(no subject)

[soulfulsin]

Fandom: Fairly Oddparents (and ANW)

Canon or AU: AU

Fic: Running with Wolves

A/N: It’s taking me longer to write chapters because I keep wanting to straighten out the house. I need to calm down for once (easier said than done, I know.)

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Wanda began, haltingly, to describe what had transpired in the past fifteen years. When she spoke, she stared into space, and when Cosmo drew her into his arms, she flinched but then relaxed. Nonetheless, she was reluctant to make eye contact with anyone. Cosmo and Peri held onto her, and she tried to keep their presence in mind as she launched into her tale.

“After…after I left you, Peri, and Timmy to protect you,” Wanda said quietly, “I thought that might be the end. I wasn’t happy sacrificing myself to the Unseelie Court, but I was desperate and didn’t see any other options. I thought Timmy would be safe. We’d freed him from Lorenzo’s clutches once, after all.”

She drew a shaky breath. “I hadn’t known that Asmodeus had gotten his hands on a Fairyversary muffin sometime in the future. He then warped the past, present, and future to suit himself. He knew…he knew that recapturing Timmy would…”

She faltered, her throat tight. Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she gasped, feeling the pain again like a sword thrust through her heart. She clenched her eyes shut and worked on calming her breathing. In her mind’s eye, she saw Timmy again, looking lost, alone, and confused, as Lorenzo hauled him away from her. Asmodeus had paralyzed her, but she’d channeled Cosmo’s magic in a vain attempt to free Timmy. All she’d received for that was one of the worst beatings of her life. Asmodeus hadn’t healed her for days afterward because he’d decided she deserved the punishment.

“Mom?” Peri asked quietly, and she shook her head. She held up her hand; she would tell the story, but she needed pauses in between. Gulping down air, she reached for Cosmo’s hand and wand; though she didn’t take it away, she squeezed his wand gently, enough to send a soothing magical wave to mollify her enough to continue.

When she opened her eyes, Dev was studying her. She wondered about this child who was already so cynical and cruel at such a young age and why Peri was his godfather. There would be time to ask those questions later, though she hated that Dev understood the adult matter of what she’d endured.

“Asmodeus knew that recapturing Timmy would devastate me,” she said. “He knew that I could seal away my memories and numb myself if I had to, but witnessing Timmy’s continued abuse while I could not prevent it would destroy any resistance I had left. He used my love for Timmy as a weapon; sometimes, if I pleaded with him, Asmodeus would stop Lorenzo before he did something truly heinous and visit the pain upon me instead.”

She clutched Peri’s and Cosmo’s hands tightly. “Timmy didn’t know. He still doesn’t.”

She smiled bitterly. “I couldn’t have said anything anyway. Knowing that I couldn’t tell anyone of my plight was part of my punishment. Timmy knew how far I was spiraling on the rare occasions he saw me, but he didn’t know the extent. He didn’t know how much I was…I was suffering to save him from a worse…”

She choked back another sob. “From a worse fate.”

“You threw your life away for him,” Dev said in a neutral tone. Behind his sunglasses, it was hard to discern his expression. She suspected that was on purpose, a defense mechanism to prevent anyone from seeing behind the mask.

“I love him,” she said fiercely. “Parents are supposed to protect their children and spare them whatever they can. If it meant I had to withstand hell instead, I did.”

Dev stared at her; she could feel his gaze through the sunglasses. “That’s not what parents do. I don’t know what planet you’re from, but my father has never done that.”

“Dev,” Peri said, pained, “your father is…”

He hesitated, and Wanda smiled weakly. She knew what Peri wanted to say. While she and Cosmo had tried not to speak too badly of their godchild’s parents, Timmy’s parents had tested their limits. She’d wondered, sometimes, whether Timmy’s mother would have put herself on the line for him the way Wanda had. In her darker moments, Wanda suspected not. His parents were too selfish.

“My father is what?” Dev goaded Peri. “Go on, say it.”

“You don’t have to,” Wanda said quickly. “He’s baiting you, hon.”

“Oh, like you’ve never hated your godchild's parents before,” Dev scoffed. Wanda winced, exchanging glances with Cosmo. Those memories felt distant, and she shuddered, reaching for the wand before stopping herself. Cosmo frowned, checking into her mind to unearth the source of her confusion.

“You wiped your memories?” Cosmo exclaimed.

“I did what I had to survive,” she said. “That’s neither here nor there. Dev, sometimes, godchildren’s parents are left wanting. That’s why and where we come in. Of course, that’s not always the case--there’s usually something causing a child to deserve godparents, but not necessarily their family.”

“You’re trying to sugarcoat it,” Dev accused. “I know my dad…isn’t always there for me when I want him to be.”

Something was left unspoken, but she didn't know whether it was because Hazel was present or Dev was naturally reticent she didn’t know. Wanda didn’t push him. Instead, she changed the subject.

“Asmodeus, for whatever reason, sometimes let Timmy see how far my desperation had spread. He thought it was hilarious--” she choked again, and Cosmo rubbed her shoulders. “He thought it was hilarious to--”

She shook her head. A humorless smile flitted across her lips. “I can’t say it.”

