Once upon a time in the kingdom of Oz, a daughter was born to two very special people; the human King Pastoria of Oz and the fairy Queen Lurline. The newborn princess was given the name Ozma and from the moment of her birth, she was destined to grow up to become the future sovereign of Oz and forever rule as their immortal queen. Whilst the majority of Oz rejoiced at the birth of the little princess, not all welcomed the birth of their future queen and the happiness within the kingdom over Ozma's birth was not to last. On the evening of her first birthday, Ozma was snatched from the Royal Palace of Oz and disappeared into the night without a trace, never to be seen again…

But Ozma was not as lost as many believed and she was not dead as some thought, Ozma was alive and grew up the prisoner of an evil witch called Mombai. But Ozma was not raised as her true self but under the guise of the boy slave Tippetarius. Eventually Ozma was freed from Mombai's capture and learned of her true self but once again she disappeared into the night with no one knowing where she had gone. All hope of Ozma ever returning to Oz was lost until the lost princess finally returned home and took her place as the rightful heir of Oz and ascended the throne as Queen, 22 years after she first disappeared. But Ozma was not everything that she seemed and was destined to have a happily ever after especially with the dark secrets that she kept, secrets that were tied to her past, present and future.


The midnight oil was burning but not all in the Kingdom of Oz were sleeping, most especially it's queen. Ozma had retired to her private chambers a couple of hours ago but now she was on the move, doing her upmost to avoid being seen. It was easier said than done as within the last few weeks the Royal Palace had become even more heavily guarded after the break in. Ozma couldn't help but look uneasily over her shoulder, even though she knew that she was safe within the walls of her home, she could not afford to have anyone know where she was currently going. Ozma was exhausted beyond compare, her day had been incredibly long filled with rather long and stuffy meetings but she couldn't not sleep like most of Oz was currently doing, there was still work that needed to be done and what work she needed to do had to be conducted under the upmost secrecy. Navigating herself through the palace hallways, being careful to avoid the guards was a hard but not impossible task for Ozma as she knew the entire palace as well as she knew herself. It did not take Ozma too long to reach the deeper levels of the palace, venturing down the passages that most within Oz were forbidden to know about, let wonder through. These parts of the palace were a stark contrast from the grandeur of the rest of the palace, there were no fine tapestries or sculptures, nothing of the kind. Just mirrored glass that went from the ground, all the way up to the ceiling and enough lighting to guide yourself down the passages that seemed to go on forever. But there was eventually an end and after walking down the forbidden passaged for long enough Ozma reached a door. It was large green door, like most here in the palace but this door was like no other door in Oz. This door was different, it was a dark green colour and bore no marking on it in the slightest and seemed to give off a menacing aura. This door was never meant to be opened, it was always supposed to stay closed but tonight Ozma would open it. Extending her left hand, Ozma allowed her finger tips to touch the door and quietly murmured an incantation to herself and the door swung open. Despite knowing that she had to do this, Ozma was rather hesitant to cross the threshold of the door and enter the place she called the in-between land. But Ozma knew she had to do this, not just for her sake but the whole of Oz.

Taking a deep breath Ozma walked through the door and no longer was she in the Royal Palace but in a room that was like none of other. It was a ballroom or what used to be some kind of ballroom but it was in ruins, dark and cold with a chilling aura that hung in the air. Yet Ozma could still make out the worn out intricate ceiling design and the faded patterns on the wall that seemed like they were only a day or so away from vanishing forever. There were only three things that were actually in this room which looked like they didn't belong, one of them was this glass pointed pillar that stood in the middle of the room and then there were the two doors. One of them had been the door that Ozma had come through as from where she stood now, the door was emerald green in colour and had the emblem of Oz on it, to show her that this door was the one she needed to take to come home. The other door was a rather plan looking wooden door which no special features. For now, it was only Ozma here as her guests had not yet arrived. The last time Ozma had been in this room was when she had made the decision to return to Oz and accept her role as queen, it seemed like only yesterday but really it was a lifetime ago, centuries really. Ozma had been a different person back then, she was still going by the name Tippetarius but once she had stepped through that green door she had stopped being 'Tip' and went back to her true self – Princess Ozma of Oz, the long lost heir to the kingdom of Oz.

