Title: Once Upon a Zone
Chapter Title: Prologue
Disclaimer: I don't own Tin Man, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Emperor's New Clothes, Rapunzel or Snow White. Whew.
Rating: G for now. If it goes up, I will warn y'all.
Characters/Pairings (overall): takes deep breath DG, Cain, Glitch, Raw, Azkadellia, Jeb, The Queen, Ahamo, an OC named (it's a surprise!), an OC named Mortimer and an OC called The Warlock; DG/Cain, Glitch/Az, Jeb/OC, and a tiny hint at Ancient!Raw/Witch
Characters/Pairings (in this chapter): DG, Cain, Glitch, Raw, Ahamo, Azkadellia, Jeb, and The Queen; minor Glitch/Az (idk, it snuck in there somehow)
Word Count: 532
Summary: A year after the eclipse and DG & Co. are looking for a new adventure. This one involves fairy tales (and not so fairy tales). Who knew Disney had it right after all….
Chapter summary: In the beginning, there was a ball. But that's not where our story starts….
A/N: Thanks, as always, to Kenbear because she is amazing. Special thanks to stacon09 for the fairy tale suggestions. Not beta'd, but it's been sitting on my hard drive, so I figured it was time to post it.
It was the one year anniversary of the Eclipse. The Queen had held a ball to celebrate, DG had complained about wearing a dress, Azkadellia had been scared to face the people of the O.Z., Cain had worn a suit (tight pants and all) and hated it, Jeb and Raw had been there, and Glitch had glitched. More than once.
But that is not how our story begins. Our story begins on the night after the celebratory ball, when all the guests had waved goodbye to the royal family from their retreating carriages, all the food had been put away, the band had been paid and the two princesses had been safely tucked into their beds.
One princess, the one who'd spent fifteen annuals in darkness, slept fitfully, but did not wake, her head tossing back and forth and her hands gripping her sheets. What she did not know, and would not find out until later, was that a certain half-brained man could hear her as she fought her demons and had placed one pale palm on the thick wooden door of her room in an attempt to send some sort of calming vibes to the dark-haired woman.
The other princess, the younger of the two, who had been talked about all night by the guests about how, yes she had saved the O.Z., but what was she thinking talking like that to the Duke of Extonia and how dancing like that with that Commander Cain was entirely unacceptable and inappropriate, was now sleeping peacefully. Her dark hair was spread out on the pillow, the contrast of the black on white breathtaking, and the covers pulled up to just below her chin. She looked like a small child in the giant bed and had anyone been in the room with they would have surely smiled at the sight of this small slip of a girl who had won the hearts of many.
The palace was silent at the beginning of our story; the only movement was that of a few guards wandering the grounds. And it stayed silent until the first pink rays of the first sun stretched their way across the O.Z. to reach in and caress the sleepers of the castle. The warm beams of light woke several people, including a Tin Man and the Queen, both of whom smiled at the first light of day. The Queen because, after a year of rebuilding, the rays still felt like a wash of cleansing, like the suns themselves were wiping away the evils of the O.Z. to make everything, and everyone, clean and new.
The Tin Man smiled because, even after a year of being free, he never got tired of feeling the sun on his face. Eight years in a tin prison with little to no light made a man appreciate the finer things in life, like the feel of the sun on your face and the pounding of the rain on your shoulders.
The two were the first up, drinking in the beautiful morning that the O.Z. was providing them, watching as the second sun broke the horizon and loving life as it was, when a piercing scream broke the silence.
A/N: So, yeah, that's the prologue. If you noticed any glaring errors, let me know, I'll try and fix them. Updates will be sporadic at best as it's finals time and I'm going home next week. And I probably shouldn't have posted this without writing the rest of it, but chapter 1 is halfway written and I think I know where I'm going with it. Anyway, chapter 1 should be posted next Tuesday or so. Also, if you would like to beta this, let me know (preferably in a PM thnx!).