(no subject)

[soulfulsin]

Fandom: Fairly Oddparents
Canon or AU: AU
Fic: Speak No Evil

A/N: I really should be working on the fic that I update on Mondays, especially since I’m flying out on Monday.

Eh. Oh well. My mood’s been kinda all over the place.

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Asmodeus studied the infant one of his underlings had brought to him. The girl was obviously premature--she was less than half Poof’s size--and her pink eyes tracked Asmodeus as he paced across the floor in their hideout. After nearly killing Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda, Asmodeus procured their castle, which was located deep within Anti-Fairy World. If Jorgen and the Council knew what was good for them, they’d leave him alone until Wanda came crawling back on her knees.

Poof’s anti- fairy’s old cradle was here, and Asmodeus had dumped the girl in it. The room was dilapidated, but a stolen wand patched things up, even removing the accumulated fairy dust before Asmodeus spent the evening sneezing.

Ozy was out getting supplies and checking on their minions. He was also looking for an angle to either compel that Seelie whore into returning or abducting her without running afoul of Cosmo. What vexed Asmodeus more was that the unnamed girl had her mother’s intelligence. He could tell by the way she observed him that she was more aware than she should be at that age.

Scoffing, he studied his surroundings. He’d replaced the broken flat-screen TV with a new one, as well as repaired the broken down couch, chair, and bookcases. With a flick of his wrist, he turned on the TV to watch Fairy World dissolve into panic. Reporters trying to steer clear of the worst of it nonetheless wound up trapped.

Asmodeus laughed as fairies in the background screamed, begging for their lives or someone to stop hurting them. Goddamn, but it was making him horny. He flicked his wrist again and glimpsed Wanda curled into a tight ball on a four-poster bed. Tears streaked her cheeks, and she was sobbing like her heart was broken. Cosmo and Timmy were absent, but Asmodeus didn’t fool himself into thinking they’d abandoned her. They had to be nearby.

Leaning forward on the couch, he soaked up her misery and caressed the stolen wand. He was painfully hard now, and he wanted her more than ever. However, he was also aware that this could be a trap. Cosmo might not be smart enough to set it, but Asmodeus couldn’t put it past Timmy and Wanda.

Goddamn, he wished Ozy had killed that kid. It would’ve solved a lot of problems.

Perhaps he could bring the slut to him. Appearing in her house would’ve set off alarms, but transporting her might work. He couldn’t tell if anything was blocking him from accessing her. Squeezing the wand, he concentrated on transporting her from the bed to his couch.

Wanda’s eyes opened, and she clung to her wand so tightly that her knuckles were white. The infant behind him whimpered, her lower lip quivering. It was the goddamn twins all over again. How the hell had all of his children sided with the Seelie slut instead of him? He’d heard that trauma during pregnancy, especially a magical pregnancy, might have unwanted side effects, but this was absurd.

Fury overrode common sense. He pulled on the link between the two of them and used it to drag her, inch by inch, to him. Since light magic wasn’t doing the trick, he seeded the spell with dark magic, too. Wanda blanched and countered the spell. Nonetheless, her breathing was shallow, and Asmodeus knew he was draining her.

((Stop fighting,)) he bade her. ((Give in. You know it’s no use. I will have you back.))

She glared through the TV at him. Sparks flew from her wand, and despite her utter misery, she looked enraged.

((You know that you belong to me,)) he growled. ((Fighting it will only make it worse once I get my hands on you again.))

He encountered heavier magical resistance. He could feel her terror in the corrupted link, but she was being stubborn as hell. Jaws set, eyes narrowed, and her gaze fixated on him, Wanda wasn’t giving an inch more than she had to. The infant behind him stared at her mother, and he wondered how much of this Wanda could see. Maybe it was time for an experiment.

He shifted the TV so that it broadcasted from both sides. Wanda eyed him suspiciously and then glanced behind him. The infant, cocking her head, regarded her mother with an infuriating amount of love and blind trust. She was supposed to be half-Unseelie, damn her. Somehow Wanda had brainwashed their children in the womb.

“I knew you had her,” Wanda said; her voice was tight and controlled. A few errant tears slipped down her cheeks, but she’d mostly mastered herself. It occurred to him that without the geas, when she was armed on her own turf, he might have difficulty controlling her. He knew she wanted him dead. However, he also knew that she was magically weaker than him and that he could take her in a fight, fair or otherwise.

The idea was to keep her off-balance. She could defend herself with a wand when she had the confidence and support for it. He had to knock her down again.

A cruel smile split his lips. That was always the fun part--breaking them.