"Ozma?"

That voice. Ozma would recognise it in a heartbeat and she turned to see that her guests had finally arrived. The two of them were a sight for very sore eyes and a warm smile quickly graced Ozma's face, despite the grim circumstances that brought them all together, she was still rather happy to see them. There was the man who Ozma knew as Prince Charming, a rather handsome man with broad shoulders, short blonde hair and gentle yet proud blue eyes that seemed to reflect his status as a prince of one of the many kingdoms in the land of Mist Haven. Then there was the woman who stood by his side; a woman of wonderful refinement and had the gentlest heart of anyone Ozma knew; Princess Snow White. She was indeed a most gracious beauty, arguably the fairest in all the lands with alabaster white skin, hair as black as the raven and perfect red lips that would shame the reddest of red roses. It had been a while since Ozma had seen Snow White and her Prince Charming, since their long awaited nuptials but judging by the subtle curve of Snow's stomach, Ozma could see they would be blessed with the arrival of a child in a few months.

"Snow White and her Prince Charming… Look at you dear princess! Everything grown up and about to bring new life into this world, your mother and father would be so proud if they could see the woman that you have become. I, for one am very proud of you Snow White." Ozma greeted with a warm smile before making her way across the room to embrace Snow White in a loving hug.

"As always it is good to see you Ozma, although I'm not sure where we are…" Snow White replied in an equally warm manner as the two old friends pulled out of their embrace.

"Nowhere. Anywhere, everywhere… I suppose it all depends on how you want to look it at my dear. This room doesn't exist on any map as technically we are outside time and space, so we'll be safe here to talk freely as right now the three of us cannot afford to be seen with each other at the moment. With everything that is going on at the moment, we cannot risk angering Regina any further. The danger that she poses to all of us means that we must proceed carefully, even now I cannot risk leaving Oz in case she does something. I must protect my kingdom at all costs and my power is strong here in Oz." Ozma explained with a small smile as whilst she was happy to see her friends, this was no happy reunion as there was dark and dangerous times hovering on the horizon for them all. There was a great danger coming towards them which is why they were meeting here in secret.

"We understand Queen Ozma and we thank you for agreeing to see us both despite the late hour. Snow tells me that you are her eldest friend and always willing to help those in need." Charming greeted and Ozma let out a weak chuckle, firstly because Charming had referred to her as being one of Snow oldest friends which was certainly true. Despite the fact Snow White physically appeared to be older than Ozma, that was certainly not the case. Ozma was a lot older than she appeared and a lot older than Snow White. It came with being an immortal human-fairy queen. The other thing that made Ozma laugh was watching Charming bow towards her as a mark of respect which was totally unnecessary. Ozma tried to avoid the need for formalities of any kind, bowing and curtsying were something she did not like along with being addressed as Queen Ozma, sure she was Queen of Oz but nobody inside of Oz called her as such. In Oz she was known simply and affectionately as Princess Ozma.

"Sweet prince, have we not discussed these whole formalities issue many times before? Whilst I appreciate the show of respect towards me as sovereign of Oz there is no need for any of this bowing or curtseying nonsense! I especially wouldn't want you to kneel before me, I would only except such a thing on a formal occasion and this is not one of them. You are so much more to me than just a visiting royal, so please act freely. I only put up with this formalities protocol because I have to, not because I enjoy it. Just like Snow, I consider you to be a friend and I would like to be treated like a normal friend regardless of all of this." Ozma scolded in a gentle tone of voice as she motioned to herself, in particular the circlet crown adorning her head and the elegant gown she was wearing, all symbols of her royal status.

"We need your help Ozma."

"What can I do Snow White?"

