Chapter Text
“What do you mean Jorgen said you couldn’t get out of it?!” Dev practically barked at the three fairies floating in his room. “Maybe you didn’t try hard enough!”
“Every fairy has to go to Fairy Jury Duty when they’re summoned. It’s the law.” Wanda sighed, looking as if she just about had it with the young Dimmadome. “You have it in America too.”
“Yeah, but American Jury Duty lasts like, ten days, not two months!” Hazel cut in, flopping backwards onto Dev’s bed. “I’m going to miss you!”
She tried to keep her tone light, but her chest tightened at the thought. The fairies weren’t just magical wish-granters; they were family. Her mind drifted to all the little moments—Wanda’s motherly advice, Cosmo’s goofy jokes, Peri’s protective lectures. Two months without them? The thought sat heavy, twisting her stomach into knots she couldn’t untangle.
She felt a gentle pat on her head and looked up to find Cosmo floating beside her. “We know, but at least we’re coming back,” he said, twirling his wand as if it might cheer her up. “We‘ll finally be on the other side of the stand! I might even get to judge someone! Or send them to magical jail!”
Dev let out a frustrated groan, his scowl deepening as he turned to his own godparent. “And you all have to go together?! Meaning we don’t get wishes for two whole months?” He started pacing, his footsteps quickening. “What am I supposed to do, suffer through school like a normal kid?”
Peri huffed. “We aren’t happy about this either!” His tone was sharp, but his face softened almost immediately. “You kids are our responsibility. We were assigned to you because you need us.”
Dev lit up. “Yes! So tell Jorgen you can’t go!”
“Well, we tried to get out of it!” Cosmo offered. “Jorgen said no. He said it’s our duty, and if we don’t show up, he’ll, uh, ‘crush us with his mighty abs.’” The fairy flexed weakly, mimicking Jorgen’s enormous physique. “I like my face not being squished by muscles, so, we’re going!”
“Of course Jorgen wouldn’t let you off,” Dev muttered. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Hazel’s gaze shifted between the three fairies. Wanda’s usually steady expression faltered, a touch of sadness in her eyes as she looked back at them. “We’re stuck going, and... well, once it starts, we can’t visit until it’s over.”
“Two months… That’s like... forever!” Cosmo gawped. “I mean, in fairy-time, it’s practically a whole two lifetimes!”
Peri rolled his eyes. “Dad, we’re immortal. Two months is not even on the scale of our lifetimes. It’s definitely not forever.”
“For me it is!” Cosmo shot back, before his pitiful expression dropped, green eyes suddenly gleaming. “Oh, but at least they'll give us fairy snacks in the jury box, right? I’m really hoping for the pudding. Fairy pudding’s amazing.”
Hazel barely registered Cosmo’s pudding fantasy. A million questions buzzed through her mind, all tripping over each other as she tried to process. She sat up, meeting Wanda’s eyes, her worry spilling out. “But if you’re all gone that long, who’s going to help us if something goes wrong? What if Vicky shows up again? Or Dev’s dad pulls some crazy stunt? This is our final year of middle school—I don’t know if we can handle it all alone!”
Wanda’s gaze dropped, brows creasing. Hazel could see how much the thought of leaving them weighed on her godparent. “We know you rely on us, squirt,” Wanda murmured, biting the inside of her cheek. “I just wish there was some way to be sure everything would turn out okay.”
“Maybe there is!” Cosmo piped up, waving his wand with a grin.
“Uh-oh, what now?” Peri floated beside his dad, folding his arms as he eyed him.
Cosmo only grinned wider. “Why don’t we just… check on them! You know, from the future!”
Hazel and Dev blinked, wide-eyed, as they turned toward Cosmo.
“Wait–what?” Dev sputtered.
The green-haired fairy waggled his finger as he descended, perching on Hazel’s head of comfy curls. “We go to the future. Just to make sure you’re both still alive.” He beamed, leaning down to boop her nose. “If you’re fine, we know you survived without us for two months! Easy peasy!”
“You can do that?” Hazel’s eyes widened.
“You think we might die?!” Dev but-in, gaping at Cosmo.
“It could work... We could ask Father Time to help us,” Wanda mumbled, tapping her wand to her chin, “like we did for our one-thousand year vacation through time.”
Peri’s brows rose so high, Hazel thought they might fly off his head. “You want to visit the future just to see if they’re okay?”
“It would be fun to see what future Hazel is like!” Cosmo cheered, wings fluttering as he flew back up into the air. “Plus, we get to see if Dev still has that terrible haircut!”
