Chapter 17 - Apollo's Rescue

17


Sunset was coming. There wasn't that much time left to get things set up. The sooner Timmy had Apollo in his possession, the sooner he could get the data on the Dark Spires. Once he had cast Cure to heal himself up, he and the two fairies all collapsed together in a tired heap on the sofa, falling asleep on the spot and not waking until the clock chimed at seven p.m. By then they'd all recovered from overexposure to the anti-magic barrier and began making their preparations for the rescue mission.

It hadn't been the first time Timmy had seen Cosmo and Wanda get sick from overexposure to the blanket of magic oppression. It had happened twice before, and each time he raced from the zones back to a safe point to let them rest, begging them for forgiveness for making them stay too long in the field. Of course they held no ill will against him; they'd willingly gone in with him to help. He was their godchild after all, and if he was willing to march into a building and expose himself to the dangers of something blowing up in his face, then so were they.

This was, however, the first time Timmy himself fell ill to that same overexposure. He didn't like it, hoped he wouldn't have to go through it again, and wondered briefly why it took so long for it to even manifest itself in him. Probably because he was human.

But Caleb had specifically said that the field was bad for fairy health. Why should it bother him?

Well, it wasn't like Caleb had never been wrong before.

Timmy ransacked his closet for a fresh set of clothes. The cloak of anonymity was partially lifted from him when it came to Remy. He wouldn't bother trying to hide his face this time, but he still needed to sneak around the area to find the captive fairy. Where in that mansion could he be held? Probably somewhere where his parents couldn't find him, and behind a lot of security.

He picked out the black ensemble again and sighed. If he really wanted to screw with Remy's head and confuse the system in that mansion, all he'd have to do was wear his normal clothes. But that was inviting trouble he didn't have the strength to deal with, so Neogene was going in, not Turner.

Cosmo and Wanda were busy with their own preparations; he could hear the racket in the next room. Changing quickly, he made his way out and knocked on their door. What exactly were they doing that involved so much noise in the bedroom? The door opened and Wanda stuck her head out, blinking at him.

"Are you guys ready? What are you doing in there?" Timmy asked, puzzled. She smiled at him and waved her wand, poofing a bottled ball into the air so that it floated before him.

"Magical decoys! We're making a few for emergencies and Cosmo keeps uncorking them." she remarked and vanished back into the room, the noise having continued on without end. Timmy picked the bottle out of the air and studied it. It seemed like a good idea. He knocked again and Wanda poked her head out once more. "We're almost done, Timmy, just a couple more...." she began but Timmy held the bottle out to her.

"Can you make a few of these, empty, for me? I want to try to put some mana-based magic decoys in them." he remarked and she stared at him, a few strands of her pink hair popping out of place.

"You... you want to make decoys?" she stammered, "You can't.... That's a fairy magic technique." Timmy blinked at her, then sighed.

"Oh, fine. Never mind then." he muttered and handed her the bottled ball. She disappeared into the room once more and he headed downstairs to search the kitchen for empty jars. Fairy technique, yeah, right. Magic was magic and if they could bottle up extras, then so could he!

He found a pair of mason jars and opened one up, peering into it with some confusion. So, how exactly was he going to put magic in a jar? He thought back to the little ball in the bottle and brightened. Maybe his Light orbs would do the trick? Timmy set the jar on the table, stepped back and held out his hand, focusing on the mana of Light. He gathered it together to form the shining sphere, then murmured an incantation to float it into the jar and hover in its center. He screwed on the lid and held it up with a smile.

"Ha! Got it! It's not so hard!" he laughed and promptly placed a second Light orb in the other jar. Racing back upstairs, he knocked on his godparents' door for a third time and both fairies poofed out, wearing backpacks of their own. Timmy held out the jars proudly, showing off the orbs within the glass. "Wanda! Look! I told you I could do it!" he laughed. Wanda blinked at the jars in surprise, then smiled vaguely.