"It's about the threat that the Queen made on the day of our wedding, it's been bothering me ever since and so we went to see Rumplestiltskin to get some answers and it's worse than we ever could have expected. The Dark One says that Regina's planning to cast a curse, a powerful curse that will take us all to a place where time will be stopped and we'll all be trapped for eternity. It'll be some kind of prison for us all and there will be no happy ending for any of us. He says everything we love will be taken from us. There's apparently nothing we can do to stop this curse but Rumplestiltskin says that the baby is the one that can save us all. We have to get the baby to safety and according to Rumplestiltskin, on her twenty-eighth birthday she'll find us and rescue us all." Snow White explained and Ozma felt her stomach drop to the floor, she felt sick and at a total loss. This was a nightmare; this didn't bode well for any of them at all. Ozma's knowledge of dark magic and curses was better than most but still limited, however she knew if this curse was as powerful as the Dark One said it was, it had the possibility to destroy everything and was not limited to Mist Haven. It would hit Oz as well. Ozma couldn't be certain of it but she had this feeling in her heart told her that it would be coming to Oz as well. Regina was coming for the happy endings in Oz.

"Her? The baby is a girl?" Ozma asked after a moment as her mind tried to process all this information but the one thing that stood out was how Snow White had addressed her unborn child.

"Yes, Emma…" Snow White replied with a watery smile as she stepped forward and took one of Ozma's hands and placed it over her stomach. It didn't take long for Ozma to feel this small little kick. It was tiny but so surreal and Ozma was certain that she was on the edge of tears as it was amazing to feel this unborn child kick. Having a baby was something that Ozma was most likely never going to experience as she had plenty of children already, well in a sense as all the inhabitants of Oz were like her children.

"What can I do? If Rumplestiltskin has the ability to see the future and if he says that this curse Regina has planned for us is going to happen then it will come to pass. My path has only crossed with the Dark One a few times but even I know what he is capable of. If you're about to ask me to stop this curse than I'm afraid that I can't help you as I don't have that kind of power. The kind of magic needed to create a curse like one Regina is planning on unleashing requires a sacrifice of some kind and a spell like that leaves a mark on you. The amount of darkness needed to cast the curse is immense and even Regina will have to pay some kind of price. The kind of power needed to stop Regina from casting that curse is not something I have, the magic I have wouldn't be nearly enough to stop the curse." Ozma grimly noted.

"We have a plan in motion to send Snow away before the baby is born, to another land where they'll both be safe if Regina succeeds in casting this curse. But there has to be another way Ozma and we thought if there was any other way to stop this curse from happening then you might know of a way. We've heard things about your past, how you've travelled to various other lands and have experience in dealing with this type of sorcery and we thought maybe you knew something that could help us. Trying to prevent this curse from happening may be a lost cause but we have to try." Charming stated and Ozma couldn't help but grimace at the reference to her past as it was a lot more complicated than most people thought and it wasn't the stuff made of dreams. It was the stuff of nightmares and Ozma had done a lot of things she wasn't proud of. But her past could help. Something Charming had said had struck a cord with Ozma, it made her think back to a time in her past where she had spent a considerable time with a witch who frequently used dark magic and numerous enchantment along with the occasional curse; Mombai. It had been this witch who had kidnapped Ozma as a child and even though Mombai was long gone, Ozma had something in her possession that had belonged to Mombai that could help them. She had Mombai's spell book.

"Of course and I may have something that can help, I can't guarantee that it'll save us but I will do whatever I can to help. This curse will affect us all and even though I may not have the power to stop the curse myself… If I cannot save us all then I will do everything I can to protect Snow and your daughter. My kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with yours and on my life, I will protect the young princess as if she was one of my own."

"It looks like Emma has got herself a Fairy Godmother."


