Chapter 13 - Timothy's Mission

13


Having lunch at the high school with Timmy's friends was somewhat therapeutic for Tootie, and knowing that she shared the pain of losing someone so close and important with them meant that they had no qualms over inviting her to their open lunch periods. She felt a sort of pride at being able to say that she had older friends, could walk from her school to the bus stop, hop on it to get to Oberon High and sit down for lunch with a circle of fellows who commiserated with her over the absence of Timmy Turner. It made things a little easier to deal with, especially since the high school was another of those magic-blocked places.

"It's awful nice of those boys to be friends with you." Romi remarked cheerfully as she floated by her godchild. The walk from the bus stop to the actual middle school covered two streets and the area was clear of witnesses; everyone was either at work, in their homes or at school. Tootie nodded, pushing her glasses up on her nose and letting gravity pull them down again. "Is something on your mind?" the fairy asked tentatively, "Maybe I can help with it. There's almost nothing my magic can't handle."

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing big, I don't think." the young Goth murmured and managed a smile, "It's funny, sort of, how A.J., Chester, Elmer and Sanjay all insist that Timmy should have been fine that day. They've been working on that computer program for four years; you'd think the police would have spotted something sooner themselves." She rubbed her head again, a frown replacing her expression. "Y'know, that dream's been bugging me for a couple of days now. I can't figure it out. My dream translation books don't have a clue as to what it means." Romi paled and held her wand tighter, putting on a smile for her godchild's sake.

"A dream? What dream could be bothering you? It's probably nothing important." she remarked airily, "We're almost to your school. Why not make a couple of wishes before we go in? Just to tide us over until we get home?" Tootie pushed her glasses up once more and the fairy sighed, waiting for the shoe to drop.

"I wish I knew what my dream was all about." the girl finally said and Romi raised the wand, only to have it flop over as a dud, "Okay, so why was it blocked this time? Are we still in an anti-magic zone?" Her fairy shook her head.

"Sorry. I can't grant that wish. It violates Da Rules." she explained and squirmed under Tootie's expectant glare, "You remember what I said about that boy and his immunity? Well, your dream was put under that same protection because granting a wish involving it has no degree of separation from him." The glare became a blank stare and Romi sighed again. "Your dream reveals his identity, so it violates the vow we fairies made. I can't grant a wish involving it because Da Rules forbid it." she explained further. Tootie threw up her hands in exasperation, fed up with hearing how every step forward she tried to take was being forced away because of that stupid book.

"Ugh! Fine! Whatever!" she yelled in frustration, "I don't wish I knew about that stupid dream! I wish I could be with somebody who could just explain what the heck all this craziness with magic-blockers and mystery boys is doing in Dimmsdale!" Romi whimpered, shut her eyes and lifted her wand. It didn't matter where her magic took them to grant the wish. It filled no requirements to be blocked and she didn't want to face what could happen once the wish actually went through. The two of them vanished in a burst of magical smoke.

~*~*~*~*~*

When the smoke cleared, Tootie found herself in a room filled with people dressed in strange costumes. For a moment she panicked; Romi was fluttering by her in full view, one arm raised to cover her eyes for some reason. What if she was seen and Jorgen Von Strangle came to take her away?

But no one moved and after a puzzled prodding at one of the costumed boys earned her no response, Tootie realized that she'd been taken to a place full of statues, very realistic statues. She looked around herself in confusion. Where was she, exactly? The young Goth could see from the walls and floor that the building was huge and built to resemble something akin to a castle or cathedral, an ancient-looking structure of some kind. There were tapestries all over and, as she began exploring the area, rooms filled with artifacts, pictures, statues and random items that didn't seem quite real. She assumed that she was in a museum of sorts, but what kind?

Romi finally brought her arm down and opened her eyes, squeaking once as she realized Tootie was wandering off without her. In a flash she was in her jacket disguise, wrapped around the girl as she headed down another hall in the quest to find answers.

"That's weird. I wished for someone to explain all the stuff going on in Dimmsdale and you bring me to some museum?" she remarked to the fairy, "Why? What does some old guy know about magic and...?"

