Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, between episodes 7 and 8

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Mid Georgian Period)

When Vidia got word from a summoner that Wisp was in the hospital she just rolled her eyes. Why am I not surprised? she asked herself. Wisp was always being reckless and causing trouble. Now it seemed it had come back to bite her in the wings.

Vidia sighed before asking what the summoner talent happened.

"Wisp collided with a tree while practicing The Kessel Run," he told Vidia. "All I know is that she has suffered severe injuries."

Vidia could not abide by Wisp's reckless antics, but they were both members of the same guild. That always counted for something.

~O~

At the hospital Vidia strolled in expecting to see Wisp with a broken wrist or ankle. Maybe a bandage on her head. In fact, she even had a few scathing remarks practiced to mercilessly heckle the reckless fast flyer.

She had opened her mouth and was ready to pounce with a verbal attack to bring down the house when she stopped cold in her tracks. What she saw sunk Vidia's heart and twisted her stomach. Wisp was lying face down and her body was carefully strapped to a bed. Her head and neck were braced and held motionless. Several healing talents swirled around the young flyer. She noticed that for all the activity they hardly put a hand on her and when they did it was with a delicate touch.

"She was careless," a voice whispered to Vidia. She turned and saw her own guild supervisor in the room watching helplessly from a distant corner. Vidia quietly stepped next to him, her gaze never once averting from the incapacitated Wisp.

"What…, what happened to her?"

"She was trying to beat your time," he answered. "The doctors think she went head first into a tree trunk and injured her neck. Wisp has little or no feeling in her extremities. She can't move her arms or legs, not even her wings."

This revelation nearly crushed Vidia.

"The worst part of it was that no one saw what happened," she was told. "Wisp was found only after a breeze blew away some leaves that had fallen on top of her. We don't know how long she was lying there, maybe as long as a day or more."

Vidia had never felt so frightened for anyone since Fairy Morrison charged the Hawk and killed it, dying himself in the process. Barely able to stand, Vidia floated out of the room and left the hospital in a daze. She meandered aimlessly, almost zombie-like around Pixie Hollow completely oblivious to her surroundings. Her mind continually swirling with the image of the incapacitated Wisp strapped and immobilized to the hospital bed.

Eventually she made her way back to her sour plum tree home, though she had no memory of how she got there or what route was taken. Vidia stumbled around before sinking in a dark corner where she clutched her legs to her chest and began rocking back and forth. Her entire body shivered with fear, doubt and self-recrimination.

Inwardly, Vidia was terrified out of her mind. She had disliked Wisp and her antics, at times wishing that the hawk would take her for being so stupid. But now Vidia wondered if she had driven the youngster to this. Was she partly responsible for crippling a fairy of Pixie Hollow? And not just any fairy, but one from her own guild? One of such talent as to be equal to her own? How cruel a fate that someone with so much promise could have their whole future ended in a moment.

It was a crushing thought for the fast flyer. It could have been her so easily. It was someone else who would have to struggle daily with ordinary tasks. Vidia would have to suffer knowing she may have had a hand in this tragedy.

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

"Let's talk about your home, this place you call Pixie Hollow," Albert said to Valerie, practically chomping at the bit for what he had in store. "I want to know all about it."

"Objection!" Lydia said bolting out of her chair. "The District Attorney has already made it clear he only wants to deal with what he can verify."

"I intend to do just that," Spencer replied in kind. "I want to clarify her vision of her home and compare it to what is known."

The judge sighed. "Overruled, but mind yourself, Mr. Spencer. Go too far afield and I will reign you in."

"Understood." The D.A. turned to Valerie and with phony pleasant smile began to ask his questions. "Tell me, Ms. Kensington..."

"My name is Vidia," she said, cutting him off.

"Of course, Vidia, what do the fairies of Pixie Hollow do? What is their primary focus each year?"

"We bring the four seasons to the mainland," she answered.

"And how do tiny creatures manage that?"

Valerie went on to detail each of the major nature talent guilds and their responsibilities. Water fairies could manipulate water and helped the fish to grow and learn to swim. Animal talents cared for the insects, the animals and the birds, raising them and teaching them what they needed to know to survive on the mainland. Garden talents grew flowers, trees, grasses and other plants which in turn provided seeds and cuttings that would be flown to the mainland so they could be planted and allowed to grow wild once they were planted by the fairies of Pixie Hollow.

Light talents could bend and capture light and gave fireflies their glow. Fast flying fairies created breezes and winds which playfully rustled flora in the spring and summer and knocked down leaves in the fall. Storm fairies brought much needed rain when nature could not do so reliably.