Never before had the morning sun looked so lonely. Tippetarius Oswin sighed to herself as she looked up towards the sky, recently the weather had been rather miserable and it didn't seem like that was going to change anytime soon. The weather seemed to match Tippetarius' mood – or Tip as she preferred to go by given her lengthy first name. This morning Tip had woken up feeling downright awful, she felt inherently sad and she didn't really understand why but yet there was this heavy feeling that seemed to be weighing down on her heart. Something was very wrong, Tip just didn't know what it was. Maybe it was because she didn't get much sleep last night, Tip had spent the majority of night tossing and turning before finally falling asleep around the 4am region. But then she had this dream, however it seemed too real to be a dream and yet for some reason the more Tip tried to think about this bizarre dream of hers, the less she seemed to remember of it. All she could really remember was how she had felt and there had been a wave of different emotions; happiness, joy but then a lot of fear and terror. Given all those emotions, Tip figured that it was for the best that she probably didn't remember this weird dream of hers. Maybe she would ask Dr. Hooper about it later if her paths crossed with him at some point today, Archie Hopper was the town psychiatrist and if anyone would know anything about weird dreams than it would most likely be Archie. However, that would have to wait until later as right now Tip had to go to work in a sense, she had been hovering around for so long that she was going to be late if she kept this up.

Taking a deep breath Tip looked at the great big white house that stood before her, The Mayor's house was the biggest house on Miffin Street and apparently it had been at the centre of some very interesting developments here in Storybrooke. In the last couple of days, this quaint little town in Maine had been shaken up by a visitor who was brought to town by a very special little boy; Henry Mills. He was a child who Tip knew very well as she spent a great deal of her time with him as she was pretty much his nanny. Tip had been with Henry for as long as she could remember and he was her favourite person in the world, just as curious as a kitten and always asking a million questions. She hadn't seen Henry in a couple of days and Tip was very much looking forward to catching up with him. Making her way up the path, Tip walked to the front door and let herself into the Mills house, crossing over the threshold and making her way into the foyer. The house was quiet which wasn't a surprise as it was only the Mayor and Henry who lived here and it was quite a big house for just two people. As always, the house looked like it came out of the pages of some glossy magazine. Looking around Tip couldn't spot Henry or his mother anywhere and as she glanced at her wristwatch that sat on the inside of her left wrist, she saw that she didn't have time to go looking for either of them. If she wasn't careful and hurried things up than Henry was going to be late for school and they couldn't have that.

"Hey it's Tip! Henry we have to get a move on…" Tip called out, knowing full well that Henry would be able to hear her no matter where he was in the house. The Mills house was one of those places you could hear everything if you concentrated hard enough. Now that Tip had let the entire house know that she was here, all she had to do was wait and soon enough came the thunderous sound of footsteps rushing down the stairs. Tip looked up in amusement to see Henry all but flying down the stairs, all ready for school with his uniform on and his backpack along with that story book of his that he had developed a recent attachment to. Tip knew she should have admonished Henry for running down the stairs as he could have tripped and hurt himself but he was so darn cute and it pleased her that at least somebody was happy to see her.

"Morning Tip!" Henry warmly greeted, seemingly so full of sunshine today as he came rushing over to Tip, coming to a stop just short of crashing into her. Tip couldn't help but grin as she reached out and ruffled Henry's dark hair in an affectionate manner, she hadn't realised until she had seen the young boy that she had missed him rather terribly over the last couple of day. It shouldn't have surprised Tip given that she had known Henry for what seemed like forever, he was a huge part of her life and it was only a very rare occasions that she didn't see him every day. Such as the last two days, Tip had taken two days off to deal with some personal stuff that she had been putting off for a long while and finally needed to deal with it. So for Tip, of course she was going to miss Henry despite a short separation. She spent more time with him than his own mother.

"Hello bud." Tip replied with smile as it seemed that Henry was in a very cheerful mood today and for her, that was a sight for rather sore eyes. As of late, Henry hadn't been himself… Well he was Henry but he wasn't the goofy and fun kid that Tip loved and adored, He had been dealing with a lot of issues surrounding his relationship with his adoptive mother Regina and his birth mother who had given him up for adoption, that coupled with increasing feelings of loneliness had resulted in Henry becoming rather withdrawn. Tip couldn't remember the last time she had seen Henry so excited to go to school, clearly something good had happened in the last few days to improve his mood.

