Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 8, Chapter 1

The following events occur before, during and after the eighth episode of the first season titled: "Desperate Souls"

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

The Ogre Wars. A series of protracted conflicts between the kingdoms of the Enchanted Forest and the ogres who roamed the land. Ogres were creatures so tall and massive they used tree trunks as weapons. They killed mercilessly and devoured their opponents alive. These wars came and went over the decades with men who once served, and survived, watching their sons or even grandsons going off to battle.

Rumpelstiltskin's father had been called to service as had Rumpel himself once. Now his own son would soon be of age. This worried him deeply. The fighting was as fierce and deadly as ever with the distant sky a deep crimson from the battles at the front lines.

Hordor, a "recruiter" for the Duke who ruled this land, brought his men on horseback into the village. He was here to find new conscripts for the war effort. Today was a shock for everyone. The age for enforced conscription had been lowered. Again. Now it was fourteen years and the guards were taking both boys AND girls.

A young girl was celebrating her birthday when she was taken by Hordor. Her parents were fearful and angry. "You can't take our daughter," the father yelled lunging at the guard. Suddenly, though, both the father and the mother fell to their knees. They were being choked into submission by an unseen force.

In a nearby field a mysterious man dressed in a fine, black robe sat atop a dark colored horse. He appeared as death himself. The unknown rider held aloft his right hand and from it emanated the powerful magic which constricted the airflow of the two horrified parents.

"The Dark One says I can," Hordor told them with a self-assured smirk. The Dark One released his grip on the couple and as they were trying to recover their breath the guards rode off with their little girl. Every villager knew she would not come home… or live to see her fifteenth birthday.

Rumpelstiltskin, a meek spinner of wool who was lame in one foot and forced to use a walking stick, looked on in terror. Bealfire, his son, was about to turn fourteen in a few days. The guard would come for him, as well. Rumpel could not allow that, but he was powerless against the guards or the magic of the Dark One who rode with them.

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

It had been two full weeks since the death of Sheriff Graham. The town was still consumed with grief at his loss. The proceedings of the Kensington case did little to distract them from their profound loss. At least that had ended on a slightly less sour note.

The paper had been very unkind to Claire Kensington. Sydney Glass went out of his way to portray the middle aged woman as a poor mother who drove her daughter away. Who rejected her out of hand and sent Valerie to what he called "an epic meltdown which led to an incomprehensible psychotic break."

It was not an easy thing for Claire to read. Each article in the series, which focused on some part of her history and relationship with Valerie, was as heartless as possible. He claimed that Claire got exactly what she deserved for being "the worst example of parental abuse and neglect, both mental and psychological, since the days of wire hangers and prayer closets." (Wire hangers being a reference to the tell-all celebrity book Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford alleging abuse by her mother, actress Joan Crawford, while prayer closets was a direct reference to the Stephen King horror novel Carrie and its subsequent film adaption starring Sissy Spacek.)

There were some bright spots, however. Desiree used her talk show as a forum to paint Claire in a far more sympathetic light. "It's hard for a modern woman these days," she said. "We want it all. Career, husband and family. It pulls us in all kinds of directions. Claire had big dreams and she sacrificed them to raise a child. It left her feeling stifled and frustrated. Claire did her very best to raise her two girls all the while wondering what might have been. She isn't a bad mother, she just never had the chance to really spread her wings. I think many of us know how that feels."

Then there was Hartley Winter who visited often to provide moral support. Whenever Claire read one of Sydney's hit pieces Hartley would call it "rubbish" and said that Mr. Glass had no idea the true character Claire's heart. She was very grateful to have him by her side at this moment.

Tina tried to be helpful by hiding the newspapers from her so she didn't have to read the awful articles that Sydney Glass wrote each day in which he exaggerated the past and peppered it with made up facts. At least her youngest now had a new friend. Penny and Tina got along very well and was extremely helpful mentoring Tina in math and science.

Valerie, or Vidia as she preferred to be called now, was just as sympathetic to her. Though she continued to refer to Claire as "Queen Clarion," she told her that as queen she had an indomitable spirit. "You saw us through several crisis," Vidia told her. "Your quiet strength gave all of us the grit to endure anything."

To the distraught mother it was faint praise. Queen Clarion was only a fairy tale character made up to entertain little girls. Claire learned from a Google search that fairies were once thought to be evil tricksters or creatures of the Devil. Historically, it was once assumed that fairies and sprites would carry away infants in the middle of the night to be used as servants and replaced them with human like imposters. Changelings they were called.

That was how Claire felt about Vidia.

There is nothing that pains a parent more than to outlive their own child. Yet in Vidia's case it was like a cruel joke. Those words spoken by Albert Spencer stuck in Claire's mind. "Valerie is dead." Her mind, her experiences, her identity, everything that made Valerie who she was had been lost for all time, replaced by this person who adamantly referred to herself as a fairy.

Vidia was an imposter, a changeling meant to torment her. To remind her of what she had lost and the chance for reconciliation that was lost with it. Claire tried her best to be as welcoming and accommodating to the girl who clearly needed help adapting to her surroundings. Yet the mother could not put her heart into it. All Claire could hope to do was try and put behind her the "death" of another person she had loved so dear.