"Then why are there droughts?" Spencer asked.

"Well they can't do it all the time," Valerie answered. "Humans would get spoiled."

The handful of people still in the courtroom murmured with laughter at this statement. According to Valerie, fairies existed to support the human world, but were not in the business of maintaining order, just helping nature along according to its own rules.

~O~

At the table for the defense, a finger tapped Lydia on the shoulder. She turned to see Dr. Archie Hopper sitting in the gallery right behind her. He had quietly snuck in to watch the questioning now that his morning schedule was finished. The mayor insisted that Henry have his morning session before school. It forced Archie to miss the earliest part of court.

"Did I miss much?" he whispered very quietly.

"No, just hecklers getting thrown out," Lydia informed him. "Glad you're here, Spencer is trying to rattle Valerie."

"It will be like two bulls in a China shop," he replied quietly before sitting back.

~O~

"Is Tinker Bell one of these nature talent fairies?" Spencer asked Valerie as a follow up to his line of questioning.

"No, she is a tinker fairy," Valerie answered him. She looked Tina right in the eyes and added, "She's a darn good one, too."

Spencer wanted to know what a tinker fairy did in Pixie Hollow. Valerie explained how they made satchels and baskets and acorn buckets so that the nature fairies could carry all of their seeds, animals and fish to the mainland to be released into the wild. They also made and serviced devices that helped the fairies of Pixie Hollow do their jobs better and faster.

"It's given us more free time for ourselves and to explore ways to expand what we do," she concluded.

"How does your queen oversee all of this work?"

"There is a chain of command," Valerie replied. First there was the queen, then the ministers who answered directly to her. The ministers were her personal advisors and responsible for overseeing their own seasons. They ensured that work was done to satisfaction and on time for delivery at the beginning of each new season.

To accomplish this, each talent guild working to complete a particular season answered to that season's respective minister. The individual who reported to them were the talent guild overseers. Each was a member of their own talent guild and were very good at time, project and personnel management.

Many talent guilds had sub talents with fairies who specialized in a particular area of that talent. Examples included Butterfly Wranglers who were a sub talent of the animal fairy guild and the Leaf Painters who were a sub talent of the garden fairy guild. Each sub talent had its own overseer who answered to the guild overseer. This meant that sometimes a guild overseer reported to more than one minister at the same time depending on which sub talent was involved. Because leaf painters changed the colors of the leaves to autumn hues, a Garden Talent Guild overseer might report to the Minister of Summer with news of the latest summer preparations and then provided information to the Minister of Autumn on the progress of the Leaf Painters.

"Are there any exceptions to this hierarchy?" Spencer asked Valerie.

"Yes, that would be Fairy Mary," Valerie replied. "She is Queen Clarion's special projects supervisor."

"Special projects? What kind of special projects would this Fairy Mary be put in charge of?"

"Dances and parties," she replied. "Also seasonal celebrations and the Pixie Hollow Games in which all the talents from all the seasons participate," Valerie replied.

Lydia stood and addressed the judge directly. "Your Honor, is there any point to this line of questioning?"

"I'm wondering the same thing," he said. "Is there a conclusion somewhere on the horizon, Mr. Spencer?"

"Yes, Your Honor," he told him. "I'm getting to it."

"Please be quick about it," the judge ordered.

District Attorney Spencer turned his attention back to Valerie, his eyes met hers hoping to see fear. Instead there was resolve, almost to the point of arrogance. That, he believed, would be her undoing.

Spencer asked a few more questions about Pixie Hollow and Never Land. Touching on basic subjects such as what celebrations the alleged fairies participated in. When Valerie got to the Autumn Revelry he stopped her and asked about some specifics.

"Every eight years the blue moon rises over Never Land," she explained. "A moonstone is mounted on a scepter to capture the rays of the blue moon which are then transmuted into Blue Pixie Dust. The dust feeds and replenishes the Pixie Dust Tree and is also used to increase the yield of yellow dust every day."

"This scepter sounds like something that would have to be crafted," Spencer commented. "Do the Tinkers make it each time?"

"Every guild gets a chance," Valerie replied.

"What about your guild?" Spencer asked.

"We got ours a few blue moons ago."

"What about the Tinker Guild," Spencer responded, seeking clarification.

"Yes, they had their turn over one hundred years ago, during the end of what you would call the 19th century."

"I see, and was it a group effort?"

"No, one person from the guild is given the task of making the scepter."

"Who was selected from the Tinker Guild?"

"Tinker Bell," Valerie replied.

"Did she have any problems?"

"No, in fact her design was revolutionary."

"Really? Please explain."