"Magic is magic, I guess. All right, Sport. You proved your point. Let's go." she murmured and flew down the stairs. The brunet watched her leave, then looked up at Cosmo in confusion.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked and the green-haired fairy only smiled vacantly, reaching out to pat his head.

"Nice pets!" he remarked and followed his wife. Puzzled even more, Timmy shoved the jars into his pack, slid the Battle Staff into its place against his back, then headed off to join them.

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

The security around Remy's house had increased. The guard dogs roamed freely and hulking guards stomped around the area in white shirts and black pants. Timmy recognized the outfits; Crocker's anti-magic suits. He wouldn't be wishing these guys to the tropics anytime soon.

He darted among the bushes, froze as he nearly collided with one of the dogs and watched Wanda deal with the canine as it began sniffing around to pinpoint him. She waved her wand, conjured up a robotic cat, and set it loose in the yard with one of the bottled decoys on it. The dog chased after the cat until they vanished into the hedgerows nearby. There was the sound of shattering glass and a large puff of smoke exploded from that point. Timmy stared at his fairy godmother but she only smiled and put a finger to her lips in a signal for silence.

"Somewhere better. I promise." she whispered and fluttered on ahead. The group picked their way through the yard, stopping only when they began to cross paths with the guards. Timmy kept low to the ground, watching with some amount of fear as the towering men swept the grass with flashlights and stony expressions. One beam of light passed so close to him, he had to curl his fingers into a fist to avoid them being spotted. He tried not to breathe, not to move, until one pair of guards walked on in their patrol. He trembled from the effort and that brought a new degree of stress for him.

"Got this one." Cosmo murmured, pulling another bottle free and swapping the star wand for his Windcutter. Timmy gave him a wide-eyed stare and shook his head quickly. Cosmo and the Windcutter; anytime the two were paired, something came away bloody. He couldn't take that risk; not here, not now! His hand shot out, grabbed the fairy's leg as he darted from the safety of the underbrush.

"No! Cosmo! Not the blade!" the brunet hissed, "Something else!" The green-haired fairy only poofed free and skimmed over the grass. He twisted in mid-flight, sweeping the air with the blade of the scythe as he aimed for one of the burly men about to intercept their path. Timmy shut his eyes, uttering a soft moan of despair. This was going to end badly.

But somehow it didn't, and when Wanda finally coaxed him into looking again, all that remained of the guard was the lingering smoke of magic and a few shreds of the anti-magic suit drifting on the wind. Cosmo stood on the lawn, scythe swept behind him in a mimicry of Timmy's own finishing stance, glaring at the empty space where the man had been. The brunet crawled along the ground to him and gazed at the empty space. Fairy magic could not be used to bring death to anyone; this was the most sacred of Da Rules. Cosmo wouldn't break it.

Never.

"Where did he go?" Timmy whispered to his godfather and Cosmo smiled up at him cheerfully.

"Singles bar. It's ladies' night!" he replied with a laugh and changed back to his normal wand, floating on to find another safe route for them to take.

Darkness helped them immensely, and the bright lights that now lined the walls of the mansion were determined to kill their best cover. Timmy sat against the trunk of a tree, gazing up at them in frustration. Now what? Wanda sat on his knee, looking up at them as well, a thoughtful expression on her face. Cosmo stood on his shoulder, leaning against the side of his head as he hummed a nonsensical tune.

"We can try killing the lights." Wanda finally murmured, "If we zap them all at the same time, we can do it. It's just three big ones." She floated up with her husband as Timmy got to his feet and pulled free the Battle Staff. "I'll take the one on the right. Cosmo, get the one on the left. Timmy, take center light." she planned, "On three. One...."

The young immortal summoned up the mana circle, whispering the spell for Photon. It was localized, pinpoint accurate and never missed its mark.

"Two...."