~O~

Elsewhere Henry was feeling the same lack of heart about Operation Cobra. Emma met him at the dilapidated playhouse on the beach. She offered him one of two walkie-talkies that had once belonged to Graham. Earlier Mr. Gold had offered them to her.

The pawn broker had recovered all of Graham's personal belongings from the apartment the sheriff was renting from Mr. Gold. When Emma arrived at his shop he was in the back room applying lanoline, the substance that made sheep's wool waterproof. She remembered how rank it smelled.

Emma couldn't understand why Gold was being so generous, offering her Graham's things without asking for anything in return. She settled on the walkie-talkies at his suggestion that she use them for playtime with Henry. "They grow up so fast," he told her. He sounded like the voice of experience, though to her knowledge he never had children of his own.

"She did it," Henry told his birth mother. "She killed Graham."

Henry was certain that good could never win against evil because good always had to play fair. Regina, the Evil Queen, did not. "She killed him because he was good," Henry insisted. "She tried to run Valerie and her family out of town because Claire is good."

He was worried about Emma. If Regina could do these things to Graham and the Kensington family then she could do it to Emma, too. So that was it. No more Operation Cobra. At least for now.

~O~

On her way to the Sheriff's Station Emma gave thought to something else Mr. Gold had told her. Ever since Graham's death Emma was the acting sheriff. According to the town charter, after two weeks she would automatically become sheriff.

However, before Emma could give the subject anymore consideration Regina showed up. At the station house the mayor informed her that she was fired and that Sydney Glass was going to be appointed as the new sheriff. Emma knew immediately that what Regina really wanted was someone in this office she could control.

Deputy Swan had been a thorn in the mayor's side since accepting that post. The events leading up to Graham's death and then the Valerie Kensington case had put her on a collision course with the mayor. Now everything was coming to a head and Regina was seeking revenge. Taking Emma's job away from her was the first step.

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Early Edwardian Era)

Queen Clarion came to visit one her overseers at the hospital. Fairy Gary was laid up with back problems.

"I'm not as young as I used to be," he told Clarion. "Every Autumn Revelry that ceremonial bowl gets heavier and heavier."

"So do you," she responded.

"Aye, I know, I know, I'm getting a bit thick in the middle. But I also have more centuries behind me than in front."

"What are you getting at, Fairy Gary?" the regent asked him.

"I think it's time I picked an assistant," Gary said.

"A student? Or a successor?"

"Both," he said, grimacing from his back pain. "I could use the help… and the extra time off."

"I see, and who would this assistant be?" she asked him, knowing full well who he intended to select.

"Terence," he said. "The boy is the best dust keeper I've got. He is more detail oriented than anyone at the depot and is the most organized, too. I knew that boy would take my place the moment I laid eyes on him."

"I concur with your selection."

Gary admitted that if Terence turned down the offer then Stump would be his second choice. Both were well qualified, but Terence was clearly the better of the two for the post. Clarion and Gary then spoke at length about his current ailment and how long he would be laid up.

Clarion wanted to send out Viola, her personal summoner, to locate Terence so that he could begin right away.

"Why don't we wait until tomorrow to give him the good news?" Fair Gary suggested. "It's his day off and he's on a date with his girlfriend."

Clarion smiled. She smiled so big one could almost call it a silly grin. "Very well. Tomorrow."

~O~

Tinker Bell carefully walked among the tall grasses. She quietly peered around plants searching for something. Around each blade of grass and plant stem she did not find what, or rather who, she was looking for. She glanced up at the broadleaves above to make sure he wasn't hiding up there. It was against the rules of the game.

Next to the shoreline of a stream was a sapling. This sapling could provide for an excellent hiding place, she surmised. To a human this tiny tree might go unnoticed. To a six inch fairy it was like a towering redwood. She pressed herself against its bark and twisted her head around to the other side.

Nothing. Again.

"Well where did he go?"

Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed her waist and flung her into the air. "Ha hah!"

"EEEEEE" she screamed. "Terence put me down!" she demanded of him, giggling shamelessly.

When he dropped her, Tink fell into his arms and he smiled at her. He set the girl down next to the babbling stream and gently ran his fingers down her cheek. Her eyes were so blue, her skin so fair. She was just so beautiful. He leaned down and kissed her slowly, passionately.

Everyone in Pixie Hollow could see that Tinker Bell and Terence loved each other. Everyone, that is, except Tinker Bell and Terence. For months their mutual friends kept trying to maneuver them together, to no avail.

Until one day Tinker Bell took a bad spill from one of her inventions and she lay unconscious. Terence finally confessed how deeply he loved and cared about her. When she awoke she confessed the same to him. They had been a couple ever since. To the lovebirds it was a dawning of a new life together. For the rest of Pixie Hollow it was more like "It's about time!"

"I love you, Tinker Bell," he said happily.

"I love you, too, Terence," she replied with just as much joy.

He kissed her again. Their lives were perfect now and nothing, they thought, would ever change that.

WE'RE BA-ACK!