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Fire with Fire

Summary: Jefferson seeks out Tron and Yori with a message. Storybrooke is back, and Snow and Charming need help. No one can remember how they came back, or anything that's happened in the last year. As the Programs try and help their friends untangle what happened in the Enchanted Forest a year ago, a new threat looms: the Wicked Witch of the West. Sequel to People Like Us.

Rating: T

Genre: Adventure/Drama

Disclaimer: "This is going to be quite the ride." - Zuse

Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California

One year after everyone in Storybrooke was returned home

Tron snapped awake and laid still, trying to figure out what had woke him. He sat up, but the room was dark. The house was quiet. All he could hear was Yori's breathing next to him in the bed.

But something had changed, he knew it.

After a few more minutes spent listening, he settled back down, convinced that there was nothing immediately wrong that he needed to be concerned with.

He couldn't shake the feeling, though, that something had changed.

~xXx~

What had once been the guesthouse on the house that Kevin Flynn owned had become, through unofficial agreement, Tron and Yori's home after they arrived in San Francisco. Sometimes Sam stayed with his Dad, sometimes he stayed at his place, near the harbor. Quorra claimed to like the water view. Wherever Sam went, she usually was there.

Jet alternated his weekend between his parent's house, his apartment, and the house that his "older brother and sister" lived in. Of everyone, he seemed most able to take Tron and Yori's presence in stride.

"Well, up until the day Uncle Kevin disappeared, he used to tell me stories about you two." Was his only explanation one day when he was asked about it.

Ten days after the morning when Tron had been awakened in the middle of the night, everyone, the Bradleys, the Flynns, the Wards (for Tron still used his Cursed persona when needed; Encom, with whom he was a part-time contracted employee, only knew him as Trevor Ward, though the different last name had not stopped the ceaseless speculation on his relation to Alan) and Quorra were at Kevin's house for a cookout.

"A year and ten days since you two arrived." Kevin had seen that morning when he and Tron passed as the latter was on his way to work. Kevin had never taken back the title of CEO of Encom; that was exclusively Sam's domain these days. "We need to celebrate that you're both here."

"Did you ever meet the Princess who slept on a pea while you were in Storybrooke?" Quorra asked Yori. The two of them, along with Lora, were sitting at the picnic table in the backyard. Once Quorra had felt sure that Tron had conquered the part of him that was Rinzler, she had wanted to know everything about Storybrooke, where the characters she had read about had lived.

"If she was there I never found out who she was." Yori told her.

Kevin was trying to cook burgers, and Alan was standing nearby. "You I can do this without supervision." Kevin finally said.

"That's okay," Alan said, finally cracking open his can of beer. "I don't have much else to do."

"You're supervising again." Kevin retorted. "Hanging around like a mother hen."

"I wonder why we would do that." Alan replied dryly.

Sam and Jet were playing Frisbee golf with Tron, and losing.

"Who put this goal this close to the house?" Jet asked, looking at their next target. Sam had taken some time that morning to set up portable targets for them to play with.

"Well you were the one who was complaining about not wanting to traipse all over the yard." Sam pointed out. "Now I put the targets close together and you're still complaining."

Before the conversation could devolve into the typical bickering that was a frequent occurrence between the pair, Tron stepped forward and took aim at the target. As he was getting ready to throw his disc, there was a rushing sound, then a sliding one, and a man dressed like a well-to-do Victorian and in a top hat fell off the roof and landed on Tron.

There was a long pause as everyone took in what had just happened, then Jet spoke, "Okay, well, that's different."

"Jefferson!" Tron gasped when he finally caught his breath.

"Trevor." The other man replied as he scrambled to his feet and picked up his hat. "Thanks for breaking my fall." Jefferson reached out a hand and pulled Tron back to his feet.

"Jefferson!" Yori said. "What are you doing here?"

The Mad Hatter turned to face her and the rest of the group. "Well, I have a message. And as much as I hate being the Charmings' errand boy, they made me an offer that was too good to refuse. Also, they're less likely to leave trapped somewhere compared to my last employers."

"And what is your message?" Tron demanded.

"Snow White and Prince Charming sent me. They need your help." He said, glancing at Yori and Tron. "Storybrooke is back."

~xXx~

"When did it come back?" Tron asked.

The cookout had been forgotten and the group had moved inside. The dining room table was big enough to accommodate everyone and it was where they had landed.