"...doesn't explain why Remy would have it if someone else had it first." the mystery boy's voice drifted from a nearby hall. Tootie froze, then brightened. Hey, forget looking for someone to explain this; she'd rather find out from the cutie himself!

"Romi! I wish I was invisible!" she whispered excitedly and Romi poofed free to grant it. She held the wand out to her godchild, the star glittering gold, and the young Goth watched her fairy godmother use it as a fountain pen of sorts, sucking away the color that made her visible. Waving her hands before her, Tootie chuckled. She knew her fingers were wiggling, but she couldn't see them at all! This was going to be fun! Grinning, she hurried off to find the source of the voice, leaving Romi behind to look around in confusion, calling her name softly.

It didn't take her that long. All Tootie had to do was turn a corner and there was the mystery boy in a room with a red-haired man in green clothes. She halted dead in her tracks, mouth open in shock. She knew that man, he was in her dream! He was an angel with beautiful red wings of shining light. And if he was real, then that meant....

Her eyes went back to the mystery boy and it was as if the laws of physics decided to play with gravity for her alone, plummeting her heart into the deepest pits before shooting it into the heavens. That was no mystery boy standing there in pink shirt and hat, glaring intensely at something the older man was holding out to him. That was Timmy Turner, alive and well. Somehow her feet carried her into the room, placing her in a position to study him better as he shook his head slowly.

"Does it matter? We know, now, that at least two other people besides you and Cosmo handled this thing. Whatever this switch was involved in, it was important enough for Remial to consider it a trophy of sorts." the redhead remarked in answer to the partial question Tootie had heard. The fairies from her dream, the green and pink ones, floated by Timmy with equally confused faces. The boy lifted his head with a frustrated glare, arms folded over his chest. Tootie couldn't help it, that serious face, those blue eyes she thought she'd never see again, that messy hair she always was tempted to push out of his face; she gave a happy little sigh of pleasure at being able to see him again, and not in a dream this time.

And both Timmy and Caleb shot their gazes straight at her, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Eeks!" Tootie squealed as the boy fell into that spell-casting pose from her dream, a large circle of white light spinning at his feet as the fairies dropped low to hover by his shoulders, strange wands in their hands. The pink one, Wanda if she remembered correctly, now wielded a large half-war hammer, half-battle axe creation in both hands, a fierce expression on her face not unlike that of a mother willing to tear into Hell itself to protect her child. The green-haired fairy, the one who must be Cosmo, gripped onto a long scythe with a slightly angled handle, its reverse-edged blade shimmering in the light of the museum. Beforehand, he'd had that vacant, dopey look that made him seem fun and kinda stupid; now there was a near-malevolent glint in those green eyes, a strangely twisted smile that seemed to dare her to give him an excuse to use the scythe. The angel-man only stood calmly, staring straight at her before finally speaking.

"All right. I have you on an infrared spectrum, girl. You are an intruder here. Reveal yourself immediately or I will not be responsible for what these three will unleash on you." he ordered coldly. Tootie squeezed her eyes shut with a whimper. This wasn't supposed to happen! She wished to find out what was happening, and now the boy she'd considered her one true love was going to conjure up a magic spell to wipe her out!

"Romi! Help! I wish I was visible again!" she screamed and her fairy flew into the room in a panic.

"There you are! Eeeks! Don't hurt us!" Andromeda wailed, waving her wand maniacally to grant the wish, eyes just as tightly shut as her godchild's. In a blast of smoke and magic, Tootie's body came to full view, huddled and trembling before the group. What was going to happen to her now? She whimpered again.

"Tootie?!" Timmy exclaimed in shock, and she cracked open an eye to look at him, "How did you find me this time?!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

One hour earlier~

The burst of pink and green smoke dropped Timmy into the conference room of the Archives. He pat his clothes clear of excess fairy smoke, then looked up at the couple who'd poofed him there. Wanda had a relieved look on her face, Cosmo was cheerful as always, grinning as he folded his arms over his chest.

"Have fun?" he asked, "Smashing traps is fun, isn't it?" Timmy managed a smile for them, unsure exactly what to say. Between learning Tootie was hanging out with his old friends, seeing Remy ham it up as practically King of Oberon, and watching Trixie sway back and forth between loyalty to Remy and panicky need to protect others, the thought of answering that question made him physically ill. Either that, or he'd come down with a bug somewhere and it wasn't happy with his skipping lunch just to find a nullifier and smash a trap.