“Then don’t,” Hazel said gently. Wanda glanced at Cosmo, whose arms were wrapped tightly around her waist. She could feel his heartbeat against her back and wings, which was reassuring. Cupping his cheek in her hand, she brushed her lips against his cheek. She’d been touch-starved for gentle physical affection for over a decade, and she craved it.

Maybe, for now, she could glaze over what she’d intended to say and circle back when she was ready if she ever was.

“Timmy tried to talk me out of it for a while, but after time passed, he realized just how bad the situation was,” she said. “He was terrified of losing me, even if he understood why I would consider the nuclear option.”

“Nuclear option?” Hazel repeated, puzzled.

“It must be nice to be so naive,” Dev snapped.

“Leave her alone,” Wanda said gently. “She’s fortunate that she doesn’t know what I’m talking about. I’m sorry that you do. A child as young as you shouldn’t be this jaded.”

Dev scoffed. “Just go on.”

He rolled his hand, and she knew he pretended nonchalance to conceal the real issue. She wondered whether Peri, since this was most likely his first godchild, was equipped to deal with someone like him. Fairy World had no right to pair those two together, but that was hardly the most egregious thing they’d done in the last few years.

Shoulders sinking, she said, “Lorenzo has permitted Timmy more agency than Asmodeus has allowed me. Timmy can occasionally leave Anti-Fairy World and the hotel, but today was the first time I’ve returned to Earth since before my initial capture. Naturally, Timmy can’t speak of what’s happening to him, but Asmodeus kept me under much closer control and watch.

“It can’t be a mistake that he’s allowed me to reach you again. He still has that damn muffin,” she said and then grimaced. “Pardon my language. I’m accustomed to far worse now, but that’s no excuse.”

“If only bad language was the only thing you were accustomed to…” Peri muttered, perhaps not intending to be overheard. When she glanced at him, she saw tears brimming in his eyes. Sadness clenched her chest.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” she asked Peri gently, and he shook his head.

“I was only a baby when you left,” Peri reminded her.

“Then you don’t remember Timmy, either, do you?” she asked. Again, Peri shook his head.

“There’s a hole where you two are,” Peri said.

“Much like most of my memories,” she murmured. Cosmo toyed with her curls and then kissed her neck. She sighed, pressing herself more tightly against him, then turned her head to meet his lips.

((I love you,)) he sent, and a small but genuine smile appeared on her lips. She kissed him harder, and he pushed his affection and love back through their mental link. It was puzzling how it hadn’t atrophied beyond repair, but she wouldn’t question it. Instead, she basked in his feelings.

((I love you, too, sweetie,)) she replied. Reluctantly, she broke off the kiss. Hazel’s eyes were wide; she looked like she’d seen her OTP hook up for the first time. Dev scoffed, and Peri’s forehead was lined like he was trying to remember his baby days. She suppressed a bitter smile; like Peri, she didn’t recall much. However, hers was by choice. She doubted Peri had wished those memories were gone.

“Marry me again!” Cosmo blurted, and she gawked.

“I’m sorry--what?” she said.

“We missed over a decade together!” Cosmo whined.

“I know, sugar, but we have more important things to worry about,” she said, frowning. “Namely, why someone who exerted such strong control over me is now content to take a backseat.”

She glanced at Peri. “You don’t remember how you got your limp, do you?”

Peri shook his head, grimacing. “Dad told me that Asmdeus hurt me when I was a baby, but I don’t remember.”

“He was trying to kill you,” Wanda said in a hushed tone. “He stabbed you with iron, which is why it never healed. Foop--though, I guess, if you’re going by Peri, he probably changed his to suit, Irep, is the only reason you’re still alive. He rescued you from certain death. Something about only him having the right to destroy you.”

Peri grimaced, rolling his eyes. “That sounds about right.”

“I couldn’t do anything to protect you,” she said sadly. “Asmodeus kept the geas on me to prevent me from exercising my magic, and when I broke through it enough to warn you and turn the killing stroke aside, he stabbed your leg in a fit of pique.”

“What did he do to you when Irep ‘rescued’ me?” Peri asked, and Wanda looked askance. Her fists clenched, and her chest constricted. Unfortunately, she remembered all too well. Asmodeus had tied her to the bed and flayed her to within an inch of her life before he and his crew had tortured and molested her for hours.

Again, she realized too late how much Cosmo could see of her memories. For whatever reason, the ability to block him was gone like it had never existed.

Cosmo’s jaw dropped. His emotions swept over her like a tidal wave, and she drowned. For a moment, she was split between herself and Cosmo. The memories had no emotional sway over her because she’d grown numb. However, he was overwrought, and the power and compulsion of his feelings bowled her over. Before she knew it, all of her senses were inundated, and she passed out.

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“What’s wrong with them now?” Dev snapped, but beneath his irritation, Hazel sensed concern. Cosmo and Wanda had fainted, and Peri hovered over his parents. The younger fairy wrung his hands in anxiety, and he gently pressed the tip of his wand to Wanda’s forehead. Hazel had no idea what had precipitated their collapse, but she saw the aftermath.