Flicking the wand casually, he set the infant on fire. Wanda snarled, blasting him through the TV. Shit. He’d made it a portal, not a two-way mirror. Asmodeus banished her counterattack before it reached him and then glanced behind him. The infant had put herself out, but she hadn’t escaped unscathed. A large burn had formed beneath her right eye.

Asmodeus growled. A little closer and he could’ve poked out one of them, which would’ve been preferable because somehow, that little imp had Wanda’s exact eye shade. He put her to the back of his mind to create a weapon Wanda knew intimately. The color drained from her face, and he laughed.

He remembered so many happy occasions using his favorite dagger.

“Here’s the story, bitch,” he said. “Either you return of your own free will, or I see how long it’ll take before this kid becomes kindling.

“It’s clearly too late for me to influence her--somehow, you’ve corrupted my children. Although, perhaps nearly killing her will teach her where her loyalties should lie.”

Wanda glared; he was pleased to see she was trembling. She squeezed her wand, but before the tip lit, Cosmo and Timmy appeared. Timmy was gorging himself on a strange mix of churro, hot dog, and hamburger that nauseated Asmodeus. Cosmo, meanwhile, had chocolate stains on his face and held out a large chocolate chunk for his wife. Wanda shook her head and then pointed in Asmodeus’s direction.

“You haven’t eaten anything all day,” Cosmo complained, not turning his head. “You keep isolating yourself. That’s not like you.”

He wafted the chocolate’s smell under her nostrils. Wanda moaned, hesitating. Asmodeus knew how tempting Wanda found chocolate; she was a glutton for it. Her nostrils flared.

“Oh…but I can’t…” she breathed.

“Why not?” Cosmo said. “You have to eat something. C’mon, baby.”

He grinned. “If you want, I could get out the chocolate whipped cream, and you can lick it off me.”

“Ew, gross,” Timmy said.

“And what you’re eating isn’t?” Wanda countered. Her weak voice and darting eyes caught Timmy’s attention, if not Cosmo’s. Asmodeus took that as his cue, flicked his wrist, and the iron dagger floated toward the infant. He caressed the girl’s cheeks with its tip and watched the blood pool to the surface. Thus far, it’d been only little scratches.

However, he had an extensive history with torture, especially inflicting it. The child wouldn’t last long, but she wasn’t the main attraction. Wanda had gone white, and her breathing was strained.

“You’d hurt your own kid?” Timmy snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Asmodeus sneered. “She’s a pawn. If she were male and not inexplicably linked physically and emotionally to the whore, I might reconsider. As it is, well…”

He shrugged. “She’s too young to matter for anything except cannon fodder.”

Cosmo spun in midair to see where his wife and son were looking. The churro fell, forgotten, from his hand. Tears welled in his eyes, especially when he looked back and forth between her and Asmodeus. He pulled her into a tight embrace, and she hugged him back.

“As I mentioned, slut, you have two choices.”

“Stop. Calling. Her. That.” Cosmo said from between clenched teeth. He looked far more belligerent about it than she did--she looked away, but not before Asmodeus saw the shame written all over her face. He laughed. Cosmo might not believe him, might refuse to denigrate her, but the bitch knew the truth.

“Either you return to me, and I let this child live,” Asmodeus said. “Or you stay there, and I see how long it takes before she stops recovering. It is quite fun to bring people to the brink of death and then back. Isn’t it, Seelie whore?”

“Wanda, what’s he talking about?” Cosmo said warily. She shook her head.

“Tick-tock, harlot. Tempus fugit,” Asmodeus said and studied the infant. The terror in her eyes matched her mother’s. Tears welled, and the baby burst into loud wails. Storm clouds gathered overhead, and Asmodeus groaned. Unpredictable baby fairy magic wasn’t happening, not on his watch.

He considered hitting the child in the head to knock it out, but that might cause brain damage. He wanted to avoid anything permanent until he knew which way the winds blew.

“I wish the baby were here, with us!” Timmy cried. Asmodeus had the infant in his spell beam, which blocked off their magic temporarily. He’d have to keep the child under his control to prevent Timmy’s wish from going into effect.

Cosmo and Wanda glared, though he knew hers was a facade. By pretending to be horrified and not petrified, she thought she was proving something. All it proved to him was that she was a terrible liar.

Asmodeus brandished the iron dagger and pressed its tip into the baby’s right cheek. The infant flailed its tiny fists indignantly and tried to hit him. Asmodeus snorted at its pathetic attempt to defend itself. In response, he left the tip right above its heart. Cosmo, Wanda, and Timmy gasped.

“I’m not bluffing,” Asmodeus said. “Either come to me, or her blood is on your hands.”