"I need to sit." he managed to mumble and headed off to his room in the building to do just that. The fairies looked at each other worriedly, then shot after him.

"What's wrong, Timmy? Something happen in school?" Wanda pressed, clutching her wand tightly as she searched his face for clues. The boy shook his head slightly, quietly walking down the hall to a door not far from the conference room.

"Not really. Not anything that involved a fight or stuff." he replied and pushed the door open, stepping into his 'home-away-from-home'. It was a perfect replica of his bedroom back in Dimmsdale, right down to the empty fishbowl by the bed. This particular bowl was actually used to house the fairies. Timmy flopped back onto the bed, sighing as his mind continued spinning with questions. This wasn't going to work. With all that clutter and confusion, he'd be hard-pressed to focus on the true problem at hand; the destruction of the eight control towers for the anti-magic field.

"See? Everything's fine!" Cosmo cheered and zipped into the bowl in goldfish mode, swimming around happily. Wanda shot him a glare, then looked down at their godchild, unconvinced.

"You don't look well. Are you sure nothing happened? The field on the high school is gone, so you can always wish something away or fixed or...." she suggested, watching his face for a reaction. Timmy looked troubled, brow furrowing slightly in thought.

"I wish...." he began softly, then closed his eyes with a sigh, "No, never mind. It'll undo what I did today. Where's Caleb?" Wanda uttered her own little sigh of defeat and spun her wand in the air, tracing circles with it aimlessly.

"He's doing his final scans on the switch. He didn't look at all happy with it either." she began and mirrored her godchild's previous troubled expression, "According to his early scans, there are four sets of fingerprints on that switch; yours, Cosmo's, Remy's and one other. He hasn't been able to pinpoint exactly who the last set belongs to yet." Timmy sat up suddenly, startled as he looked up at her.

"Someone else had that switch before Remy had it?!" he cried and turned a faint shade of green, gloved hand rising quickly to cover his mouth, "Uugh-mph...." The pink-haired fairy now looked frightened.

"Timmy? What's wrong?! You look sick!" she exclaimed and began waving her arms in a panic, "I knew I shouldn't have let you out of bed so soon! You haven't recovered from that robot ninja army attack!" The boy shook his head and pulled his hand away.

"It's not that." he murmured confusedly, "This is something else.... I feel... weird...." He blinked, then shot out of bed for his bathroom door, slamming it shut behind him. Wanda and Cosmo blinked at the sealed room, then jumped as a knock came at the bedroom door. She waved her wand to partially open the door, flying over to look out at the redhead that stood there just outside.

"The tests are complete. Are you ready for the results?" Caleb asked and tilted his head, "Did Timothy arrive yet? He should hear this as well." Wanda tapped her fingertips to her teeth, eyes darting from the bathroom door to the android furtively.

"Erm, actually.... could you give us a few minutes? Timmy's feeling a bit out of sorts." she remarked vaguely as Cosmo pressed his ear to the bathroom door and mimicked what he heard.

"Bleh! What's 'Bleh'?" the green-haired fairy asked innocently, "Wanda! Is 'Bleh' the latest fad?! I don't wanna be uncool!" Wanda winced and glanced back at the now stern expression of the living android just beyond the doorway.

"I'll wait a little longer for you all, but I'm going to want to run a few tests on him as well." Caleb growled and walked away, muttering irritably to himself about having to play nurse yet again.

"Now, there's rain sounds. Is 'Bleh' out of fashion already?" Cosmo put in and Wanda merely sighed in a mix of exasperation and frustration as she shut the door. "What? I just want to be hip! These fads move too fast!" he added in annoyance. After a moment, he flew back from the door, a strangely serious frown on his face. "It's another step. We'll need to monitor him more closely from here on." he murmured coldly, then smiled brightly at Wanda, "When's dinner?"


The meeting with Caleb in the conference room a half hour later was with mixed feelings. The android stood before the computer with the switch in hand, looking up at a group of charts and graphs on the screen. Timmy walked into the room with the fairies floating by him, one concerned, the other blissfully oblivious to what was going on. He felt somewhat better, now that he'd changed from the often dark clothes of the Neogene persona into his usual pink shirt and hat. The shower helped as well, providing a refuge which was further enhanced by another meditative state, filing all the puzzling mysteries he'd picked up that day into corners of his mind for later contemplation.

Now he could focus on what the android had learned, calmed but still curious.

"Feeling better, I see." Caleb remarked without looking at him, "Are you ready for this? It's still an enigma to me, but this is what I've learned so far." Timmy nodded, hands shoved into his pockets.

"Wanda gave me a basic rundown. You found four sets of fingerprints on the switch. You also figured out where three sets came from, but that last one...." he began and the android finally turned to him.

"Belonged to an adult. The fingerprints that were Remy's are of a size consistent with that of a child." he finished seriously and the young immortal pulled his hands free in shock, stepping back from the redhead as his godparents took on puzzled expressions. "This switch... it was handled by Remy when he was younger, and before that, it was in the possession of an older person." Both of them looked down at the cheap bit of plastic and wire. "Also, I ran a background check on this brand. It's only sold in the Imperial county, and only a small supply of it sold before the company that manufactured it went belly up." the android went on, "I'm assuming this particular switch was bought in Dimmsdale during the time the company existed, and, from the prints I lifted, by the adult I haven't identified yet." Timmy blinked in confusion, then glared down at the switch.

"So you're saying that this thing was bought in Dimmsdale by some grown-up? And somehow it wound up in a rich kid's house?" he asked and shook his head, "That's strange, but it doesn't explain why Remy would have it if someone else had it first." Caleb shrugged slightly.

"Does it matter? We know, now, that at least two other people besides you and Cosmo handled this thing. Whatever this switch was involved in, it was important enough for Remial to consider it a trophy of sorts." he remarked. Timmy continued scowling at the switch, folding his arms over his chest. This was confusing and even more irritating; first a possible deal between Crocker and Remy involving magic zones and traps, now a mystery involving a cheap switch he got as a kid from some older guy....

Wait....

He lifted his head to speak, a sudden insight on the tip of his tongue, when a strangely wistful sigh came out of nowhere. No, not nowhere. He turned a sharp glare towards what appeared to be empty air not far from him, noticing out of the corner of his eye the android doing the same. Something was there. He couldn't see it, but Caleb could be searching through different spectrums of vision to find the source of that sigh. He heard a squeak of surprise and immediately dropped into his stance for spell-casting; without his staff he could only take up a crouched form, ready to dart aside once he finished the incantation.

In the meantime, Cosmo and Wanda caught onto the sudden shift in mood and swapped out their star-topped magic wands to the non-magical battle wands crafted for them by the living doll. They dropped to flank him at shoulder-level, a formation they often trained with on Derris-Kharlan in team practice. Wanda was the physically stronger of the fairy couple and, with the Heartache Hammer in her hands, she could obliterate traps in only a few slams using either the war hammer head or the honed edge of the battle axe blade. Cosmo was lighter, faster, and used the Windcutter Scythe with such lethal brutality at times it scared the young immortal. It was rare for the blade to actually touch anything; usually, Cosmo just whipped it before himself, generating multiple blades of air pressure to slice into his targets from a distance. Timmy hoped there wouldn't be a need to actually use it.

"All right. I have you on an infrared spectrum, girl. You are an intruder here. Reveal yourself immediately or I will not be responsible for what these three will unleash on you." Caleb remarked icily and Timmy looked at him in surprise. Girl?

"Romi! Help! I wish I was visible again!" the voice screamed in terror and he dropped the spell as the fairy from several nights ago flew into the room. Romi? Andromeda? Then that meant....

The fairy squealed something out but she waved her wand and Tootie suddenly appeared in normal view, half-curled in a defensive posture and shaking so hard it looked as though she were trying to generate her own personal earthquake. Caleb raised an eyebrow in surprise, then turned to look at Timmy, but the boy could have cared less at the moment. Just the fact that she was there, she'd followed him again, despite his wish to blur her memory of his identity, was enough to blow away any amount of calm and sense he'd managed to recover.

"Tootie?!" he exclaimed in disbelief, watching her open one eye to peek at him from over her glasses, "How did you find me this time?!"

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