In the past, Wanda remembered agony extending through every inch of her body. It hurt to breathe due to multiple broken bones, and a few bones weren’t just broken but shattered. Fairies could withstand much more pain than humans if Hazel remembered correctly, which might have explained why Wanda had been in such a dire state. Asmodeus had exploited her endurance and left her on the brink.

Warm, wet fluid beneath her was disgusting and uncomfortable, but she was too weak to move. Wanda was also too weak to open her eyes, and she moaned. Despite everything that had happened, she only regretted that she hadn’t protected Peri better. Aghast, Dev and Hazel glanced at Peri, whose eyes welled with tears and lower lip quivered.

“Mom…” Peri breathed. He grabbed her right hand and pressed it to his chest. She stirred in the present and moaned, eyelids fluttering.

“Cosmo, you idiot,” she said, more in the tone of someone who has well-trod this path than with any conviction, “don’t do that again.”

“Do what?” Cosmo asked, regaining consciousness quickly.

“You bombarded me with your reactions,” she said.

“You didn’t have any reaction!” Cosmo protested. “That’s not normal!”

Wanda sighed, opened her mouth like she intended to argue, and then shut her mouth again. When she glanced at Peri, she looked as old as her actual age. Hazel winced, hissing, and noticed how Peri’s eyes overfilled, and he burst into tears. Dev averted his gaze; the powerful emotions overwhelmed him, too, and she knew he wasn’t much for grand displays. Moreover, the agony Wanda had lived through to attempt to protect Peri was horrifying to behold, even secondhand. Hazel was shocked when Dev gulped back a sound like a suppressed sob. She wondered who he was thinking of but decided not to pry.

“I felt so beaten down and destroyed that any responses were beyond me, hon,” Wanda said wearily. “All I knew was that I had failed Peri…and then, later, Timmy.”

“And you were punished for it…” Peri breathed, horror-stricken. “You tried to defend us, and you almost died.”

Wanda smiled bleakly. “Oh, sweetie, I wouldn’t have died. Asmodeus couldn’t let anything happen to his favorite toy.”

The others winced. Peri sobbed, hugging Wanda fiercely.

“I wish you’d told me,” Peri whispered. “Mom, I--”

“It’s not your fault,” she said quietly. “I wouldn’t have done anything differently unless it could’ve resulted in a better outcome for you. I love you.”

“I love you--” Peri choked up, and Wanda squeezed his hand. She kissed him on the cheek, and he flung himself at his parents. They hugged him tightly.

“I wish my dad loved me half as much as you guys love each other,” Dev muttered, not intending to be overheard. Hazel doubted he’d meant to say it aloud, either. Whatever the case, Peri reluctantly disentangled himself from Cosmo and Wanda to skim through Da Rules.

“What?” Dev said.

“You made a wish,” Peri said, flipping through pages. “I have to see if I can grant it. I know it doesn’t relate to ‘true love,’ but sometimes, Da Rules can be rather vague unless someone’s bad wishing forced a loophole closed.”

“You mean bad wishing that we granted,” Cosmo said, sounding proud of himself. A smile spread across his face. “I missed saying ‘we.’ I missed you so much, Wanda.”

“I missed being a ‘we,’” she said, smiling gently. She glanced at Peri. “I can’t help you, I’m afraid. Any bad wishes are locked behind the vault where I put most of my memories. And your father, well…”

“I don’t have that many memories anyway!” Cosmo boasted.

“What’s it like going around without any memories?” Dev asked, sounding curious. Wanda frowned, studying him.

“Liberating, in some ways,” Wanda admitted. “Asmodeus couldn’t use my past against me if it had no impact. People like him love to use your weaknesses against you. It was lonely because I couldn’t remember being loved well enough to comfort myself, but on the other hand, it meant that I had nothing to compare the present to. I didn’t suffer as profoundly because I had no point of reference.

“It’s a lonely way to live, but it beat the alternative.”

Cosmo’s eyes welled with tears. “I can’t believe you’d willingly forget me!”

Wanda looked askance. “He used to construct scenarios in which…never mind.”

She shivered, scratching her left arm. Curious, Hazel leaned in to look more closely, but Wanda wore long sleeves to conceal the skin underneath. Hazel glanced at the other two fairies; neither knew what the import of her actions was, and Wanda wasn’t about to divulge that.

“He might have wanted me to lead you here,” she said, shuddering. She glanced down at the floor. “In which case, I might’ve played right into his hands.”

Shoulders shaking, she retreated from the group and hugged herself. Cosmo whined, floating after her. He removed her sleeves to reveal the tally marks on her arms. A few looked infected, and Cosmo brushed his fingers against them. She yelped, cradling her wounded arm, and gasped, tears springing to her eyes.

“Should that be glowing like that?” Hazel said blankly.

“Like it’s been activated?” Dev added, frowning. “My dad’s inventions look like that when--”

He stopped himself in horror. Jaw-dropping, he moved, though Hazel had no idea what he’d intended before Asmodeus, Ozymandias, and a few other Unseelie fairy thugs materialized in a fairy dust cloud. Unlike Cosmo and Peri, whose dust clouds were relatively innocuous, this was like being plunged headfirst into smog. They coughed, and Cosmo waved his wand to clear the air.