“I wish Jorgen was here!” Timmy cried. Asmodeus could see the human child wracking his insignificant mind for a magical solution.

Cosmo and Wanda raised their wands to no avail. The wands immediately deflated.

Asmodeus grinned. “Either the fool is dead, or he’s not close enough to your magic to be affected by it. Care to try again? I warn you--my patience is limited.”

The infant’s screams were almost impossible to ignore. Asmodeus was tempted to stab her out of a fit of pique. However, his only leverage over that slut was the baby. If he killed her now, Wanda might fly into a rage and then attempt to gain the Council’s assistance again.

Asmodeus couldn’t have that.

That didn’t mean the child would live permanently, but it made a wonderful weapon to dangle over that bitch’s head. The slut might hate how the child was conceived, and she might even have mixed feelings about its existence. However, the Seelie Court was all about “love and goodwill.” Especially toward small, helpless children.

He glanced back to spy their reactions.

“Threatening a baby is low, even for you,” Timmy snapped. Asmodeus snorted--either the kid had a sentimental heart or, more likely, he was imagining his godbrother in the child’s stead. The child didn’t resemble Poof, as far as Asmodeus could tell, but Timmy had helped to bring Poof into the world. He had to be sensitive to child endangerment, his own notwithstanding.

“Is it?” Asmodeus said casually. “Ask your godmother where this dagger has been.”

Wanda, who’d been floating above the bed, crashed as if she could no longer support her weightless self. Her expression was haunted, and he thrust the dagger around and twisted it, just in case the message remained unclear. The bitch was on the brink of another flashback; all he needed to do was nudge her to send her over the edge.

Her eyes and makeup were the only spots of color in her face. She was as pale as death.

“Wanda?” Timmy said quietly. “Stay with us, damn it!”

“What did he do to you?” Cosmo asked Wanda in an undertone. She didn’t answer him. Instead, she tried to push him away, but his arms locked around her waist. It looked like they’d need the Jaws of Life to separate the two fairies.

“Mama!”

At first, Asmodeus thought the cries emanated from behind the on-screen trio. Then a wave of heat narrowly missed the top of his head. Lily and Matilda floated defensively before their younger sibling and pointed their rattles at him. Asmodeus laughed hysterically, tears in his eyes.

“Three in one, slut!”

“Come home right now!” Wanda ordered; at the last word, her voice broke.

“The facade is wearing thin,” he retorted. “You’re still terrified of me, and now it’s worse because you know that I have three out of four.”

Leander floated behind his mother’s head, and Asmodeus squeezed his wand to summon the last child. This was the one he’d wanted. The others were superfluous.

“Come here, little one,” Asmodeus crooned. “You don’t belong with that whore. You’re destined for much greater things.”

It took Asmodeus several minutes to piece together what happened afterward. As far as he knew, he was in control, and the others were at his mercy. All he needed to do was seize Leander and kill the rest. He’d been preparing to do just that, figuring that one hostage would be easier to handle and that the bitch would still respond to Leander’s peril.

Then the world exploded into noise and heat. It felt like a volcano had erupted. The lava flow seared through anything it touched, including him.

His vision and hearing were obliterated. The sensation in his limbs was gone. The pain didn’t arrive immediately. Instead, he went into shock.

An eternity passed; sounds and vision returned slowly. He hadn’t heard a wish before it all went to hell, but he’d also forgotten that Cosmo and Wanda could use magic without Timmy granting them permission first. He’d also been counting on Wanda’s fear paralyzing her into indecision.

It must have had the opposite effect.

Flames crackled behind him, and all he saw was smoke. Choking, he reached for his wand to clear the air. His fingers brushed against the iron dagger, and he strained toward it without being able to see. It slammed down and pinned his hand to the floor.

Howling, he squinted to see who his attacker might be. The smoke disappeared, and Asmodeus had a half second to be grateful the smoke was gone before he realized it was Wanda wielding the dagger. Cosmo and Timmy had grabbed the babies, and Cosmo had healed the premature baby fairy. They glared balefully at Asmodeus.

The slut twisted the knife and severed tendons. Asmodeus howled, finally seeing his wand. Wanda shifted her foot into a giant lead block and then slammed the block down onto his free hand. To add insult to injury, she ground her heel until he heard bones shatter.

Asmodeus squirmed, gritting his teeth to suppress a scream, and she leaned down to look at him. He spat in her face, and she ignored it.

He’d seen a look of uncomprehending rage on Cosmo’s face once. The idiot wasn’t made for berserker behavior.

Wanda, on the other hand…

“You should have put another dark curse on me,” she whispered. “Because, as you were so kind to mention, hon, it’s possible to bring someone to the brink of death and then reverse it. Over and over.”