"The greatest amount of surface area of the moonstone must be exposed to the light of the Blue Moon to transmute the greatest amount of Blue Pixie Dust. Tinker Bell broke the moonstone into several parts and vastly increased the surface area. She used a diamond to redirect the light of the Blue Moon into each shard. The result was a record yield of blue dust."

"That is very interesting, tell me a little about the first time you met Tinker Bell," Spencer requested of her.

Valerie relayed the events of Tinker Bell's arrival and their first full meeting. Tink surprised her while she was collecting pollen for the mainland. Valerie, who was still going by the name Vidia much to Spencer's aggravation, disliked her immediately.

"Why?"

"She had a brighter talent glow," Valerie told him, explaining what a talent glow meant. "I couldn't accept that I wasn't the most talented fairy in all of Pixie Hollow any more. My superior talent made me feel important in Pixie Hollow. I hated that she took that away from me."

"What did you do about it?"

Tinker Bell had become fascinated with the mainland, but at the time Tinkers did not go to the mainland because they had no purpose there. It wasn't a written law, but because no tinker ever expressed interest in going it became accepted that they were not allowed to visit the world of humans. It became a rule purely by accident. Tink, though, was desperate to visit the mainland and tried to change her talent, but she failed miserably every time.

"She came to me and I offered to help, in my own way."

"In what way?" Spencer asked, seeking more details.

It was suggested that capturing the sprinting thistles would allow her to become a Garden Fairy. In truth, Valerie admitted that she had set her up to fail. It was hoped the failure would be so spectacular that Tinker Bell would never threaten Valerie's position as strongest talent.

"You wanted to break her? Crush her spirit?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Did you want to break her or not?" Spencer pressed.

"Yes. Yes I did," she answered directly with a "There I said it, are you satisfied" undercurrent in her tone of voice.

"But you are friends now?"

"Yes, we are."

"How did that come about?"

"It was when Tinker Bell met Lizzy during her first visit to Summer Camp. I…, uh…, sort of tried to teach her a lesson to stay away from humans and instead she got trapped in a little house Lizzy had made. Her father was a scientist and I was afraid he might experiment on her and then come looking for the rest of us."

"What did you do?"

"I flew back and told the others what happened. Well, I left out the part about what I did. We all mounted a rescue attempt and found out that Tinker Bell had made friends with the human girl. We got slowed down because it started to rain and we can't fly if our wings are wet."

"How does that work, exactly? Being unable to fly with wet wings?"

"Our wings absorb the water, they become too heavy to help us gain lift or move through the air," she explained. "If one of us falls into water, we could drown. The wings become so heavy they will drag a fairy to his or her death."

"Interesting. Was Tinker Bell afraid now that she had been captured by a human?"

"At first she was, according to what I learned later," Valerie answered. "The saving grace was that Lizzy was obsessed with fairies, she was a true believer and only wanted to learn about us, not treat us like a science experiment. Her father, Martin, was a scientist and wanted to bring Tinker Bell to his peers. I stopped him, but got caught and Tink wound up rescuing me. I guess that's when I learned how wrong I was about her. She was the first person in centuries to put her life on the line for me. That was when I stopped treating her as a rival and started being her friend."

"Is this going to go on forever?" Lydia said, jumping in.

"Time to wrap it up, Mr. Spencer," the judge ordered.

"Of course." Spencer went to his associates, one of whom handed him three DVD cases, which the D. A. showed to the judge. "The stories you have just heard all sound very fascinating, but they are fabrications. Not of her own damaged mind, but of a group of story writers in California and animators in Asia. These are not life experiences Ms. Kensington has been telling us. No, they are in fact the plots of these three movies."

Albert Spencer showed the three DVD cases to Valerie. "Do these look familiar to you?" he asked, a smug smirk on his face.

~O~

Vidia took hold of them and looked intently at each one. Fear and confusion swept across her face. On each cover were depictions of Tinker Bell with her name emblazoned on each one. The first was simply titled Tinker Bell. The second, Tinker Bell and The Lost Treasure. The last was Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue. A stylized image of Lizzy accompanied a still of the boat Clank and Bobble had devised.

"What are these?" she asked Mr. Spencer.

"Don't play dumb with us, Ms. Kensington, you've been found out," he told her, nearly frothing at the mouth. "Did you honestly expect us to not notice that everything you've said here today is a lie? It's all here where any child to watch them, stories about Tinker Bell, Vidia, Queen Clarion, Rosetta and oh so many more."

Spencer pushed in close to her, "Now tell us the truth. You aren't a fast fairy, you are Valerie Kensington."