"What's with the sunglasses? Are you hungover Tippetarius?" Henry questioned, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly at Tip as he looked at the dark sunglasses that were covering her eyes. Tip couldn't help but blanche at the casual use of her dreaded first name, she always tried to avoid it like plague as she thought it didn't suit her in the slightest. Tippetarius Oswin sounded like a boy's name and Tip didn't believe that her full name suited her in the slightest. It's why she tended to go by Tip, whilst it probably wasn't the nicest name either it was certainly an improvement on Tippetarius. Not many people here in Storybrooke called Tip by her full name, most called her Tip whilst many others just called her Miss Oswin. There was only two people who always called her Tippetarius and that was the Mayor and the Sheriff. Then there was Henry who occasionally called Tip by her first name but he was generally trying to be funny when he did that.

"I wish, I'm just tired Henry." Tip replied with a small scoff as she went about ushering Henry towards the front door in a timely manner as they had places to be going. "

"Mom, Tip's here! We're leaving!" Henry called out but he didn't exactly wait for a response and all Tip could do was follow his lead. She wasn't complaining though as usually it did take some time to get Henry out the front door but today he was straight out that front door without any hesitation. He was clearly in quite a rush to leave the house. Henry had gotten a little bit of a head start over Tip but given the obvious height differences, it only took a few steps on her part for her to catch up to the young Mr Mills.

"Um, Henry…" Tip began holding out her hand for Henry to take and she almost laughed when Henry gave her a look of disgust, he seemed to be repulsed by the sight of Tip holding out her hand towards him. Almost as if there was something wrong with her hand but the last time Tip checked, it wasn't green and scaly. It was soft and smelt of lemon because of the cream that Tip used.

"I am not a baby anymore Tip, I don't need to hold your hand to cross the street!"

"Have you ever thought that maybe I just want to hold your hand?" Tip retorted with an amused smile as she continued to hold out her hand towards Henry, even waving it around in an exaggerated manner in an effort to get Henry to concede. This whole thing was pretty much payback for Henry calling her Tippetarius. Just because Tip was the elder of the two of them, it didn't mean that she was above messing with Henry just a little bit. She was only twenty-three and still a child at heart.

"You're so weird Tip." Henry announced with a big dramatic sigh before rather reluctantly taking a hold of Tip's hand which just caused her to grin further. She knew that she would win as Henry couldn't refuse her, it was easier to go alone with Tip than to go against her.

"So do I have to ask you about this whole biological mother thing or do I have to wait for you to bring it up? Stealing Ms. Blanchard's credit card and running off to Boston to find your biological mother? That isn't you Henry. I was quite surprised when the Sheriff told me what you've been getting up to in the last couple of days." Tip questioned, not beating around the bush as she wanted to hear what on earth had been happening in the last few days from the horse's mouth or rather the young boy's mouth. Henry Mills was at the centre of this little storm and Tip was rather intrigued to find out how one ten year old boy had almost turned this entire town upside down. He had certainly turned his mother's world upside down as according to the trusty Sheriff Graham. Regina was still going bananas over Henry's biological mother being here in town.

"Tip…" Henry began awkwardly looking around in a rather uncomfortable manner as he knew that he was in some kind of trouble with her. Tip herself had almost blown a gasket when she had heard what had happened but it was more out of concern than out of anger.

"If you were going to still someone's credit card Henry, I would have rather you stolen mine than Mary Margaret's." Tip idly quipped as her and Henry continued to walk in the direction towards Storybrooke Elementary. Tip was trying to make an effort to lighten the air so that Henry would feel a bit more comfortable in opening up to her about what happened.

"You're not mad?" Henry asked in mild surprise and Tip just shook her head, it was way too early in the morning for her to remotely lose her temper over anything. Plus, getting angry wasn't Tip's style, it took a lot to get her blood boiling.

"Like I said, I would have preferred if you had taken my credit card but the most important thing to me is that you are home safe and sound but an explanation would be nice Henry."

"She doesn't love me, my mom I mean… She never has done Tip; I know she pretends to love me so nobody will know the truth but she doesn't love me. She's not what she seems, my mom is pretending for everyone else's sake but really she's this evil witch! So I thought that I would go find my real mom, the only person who's ever cared about me." Henry explained and Tip's heart broke at what the little boy beside her was saying as it seemed like Henry really believed what he was telling her. The idea of believing his own mother didn't love him was heart-breaking and Tip felt like she was on the verge of tears. She never that Henry had been having a hard time, for the last few weeks she had noticed that he had been acting a little odd and every time Tip had asked Henry what was bothering him, he always denied something was wrong. Now Tip could see that this was what was bothering him, Henry had been struggling with all these abandonment issues and she hadn't been able to see it in time. Tip knew that Henry had been feeling a little lonely, he didn't really have many friends his age and it didn't help that Regina was shipping him off to have sessions with Archie. But she had no idea things were this bad.

"Oh Henry, why did you talk to me about any of this? I knew something was wrong since you hadn't been smiling as of late… I know that I'm not cool and a bit of a dork but I once told you that if you ever wanted a friend, then I would be your friend no matter what. I thought you knew that Henry, I thought you knew that you could always come to me if you needed to talk." Tip explained in a soft tone of voice as her and Henry approached a cross walk.

"I know that Tip. But I know that you don't know much about where you come from and I didn't want to upset you by talking about my mom when you don't know who your parents were. I didn't want to bother you Tip…" Henry weakly stated and Tip couldn't believe what she was hearing. This ten year old kid was going around stealing credits cards, tracking down his birth mother whilst trying to protect her because he didn't want to bring up her own abandonment issues. Tip was certain that she had never been so proud of Henry in the whole of his life. Her own personal hero!

"You can always talk to me about anything silly, it doesn't matter what the subject is. It doesn't matter whether it's about the whole parents thing or this curse of yours Henry. I'm always willing to listen if you need me." Tip stated in a friendly manner, giving Henry's hand a gentle squeeze as she briefly mentioned this curse of his. A few weeks ago Henry had become somewhat obsessed with fairy tales, he was convinced that everyone here in Storybrooke were the real life characters that they all knew from all those stories. But there was this curse that had been cast upon them all by an evil witch, that took away their memories and had brought them from their world to this world. It was very interesting, Tip had to admit that and it was certainly a new spin on an old story. Everyone in town was in this story/theory of Henry's including Tip herself, she was apparently Princess Ozma, Queen of Oz and Fairy Godmother to this so-called saviour who would one day come and break this curse.

"If I told you Tip, you probably would have tried to stop me from going to find Emma." Henry couldn't help but point out and Tip sighed in agreement as the young Mr. Mills as he had her there. Without a doubt there was no way she would have let Henry leave Storybrooke alone and travel all the way to Boston to track down his birth mother. There was however a small chance that Tip would have gone with Henry had he asked her, if she knew how much grief the infamous Emma Swan would cause the Mayor. Tip was yet to meet Henry's birth mother but she already liked the woman based on what she was hearing about her no nonsense attitude towards the Mayor. No one in Storybrooke was brave enough to stand up to the Mayor.

"Not probably, almost certainly." Tip corrected, choosing to keep quiet about the possibility of her coming with Henry had he told her. She didn't want to give Henry any ideas given he had certainly had an interesting couple of days without her making things worse. "But I suppose you already knew that?"

"Pretty much Tip."

"So that mom of yours? Emma? Nice name, I could swear that I know someone called Emma. I can't remember where from but I know the name from somewhere, she was somebody who meant a lot to me…" Tip couldn't help but note and she tried to search her memory from where she knew the name Emma from but it was coming up blank. There was nobody here in town who was called Emma, Tip was certain of that as she pretty much knew everyone in Storybrooke. But she definitely knew someone called Emma, from a long time ago but Tip just couldn't place it. This was going to bother Tip until she figured it out. But Henry on the other hand? Looked mighty pleased with himself over this new development. "Now what is so funny Little One? You look like the cat who ate the cream."

"You'll see."