Asmodeus’s breath caught. Wanda looked sadistic.

“Give me one good reason not to slit your throat,” she said, only audible to him and possibly Cosmo.

“I can’t feel your pain, which means you’re not in the Bond,” she added. “You’re a leech, drawing on our magic and my mind. I’m sick and tired of you calling the shots.

“Yes, I’m still terrified, but…”

She swallowed. “I won’t let you control me anymore.”

Asmodeus closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on healing the injuries she’d inflicted. Terrific pain shot through him, and he realized she’d kicked him onto his back. The action had wrenched the knife out of his hand and left a hole he could see through. He felt ill. The hole in his hand was the size of a quarter.

He scrambled desperately toward the wand, which she kicked away. Timmy picked up the wand and pocketed it.

“Wanda?” Timmy said, and she shook her head, not responding aloud.

Instead, she straddled Asmodeus. Under other circumstances, this might be arousing, assuming he could seize the upper hand again. Wanda grabbed the iron dagger, turned around, and pinned him to the floor. This time, it wasn’t a relatively benign area like his left hand.

She drove the dagger as hard as possible into his groin. Asmodeus screamed at the top of his lungs, especially when she twisted the knife into a circle like she might sever his crotch. His blood pounded in his ears, and if he’d been nauseated before, it was nothing compared to now. He could feel his heartbeat in his mouth.

It was hard to hear what was happening between the pain and his heart pounding.

“Wow…” Cosmo said faintly. “I thought I was bad news when I was angry.”

“Did you forget she’s a mafia don’s daughter?” Timmy cried. He was shaking, and he stepped toward her. She remained perched on Asmodeus’s waist, and she even wriggled to get her point across. She knew he couldn’t possibly be aroused, and she loved it.

“Wanda, stop!” Timmy begged.

“Why should I?” she scoffed. “I should let him bleed out, but I’d rather keep him alive for a while longer. It’s more fun that way. Wouldn’t you agree, ‘my king?’”

Asmodeus wanted to lean over and vomit; somehow, though she weighed nothing, he couldn’t push her off. Maybe it was because his hands were severely injured.

He tried weakly to buck her, and she slapped him with the knife in the face. He tasted his blood on the blade.

The castle front door creaked open.

“Ozy!” Asmodeus croaked. The Unseelie fairy appeared, and Wanda sliced a thin piece of flesh off Asmodeus’s neck.

“You’re not helping him,” Wanda warned Ozymandias. “I’ll slit his throat if you step or poof any closer.”

“Asmodeus!” Ozy cried, outraged, seeing how Wanda had hurt his commander. Ozy raised his wand, and Wanda threw the knife to drive the spell off course. Ozy jerked the wand out of the way before the knife hit, but the healing spell went awry.

Healing as a darksider took a lot more magic than it would’ve cost a Seelie fairy. By missing the spell, Ozy was leaving himself open to future attacks. He wouldn't have as much power to fight.

Asmodeus hovered on the edge of unconsciousness, and just as his vision turned black and the world started to fade out, he jerked back to consciousness, including experiencing the agony from his wounds.

“If I couldn’t slip into unconsciousness, then neither can you,” Wanda snapped.

“Okay, you’ve proven your point, Wanda,” Timmy said feebly. “Come back now. We can go home together. Put the wand and blade down.”

“Almost seven months of torture,” Wanda hissed. “Almost seven months where I had no control over my body, only my mind. I couldn’t speak. You blocked Cosmo off, so I felt abandoned.

“I thought my family and Fairy World had left me to die. Even when I tried to speak and beg you to stop, you laughed in my face and relished my misery. You knew that if I could have taken a way out, I would have. I would rather have died than face more torture.”

Cosmo whimpered; Asmodeus’s vision faded in and out, so he couldn’t see what Cosmo was doing, but he could almost feel Cosmo’s abject terror.

“This is nothing compared to what you put me through.”

To emphasize her point, she spun the blade around on his crotch. Asmodeus screamed; his genitals were hanging by a thin piece of skin. Wanda’s dark amusement was evident in her malicious grin and then in the way she casually slapped his wounds. Asmodeus howled.

Ozy raised his wand to blast Wanda, and the two spells nullified each other. Asmodeus had no idea what Wanda had cast, only that she had conjured another dagger immediately afterward. It wasn’t iron, but he didn’t know if it mattered. He was light-headed, and if she hadn’t forced him to remain awake, he would’ve passed out. He was in danger of bleeding out.

“Get off of him, bitch,” Ozy snapped. “Your time is coming, don’t worry.”