"That's fast flying fairy. My name is Vidia and I don't know what these are or why Tinker Bell's face is on them."

~O~

Spencer stood erect and smiled. He was actually hoping she would deny this claim. Two bailiffs brought in an LCD television / DVD Player combo. He turned on the system and opened up the first case, "I'll gladly play these for you. For all of us to see. Or you could confess now and save yourself the humiliation."

"I don't know what you are talking about," she continued.

"Have it your way." Spencer loaded the first DVD and started the playback.

"Objection!" Lydia Van Buren yelled. "How long is this going to take?"

"Overruled, Ms. Van Buren," the judge instantly replied. "I'm curious to see where this is going."

As the player spun up and previews began to play, Spencer lowered the volume and waited for Valerie to crack. He was sure she would have no choice but to admit her deception. He was surprised that she did not. Instead, she appeared both curious and confused. There was also fear in her face, but not from being found out. Instead he read it as fear of the unknown. Fear of something as strange and incongruous as to be soul shaking.

Spencer wasn't sure if this was just great coaching on the part of Van Buren or genuine fear of what she was about to see, but he decided to ask one more question to further convince the judge. "Ms. Vidia, do the fairies of this Pixie Hollow have a unique language?"

"Yes," she answered him.

"What does it sound like?"

"To humans it sounds like the jingling of bells," Valerie told him.

"Can you speak it to us right now?"

Valerie lowered her head a bit, "No. And I can't understand why I can't."

"Is there a written component?"

"Yes."

"Can you give us a demonstration of this written fairy language?"

"No, I can't. I've tried and for some reason I cannot write my own language."

"I see. And are your memories of Pixie Hollow in fairy language?"

It was obvious she had not thought about that question before. Her eyes moved about as she considered his question. A look emerged on her face that matched her answer. "No. No it's all in English. I don't understand why, they should be in fairy language."

"Thank you, Ms. Kensington." Spencer spun around and began the first movie.

The familiar logo of Walt Disney Studios presented itself on the television screen. A streak of light leaving behind a shimmering trail flew over the castle in a large arc. "Does that remind you of anything, Ms. Kensington?" Spencer asked the young woman in the witness box.

"No, should it?"

"You don't recognize Tinker Bell flying over Cinderella's castle?" It was obvious to everyone else in the room. The streak of light was Tinker Bell leaving behind a trail of shimmering fairy dust. It had been a staple of the Disney franchise for decades.

"Oh come now, Valerie, I'm sure you've seen that at the beginning of every Walt Disney film."

She possessed a confused look. "Who is Walt Disney?"

There were a few groans and murmured chuckles in the courtroom in response to that statement. Everyone know who Walt Disney was. No child could grow up in America and not know him or his work. A legacy that spanned decades beginning with a mouse and led to the first full length animated film in history. Fairy tales were plundered and reworked to fit his family friendly vision of animated fair. In some cases, Walt Disney movies became the way most fairy tales were remembered in the national consciousness, even if they only vaguely resembled the stories upon which they were based.

Valerie, though, was feigning being oblivious to this long history. At least that was how Spencer saw it.

~O~

Vidia sat back and watched as the first images of the movie played out on the screen. She noticed that they didn't appear natural. "What kind of movie is this?"

"Its computer animated," Spencer replied.

"Computer..., what?"

"Just keep watching," he instructed. "In a few seconds none of that will matter."

It was a foreboding statement that left Vidia feeling nervous. Watching the film progress she was a taken aback as the story seemed to involve fairies. It correctly described how fairies were born from a baby's first laugh. Then, the laugh was carried away on a dandelion seed. Seconds later she was blindsided by the first major shock.

The name TINKER BELL splashed across the screen. Anxiety filled her heart adding to her fear and deepening Vidia's confusion.

Spencer, the man who had been interrogating her, smiled triumphantly, but said nothing. He simply watched her, like a predator eyeing its prey.

Seconds later, Vidia received a second and far more jarring shock. As the dandelion seed floated its way towards an enormous maple tree a fairy in purple clothing pushed it along, guiding it to its destination.

Vidia nearly fell out of her seat. "THAT'S ME!" she yelled, frightened out of her mind. "That's me as a fairy. Those are my clothes, my wings... and THAT'S THE PIXIE DUST TREE! How did you do that? Where did this come from?"

"Please remain silent Ms. Kensington," the judge told her.

She sat down, her heart and breathing accelerating with each passing minute. Vidia did not think to use this as proof of her argument. The image of herself, while mostly accurate, was slightly waxy looking and lacked certain distinctive features like skin texture. She could have pointed out how similar she looked to what was being shown on the screen. Instead, she was consumed with terror. Fear born from the realization that she was dealing with me a more powerful magic than she had ever anticipated.