Both fairies lifted their wands in concert, aiming for their assigned light sources. The couple claimed that Cosmo had the most horrible aim in the world; recent training exercises cured him of that fault. The oft brainless fairy now had an accuracy that could only be described as deadly.

"Three!"

Two bursts of magic and a blossom of light hit the three searchlights in synch, shorting them out with small explosions as the glass showered down from the roof. Timmy winced, expecting a horde of dogs and golem-like guards to converge on them, but when nothing happened he looked to his godparents for an explanation.

"You didn't expect us to not silence the sound too, did you, Sport?" Wanda asked with a smile. He rubbed her head gratefully, then made for the wall of the mansion, peering through windows to find a clear entry. "Why not wish for an entrance? We can make one for you on the spot!" Wanda whispered.

"Let me check for anti-magic traps first." the brunet murmured and dug out the radar, "Even though this is a safe zone, he might have a few to keep Apollo confined." He studied the screen and frowned. "It's reporting nothing, but I don't think I can trust this thing anymore. Remy's using newer models of those devices, and Caleb's gear doesn't sense it." he sighed and shoved the radar back into his pouch, "We'll have to risk it for the entry. Guys, I wish we had a door we could walk through to get in Remy's house!" The fairy couple waved their wands and a small door popped into the wall of the mansion. Timmy pushed it open and looked through, scanning the hall visually for signs of detection. Nothing. Dark, quiet, peaceful... all was calm.

It made him nervous.

They went in anyway and silently made their way down the halls and stairways, searching for a room or door that looked as though it was meant to hold a fairy prisoner. Timmy opened one of the jars and let the Light orb out to guide their way, murmuring commands to sweep the little sphere into various corners and niches. Cosmo and Wanda held their wands tightly, looking all around themselves in tense alertness. The moment it looked as though they were to be discovered, they had to hide in Timmy's pack. He couldn't afford to let Remy or Juandissimo Magnifico see them both.

"This place is huge! How are we supposed to find Apollo in this maze before sunrise?" Wanda murmured worriedly.

"Can't fairies sense other fairies, or something?" Timmy asked with a tired sigh, "You guys need to start carrying pagers or better yet, a GPS tracker!"

"We already do! Our wands!" Cosmo answered cheerfully, waving his at the brunet's face, "La-la-la! The wands are all tied to Fairy World's Fairy World Wide Web! We're networked!"

"It's no good to us if we can't go to Fairy World and access the network, you idiot!" Wanda shot back, "We're banished, remember? We can't even get our wands recharged!"

"Then why do you keep asking me to make wishes if your wands are running out of power?" Timmy sighed and blinked, lifting his right arm with a sudden thought, "Hey, you're right. You said your wands are your homing signals. The map you guys gave me, it can access the Fairy World Wide Web and track your wands!" He pushed aside the sleeve and began tapping at the keys. "All I have to do is type in the name of the fairy I want to track, right? A-P-O-L-L-O. Hope it works." the young immortal muttered and pressed 'Enter'.

The virtual map bloomed into view, magnifying itself down with each passing moment. There was Earth, now North America, now the U.S., now California. It zoomed further down to the Imperial county, again to Dimmsdale, once more to the upper-class district. Timmy watched hopefully as the map continued narrowing down to Remy's mansion, and finally... a floor-plan of the building blossomed in place of the map, a three-dimensional holographic representation of the mansion with a tiny golden crown shining in place.

"Wow! Technology sure comes in handy!" Wanda remarked idly, blinking at the map. Timmy tapped at a few more keys and a second marker appeared in the hologram, a small pink spot that pulsed with light only two floors down from the crown that represented Apollo.

"Okay, here's where we are, and there's Apollo. Now we're getting somewhere!" he laughed and traced a path to the crown, "We'll take these stairs here, follow this hallway to the next staircase up, pass by this hall and he'll be in the room at the end of this one."