“So is yours,” she said, smiling sadistically. She climbed off Asmodeus, whose gaze went to his groin, which was gushing blood. Wanda’s smile widened and became crueler.

“She’s going to kill them both unless we do something,” Timmy hissed to Cosmo.

Ozy started chanting a geas to control the bitch, and she poofed away. In the middle of the spell, he halted because she stabbed him in the stomach and then dragged the dagger up toward his chest. When the blade caught, she kicked Ozy away.

Ozy collapsed, trying to hold his intestines in. It was an iron dagger--healing might not be possible.

“Stop, damn it!” Timmy cried, alarmed. “Wanda, please. You have to stop. You can’t kill them.”

“Why not?” Wanda said, tossing the question over her shoulder with her back to her family. “I should leave them begging and pleading for me to spare their miserable lives.”

Her eyes were alight with malevolence. “I’ll show them just as much mercy as they showed me. None.”

“I wish me, Cosmo, the babies, and Wanda were all in Wanda’s house and safe and sound!” Timmy cried. “And that the Council locked up Ozymandias and Asmodeus in ice for a thousand years, and they can’t do anything about it!”

Asmodeus had his doubts about the second half of that wish coming to fruition.

Pain exploded in his head as Wanda kicked him with the lead foot, and then he finally fell into blissful unconsciousness.

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“Why did you stop me?” Wanda snarled. To Timmy’s dismay, Wanda was still livid and murderous. By interceding, her temper was worse. He’d known that Wanda had wanted to hurt Vicky for insulting her, but this was on another level. Wanda was breathing fire, and it was only a second wish that had prevented Wanda from returning to further torture her captors.

“You have to calm down!” Timmy pleaded.

“No, I don’t,” she said in a deadly quiet voice. “The only reason I’m here is because your last wish prevents me from leaving the house. That doesn’t mean I can’t attack them through the TV.”

She spun, pointing at the TV with her wand. Asmodeus had fainted from blood loss and torture. Ozy choked up dark, sparkling blood that disgusted and sickened Timmy. It reminded him too much of how they’d found Wanda.

Blood trickled out of Ozy’s mouth, and Timmy doubted that either Unseelie man would survive long without a magical intervention.

“I wish the TV was gone!” Timmy said.

Cosmo banished the TV, which prompted Timmy to sigh in relief and Wanda to whirl, her eyes narrowed as she tried to find someone to lash out at. The babies watched her intently, and she ignored them. If Vicky had set her off into conjuring bazookas, then Asmodeus and Ozymandias had turned Wanda into a full-fledged torture artist who was “putting the question” to them.

His throat tightened.

“Killing them won’t solve anything,” Timmy said.

“Oh, yes, it would,” Wanda said. “But who said I was going to kill them right away, sport? I wanted to watch them suffer and squirm for a while.”

“It’s over,” Timmy said. He hesitantly walked up to her and squeezed her arm. “It’s never going to happen again.”

“No,” she said. “It’s not ‘over.’ It will never be over. You don’t understand. The only way I’ll have vengeance is when they’re dead.”

“Why didn’t Jorgen answer me?” Timmy said, appealing to Cosmo fearfully. “I don’t know how to fix this.”

Cosmo, shaking, poofed up chocolate underneath Wanda’s nose. The two males waited with bated breath to see whether she might succumb to temptation.

Thirty seconds passed, and they breathed easier. Maybe she’d eat the chocolate and her homicidal rage would subside.

She took a bite and then blasted the rest into oblivion. Timmy’s heart sank.

“Don’t try to distract me,” she snapped. She flew up to Timmy and pushed her wand under his chin. “Un-wish that wish. I can’t stay here, twiddling my thumbs, while they’re on the loose. I can’t--”

She swallowed. “They’re mine. I can’t let the Council take that away from me.”

“Uh, Cosmo? A little help?” Timmy said. His heart was in his throat.

She glanced at Cosmo and then sneered.

“He’ll only act if the Bond drives him insane first,” she said dismissively. “I don’t have that problem.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Give me one good reason why I can’t kill them.”

“Because, if you do, we will strip you of your godparenting license and throw you into Abracatraz,” Jorgen snapped, materializing in a thick fairy dust cloud. He looked like roadkill, and Timmy winced. Jorgen’s clothes were torn and bloody, and he couldn’t tell whether the gashes on the exposed skin were entirely Jorgen’s blood. Knowing him, probably not.

“Dude, where have you been?” Timmy snapped. “We’re at critical mass here.”

Wanda snarled. “You wouldn’t dare strip my license and throw me in prison.”

“I had to put down an uprising near Abracatraz,” Jorgen said, answering Timmy first. “The prisoners heard about what had happened to Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda and rioted.”