Jefferson didn't answer right away. He waited until Lora had set a cup of tea in front of him. "Thank you." He said as she went back to sit by Alan. He took a sip, then replied.

"Ten days ago." He said. "But the town is under a Curse again. No one knows who cast the spell, no one remembers anything about the last year they spent in the Enchanted Forest, and so far I'm the only one who has been able to leave, through my hat."

"Ten days ago." Tron repeated.

"You knew when it happened, didn't you?" Jefferson asked.

"I knew something happened early in the morning ten days ago." Tron said. "And that's all I knew."

Jefferson nodded. "They told me about your magic. I wondered if you had been aware. The Charmings need help." He took his hat and started to rifle around inside of it.

"Is that thing bigger on the inside?" Jet asked.

Jefferson didn't even bother to look up. "You have no idea." He pulled out a sealed envelope, which he handed to Tron. "Your engraved invitation."

Quorra leaned across the table. "Did you really go to Wonderland?"

"Yes."

"Did you like it?"

Jefferson glared at her. "I hated Wonderland."

"Not real high on your list of recommended vacation spots?" Sam asked.

"My recommendation is that you should stay the hell out of Wonderland." Jefferson said. He had finally managed to free a square wooden box out of the hat. "I was asked to deliver these to you also." He slid the box across the table.

Tron handed the scroll to Yori and opened the box. His eyes widened when he saw what was inside. "Where did you get these?"

"I was given them by an old acquaintance of yours." Jefferson said.

Yori saw what was in the box and gripped Tron's arm.

"What is it?" Kevin asked.

Tron lifted two discs out of the box. They looked as though they had been plucked straight out of the Grid. "Tell me where you got these," He demanded.

"Ten days ago, when Storybrooke came back, I was roused out of my sound sleep to find myself back in Storybrooke. Grace was still with me, thank heaven, because I don't know what I would have done if she had gone. When morning broke, David was at my front door. He wanted my help, asked me to leave town and start a search. He knew that you and Yori had stayed behind, and they didn't know who to trust, and he wanted to find Emma and Henry as well. So they are watching Grace and I set out to search. Hook is helping with finding Emma. While I was looking for the two of you I ran into someone else first."

"Clu." Yori said, her voice flat.

"I met him in Boston." Jefferson said. "I enlisted him to help me. Backed by the full faith and power of the kingdom, why not? He was the one who directed me here."

"Where is he?" Kevin asked.

"That's a bit of a rough question." Jefferson reached into his hat and again and pulled out a Boston newspaper, which he handed to Kevin. "Look at page A-eight."

Kevin flipped to the page and started to read. "Mysterious fire erupts in a computer store in the outskirts of Boston. Police suspect foul play. One body was discovered in the wreckage. Pending further investigation, the body is believed to be that of the store owner, Clem Melville…" He trailed off.

"Am I missing something here?" Sam asked.

"Clem Melville was what Clu went by under the Curse." Tron explained. "Just like how I went by Trevor Ward."

"So Clu's dead?" Quorra asked.

"It sounds that way." Yori said.

"He may be dead." Jefferson corrected. "Come on Yori, you lived in Storybrooke long enough to know better than that. Remember what happened with Doc Hopper? No one's dead until you've seen the body. Sometimes they're not dead even after you've seen the body." The hatter nodded at the discs that Tron was still holding. "He was working on those when I found him. He was done working on them, actually. He wasn't really keen on sending them to you, but by the time he gave them to me to bring here, he knew the witch was coming, and didn't see where he had any other choice."

"The witch?" Alan repeated.

"The witch." Jefferson confirmed. "The Wicked Witch of the West."

[A/N:] So...I was gonna wait a couple of day after I finished People Like Us to post this first chapter...but then I was too excited and wanted to go post it right away. Yep. Um notes! In this story Jet and Sam are good friends, but they are also Vitriolic Best Buds, too, so they spend a lot of time bickering with each other, sometimes just because they can.

One thing random aside I was supposed to mention at the end of People Like Us but I'm not sure I ever did is that Yori's name under the curse was supposed to be Yvette. she never used the name because she was never Cursed.

I hope you like the first chapter, and don't hesitate to let me know if something in the story isn't clear. Please review and tell me what you thought! I love feedback, it's a writer thing.

See you next time!