"Yay! A dollhouse!" Cosmo cheered and struggled in surprise as Timmy turned and grabbed him, clasping one hand over his mouth.

"Keep it down, Cosmo! You wanna wake up the whole house?!" he growled, "This is a rescue mission! We can't rescue Apollo if we all get captured, too!" He slowly released his godfather and glared at him until Cosmo nodded in silence, then turned and began walking down the hall towards the staircase on the map, the Light orb bobbing along to illuminate the path.

The house itself, the mansion, didn't have any guards within the walls. Timmy decided it was because of Remy's arrogance; who could make it past all that security outside to get inside? He smiled. The One Who Stands Beyond Death's Reach, that's who. He finished climbing the last set of stairs and sent the orb flitting towards the hallway where Apollo's room was located. Just as the group began walking towards it, the orb suddenly was snuffed, vanishing as though someone had puffed it out like a birthday candle. Timmy froze, throwing out his arms to stop his fairies from going any further.


"Nullifiers." he whispered, eyes wide, "He's filled that hall with nullifiers." Cosmo and Wanda fluttered close to him as he brought up the map again, staring at the corridor with the captive fairy's room. All along the walls leading to the final door were strange curves. No doors, no rooms, just a line of half-spheres embedded in the architecture in a staggered formation, filling the hall with a thick blanket of anti-magic energy.

"We can't get through that! We've barely recovered from the exposure earlier today; another heavy dose and we'll be out of commission for good!" Wanda cried softly, clutching her wand close to her body as though its presence would protect her. Timmy pulled the staff from his back once more, holding it steady in both hands, eyeing the wicked hook and its row of spikes.

"I can go in first, smash up the nullifiers and clear a path for you." he remarked and began to move on when Wanda grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"You can't go in there, either! You're being affected by the nullifiers too!" she exclaimed. He looked back at her, puzzled.

"But Caleb said they only affect fairies. I'm human, remember?" he pointed out.

"Or are youuu?" Cosmo sang in that insinuating tone he so often used at the wrong times. Timmy gave him an exasperated glare.

"I'm human; I may be immortal, I may have magic of my own now, but I'm still human." he grumbled and shrugged, "For all we know, I could have just had a bug that made me sick at about the same time you guys got sick from the anti-magic field. It's just a coincidence."

"Caleb could be wrong." Wanda pointed out.

"About so many things in a short span of time? Hello-o! He's a super advanced robotic angel with more magic in his pinkie than I have in my whole body!" the brunet shot back in annoyance, "I'll be fine! Trust me!" He turned to start attacking, only to be held back by the fairies yet again. "What now?!" he hissed.

"You can't just smash them up. That will make a lot of noise and we can't use our magic to erase the sounds!" the pink-haired fairy added desperately, "There's no way a magical creature can get through that field safely, and no chance of you being able to destroy the field without giving us all away!" Timmy scowled at her words. This was getting annoying.

"Ugh! Fine! I'll just run down the hall really fast and get in the room, okay?!" he finally declared, throwing his hands up in defeat.

"What if it's locked?" Cosmo asked and Timmy shook his fists at him.

"Then find the key! I wish you would just find that key to that stupid room!" he snarled and the fairy pulled a red ribbon tied to a small brass key from his pants pocket.

"You mean this one? It was in the same box as the switch." Cosmo remarked and blinked as the brunet snatched it from his hand, "Hey! I was doing important fairy stuff with that!" He held his arms akimbo and put on an annoyed face, "Get your own ribbon key!"

Timmy shed the backpack and staff once again. He didn't need the extra weight slowing him down. If Apollo was in that room and couldn't get out, then there was a good reason for it. The only way to escape with him could be to run him through that gauntlet of nullifiers, and the faster he got them through, the less risk that Apollo would get sick from the field or, worse, turn to fairy dust.