“Asmodeus tried to kill an innocent infant fairy,” Wanda snapped at Jorgen. “I know the Council doesn’t care about what happened to me, but her? Do you mean to tell me you’re going to let Asmodeus get away with that, too?”

Beneath her homicidal mania, Timmy realized Wanda was petrified. She was trying to project confidence and rage to prevent succumbing to despair. Asmodeus had almost triggered a flashback before she’d attacked him.

“We can’t talk her down,” Timmy said. “She won’t let Cosmo touch her.”

“It’s justifiable homicide,” Wanda snarled. “He was going to kill that child.”

She balled her fists; her wand was held tightly in her right hand like a sword out of its sheath. The wand sparked dangerously.

“You didn’t need to carve him up like a Thanksgiving turkey,” Timmy protested.

“Whose side are you on?” Wanda retorted, her pink eyes flashing. “It’s only due to your wishing that I’m not there now.”

“Where is ‘there?’” Jorgen asked.

“Anti-Cosmo’s old castle,” Timmy said.

Jorgen nodded. “I will inform the Council.”

“So they can sit and do nothing for months?” Wanda growled. “They’re useless. They could have prevented this if they cared about someone other than themselves.”

Timmy glanced at Cosmo. Carefully, as if Wanda was a rabid animal, Cosmo drifted closer. He had his hands up in a defensive stance to show her that he wasn’t holding his wand or threatening her. Wanda rolled her eyes.

“You are not a vigilante, Wanda Cosma,” Jorgen snapped, and she bristled.

“If I hadn’t attacked Asmodeus and Ozy, no one would have lifted a finger to help me,” she rejoined. “Don’t act all high and mighty.”

Jorgen sighed. “She is as difficult to reason with as Cosmo.”

“See what I’m dealing with?” Timmy said.

“You? What you’re dealing with?” Wanda snarled. She was shaking, and Cosmo held his hand out for her wand. She glowered, and Cosmo shifted slightly away. However, he didn’t leave the general vicinity. They were still within an arm’s reach of each other.

“They’re gonna lock you up like they did with me,” Cosmo protested. “You have to hand it over, Wanda.”

“Is that their response to anything they can’t control? To ignore it and hope it goes away?” Wanda snapped. Timmy’s stomach twisted. She’d gone off the deep end. It’d been terrifying when Cosmo had, but at least he had known murderous rages weren’t Cosmo’s norm. Wanda was another story.

“Hand over your wand, or you will be locked up,” Jorgen said.

Wanda laughed bitterly. “You’re going to punish me whether I kill them or not. Why shouldn’t I at least be punished for the crime I want to commit?”

Timmy shuddered. He had no idea how to talk her down, and she wasn’t responding as well to Jorgen as Timmy had hoped.

Cosmo held his hand out for the wand. Considering that Timmy was half-tempted to flee the house, Cosmo was, for once, braver than Timmy. Timmy mostly trusted that Wanda wouldn’t lash out at him, but not entirely, especially if she wasn’t responding logically.

“We will not separate you two, but we will have no choice if you do not relinquish your wand,” Jorgen said. He looked exhausted, and Timmy almost pitied him. Almost, if Wanda hadn’t been driven to this point by Fairy World abandoning her for so long.

Wanda drew a shaky breath. She glanced at her wand, the shattered TV, and then, finally, at Cosmo. A tense silence followed.

“Okay,” she said. Looking extremely reluctant, she dropped the wand into Cosmo’s hand. Clearly, she feared losing Cosmo more than imprisonment. Then again, she’d been locked up earlier, in solitary, right after her rescue. Timmy understood.

“I am grateful we did not have to sedate her,” Jorgen muttered.

Cosmo slipped the wand into his pocket and then held his arms out. Wanda glanced at him briefly, shook her head, and poofed to the other side of the room. The babies and Cosmo stared with tears in their eyes. Wanda averted her gaze.

“I need to speak with the Council,” Jorgen said, groaning. “Yes, again. This time, at least, we’ve been mobilized, and the Unseelie Court has lost its leaders.”

Timmy’s chest tightened. “Did anyone heal Asmodeus or Ozymandias before we disappeared?”

Wanda scoffed.

“I don’t think so…” Cosmo said slowly.

Jorgen groaned, vanishing in another fairy dust cloud. Timmy glanced at his godmother, who was shaking, and then at Cosmo, who still had his arms open. Dark, sparkling blood covered her arms, and shirt, and had splashed on her face.

“Maybe you should get a shower,” Timmy suggested meekly.

Wanda huffed. “How do you expect me to do that, sweetie, without a wand?”

“I can help!” Cosmo said.

