Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon a Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 11, Chapter 5
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
Emma was following at a safe distance behind Regina's car. She and Sydney were determined to find out what the mayor had intended to do with the fifty thousand dollars she had stolen from the city treasury. It was night and Regina was driving into the woods at the edge of town. Only the glow of their headlights and whatever moonlight that filtered through the tall trees illuminated the road ahead of them.
Suddenly, Emma lost the control of her police cruiser and it crashed just off the side of the road. They were going to lose Regina and miss the suspicious meeting. That's when Sydney called her over. He was on one knee looking at something behind the front tire.
"Emma, she cut your break line," he told her, sounding quite surprised that even Regina would do something that dangerous.
"That's it! I'm going after that bitch," Emma fumed. She tore off down the road, her feet angrily slamming into the road with each stride.
Sydney, though, was less enthusiastic about their chances of catching up to her on foot. "We're never going to find out who she was meeting."
"She was meeting me," a familiar voice replied.
Emma and Sydney looked over their shoulder to find Mr. Gold. He was holding a briefcase. Apparently, Regina used that money she took from city funds to buy land from the pawn broker. In fact, the very land they were standing on. Gold had no idea what Regina intended to do with the property. It wasn't his business what she did with it now that it had changed hands.
It was a simple answer that Mr. Gold had presented to them. A simple answer with so many more questions attached. Emma called up a tow truck to bring the police cruiser back into town. The brake lines might have been cut and the meeting was missed, but she wasn't about to stop searching. If anything it made Emma even more determined.
~O~
THE ENCHANTED FOREST
The genie stood before King Leopold who look deeply troubled. Reading through Regina's diary the king learned that an admirer had presented his wife with a gift of a mirror. According to the diary this brought out feelings of love that she had not felt in a long time. The king was not blind. He knew Regina could never be truly happy married to him. Leopold was too attached to his dead wife to love Regina as she deserved. But the king would not tolerate another man making such advances to the queen. So he sent Genie to find out who it was. If anyone could learn the identity if this person it was the magical man from the lamp.
Genie found Regina and told her what had happened. It would only be a matter of time before the king discovered that Genie was the queen's secret admirer. Though a creature of magic, Genie was free from the lamp and no longer immortal. Yet all he could think about was Regina's happiness.
Regina, however, could no longer tolerate being in this loveless marriage. To that end her father had procured something which would free his daughter forever. When Genie opened the box he found two snakes, vipers from Agrabah, so that she might be bitten by them. Only through death, she reasoned, could Regina finally get the release she so desperately wanted.
Genie, however, considered an alternate plan. Release the snakes so they would kill King Leopold thus achieving the same goal: her freedom. The freedom to find love. To love him as he loved her. Regina was most receptive to the idea and left the genie to his task.
~O~
PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Late Georgian Period on the Mainland)
Queen Clarion stood atop the hill overlooking the stream where the water talents were refining their trade. She was next to the fountain watching her fairies and Silvermist in particular. Silvermist had created the water arch again to assist the fish swim upstream. The young water fairy seemed to be fully enjoying herself, if the broad grin on her face and twinkle in her eyes was any indication.
The regent was waiting for someone to arrive. Someone important. Moments later that very person arrived.
"You asked to see me, Your Highness?" Marianna asked, genuflecting in the presence of her queen.
"Yes, thank you. I wanted to congratulate you, Marianna. Silvermist is progressing quite rapidly." The queen gestured to the basin below.
Marianna looked down and saw the young fairy easily holding an arch of water in the air. One end began in the lower basin that formed the pond while the other emptied in to the stream above the falls. The water within the archway was flowing up. The fish were happily swimming up from the basin, through the arch and to the stream above. Marianne was instantly taken aback by this display of advanced skill.
"How-?"
"Yes?"
"No. She can't have learned that. Silvermist has never had time... never taken the time to practice."
"Oh?" It was like an admission of guilt from Marianna. There was a reason the queen had chosen this particular place to meet with the instructor. As Clarion continued to speak she slowly, cautiously orbited the fountain, dragging one finger along the outer edge. "I thought you were her instructor, Marianna. I was under the impression you were directing her training."
Marianna didn't notice at first what Clarion was doing, she was too busy staring at Silvermist and trying to understand how that distracted little fairy could have advanced so much so quickly. When she did notice the queen, her mind immediately switched over to a new thought. Clarion must have been aware of what she was doing to Silvermist. The instructor wasn't nervous, it was her job to get the most out of her charges and if that meant a little bit of hard time to focus the mind then so be it. Marianna hoped the queen would understand, yet for some reason Marianna got the impression that Clarion was displeased with her.
"She couldn't possibly be practicing," Marianna admitted.
"Oh and why is that?" Clarion asked. "Is she busy doing something else? Something that doesn't directly involve her talent?"