He took a deep breath, strode to the maw of the nullifier gauntlet and stared down the hallway at the white door far at the end. Even standing here, not even a step into that corridor of fairy doom, he could feel a sick sensation curling in his stomach. He wanted to hurl again, find a bathroom, bury his head into the porcelain bowl and never pull it out again.

He should have taken some kind of medicine for that stupid bug, chugged down a bottle of Pepto or something. This wasn't helping him at all.

"Make it fast." Cosmo murmured.

"Fly." Wanda whispered, eyes wide with worry and fear, "Don't just run, Timmy... fly!"

"I'm so gonna regret this in the morning." Timmy sighed and shot down the hall of nullifiers, key in hand.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. His stomach lurched only a few steps into the hall. He kept his mouth shut, focused on the door, moved forward as fast as he could. And yet it was like running through a pool of gelatin, everything physics could come up with working against him, desperate to make sure it would be eternity before he reached that door. The world tilted askew, his mouth went dry.

Maybe Caleb had been wrong. Anyone with magic in them could feel the nullifiers ripping through them.

And then he was there, the key in his hand moving of its own accord as it clicked into place and the door flowed open, streaks of paint and wood swirling before his eyes as the colors spun and mixed in a kaleidoscope of paint and matter. He fell into the mess and gasped, shutting his eyes as he lay there on the floor, thankful for the cool tile that pressed against the side of his head.

Once the world stopped spinning, he was going to go back to that android and kick him in the shin. Only affects fairies, yeah, right. Maybe it went chaotic on him, too, flying so close to the Dark Spire. Sure would explain all his crazy actions and speeches lately.

"Ugh." Timmy groaned and pushed himself up at last. He couldn't stay there for very long, no matter how good the floor felt. He looked around himself dazedly, then snapped back to alertness at the sight of a male fairy staring at him in confusion from within the confines of a butterfly net bolted to the top of a table. The fairy had a mop of red-gold hair that flopped over one of his eyes, the matching color orb locked on him. Dressed in fiery-patterned jacket, blue pants and black shoes, he did seem more impressive than most fairies Timmy had ever seen. Was this Apollo, Trixie's fairy godfather?

"Okay. So what's your deal?" the fairy asked at last and Timmy rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"I'm here to rescue you. Duh." he griped and braced himself until the world finally decided to just pick a spot and stay there. "I'm Timmy Turner. Trixie sent me to save you." The fairy froze in the middle of his wings fluttering, eyes growing wide and round as his face went from summer tan to winter pale.

"She knows who you are?!" he squeaked and the boy shook his head. "Then why did she ask you to help me?"

"She saw me wish myself away from Oberon High. My identity is still safe, but your godchild isn't." Timmy explained and began pulling at the net, snapping strands to create an opening, "She's stuck playing girlfriend to Remy to keep you safe from Crocker." Apollo flew out the hole and stretched in relief, twirling his wand in one hand before sliding it into a sheath at his side.

"You've changed quite a bit since last anyone in Fairy World saw you, Timmy Turner. I didn't even recognize you!" he remarked with a slight grin, "You have no idea just how bummed that place got, knowing you can't go visit them." Timmy snorted at the words, shaking his head.

"Don't go telling me that I'm the Heart of Fairy World, too." he muttered.

"Nah. You're not that vital to us. Just that we don't fill our quota for crazy adventures quite so easily now." Apollo corrected with a laugh and floated down to hover before the brunet at face level, "So how do we get out of here? Remy's got the only hall out of here full of magic-blockers and there's some weird fairy trap in this room. If I so much as charge up my wand, it'll be all over me." Timmy searched the room visually, trying to spot the trap. Just like he thought, the radar hadn't picked up anything. It must have been one of the newer models like those nullifiers outside, a redesigned trap Crocker put out on the market after getting a buttload of cash from Remy.

Assuming there really was a connection between them.