Wanda gave him a withering look. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Please,” Cosmo begged. “You’re scaring me again. Let me be with you.”

Timmy’s throat tightened. Cosmo looked pathetic, and normally, that was enough for Wanda to fold. She glanced at the two of them briefly, then her children, and then drifted through the open doorway toward their bedroom. Possibly for another wand, possibly just to get out of there.

Cosmo whimpered. “Wanda!”

He chased after her. Timmy groaned, plopping onto the couch. Burying his face in his hands, he tried not to imagine Wanda covered in someone else’s blood, but that, too, was a hard mental image to erase.

Timmy hoped Ozy and Asmodeus died from their wounds. He hoped Ozy went into septic shock, and that Asmodeus’s penis and balls detached. It was cruel, but Timmy didn’t care. His stomach churned.

He’d stopped her because she’d frightened him. That didn’t mean he wanted them alive.

That manic gleam in her eyes had reminded him of Vicky. He shuddered, hugging himself. He didn’t want to think of his godmother as being anything like that bitch.

Hopefully, Cosmo would have some luck calming her down.

Timmy wasn’t feeling hopeful.

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Wanda encountered difficulties when she realized that the suite she shared with Cosmo only had a painted-on door. She would have to use the guest bathroom. Worse, when she spun around to rectify the problem, she bounced into Cosmo. She loathed that she’d had to relinquish the wand and abandon torturing Asmodeus and Ozymandias. She wanted them deadly so badly that she was sick with rage. Cosmo was an impediment she didn’t need.

Timmy was, too, for forcing her to leave. Unfortunately, she believed Jorgen’s threats. It had only taken one look to know that the giant fairy wasn’t bluffing. The thought of being imprisoned again, possibly by herself, utterly terrified her. For all she knew, they’d cut off her communications with Cosmo and let her rot.

Then it’d be no different than Earth.

“Wanda?” Cosmo said, grabbing her and pulling her into a tight embrace. “You’re okay. You’re fine. We’re okay, too, right?”

He looked into her eyes and then winced, pulling his head back.

“Let go of me,” she growled. “I’m serious.”

“But…” Cosmo’s lower lip quivered. “I’m worried about you. You would’ve killed those guys if Timmy hadn’t stopped you.”

“And what?” Wanda spat. “They didn’t deserve it? They didn’t deserve to be spared.”

“You’ve never killed anyone before,” he said quietly. She glowered.

“I’ll make an exception.”

“You don’t wanna be locked up by the Council and forced to spend your days in Abracatraz,” Cosmo protested. “They’ll throw you in a padded cell and only come by when it’s time for feeding or exercise.”

Wanda barked a sarcastic laugh. “That sounds like heaven compared to The Lotus Hotel.”

Cosmo shuddered. “We’d never see each other again.”

Wanda faltered. In the hotel, she’d thought she’d lost him for good. Returning to see him in Fairy World had been like receiving a bottle of water when she was dying in the desert. She was shaking; she wouldn’t survive another separation, especially if it was permanent. Regardless of whether she’d be under the Unseelie Court thumb’s or not, regardless of whether they were abusing her or not, being apart from him would destroy her. He was one of the few people who could snap her out of her flashbacks and restore her sanity.

Without him, she’d be lost to the madness in her mind.

“You don’t wanna be separated again, right?” he pleaded, lower lip quivering. She sighed; tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She had a strong temptation to nip his lip and then pull him into a romantic embrace. Her hand trembled when she touched his cheek and then thumbed the skin.

“I can’t survive without you,” he said.

Frustrated tears slipped down her cheeks, and Cosmo kissed the trails they left. Her heart skipped a beat. What little resistance she had crumbled. He always knew how to defeat her protests, and she wasn’t surprised when she leaned forward and kissed him. Their lips met, and she kissed him frantically back. She saw him raise his wand out of the corner of her eye, and they reappeared in the bathroom.

Glimpsing herself in the mirror, she winced. Her shirt was soaked in blood, her curls were stiff with it, and blood patches covered her skin. Reluctantly, she withdrew from Cosmo to turn on the shower.

“Why didn’t you tell me I looked like a murder victim, hon?” she murmured.

“Because I thought I’d join your victims?” Cosmo said. She shot him a dirty look; he was only half-joking.

As soon as she disrobed and rinsed the blood out of her hair and off her skin, Cosmo joined her. He used his wand rather than undress the normal way, and she rolled her eyes. Then she gasped when he poofed inside the stall and kissed her, pressing her into the wall. This was rather forward for him.