Dev looked vaguely offended. “What’s wrong with my haircut?”
Hazel, however, was more focused on the mention of a certain ‘Father time’.
“No!” She blurted, body seizing at the memory. “The last time Father Time ‘helped me’, he gave me time loop cereal, and I accidentally made everyone fall in love with me!”
There was a beat of silence before Dev burst into laughter, clutching his sides. “You did what? How do you accidentally make people fall in love with you?!”
Hazel flushed, jabbing a finger at the young Dimmadome. “It only happened because you lied and told me Jenkins had a crush on me!”
Dev laughed even harder. “And you believed it! I’m sorry- I’m sorry, but it was so funny watching you freak out-”
“-I didn’t freak out!” Hazel shot back, glaring at him. “I just kept... saying embarrassing stuff! And that’s why I kept going back in time to fix it! It was your fault!”
“Mine? I didn’t tell you to act like a total dork around him!” Dev leaned on the edge of his bed, looking down at her with that insufferably smug grin—the one Hazel was certain he wore just to get under her skin.
Hazel rolled her eyes, used to it by now but still perpetually annoyed. Dev seemed to live for pushing her buttons, like it was his favorite sport. Most of the time, it was maddening. But every once in a while—when she could keep up and hit back—it was, admittedly, a little fun. Not that she’d ever admit it to him.
“What? Nothing to say?” Dev practically purred, lopsided smirk crawling under Hazel’s skin all over again.
Oh, she could keep up alright, especially considering Dev’s own embarrassing declaration during the Jenkins fiasco.
Her lips curled into a Cheshire grin. “Well actually, you–”
“Guys!” Peri interrupted with a wave of his hands, “Focus! We’re trying to figure out whether seeing the future is safe, not reliving your past.”
Hazel felt disappointed she couldn’t use her trap-card, before Peri’s words and the situation actually hit her.
Traveling to the future? To see her future self?
Yeah, safety definitely needed to be considered. Lots of things needed to be considered.
Hazel held her stomach for a moment, familiar ripples making her grimace. “My gut says this is a bad idea. Is it even safe?”
Wanda hovered beside her. “Hazel, trust me, Father Time is an expert. He does this sort of stuff all the time.”
“Yeah!” Cosmo chimed in. “He knows everything about time! Plus, if anything goes wrong, it’s his fault, not ours!”
Dev was tapping his fingers on his desk when he suddenly froze. “Wait… We’d see our future selves, right? And talk to them?” He whipped round to face the fairies, eyes lighting up like blue fireworks. “I bet future-me looks so cool! Wait–maybe I'll be business partners with my dad by then! Or maybe I’ve made the world’s first real-life mecha robot suit!” He practically sparkled with excitement as he considered the possibilities. “I’ve got so much to ask future-me!”
“Business partners? Mecha suits?” Peri floated over, arms crossed, still looking skeptical. “You do know we’re just checking on you a couple of months from now, right?”
“Actually, I think Dev has a point.” Hazel spoke up, much to Dev’s delight, considering the look on his face. “If we summon too close to your return from, uhh, ‘Fairy Jury Duty’, there could be consequences we don't know about yet. It would be safer to check years from now.”
Peri tapped his wand to his chin, brows furrowing. “I guess… But I’m still not convinced this is a good idea. I mean, wouldn’t seeing the future change the future? You must’ve seen enough sci-fi shows with your dad to know how messy this all gets.”
Hazel tensed at the words, alarm back in full force. “...You’re right- what if-”
“Hey, hey, hey–” Dev interrupted, stepping in to block his godparent and his best friend's view of each other. “She was on my side, Peri. Don’t try to talk her out of doing fun stuff.”
“Okay,” Wanda announced, arms outstretched in surrender. “We aren’t getting anywhere. Let’s just ask Father Time what he thinks.”
“Mom! I was handling it-”
With a poof of Wanda’s wand, an enormous, elaborate grandfather clock rose in the middle of Dev’s bedroom. Its edges shimmered with golden gears, and the ticking of clocks echoed faintly within.
The trunk door creaked open, flooding the room with a swirling cloud of lavender smoke.
“It is I, the master of time and space!” A voice boomed.
Everyone held their breath as the silhouette emerged, the last wisps of smoke melting away to reveal his form.
“Wait, that’s Father Time?” Dev frowned. “He just looks like some old homeless gu-”
Hazel smacked a hand over Dev’s mouth. “Nice to see you again, Father Time!” She smiled tightly.
