wasn’t going to bother. The important thing was that Asmodeus didn’t know Leander existed. She’d managed to conceal that much.
“You’re not going back there!” Cosmo said fiercely.
Chester’s abuse and that nameless fairy godmother’s fate were on her head.
No.
No.
Fury throttled the misery, and she balled her fists.
“I’m not,” she snapped. “It’s not my fault what Asmodeus chooses to do and how he chooses to hurt people. I refuse to accept responsibility for a situation I didn’t cause.”
She trembled as she spoke. “We can erase Chester’s memory once this is over, and we can try to repair the damage Lorenzo caused. But if I return to the hotel, Asmodeus will learn about Leander through another geas. He’ll recapture the twins, and there’s no guarantee he’ll release the others, let alone guarantee their safety.”
She swallowed against a lump in her throat. “I knew this before. Maybe I needed a reminder. I know what’s at stake. The Council can’t bury their heads in the sand forever. One way or another, we’ll make them see the truth.”
Her eyes blazed. “Even if we have to beat them over the head with it.”
It was terrifying to take a stand, but it was equally terrifying to contemplate what might happen if she gave in. Cosmo kissed her on the lips, and she kissed him back. Her heart pounded in her rib cage.
“Fuck Asmodeus,” she said in a shaky voice. “I’m not letting him control me anymore. And I’m not letting the Council ignore me or feign ignorance.”
She balled her fists tightly. “I’m going to fight, too.”
“It’s about time!” Timmy exclaimed, and she snorted. She unclenched her fists and stroked Timmy’s hair affectionately.
“I don’t want Lorenzo to get his hands on you, either, sport,” she said. “Come hell or high water, I’m not backing down this time.”