She wrapped her arms around him and opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. Without thinking, she wrapped her legs around his waist, too. It was odd. Sex with Cosmo didn’t usually trigger her. Then again, she trusted him above everyone else, and she knew he’d only hurt her by accident. Never on purpose. He would never abuse her the way those…others…had.

Though she could feel his erection poking against her stomach, he didn’t take advantage of it. Instead, he trailed kisses along her neck and then lowered himself to kiss and suck on her breasts. Her breath caught, and she pressed against him tighter. He stopped, lifting his head, and then grinned as he trailed kisses down her stomach and then halted, his grin broadening before he lifted her legs to place his head between them.

The hot water poured down on them, and she felt the throbbing beneath her waist like a second pulse. She wanted him so badly that she almost didn’t care how. It wasn’t surprising when he licked her lower lips and then separated them with his tongue. It was, however, highly arousing.

He dug his fingers into her rear to pull her closer and ensure he had the best angle.

Thoughts of how they’d ended up in this situation fled. Instead, she let him make love to her.

“I love you…” she murmured. It almost went without saying that neither wanted to be separated. Cosmo set to, and she moaned, clutching him tightly.

((I love you, too, baby.))

She shut her eyes to focus on his tongue, his fingers, and the magical waves that he sent through her. She melted against the shower wall; it was a good thing she didn’t need to stand up and support her weight.

There was nothing else she needed to think about right now, which was for the best considering how little she could think with his tongue flicking at her g-spot. She could barely stammer his name.

Without her wand and with his current position, she couldn’t reciprocate. Not yet. She fully intended to, though.

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

Asmodeus was semi-conscious in Fairy World’s hospital while the Council and Jorgen weighed his fate. They’d reattached what Wanda had almost severed, but they’d added a flair to it. Asmodeus discovered this when he sought Cosmo and Wanda out via their magical link. He had a dim vision of them together, and Cosmo was nailing her to the wall. Normally, a sight like that would’ve inspired envy and also, a rock-hard erection.

Except…he couldn’t get hard.

When he awoke fully, he discovered Ozy restrained in the bed beside him and Jorgen von Strangle sitting in a chair before Asmodeus’s bed. The large Seelie fairy wore a wicked smile.

“Pending further decisions, you and Ozymandias will remain chemically castrated,” Jorgen said. His eyes narrowed. “Hopefully, that will spare Wanda and others like her from your depredations.”

Chemically…castrated…

Jorgen growled. “You’ve done enough damage with that part of your body. You are fortunate that between Timmy, Cosmo, and myself, we were able to talk Wanda out of killing you two. It was a very near thing.”

Jorgen’s glare increased. “If the Council had not convinced me otherwise, I wouldn’t have stopped her.”

With that, Jorgen disappeared, and Asmodeus slumped on his pallet. Ozy was unconscious with extensive stitches on his stomach. Wanda had tried to disembowel him.

Judging by the amount of strange contraptions, tubes, and bags attached to Ozy, she might have almost succeeded.

He wasn’t angry so much as stunned at how much damage she’d done and how hard the others had to work to pry her off of them.

Asmodeus was surprised when he discovered, too, that he had a modicum of respect for her after that. Seelie fairies rarely fell off the deep end like that; she had a killer instinct, and he could appreciate it. Assuming they ever escaped Fairy World, he might have to consider raising her status in the Court. Maybe she was worthy of more than being a fleshlight concubine.

That would’ve normally aroused him, too, except it was impossible. No matter how many sexy things he thought, he remained flaccid.

Worse, when he turned his attention back to Cosmo and Wanda, he saw them on the bed and making out as they went for another round. Cosmo was tender with her and also dedicated to pleasing her before himself. Asmodeus snorted, feeling almost ashamed for how good Cosmo was with her. Then again, Cosmo had a lot of practice.

Besides, Asmodeus hadn’t been trying to compete with Cosmo. That whore was beneath them. Cosmo was an idiot in more ways than one to treat her so well.

Asmodeus balled his fists; he was full of impotent rage. Frustrated, he glanced at Ozy and then winced at his vital signs.

He was on life support. Fairy World hadn’t healed him, then. They were staving off the inevitable.

Jorgen would return. Asmodeus knew that the asshole wouldn’t be able to resist rubbing salt in the wounds.

With an effort, Asmodeus wrenched his attention away from the mental image of Wanda riding Cosmo with their hands intertwined and his legs wrapped around her waist. It wasn’t helpful, and all it did was rile him up further.

He was also sick with jealousy, and he didn’t want to think about why when that whore was nothing to him.

He gritted his teeth. She was less than worthless.

It was purely a coincidence that hearing the two of them together was making Asmdoeus want to rip out Cosmo’s throat.

It meant nothing at all.