Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon a Time Crossover
Season 1, between episodes 7 and 8
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
Vidia had fallen asleep in her jail cell. She had no one to talk to or keep her company. As much as Clarion hated to do it, she was forced to leave and proceed to the Town Hall and continue work. She was going to rehire those same two young men she had employed yesterday. "You made a good call, sweetheart," she told Vidia. "Don't worry, I'll find some way of getting you out this mess."
It was a lie, but a lie with the good intention of trying to keep hope aflame. But the fast flyer turned human was losing hope with each passing minute. The conversation with Mr. Gold was confusing and irrational. For a while Vidia thought he might know of her Never Land, but how could anyone from this land know? He said it was found in a book and a play. That made no sense since Dr. Griffiths and Lizzy had pledged their silence. She chose not to admit her confusion to Emma, even if she was on her side.
Lunch was provided by the Sheriff. It was a simple grilled cheese sandwich, a bag of chips and unsweetened iced tea. It suited Vidia fine since she wasn't interested in eating very much. With nothing more to do after the midday meal, she nodded off.
While sleeping she dreamt of far off places and old memories.
PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Mid Georgian Period on the Mainland)
"Hello, Vidia," she called out.
Vidia grumbled. She hated this little imp tagging along. "What do you want, Wisp?" It was a pointless question, Vidia knew exactly what Wisp wanted of her.
"Let's race," Wisp said excitedly.
"NO!"
"What's wrong, afraid I'll win?"
Ever since Wisp had arrived she was always sporting for race after race against Vidia. Wisp's talent glow was virtually equal to Vidia's and the little fast flying newcomer went to great pains to tell everyone who would listen to her. Especially if Vidia was in earshot.
"I'm as fast as any flyer in the guild," she would boast. "Probably even faster."
Vidia wanted no part of her now. The two had raced several times before and they always ended in a tie. Wisp was a nuisance and she was reckless beyond all reason. Then in the last race Wisp came in a very close second. Afterwards Vidia decided to put an end to the endless races because they weren't fun anymore. As far as Vidia was concerned Wisp had been shown up as second best.
"I already won, remember? Now go away!" Vidia blustered.
"Humph! Sounds like someone can't prove her only win wasn't a fluke," Wisp deftly answered.
"Hey, we raced, you lost, I won, and that's it!" Vidia was more than annoyed with this young interloper. No one was faster than her and no one was more talented than her. It had been decades since being cast out of the fast flying guild by those traitors Swift, Festus and Kelly. After their insurrection had been found out and put down for good, Vidia was invited back into the guild, but the long train of abuses from those three left her unwilling and unable to trust anyone. All she had left was her status as the most talented fairy of any guild.
For Wisp to wrestle that crown from her was to leave her with nothing. Vidia would be left an empty shell of her former self. Once confident and capable she was now cocky and abrasive, ready to push away anyone who tried to be a friend. Wisp was the opposite, almost a mirror image of Vidia. Except where Vidia learned to turn inward and hide from the rest of the fairy community, Wisp was as outgoing as they came, ready to chatter with any person unlucky enough to give her moment's bit of attention.
Wisp was something else that Vidia hated. Competitive beyond belief. Most fairies were competitive to some degree or another, but Vidia and Wisp were two of a kind. Ready to push the envelope to prove how much better they were than anyone else. Wisp, though, took it to insane extremes. The little blonde flyer could stupidly lose her own life trying to prove how great she was. Vidia knew, however that being smart, not reckless, was what made one great.
"Oka-ay," Wisp replied, "but as long as there are questions surrounding our last race no one is going to believe that you're the fastest flyer in all of Pixie Hollow." Vidia didn't respond to Wisp's needling so she poured it on. "Or are you afraid that you really aren't the most talented pixie in the land?"
"Alright, that's it! The Kessel Run, ever heard of it?"