“Ah, Hazel, Dev, Wanda, Cosmo, Peri.” Father Time’s voice rolled out like a rumble of thunder, before settling into something airy and casual. “What brings you to summon me on this fine fragment of the eternal time-thread?”
Cosmo bounced with a grin, bobbing in midair. “We wanna see the future to make sure Dev and Hazel are okay if we leave them for two months! Like a little time peek!”
Father Time raised an eyebrow, then chuckled, stroking his beard. “A future peek, hmm? Not a small request, but doable.” With a wave, he conjured a swirling, crystal compass in the air. Tiny sand grains glittered within, spinning in pastel hues of blue and gold. “Here’s your key to time travel—synced to this exact moment.”
He handed the compass to Peri, who took it with wide eyes. “Summon any future or past version of Hazel and Dev with a twist of this dial.” He tapped it, and the compass gave a small flash, locking to the current reality.
Dev eyed the magical gadget in Peri’s hands, immediately lunging for it. Peri yanked it away, floating out of reach toward the ceiling as Dev let out an indignant huff.
Hazel watched the whole setup, gut grumbling again. The idea of summoning their future selves wasn’t settling right with her. Sure, it sounded cool, but every instinct she had was throwing up red flags.
This has to be a bad idea, she thought, fingers fidgeting on her sleeve.
She shifted her gaze to Father Time. “Isn’t summoning our future selves, like… risky? What if it creates a paradox? I’ve seen the movies…”
Father Time chuckled warmly, like this was the most harmless thing in the world. “Oh, don’t worry. Time’s already tangled with paradoxes—it’s like a bowl of spaghetti! This compass only shows one strand of that spaghetti; your current path. The other timelines are all protected. So, if you decide to change something, the compass won’t reflect it unless I adjust it.”
Hazel tilted her head. “Adjust it?”
“Yes.” Father Time nodded, gesturing to the fairies. “You’re considering whether to change the future you see—deciding to stay or not, correct? If you take a new action, walk a new path, I’d need to resync the compass to show the new future.”
Peri frowned. “So, if we stay, we wouldn’t see how that affects the future?”
“Exactly,” Father Time smiled, tapping the compass. “Think of it like changing a recipe. If you add new ingredients, you won’t taste the difference unless you stir them in. The resync would let the compass ‘stir’ your new choices into the timeline.”
Hazel couldn’t help but stifle a grin when Dev mumbled, “This spaghetti thing is probably one of the worst analogies I’ve ever heard.”
“I think he’s just hungry,” She whispered, shaking her head before looking back at Father Time. Her unease still lingered. “I’m still not sure about this…”
Father Time chuckled again, unfazed. “Not sure? You should be excited, Hazel—this is a rare opportunity! Your future selves didn’t have this chance
“Why not?” Hazel pressed, her curiosity getting the better of her. “If they’re us, wouldn’t they have asked the same thing?”
“They did,” he replied, spinning his scythe. “But I’m the anomaly here. Last time you, or, uh, they asked, I was dealing with the fallout from time freezing for fifty years.” He glanced at Cosmo and Wanda, who shifted nervously. “But! Time wraps around, and here you are, asking again. This time, I’m happy to help.”
Hazel’s mind raced with questions, though Peri broke in before she could speak. “So, if we bring future Hazel and Dev here, we could get put on a whole new timeline?”
“Maybe!” Father Time shrugged, his grin widening. “But isn’t that what you want? If something’s gone wrong, you could change your choices now to fix it, right?”
Hazel stole a glance at Peri. He mumbled something about using this to convince Jorgen to let them stay. The look of slight nervousness on his face mirrored her own.
“Time’s a big ol’ bowl of spaghetti!” Cosmo chimed in.
“Enough about pasta!” Dev interrupted, tapping his foot. “If we’re doing this, let’s just do it.”
Father Time winked as he took a step back. “Simple as that! If anything feels off, just consult your compass and—voilà!—time will tell.”
With a wave, he opened a shimmering doorway back to the time realm. “Good luck, kids! Remember, time waits for no one—except me.”
With that, Father Time floated back into the magical grandfather clock. The trunk door creaked shut, and with another poof of magic, the entire thing disappeared.
Hazel looked around the room, now charged with anticipation instead of the magical buzz it had held just moments ago. It’s too late to back out now, she told herself, her heartbeat quickening.
Dev, bouncing in place, broke the silence. “So, when do we summon future-us? I can’t wait to see if I’ve got a cool robot suit!”
Peri opened his mouth to answer, but Cosmo had already snagged the compass. “Right now!” he squealed, spinning the dial with the flick of his finger.