"We're going to have to go through the hall. There's no other way out." he finally decided and looked up at Apollo's incredulous face, "I made it through okay. If I can keep up the speed, I can get us both out fine as well." He held out his arms to take in the fairy. "Trust me, Apollo. For Trixie." he added and the fiery fairy sighed in resignation, fluttering down to be held close. "Let me apologize ahead of time if I squeeze too hard. Those nullifiers have been making me feel wonky lately."

"They hadn't before?"

Timmy didn't answer, just took another deep breath and dove through the open door into the hallway. The fairy uttered a moan of agony as the world decided it didn't like its spot and began spinning away in Timmy's vision to find someplace more comfortable to sit. The hall seemed to stretch endlessly long, the fairy in his clutches went into a fit of convulsions, and then he was through, falling, twisting in mid-air before someone caught him, held him close as he was dragged away from the field of anti-magic energy. A cooling hand pressed against his forehead and cheeks and he thought back to the comforting touch of his mother as a small boy. He loosened his arms around Apollo and sighed in relief.

"Mom...." he murmured, drifting in the dream of home, of being in his own room, in his own bed, and the not-very-bright woman that was his mother sitting by him during rare times of need she actually was there for.

"Timmy, Sweetie, you have to get up...."

"Dun wanna, Mom...."

"Heh, he thinks you're his mother." Apollo's weak voice chuckled, "Jorgen would have a fit. Fairy godparents aren't meant to replace a human's true parents."

"Oh, hush! I just took a human form to have the strength to catch him!" Wanda's voice snapped and Timmy cracked open an eye to see if the world had chosen its new spot, his dream quickly fading in the face of reality. Apollo was now leaning on Cosmo, whose wings fluttered maniacally to keep them both supported in the air. Wanda had indeed made herself taller, more human-like, her arms wrapped around him protectively as she knelt on the floor to support his weight. He smiled slightly. Lucky, he was so lucky to have them as his fairy godparents; who else would have a fairy so willing to get horribly sick for their godchild? His eyes picked out Apollo, sagging in the air as he tried to recover from the dash through the hall, and mentally sighed, reminding himself that all fairies would do that. They had to protect their godchild and do anything they could, within reason, for them. It was in Da Rules.

He blinked in surprise as Wanda nuzzled her cheek to the top of his head, murmuring softly in words he couldn't understand. Cosmo just grinned and Apollo... well, if he didn't look sick before, he did now.

"Okay, that's taking it too far, lady." he griped, "He's awake now; let him up!"

"Feeling okay, Timmy? How was it? Rough ride, huh?" Cosmo chirped out jokingly and Timmy sat up to rub his head, Wanda immediately poofing back to normal and floating by him, blushing furiously.

"How many nullifiers did that guy put there?!" he exclaimed in a low voice, "Geez! I thought I was gonna get pulled inside out!" He held out his arm, blinked at sudden dullness of the white metal armband, then shrugged and checked the map. "Well, we got you free. Let's get down to the first floor so these things don't affect us any more. From there, we'll use a magic warp to get to Trixie's place." He gave the group a cheerful smile despite still feeling dizzy from the experience of running past so many nullifiers. "We got lucky tonight! I didn't set off any alarms or anything!" he exclaimed and led the way back to the stairs.


Their exit from the mansion was a little stranger and somewhat less frightening than the break-in and the rescue itself. One floor to go before the group could reach the main foyer, they ran into Remy Buxaplenty himself, standing in his money-print pajamas and clutching a small sack of bills like a stuffed animal. He gave them a sleepy glare.

"Who the hell are you people and why are you in my house?" he demanded in a slurred tone. Cosmo brightened and flew up to him before Timmy could grab onto the fairy.

"Well, Mr. Sleepy-Head, we're not a group of your old rivals being led out of your mansion by Timmy Turner, who was brought back from the dead as an immortal, after rescuing Trixie Tang's fairy godparent in an attempt to find out more about these Dark Spire things so that we can destroy them and free Dimmsdale from its magic-oppressed doom!" he reported in a breathless and cheerful rush. Remy frowned and blinked slowly at him.