Vidia sat down, her heart and breathing raced. She was confronted with the mostly accurate portrayal of life in Pixie Hollow. The dandelion seed was transformed into Tinker Bell by the magic of the yellow pixie dust which Terence drizzled on her. She watched herself sneer at Tinker Bell when the whirlwind that represented the fast flying guild fall apart in the little blonde's hands. She cringed remembering that moment. It was a time in her life she regretted.

There was a twinge of rivalry that swelled up in her throat as she was forced to relive the incredibly brilliant talent glow of the hammer which represented the tinker guild. The movie played on, revealing every aspect of life in Pixie Hollow that the fairies had tried so hard to keep secret. Now here it was, on display for anyone to see.

The wingless fast flyer twisted and flinched often in her chair as the film revealed in detail the first meeting between Tinker Bell and herself and how badly it went. Later it showed Tinker Bell's many failed attempts to change her talent, though it was played more for laughs. She also witnessed her friends in this "movie." Silvermist, Rosetta, Iridessa and Fawn along with herself being depicted in this entertainment.

Tink and the other girls had informed her of just how sad and dispiriting each failure had been for the little blonde fairy.

Then came the infamous Sprinting Thistle incident. Vidia sunk into her chair as she watched with horror at just how spiteful she had been to Tinker Bell that day. Yet her regrets never took her mind from the fact that their world, their entire lives and even their thoughts had been captured and turned into entertainment for humans.

Even before the movie ended, the sheer terror in Vidia's heart overwhelmed her. She bolted out of her chair and cried, "How can you have this? This is our world, our lives. Where did this come from?"

~O~

"Sit down, Ms. Kensington!" the judge bellowed.

"NO! Pixie Hollow is a secret. No one is supposed to know about it, how did you get all of this? How could you possibly know?"

"If you do not contain yourself, Ms. Kensington I will hold you in contempt," the judge told her.

"Valerie, please keep quiet," Lydia told her.

"Honey, sweetie, it will be okay," Claire told her, trying to calm the agitated girl.

"No, it's not okay," Valerie replied, stark terror in her voice. "Humans aren't supposed to know about our home, about us."

"You told Dr. Griffiths and her daughter," Spencer told her, sensing a massive contradiction.

"They learned about us by accident," Valerie said. "We were lucky that they were trustworthy."

"And then you told us," Spencer added.

~O~

Vidia didn't answer. Her breathing increased and became shallow. "What kind of magic is this," she stammered. This was the first time that Vidia considered just how powerful an adversary she was facing. Plucking the fairies from Pixie Hollow, transporting them across time and space, turning them into humans and then taking their memories required great magic.

Now their entire lives were on display for everyone to see in this "movie." Their lives, their home even their very thoughts were not safe. The magic she was facing was far greater than she had ever anticipated. And anyone in this room could be the magician who conceived of that horror.

Not since first waking in the hospital did Vidia feel so helpless… and so defeneless. She was trapped and outmatched in a way she could not fathom. Vidia panicked.

"Sit down, Ms. Kensington," the judge ordered. She did not comply. Her face, her breathing, spoke of unbridled fear.

"Sit! Down!" the judge ordered again.

"Calm down, Valerie," Lyria instructed.

"MY NAME IS VIDIA!" she yelled at her. "YOU KNOW THAT! YOU'RE ONE OF US, LYRIA!"

"A name found in the second film," Spencer announced.

"What!?"

"Enough! Valerie Kensington you are in contempt of this court," the judge yelled. "Sit down as ordered!"

Beads of sweat poured down Vidia's face, plastering her hair to her forehead and cheeks. The judge called for bailiffs to take control of her, but as they approached she leapt from the witness stand and tried to run. Lyria, Clarion and the bailiffs all tried to stop her. The doors were closed and locked to keep Vidia from leaving the room.

No matter where she turned someone tried to block her way. They backed her into a corner where Vidia found she had no means of escape. Panic, turmoil, despair, confusion and hopelessness. All these emotions ravaged her heart and her mind as she sunk to the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs. "What magic is this?" she mumbled to herself as Vidia rocked back and forth sinking deeper and deeper into her own fears.

~O~

Claire pushed her way through to her daughter. Her baby girl. She held her tightly in a loving, motherly embrace. "Everything will be fine," she whispered. "It's okay, sweetie, everything will be fine."

Whew, another chapter in the trial is done. I hope everyone has enjoyed the story so far, please let me know what you think. Thank you for reading.