"Your Highness, Silvermist is an easily distracted young girl," Marianna said, stating her case and defending her teaching techniques. "I would assign her tasks, direct her to practice, to learn skills yet she would always end up ignoring her training and play with the fish and creatures of the stream. She has no self-discipline. No ability to monitor her own actions or prioritize her daily activities."
"I see. So you made her carry water up here to teach her that?" the queen asked, fully disclosing that she indeed was aware of what the instructor was doing to Silvermist each day.
"Yes."
"Then explain why Silvermist is performing so... unexpectedly well?"
"I can't," Marianna stated. "Silvermist has never shown any desire to be receptive to my lessons."
"Perhaps she has no desire to train in the manner you wish her to," Clarion suggested.
Marianna was struck with confusion. "I beg your pardon?"
"Perhaps the teacher must learn from the student how best the student will learn from the teacher."
To the talent instructor that sounded like so much doubletalk. Marianna had spent her entire career using the same methods and techniques with great success. Something which she informed the queen. "Every water fairy I've taken under my wing has come away more than prepared to embrace their talent. Silvermist just has no motivation."
Clarion sighed. Marianna was missing the point. A point which was staring her in the face. Clarion could have stated it directly, but she preferred that Marianna learn it for herself. That kind of self-discovery was often a most powerful stimulus for improvement. "Marianna," the queen instructed, "take some time to observe Silvermist. Look beyond the obvious. Watch her carefully, not as a trainer but as a regular fairy. You might even befriend her. Get to know her as the other members of her talent have. Then report back to me what you've learned about Silvermist. Don't hurry, spend as much time as you need. I am very patient."
"Yes, Your Highness. I will." Marianna replied feeling deflated. She saw no reason to befriend Silvermist, she knew exactly what was wrong with the little fairy. The girl simply didn't want to learn, she only wanted to play. Yet she was under orders to acquaint herself with Silvermist. She could not disobey the directive since it came from the queen.
Marianna sighed. Now she was the one who felt like she had been given orders to march up and down this hill every day to fill the fountain. Only worse, her objective was a more worthless one than pouring water into this little pool. What a thankless job she had ahead of her.
~O~
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
Misty Wen, manager of Dave's Fish and Chips was speaking with her full staff this morning. The Super Bowl was coming up soon and she wanted to go over her plans for that Sunday evening. "Every Super Bowl Sunday our numbers go way down. Most of the residents of Storybrooke are rabid sports fans and they will stay home, host parties and watch the big game. The sports bar fills up, but the dining room is as empty as a graveyard at midnight."
"This year will be different. Our very own New England Patriots are playing and it is a rematch against those dirty, rotten New York Giants!"
A few boos and hisses came from the assembled staff. She recognized that quite a few of them were fans and they hated the Giants almost as much as people living in Boston where the Patriots played their home games.
Four years earlier the sports bar was over capacity, but the dining room was as empty as a ghost town. Liquor sales were through the roof, but the dine-in take less than two hundred dollars. This year Misty wanted things to be different. She wanted her dining room to be just as full with paying customers as the sports bar side.
"Dave has given me permission to install televisions in the dining room for the broadcast. I've already contracted out to a local company to install them. On top of that we are going to be offering discounted meals and appetizers for our patrons and one day only specials will be offered for dine in or take out. Expect to go orders to be very high."
Misty was determined to make the upcoming game night a rousing success for her restaurant. Although she was as much a fan of the Patriots and was proud to see them in the NFL Championship Game again, keeping Dave's profitable was her first priority. To get the word out of their Super Bowl Sunday specials she asked for volunteers to wear sandwich boards up and down Main Street and hand out flyers leading up to the big day.
"I know most of you had your heart set on watching the game," she told them with great sympathy. "So was I. But I'll be here all day long to facilitate what I hope will be our best Super Bowl Sunday ever. And if I can, I'll see about putting a television somewhere back in the kitchen so everyone can catch a glimpse of the historic moment when our New England Patriots put down those sorry bunch of losers that call themselves 'Giants.'"
That small announcement elicited huge cheers from the employees of Dave's. Redemption was to be the order of the day when the Patriots and Giants took the field. Misty didn't want her favorite team to miss watching their favorite team from hoisting that elusive Vince Lombardi Trophy. She reminded them that work came first, but a minute or two here and there to watch the game was more than acceptable.
~O~
It was a small job installing televisions at Dave's Fish and Chips, but it was one that Claire was more than happy to take. Especially since she had direct access to the brightest nerd in town. Vidia was equally motivated, but for an entirely different reason. Now she could finally verify if that woman she saw staring into the fish tank was indeed Silvermist, her water talent friend.
The lunch and dinner rushes would make an install during business hours impractical, so Claire and her girls started after Dave's closed for the evening. They were greeted at the door by the hostess, a sharp dressed young woman with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and a petite frame. "The restaurant is yours," the girl informed them.
Immediately Penny began setting up the cable box and signal splitters. High quality coaxial cable was to be run through the drop ceiling and cut to length. Penny brought with her a special crimping tool to attach connectors on both ends. The connector tips were made of gold to reduce signal degradation. Tina and Vidia unboxed several forty two inch, 1080p Vizio LED television sets and set them on tables directly under where they would hang. Claire installed VESA mounts into the walls, properly securing them according to the instruction manuals and Penny's expert advice.
Vidia experienced a most unusual sensation. She had gotten used to working under Tinker Bell's guidance. Tink's exceptional skills, creativity and big thinking often meant huge projects back in Pixie Hollow. Those projects often required extra hands to complete in a reasonable amount of time. Vidia, Rosetta, Fawn, Iridessa and Silvermist usually lent a hand along with Clank and Bobble.
Tonight, however, while running the cable through the drop ceiling she was taking orders from Tink's sister, Periwinkle, or Penny as she was called here in Storybrooke. Peri was a highly talented frost fairy and she shared Tink's creativity and large scale thinking, but her talent was limited to frost not tinkering. So it was quite a strange indeed to see Penny be far more adept at this kind of work than Periwinkle ever was. Penny had retained some of Periwinkle's "adorkable" personality, but somehow her unique skills were now what humans called computer science and electrical engineering.
What wasn't so strange, however, was to see Tina taking an interest in Penny's descriptions. Tina had retained Tinker Bell's tinkering mind and insatiable inquisitiveness so it was to be expected.
Vidia watched with satisfaction and curiosity as the two girls spent the first hour conversing, finishing each other's sentences and sharing accumulated knowledge with each other. Eventually the fast flyer turned human began to tire of hearing about Ohm's Law, Michael Faraday and the Faraday Cage or that someone named Karl Ferdinand Braun introduced the cathode ray tube which allowed for the development of the modern television by Philo T. Farnsworth.
"Oh, like that old guy on Futurama," Tina observed.
Penny smiled joyously, "Yeah. They named the professor after him."
"I love that show," Tina gushed.
"The science references are awesome," Penny squealed.
"Yes. Science, math, engineering. And the humor reminds me of my sister, Valerie."
"Uh huh. Snarky."
"Yup. And cranky."
"Snide."
"Grouchy."
"Critical."
"Disparaging."
"Cynical."
"Alright, alright. I get the picture," Vidia howled. "Sheesh, some people."
Tina and Penny shared a wicked smile. Claire then added her own observations. "When those two are together they can be such imps."
"Tell me about it," Vidia said, rolling her eyes. "Just like the old days."
Midway through the night Tina excused herself to use the bathroom. Vidia thought she looked rather peculiar and became concerned. She was more concerned when Tina did not return immediately. She was gone for almost thirty minutes before emerging from the rest room. When she did she looked spent and her eyes appeared a bit bloodshot.
"You okay?" Penny asked, who apparently had noticed the change in Tina just as easily as Vidia had.
"I'm fine," was all Tina would say.
"Are you sure?" Penny continued. "You don't look so-."
"I'M FINE!" Tina barked. Then she calmed down. "I'm sorry. I just… never mind."
Tina went back to her work. Vidia discerned that she had lost her energy, her pep. That glimmer in her eye was missing, too. She was slow, and faltered once or twice. Most of all, Tina seemed worried about something. Claire tried to talk to her, but Tina only deflected her questions by saying it was just jitters from school. She had some big tests upcoming, the slim blonde indicated, including a state mandated skills test and a pre-SAT exercise.
"I can help you with that," Penny offered enthusiastically. It felt like Penny was offering a lifeline to a friend. Trying to reignite that sparkle Tina had before excusing herself to the ladies' room. It didn't work.
"Yeah…, I suppose. Come over whenever." Tina didn't even look in her direction when she answered. Claire and Vidia got confused stares from Penny. After that neither girl spoke to each other except when the job required it. Penny was the most hurt by this. They had just recently overcome their little spat over Gonzo from The Muppets. Now suddenly Tina was giving Penny the cold shoulder.
Something had happened in that bathroom that upset the girl. Was she sick? Was it stress getting to her like Tina said? Was she suffering from depression? Did someone call her on the cell phone and trouble her? Maybe it was cyberbullying, Claire wondered. That was becoming more common now that just about everyone, including teenagers, had a smart phone with internet access and a video camera built in. Something personal was eating at Tina and she wasn't being forthcoming about it. Both Vidia and Claire were independently aware of it.
At the end of the night everything was returned to perfect order. Penny tested each television personally while Claire vacuumed up all the dirt and debris created by their work. Vidia tried to get Tina to open up, but the little blonde kept her distance. So concerned was she that Vidia even forgot her other reason for being here. Silvermist didn't show, but Vidia wouldn't have noticed.
Now she had a problem on her hands. One that was more immediate than the other. Finding Silvermist and breaking the curse could wait. Tina needed help and she need it badly.