"Run that by me again? I don't think I quite heard you properly." he asked with a small yawn. Wanda joined the green-haired fairy, shoving him aside as she plastered on another smile.

"This is just a dream you're having, Remy. You were getting up to have some water and then this straaaange dream snuck up on you!" she told him, wiggling her fingers at the blonde. She waved her wand and a glass of water poofed into the boy's free hand. "But there's your water now, so you can go on back to bed and finish this crazy, wacked-out dream!" The blonde blinked again, then nodded slowly.

"Um, of course. Yes, that seems to make perfect sense." he agreed and shook his finger in a trance at Cosmo, "Because this idiot here made no sense whatsoever. You, you buffoon, are fired. Good night and cheerio." With that, Remy turned and shuffled back to his room. Timmy watched with one eyebrow raised, arms folded over his chest.

"I can't believe he actually bought that." he remarked and smiled at his godparents, "Way to go, Cosmo and Wanda!"

"You'd be surprised what sleepy teens believe when you tell them stuff in the right way and at the right time." Wanda remarked smartly as the group continued on.

"Really? I should remember that." Timmy mused, then blinked in sudden realization, "Hey, you haven't done that to me, have you?"

"You? Course not."

"Really?"

"Really."

"All right...."

"Hah! Works like a dream!" Cosmo laughed, inciting yet another confusing argument as the boy and the three fairies made their way out.

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

The blast of smoke that cleared in Trixie's yard was a mix of pink, green and red. Timmy waved away the excess and looked up at the girl's balcony. Her light was on; was she up late doing homework? This late? It was two a.m.! He murmured a wish for stairs leading up to the girl's room and raised an eyebrow at the two floating planks of marble that appeared before him.

"Trust us. Just walk." Wanda pointed out to him, "We're conserving some magic right now." With a shrug, the boy stepped onto the planks, noting with a pleasant surprise that as long as he continued stepping into the air, the marble would shift to take its place and create another stair towards the balcony. He jumped off at the apex and landed softly before the glass doors leading to Trixie's room. Cosmo, Wanda and Apollo all floated around him, watching as he knocked on the glass.

From within, he could see some movement, and he swallowed as the Asian girl pushed aside one of the filmy white curtains that partially blocked the doors to see what had caused the knocking. A look of surprise passed over her face, followed by a joyful expression as she opened the glass doors and held out her arms to the red-haired fairy.

"Apollo! You're home!" she exclaimed and hugged the fairy as he flew into her embrace. Timmy shoved his hands into his pockets, looking down at his boots as he kept quiet. A reunion between a fairy and their godchild was something he couldn't intrude on, not even with the importance of the data he was hoping she had now. That, and Trixie's nightgown was playing havoc with his mind.

"I wish she was wearing something more covering." he mumbled absently and the fairy couple lifted their wands in response. Trixie blinked as her nightgown was wrapped in a plush violet robe, giving the brunet some amount of relief.

"Huh? Oh, that's right. You're still here." Trixie remarked with a laugh, "Sorry, but I'm really grateful you rescued Apollo!" She hugged the robe and gave him a strange little smile. "So, you're a shy one. How cute!"

"Um, yeah. About the info on those spires?" Timmy changed the subject quickly, "And why were you up so late?" Trixie shrugged and headed for her dresser, opening one of the drawers and rummaging through its contents.

"I had a feeling something was going to happen tonight, so I thought I'd stay up and find out what it was." she replied and pulled out a small glass case with a mini-disc tucked inside. She held it up, tapping the glass as she walked back to him. "This was a pain to get, Timothy. I had to do a lot of sweet-talking and kissing-up to have Remy show me his files, then I had to do a lot more to get him to leave the room on some silly errand just so I could have the time to burn them onto this mini-DVD." the girl told him with a slightly exasperated huff.