“I knew if I waited long enough, you’d become desperate enough to call your family,” Asmodeus said. He was a tall, slim man with waist-length black hair and a sharp, angular face with a pronounced widow’s peak. Dressed in a black robe, his slender fingers resembled a pianist’s, except they still had flecks of dried sparkling blood. Uneasy, Hazel glanced at the fairies. Wanda retreated into Cosmo, who had poofed behind her.

“I thought it might be a good time to become reacquainted with your precious son,” Asmodeus continued, striding forward. His brown, almost black eyes flashed maliciously. “And finish what I started.”

“I’m not a baby anymore,” Peri snarled. “And you need to be punished for what you’ve done to my family.”

“Punished? Perish the thought,” Asmodeus scoffed. Ozymandias, a man who looked more at home in a prison with big, beefy muscles and tattoos, circled around them. He sniffed, reminding Hazel of a bloodhound. She shivered, and Cosmo poofed with his arms around Wanda and floated protectively in front of his goddaughter. Peri, meanwhile, looked torn between Wanda and his godson. He chose Dev, which was a mistake.

The other Unseelie fairies spread out and created an offensive circle about them. Hazel’s heart pounded, and Cosmo growled, brandishing his wand. Wanda remained wandless, and a cold sweat had broken out over her face. Though she wasn’t rejecting Cosmo, she barely seemed aware of her surroundings.

Asmodeus laughed. “You have a godson. Oh, this is perfect. I’m sure Lorenzo would love a new playmate. Don’t you agree, Seelie slut?”

Dev balled his fists. “That’s what you’re calling her? Did you scrape the bottom of the barrel for that one?”

Asmodeus raised his hand to strike Dev, only for Peri to arrest his arm mid-swing. However, Ozymandias, right behind Dev, punched him in the back of the head. Dev crumpled, and Peri whirled, raising his wand to heal him. However, he freed the Unseelie King to act by putting his back to Asmodeus.

“Human children do make one so vulnerable. Right, whore?” Asmodeus scoffed. “Come to me. Now.”

Wanda shuddered, clearly fighting it, and Asmodeus’s eyes flashed again.

“Come. Here. I won’t ask you again. Next time, it’ll be ten lashes and on your knees. Do you understand?”

Cosmo clutched her tightly, and Wanda ran her fingers through his hair. When she tried to pull away, Cosmo’s grip firmed. Wanda shivered, torn between Asmodeus’s command and her shared desire with Cosmo to stay put. Her breathing was shallow, and panic swelled her pupils.

“Cosmo, please,” she whispered. “You don’t know what he’ll do to me.”

“I do know what he’ll do to you!” Cosmo protested. “That’s why I’m not letting you go!”

Asmodeus advanced, and an arc of fire lashed him in the face. Taken aback, Asmodeus paused and stared at Peri. Unfortunately, the Unseelie king was more surprised than injured. Somehow, he’d brushed off Peri’s attack like it was nothing.

“You healed her,” Asmodeus said and then removed her sleeves. He laughed cruelly. “But not entirely.

“Every mark on that woman’s body is a notch on an Unseelie fairy’s belt. I’ve lost count of how many have used her. Have you lost count, too, Wanda?”

He spat the name like it was foul, and Wanda clenched her eyes shut. Tears slid down her cheeks.

“Secure the brats,” Asmodeus said. “Cosmo and Peri are mine.”

“I wish you’d fuck off,” Dev snarled. Hazel’s eyes widened at the language; Dev was trembling, too, albeit in fury and not fear.

Peri raised his wand only for it to go limp. Hazel didn’t understand. Neither did Dev.

“Why can’t you grant this wish?” Dev snapped at Peri.

“Our magic can’t directly affect the Unseelie fairies,” Wanda said faintly, barely audible. “You’d have to exploit a loophole.”

Dev’s eyes lit up behind his glasses. “A loophole, eh? I can manage that.

“Meanwhile, Peri’s my fairy, not yours,” Dev continued, glowering. “You’ve done enough damage, don’t you think?”

“A fucking wannabe Timmy Turner,” Asmodeus muttered. “I thought I’d seen the last avenger when I killed Chloe Carmichael.”

The name meant nothing to Hazel or Dev, but Cosmo and Wanda flinched. Cosmo must have paralyzed her because she’d ceased struggling.

“Leave my brother out of it,” Peri snapped.

“Your brother is nothing but a wanton sex slave to an anti-fairy,” Asmodeus sneered. He smirked at Wanda. “As she well knows. Before I left the hotel with you, I informed Timmy you’ve tried to commit suicide multiple times in the past month alone. How do you think he took it?”

The color bled out of the fairies’ faces. Wanda shook her head wordlessly, moaning.

“I also told him that you’re suffering because of him. His suffering is compounding yours. Maybe if he took matters into his own hands…” Asmodeus trailed off.

“No!” Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri snapped.

“Or is he the only thing keeping you alive now?” Asmodeus jeered. “Come to me, bitch. I can’t promise a quick execution for Cosmo or Poof, but I’ll let you watch them bleed out.”

Hazel glanced at Peri. Asmodeus must’ve meant him, though the name had confused her briefly.

“Go to hell,” Wanda said weakly.

“Lorenzo’s not an Unseelie fairy besides being an anti-fairy, is he?” Dev asked. Peri glanced back at him uncertainly.

“No…why?” Peri said. It was clear that, like Hazel, Cosmo, and Wanda, Peri’s mind was elsewhere.

“I wish Lorenzo couldn’t get his hands on Timmy Turner, that everything he did to him magically was undone, and that he’d never be able to find him again!” Dev said triumphantly.

Asmodeus’s smile dropped, and his black eyes were like ice.

“Smarter than Timmy Turner,” Asmodeus said quietly. “That could be a problem.”

Peri granted the wish with flair, probably to rub it in Asmodeus’s face. Asmodeus responded by muttering something under his breath. The instant the wish took effect, Peri plummeted and clutched his bad leg.

“The iron poisoning lingers,” Asmodeus said. “A professional healer has to remove it, but I changed the universe’s rules to prevent you from getting near one. Even now, the iron could make its way to your heart.”

Cosmo released Wanda to clasp his son, who had gone white and whimpered in pain. Dark, sparkling blood gushed out of a new wound near Peri’s knee and soaked his pants.

Unfortunately, freed from Cosmo’s spell, Wanda drifted to Asmodeus, who grabbed and fondled her. He pressed her against his chest and ground his hips into hers. Dev looked torn between Peri’s plight and Wanda’s. Peri was his godfather, but Wanda was Peri’s mother.

Hazel had no such compunctions. Cosmo was wrong without Wanda. She’d known it for a while now. It was like someone had carved out his heart and left a few shattered remnants to keep him alive.

She couldn’t use Cosmo’s magic directly against the Unseelie. That meant, like Dev, she needed to exploit a loophole.

Unfortunately, unlike Dev, she wasn’t great at thinking on her feet or improvising. The more she tried, the worse things usually got. But the fairies needed her…

Peri gasped. On his white skin, black lines traced his veins inward toward his chest. Cosmo pressed his face into Peri’s shoulder and wept.

“Don’t tell me you’re all useless,” Dev snarled. Asmodeus smiled coldly, raising his stolen wand.

“Ashes, ashes, we all fall down…” Asmodeus called, grinning now.

“I wish the person Asmodeus prevented from reaching Peri was here now and could cure him!” Hazel cried. Her heart pounded as Cosmo granted the wish.

A washed-out, elderly-looking fairy materialized. He looked like he belonged in a black-and-white film. Everything about him was in black, white, or shades of gray. Confused, the fairy glanced around, then his eyes fell upon Peri.

“Traitor,” Asmodeus hissed. “You should be executed like Chloe Carmichael. That will teach ingrates to abandon the Unseelie Court.”

“I’ll be back with him, I promise,” the elderly fairy said to Cosmo and gently pried his son out of his arms. One problem down, one to go.

“I’ll get him later,” Asmodeus grumbled and snapped his fingers. Ozymandias grabbed Dev and held him off the ground with his arms behind his back. Dev kicked, but none of the blows did anything.

“I could snap his neck,” Ozy said conversationally like they were talking about the weather.

“No, no,” Asmodeus said, sliding his hand down Wanda’s stomach toward her pants. Cosmo growled. “Lorenzo will be wroth enough as it is. We’ll take him and give him another playmate. It’ll be the human filth’s punishment for depriving Lorenzo of his favorite toy.”

Cosmo rose, shaking, having shifted into human form. His wand was pointed at Asmodeus’s chest.

“You want the bitch? Come get her,” Asmodeus snarled. He spared a careless, disdainful look at Hazel. “We can leave that one. No one in the Court would soil themselves touching a human female child.”

Asmodeus and his crew disappeared in that disorienting smog; Hazel tried to wish them back, but her irritated throat produced only coughs that tore through her chest.

Cosmo dispelled the smog again, and Hazel’s breath caught for another reason. She’d never seen him looking so irate. He looked more like a homicidal maniac than Hazel’s beloved godfather. Hazel gulped, terrified. She’d never been remotely frightened of him before. Until now, she hadn’t thought he could get that angry. Now, she wished she hadn’t seen it.

“Cosmo?” she said cautiously. He stared through her, and wordlessly, he held up his wand. They disappeared and reappeared in what looked like an exorbitantly priced luxury hotel. Despite its ornate design, expensive paintings, and decorations, it pulsed with malice and evil. Hazel gulped, looking at Cosmo. They stood before the elevator, and a small screen to the left had a split view--one of them was an adult human-looking male with brown hair, blue eyes, and a bucktooth. He had to be in his forties, and he wore all black. He was slim, and the gleam in his eyes promised pain and lots of it.

He had Dev by the wrist and, as Dev struggled and tried to kick him, the man casually snapped Dev’s wrist, flung him to the floor, produced a wand, and, pointing it at Dev’s chest, curbstomped his right arm until Dev screamed. Hazel heard a distinct snap. She felt sick.

The other window showed what must have been the penthouse suite. Cosmo studied it intently, his eyes narrowed with hatred.

Wanda was naked, bound, and gagged to the bedposts. She lay on her stomach, and her back bled profusely. Someone had ripped out her wings (Hazel whimpered), and multiple lash marks showed torn skin and possible muscle tissue. As Hazel watched, horrified, Asmodeus cracked a cat o’nine tails across her back again; a strange milky substance glistened on the tips, and sparks flew when it touched her skin. Wanda screamed. The whip wasn’t just tearing skin and muscle--it was burning her exposed flesh. Hazel forced herself to look away and then vomited, wishing Cosmo hadn’t brought her with him.

Then again, she doubted he could be reasoned with right now. Peri was in Fairy World, Hazel assumed, and she was on her own. Whoever Chloe Carmichael might’ve been, she’d been noticeable enough to be executed, which meant she wasn’t human. From the way Asmodeus had spoken, female human children were beneath his notice. Hazel wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

“Cosmo?” Hazel squeaked. She wanted to be blind and deaf; Dev’s screams competed with Wanda’s, and Hazel acted rashly. Perhaps she was channeling her inner Timmy Turner because she slammed her fist onto the elevator button so hard that it broke. Startled by her own strength, she looked at Cosmo.

“I wish Dev was safe, healed, and untouchable!” Hazel blurted. For now, she couldn’t do anything about Wanda’s plight, but Peri had stated Lorenzo (who Hazel presumed was the one torturing Dev) was an anti-fairy and not an Unseelie fairy. Therefore, Fairy World magic ought to work on him.

Cosmo granted the wish, though Hazel feared it was by rote rather than actual processing. Dev appeared beside them. Overwrought, Hazel flung her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. Dev, for once, was too stunned to react. He was missing his trademark glasses, and he trembled in her arms. Swallowing back a sob, he latched onto her.

“Thank you,” he whispered. His voice was hoarse from screaming. “Thank you so much, Hazel Wells.”

It didn’t register that Dev had said her proper name for once, perhaps because they were in a state of shock.

Green fairy dust drifted across them, and Hazel released Dev slightly to look to the left. Cosmo was gone, and the two children were alone.

“Peri?” Dev said quietly. Fear escalated his volume and broke his voice. “Peri!”

-------------------------------------------

It wasn’t the first time Dev had called his name, and if Abraxas hadn’t paralyzed him, Peri would’ve been back on Earth in a second. The terror in Dev’s voice sent chills down Peri’s back. Whatever Abraxas was doing, he needed to do it faster. Dev needed him, and Peri felt like he was just kicking back and cooling his heels while Dev was in mortal danger.

Peri wondered whether this was what his father had felt like when Wanda and Timmy were in peril and he couldn’t access The Lotus Hotel. It was frustrating and petrifying simultaneously.

“Please,” Peri begged. “I have to get back there. Dev needs me.”

“If you leave now, the iron will reach your heart and kill you,” Abraxas snapped.

“Can’t you at least unfreeze my wand arm so I can see what’s going on?” he pleaded.

“No, because you’re liable to leave,” Abraxas said, rubbing his temples. “You and your father are too damn impulsive for your own good.”

“It’s not impulsive if Dev is in danger!” Peri retorted.

Abraxas sighed, raised his wand, and produced an image of what Peri realized must’ve been The Lotus Hotel. Dev looked physically intact, though the way he shadowed Hazel argued something must’ve happened that Peri had missed. Neither of them belonged in the hotel, and Peri was at a loss as to how they’d arrived there in the first place.

Abraxas banished the image.

“See? They’re fine,” he said, waving his wand again. The two children appeared in the lab room inside Fairy World Hospital, where Abraxas had set up his practice. Profound relief swept through Peri, and he would’ve sagged if he could move. Whatever had happened, they were out of harm’s way now.

“I brought them here so you can stop fussing,” Abraxas said, shaking his head before vanishing in a strange mixture of gray fairy dust at least half what a typical fairy produced.

Dev and Hazel looked at Peri floating in a stasis field. Hazel’s lower lip quivered, and Dev’s glasses were missing. Unable to conceal his expression, Dev looked close to tears.

“Why didn’t you come when I called?!” Dev demanded.

“Abraxas paralyzed me, so I couldn’t,” Peri said quietly.

“That’s not an excuse! You could’ve broken yourself out! You have a wand!” Dev snapped. Peri bristled. If he’d had more experience, he would’ve realized that Dev was lashing out from fear and being illogical, but Dev and Peri were sometimes too similar in personality to mesh well.

“I can’t reach my wand,” Peri snapped. “Abraxas told me that if I left now, I’d die.”

“I almost got molested, and it’s your fault!” Dev snarled. “You and your stupid godbrother!”

“I wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Timmy,” Peri said. A hushed silence fell. Dev’s eyes widened, and he realized he’d gone too far. His jaw dropped, and he was at a loss for words.

“I didn’t know,” Dev said in a subdued voice. “I’m sorry.”

“Timmy wished my parents would have a baby,” Peri said, sighing. “If I could have gone to you, I would have. I know Lorenzo’s reputation. Did he hurt you?”

Dev nodded and bit his lower lip. “Hazel wished me better, but Cosmo--”

He stopped himself, looking down.

“Cosmo went after Asmodeus,” Hazel said in a hushed tone. “Alone.”

“He must’ve seen my mom being abused and snapped,” Peri said quietly. “He told me it’s happened before but doesn’t remember doing it. He just remembers the aftereffects. Seeing her like that makes him temporarily insane.”

“What do we do?” Dev said, and Peri shot him a sharp look.

“We have to do something,” Dev said.

“I don’t know what we can do,” Peri admitted, feeling defeated. “Abraxas is right--Dad’s too impulsive for his own good. Asmodeus knows that, too. I hope Dad didn’t just run headfirst into a trap.”

“He probably did,” Dev said.

“So, what do we do?” Hazel said.

“I don’t know…” Peri said and then frowned. “Mom mentioned that Asmodeus had a Fairyversary muffin. If we can figure out how he got it and where, then maybe that’s a good place to start.”

His eyes narrowed. “We might be able to ask Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda about that. Anti-fairies occasionally join the Unseelie Court, but those two would never, not after seeing what Asmodeus did to my mom.”

Dev and Hazel nodded. Dev’s lip quivered, too, and Peri wished he could hug Dev. Hazel did that for him, at least.

“You can’t grant wishes like that,” Dev said, irritated and concerned.

“No,” Peri said softly. “I can’t.”

“Then Cosmo’s on his own, too,” Hazel said, distraught.

“Yeah…” Peri said, wincing. “He is.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He didn’t have a plan or even the semblance of a plan. Instead, he ran on pure adrenaline, stupidity, fury, and nausea. Wanda and Timmy had suffered for fifteen years thanks to Asmodeus’s plotting. Dev had rectified Timmy’s situation but couldn’t do anything for Wanda. However, with Wanda’s return to Earth, he’d been flooded with horrible memories. He couldn’t understand how she’d retained her sanity after such misery.

The penthouse suite rebuffed his attempts to poof directly inside. Desperate, he sought Wanda’s mind. When he touched it, he fell through her barriers like rotten ice. Beneath the barriers was numbness, and he shivered. He wanted to blast the door down, but her response to him had stilled that urge.

Instead, he poofed into an adjacent room and closed his eyes to try reaching her again. Within that fathomless ocean of nothingness, she had to exist. There had to be a hidden kernel of her true self where Asmodeus couldn’t corrupt it. Cosmo tasted blood--he’d bitten his tongue, realizing that if Asmodeus discovered it, he would destroy what was left of her. Even now, as Cosmo sought it, she pulled further away.

“A shell can’t feel anything…a shell is nothingness, emptiness. I am nothing. Nothing matters.”

Her thoughts were barely audible, and he shivered. He’d never heard her speaking in a hopeless, helpless monotone before. It was terrifying and made him want to hug her close and never release her.

“I am nothing.”

“That’s not true!” he blurted. ((Wanda, you are something! You’re something to me! I love you! Come back!))

The harder he chased her, the less there was to chase. She slipped through his fingers like water, and he howled.

((Don’t go where I can’t follow! Don’t!))

“You need a plan, you idiot,” a familiar voice said, and Cosmo whirled. His jaw dropped. Looking older than his years, Timmy Turner stood behind him. He wore a pink and green striped buttoned t-shirt, blue jeans, pink and green rings on his fingers, and a purple ring on his thumb. The bucktooth remained, albeit less noticeable.

Cosmo’s eyes welled with tears, and Timmy gasped, tearing up. The two embraced, with Cosmo sobbing into Timmy’s shoulder. It shouldn’t be possible. Timmy shouldn’t be able to enter the hotel without magic. Hell, Cosmo had barely been able to enter it with magic.

“I’ve missed you so much!” Cosmo blubbered.

Timmy hugged him tighter and then pulled back to look into Cosmo’s eyes.

“I couldn’t stay away,” Timmy said. “Not after Asmodeus told me how often she tried to kill herself.”

He shuddered, looking away. “She made me think things were better than they were. I didn’t know she’d taken the brunt of the attacks to protect me.”

He sobbed. “She loves me so much she’s destroying herself.”

It took his godson a moment to calm down enough to speak properly. Once he had, he plopped onto the nearby bed and inhaled shakily.

“Lorenzo let me out on Earth, as long as I didn’t betray his secret, which I didn’t do, but not for a lack of trying. I--I know someone did something to erase the memories and trauma of what Lorenzo did to me, but Asmodeus’s wishes with the muffin keep them from completely vanishing.

“I knew you were on Earth with Hazel. I kept trying to reach you, but Lorenzo’s stupid magic kept me from getting anywhere there. I--I saw Peri.”

Timmy gulped. “He doesn’t remember me.”

“I told him all about you,” Cosmo offered, and Timmy nodded. He twirled a wand between his fingers, which answered the question of how he’d arrived.

Timmy shook his head. “We have to go after Wanda, but we can’t run in there without a plan. That’s what Asmodeus is counting on. Lorenzo used to tell me how Asmodeus wanted to destroy the two of you so that there’d be nothing left of Wanda to resist him. The only reason Asmodeus had waited this long is for you to come willingly to him so he could break the Bond.”

Cosmo shuddered.

“He wanted to see the look on your faces as he broke the Bond and then killed you before her,” Timmy said. He was staring at the red carpeting. “He…he went into a lot of detail about what Asmodeus wanted to put Wanda through.”

Cosmo nodded, feeling like he’d been gobsmacked. “There isn’t much left of her…”

He sobbed, latching onto Timmy again. “She’s trying to push me away.”

“To protect you,” Timmy said softly. “She did the same thing to me. We have to find the last parts of that magic muffin and fix this mess. Before--”

He swallowed hard. “Before there’s nothing left of her to save.”

--------------------------------

Wanda shuffled to the bathroom mirror and stared at herself dispassionately. She felt nothing despite being used and abused for the past three hours. When Cosmo’s mind had brushed hers, she’d buried herself deeper. Someday, even she wouldn’t be able to unearth what was left. She wasn’t sure whether she’d dread or welcome the end.

Surely, being empty was better than her past, present, and future.

Besides, if no one cared what befell her, why should she care? Her life was forfeit. She’d never even seen the twins or Leander before they’d been snatched away. She sighed, refusing to feel that weight. It was easier to feel nothing.

“Wanda!”

Wanda jumped, startled, and locked the door instinctively. Cosmo and Timmy stared back from the bathroom mirror and had replaced her reflection. Her heart thundered in her ears, and she told herself she was being ridiculous. Asmodeus’s poison was making her hallucinate.

“I don’t think we can pull her through the mirror, Cosmo,” Timmy said dryly as Cosmo pressed his palms against the glass. Cosmo’s lower lip quivered, and she felt nothing. (But if that was true, why had she shut the door so quickly? Why was she so desperate to keep them a secret?)

She pressed her palms against his and shuddered. Feeling anything was agony, but she couldn’t look away from them. That kernel of herself she kept buried threatened to resurface, and she cast it back where it belonged. Unfortunately, try as she might, she didn’t budge.

“Timmy and I are gonna find the magic muffin,” Cosmo promised. “We’ll undo all of this.”

Wanda couldn’t muster a smile. Instead, using what little willpower she possessed, she stepped away from the mirror and dropped her hands.

“Wanda?” Cosmo said quizzically, searching her expression. “Baby? Say something. You trust us, don’t you?”

Wanda glanced at Timmy and Cosmo once more before advancing toward the door.

“Wait! Mom!” Peri called, and Wanda turned. Her heart was in her throat, and she trembled. Behind Timmy and Cosmo were now Dev, Hazel, and Peri. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the nearby toilet seat. Jorgen had also appeared.

Then pink fairy dust identical to her own poofed in, and Blonda and Big Daddy materialized.

Blonda looked like her usual self--hell, she’d aged better than Wanda over the past fifteen years. Big Daddy, meanwhile, looked gruff and fatigued.

Her family was there, even children she hadn’t considered part of it. Hazel beamed, and Wanda grabbed the towel rack to support herself. She swiped away any errant tears and then, casting one last glance in the mirror, walked toward the door again.

“Where are you going?” Peri demanded. “Mom!”

Wanda glimpsed her reflection in an adjacent mirror. Her eyes were empty, and the smile she offered them was just as fake.

“I’m only a shell now,” she told them. “A shell doesn’t feel anything.”

She sped out the door and closed it behind her. Her throat constricted, and she collapsed onto her knees. If Asmodeus searched her memories today, he’d find the incriminating evidence and punish her. Hope for a rescue was worse than no rescue at all. She wouldn’t get her hopes dashed again.

Instead, she closed her eyes, ignored her tears again, and told herself she was a shell. Wanda Fairywinkle-Cosma didn’t exist anymore, and she was only a ghost wearing her body. She awaited the inevitable sundering of those two. It wasn’t happening fast enough.

Maybe once she was dead, she could find peace.

Cosmo wouldn’t let her go, unfortunately. He nudged her mind again, and she sighed. As she did with Asmodeus now, she simply capitulated. Whatever Cosmo wanted, he could have. She had no resistance left, nor did she have a right to it.

She was ruined and shattered into a million pieces.

She stared at her hands and then gasped, jumping. A wand with a note had fallen into them.

“We’re fixing this. Abraxas modified the wand--you might not be able to disobey the geas, but the wand isn’t subject to its rules. If you want to hurt them and they haven’t explicitly forbidden it (or their mind has drifted)...give ‘em hell.

“We love you. Don’t give up.

“Big Daddy et al.”

She hadn’t been entrusted with a wand in over a decade. Unthinkingly, she ran her fingers along the handle. Her breath caught.

Some compulsions remained in place regardless of whether her captors were present. She doubted she’d be able to conjure any weapons for self-harm. Then again, that depended on how the compulsions defined self-harm.

She raised the wand to her temple and considered the risks in what she intended. Then, closing her eyes, she cast the spell.