"What flyer hasn't? It's the most difficult and demanding race ever devised by fairies," Wisp needlessly explained. "The Minister of Spring wants it banned because it is so dangerous."
"Oh please, he's just a big blowhard," Vidia replied. "Now that I think about it, so are you."
"Put your wings where mouth is," Wisp answered. "Ready to do this?"
"Anytime, dearie."
"Good let's do it now!"
Vidia couldn't believe it. Not only had she let Wisp bait her into another race, but the most dangerous race in all of Pixie Hollow. The one race Vidia swore she would never fly describing it as only for idiots with nothing to prove but how idiotic they were. I guess that makes me the idiot, she fumed.
Flyers and fairies alike were stunned to hear that Vidia had agreed to fly the Kessel Run, a race that circled Never Land and involved complicated stunt flying including a flight through a thick forest that some referred to as Death Row. That stretch earned its unfortunate moniker when a young fast flyer broke his neck trying to navigate it.
The twists and turns in Death Row were so tight and required such supreme agility, alertness, focus and body control that no flyer wanted to plow through it at full speed. No one except the unfortunate soul who lost his life and Wisp, who had been practicing the Kessel Run in her off hours so she could challenge Vidia when she felt ready.
The racing path was marked by brightly colored gates that each fairy had to fly through. Knocking one over or bypassing one did not count and the contestant had to either go back and lose time or take a deduction. Judges kept up with the contestants and watched for any missed gates or illegal activity.
When the actual competition began it attracted the attention of not only the fast flying guild, but also members of other guilds and even Queen Clarion herself. The Kessel Run was flown often by many of the guilds, but only the fast flyers were ever fully challenged by its design. Their blazing speeds became a detriment in certain areas like Death Row, which was why so many came out to watch.
Vidia took the early lead and appeared to hold it steadily throughout the early parts of the race. The first difficult stretch, a series of vertical flights up and down the cliffs on the shoreline proved to be quite a bit of trouble for the fast flyers. Ascending the cliffs was easy, descending was a different story.
The object was to reach terminal velocity and hold it to the very last second before turning up from the rocks below. Essentially it was a game of chicken. The final gates of this section found on the rocks with waves crashing around them were usually the ones avoided most often by fairies and flyers alike. Deductions were common here. Neither Vidia nor Wisp wanted to pull up early and look cowardly so both plunged towards the waters below, barely squeaking through the rocks and gates just before they would have slammed into the water below.
Other stretches tested their endurance of high speed flying and body control as they had to perform complicated maneuvers through preset gates hanging high in the air before finally entering Death Row. Both Vidia and Wisp roared through the trees and branches, Wisp darted through and around all the twigs, leaves and tree trunks with a deftness of control that left everyone in awe. Everyone except Vidia who burned up with jealousy.
Vidia it seemed had missed several gates on the tightest turns. Gates Wisp hadn't missed. Vidia also suffered from several run-ins with leaves, twigs and more than once she clipped branches sending shrieks of pain shooting up her arms and legs. What truly burned up Vidia was that she wasn't holding back and Wisp was still pulling away. No matter what she did the plum haired flyer couldn't maintain control or dart with the same precision as her inferior competition. Furious, Vidia unleashed her pent up anger into more speed than she ever thought possible. It was a poor decision. While Wisp exited the forest unscathed, Vidia crashed into branches and twigs before tumbling onto the ground below.
Wisp was celebrated as the greatest fast flyer and the most talented fairy in all of Pixie Hollow. Vidia burned. She was determined to get that title back.
Every time Vidia practiced the Kessel Run she tried to fly through Death Row at full speed and never completed it without incident. She would clip her wings on leaves and branches or bang into tree trunks sending her out of the air. When that didn't happen Vidia found she simply could not hold sharp turns tight enough and would end up flying around the marked gates rather than through them.
The stress got to her. For weeks, Vidia practiced the Death Row stretch of The Kessel Run, but she was no closer to navigating that portion of the run as Wisp. She wondered how, exactly, she did it. Wisp would only say, "I'm just better than you."
Vidia knew the little newcomer wasn't any better than her, but without the ability to beat Wisp in a rematch she would always be regarded as second best. Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years and no matter how hard she tried, Vidia could never the gain advantage she sought. Eventually, she was at wits end, losing virtually all hope of proving herself superior to Wisp once and for all.
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
"Wake up, Valerie," Emma's voice told her. "You have a visitor."
"Hunh?" Vidia woke up to see a familiar face staring back at her. "Tinker Bell?"
"Hi, Sis," she said trying to sound cheerful. "And its Tina, remember?"
Vidia wiped the sleep from her eyes. "Right. What are you doing here?"
"School's out, Val," she said. "I got an 'A' on my history test. Isn't that great?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. So how long have I been asleep?" Vidia spied the clock on the wall. It was nearly seven in the evening. Talking with Emma was the queen. In Clarion's hands was a bag which smelled of food.
"I brought dinner for my girl," she said to the deputy. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Emma opened the door to the jail cell and allowed all the three women to sit at an empty desk and eat together. Locked away in strange and colorful boxes were sandwiches made of a cheese spread called pimento, salad with Italian dressing which Vidia should have enjoyed more, but couldn't, fruit slices and bottles of water. There was also hot peach cobbler, the scent which Vidia had caught earlier. The cobbler was from Granny's, the only part of the meal that wasn't homemade.
While eating their dinner, a redheaded woman entered the room. Vidia recognized her instantly. "Rosetta!"
The redhead stopped in her tracks. "Oh! Does she still think she is someone else?"
Emma nodded. "What can I help you with?" the deputy asked the garden fairy turned television host.
"I'm here to pay this young girl's bail," Rosetta said. "She deserves to be at home with her family."
Queen Clarion was grateful for the assistance, but she insisted she could not afford to pay her back. Rosetta explained that it was the least she could do after that fiasco with the iPad.
Vidia could not believe her own ears. Why was Queen Clarion turning down Rosetta's assistance? Then there was Rosetta's eye patch. That was what she said, wasn't it?
"What about the eye patch?" Vidia asked Tinker Bell.
"Not eye patch, iPad," Tink replied.
"Oh! What's that?"
"It's a tablet computer."
"Oh. What's a table computer?"
"It's a small, hand held computer that you operate by sliding your finger across the screen."
Vidia's utterly confused look made Tink stop and sigh. "Never mind. I'll explain later."
~O~
"The bail is set at half a million dollars," Emma told Desiree. "That's a pretty big favor."
Desiree, the host of Storybrooke's most watched morning show, certainly had the money. A brief explanation revealed that she felt badly after accusing Claire of stealing the iPad which was later found in Desiree's car. The fallout of the newspaper articles that followed the accusations cost Claire a number of good paying jobs, including the home renovation that was her biggest contract.
This meant a great deal of lost income and potential income for the Kensington family. Desiree had been looking for a way to make it up to Mrs. Kensington and this was the perfect opportunity.
"Oh this is too much, Ms. Collingsworth," Claire answered. She needed the help, but would have felt indebted to the woman for paying such a large bail amount. Even if the amount of lost income exceeded the half million dollar bail.
"Don't say another word," Desiree replied. "I'm bailing your girl out and I won't take no for answer."
"I'm afraid you'll have to," another voice broke in. "At least for tonight."
Valerie stood up from her seat. "Lyria? You're here too?"
The slender blonde woman approached Claire and properly introduced herself. "My name is Lydia Van Buren and with your permission, Mrs. Kensington, I want to be your lawyer."
"I can't…, I can't afford a proper lawyer," Claire answered.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Kensington," Lydia replied. "I'll be working pro bono."
The next chapter brings us even more twists and takes us closer to the hearing.
Note: The Kessel Run is a reference to the original STAR WARS (1977). Han Solo boasts that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run "in under twelve parsecs."