"I'm sure it was." Timmy muttered, reaching out for the disc, blinking in confusion as she moved it out of his reach, shaking a finger at him.

"Not quite so fast. I had to really work at getting this for you." Trixie purred.

"Oh, and you think all I did was walk up to Remy's house, ring the doorbell and say to him, 'Hey, Trixie wants her fairy back now. Can you just dump him in my arms for me, pretty please?'" Timmy growled in frustration and tried to grab the disc, "Hand it over! We had a deal!"

"Apollo, I wish there was a glass wall between me and him." Trixie remarked and Timmy's hand smacked into an invisible wall conjured by the fairy he had just rescued. He pounded on it in frustration, then glared at the fairy.

"Traitor! After all I went through for you!" he yelled. Apollo shrugged.

"You're not my godchild. Hey, I'm grateful for the rescue and all, but she wishes it, I dish it." he replied and spread his hands out peaceably. "Business, man. Sorry."

"Two can play this game. I wish the wall was gone." Timmy growled and both Cosmo and Wanda waved their wands to grant it. The glass shimmered out of existence and Trixie watched it fall with disinterest, arms folded above her waist as she continued tapping the mini-disc against herself.

"I wish for a barrier his fairies can't get rid of." she retaliated softly and Apollo conjured a disk on the floor that erupted into a second wall that blocked the brunet's access to the data disc. "It really was a lot of work, Timothy. Just rescuing Apollo doesn't seem like a good enough exchange." the Asian girl remarked thoughtfully, "I'll just keep this barrier up until I think of something else you can do for me."

Timmy kicked at the disk experimentally, ignoring the words coming from Trixie. His fairies couldn't get rid of it, so making a wish to that effect would be pointless. He couldn't physically damage it, magic equipment had that kind of durability to withstand a thousand blows before the paint got scratched. That left the option of blasting it away himself, using mana-based magic. He took up the stance, focusing as he conjured the circle of light and took aim at the disk. He needed that data to save the city, and he wasn't about to let Trixie dangle it over him like a bone until she had every one of her little whims met.

That's what Apollo was for.

"Release the light! Photon!" he exclaimed and the girl jumped back in alarm as the disk on the floor erupted into a mess of metal and silicon from the explosion of Light mana. She blinked at it, then at him.

"How did you do that?!" she blurted out as the barrier collapsed. Apollo stared at the burnt-out disk.

"I told you that Remy wasn't the only one with power. Now, the disc, Trixie. We had a deal, and I want that data." Timmy growled, holding out his hand for the case. She looked down at the disk again, then up at him.

"Tell me who you are, and you can have it. Normal kids can't do stuff like that. Are you a super-hero? Like from the comics?" she asked him quietly.

"I am The One Who Stands Beyond Death's Reach. I'm here to prevent more deaths like mine. That disc you have is all I need to save more lives than you could ever know." the brunet replied coolly, "The longer you hold it from me, the greater the chances someone will lose their life because their fairy couldn't use magic to help them. Do you really want to go through life as an accessory to murder?" She paled, staring at him in shock as she held out the disc at last.

"Finally! The data!" Wanda exclaimed, "Let's get it and go home!"

Timmy reached out and grabbed the disc with a sigh of relief. Home sounded really good now. Just head back, flop into bed and sleep the rest of the day away. Oh, and wish up an excuse for the teachers in school to cover his tracks. Hand the data to Caleb for analysis....

What was she doing?

He froze in shock as the Asian stepped close and pressed her lips to his in a kiss. She held it for a moment, long enough for his mind to start spinning as the rest of him relaxed, then pulled away to look up at him with a strange expression on her face.

"I'll find out who you were, then, ghost boy. I'll avenge your death." Trixie murmured and turned away, "You can go now."

He left, wondering why he couldn't just wish for a better understanding of girls in general, fingers pressed to his mouth as though the whole thing were just something his mind conjured up.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment