Once upon a time in a far away land, a daughter was born to two very special people; the fairy Queen Lurline and the human King Pastoria of Oz. The newborn princess was given the name Ozma and from the moment of her birth, she was destined to become the future sovereign of Oz and forever rule as their immortal queen.

Throughout the Kingdom of Oz, many rejoiced at the birth of the princess, but not all welcomed the birth of their future queen and the happiness within the kingdom over Ozma's arrival was not to last. On the eve of her first birthday, Ozma was snatched from the Royal Palace of Oz, 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. After many long years Ozma was freed from Mombai's clutches and upon learning of her true self, the young princess once again disappeared into the night with no one knowing where she had gone.

All hope of Ozma ever returning to Oz was well and truly lost until the princess finally returned home and assumed her birth right and ascended the throne as Queen, 20 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.

She shouldn't be here… That Ozma knew and yet it was her who had left the safety of her chambers within the Royal Palace, wondering through the palace hallways in the dark of the night until she reached the sub levels of the palace.

It was Ozma, who willingly ventured down the passages of the castle to the one door in the castle that was forbidden for all to know about, let alone pass through. This door was never meant to be opened, it was always supposed to stay closed but tonight Ozma had opened it as only she could. Then it was with a heavy sense of duty that crossed the threshold of the door and enter the place she called the room in-between lands. But Ozma knew she had to do this, not just for her sake but the whole of Oz.

Now she stood in a room that was like none 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 gold 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 plain looking wooden door which had 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?"

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.

"My dearest Snow White and her Prince Charming." 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 at it, 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 unless I have to." Ozma explained with a small smile as whilst she was happy to see her friends, this was no happy reunion as there were 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 Your Majesty and we thank you for agreeing to see us both despite the late hour. Snow always refers to you as her oldest 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.

"Sweet prince, have we not discussed the formalities issue many times before? Whilst I appreciate the show of respect towards me as Sovereign of Oz there is no need for any formalities when I am amongst friends. Ozma is perfectly fine." Ozma scolded in a gentle tone of voice.

"We need your help Ozma."

"How can I help Snow White?"

"You remember the threat Regina made at the wedding? 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 with no happy ending for any of us. He says everything we love will be taken from us." Snow quietly began, her voice betraying her ever so slightly with a small quiver after every few words.

Ozma grimly nodded her head in agreement, of course she remembered that day. What was meant to be a wonderful day celebrating the love between two souls had quickly been ruined by Regina's threat that had been hanging over them for many moons now. Yet, in Ozma's wildest dreams she never imagined that this was what Regina meant when she said that she would destroy all their happiness if it was the last thing she would do… 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.

"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 such a 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 woefully allowed herself to admit, even with the magic that she had as a half-ling and the Emerald Crystal that would not be anywhere enough to save them all.

"Rumplestiltskin says that the baby is the one that can save us all. We have to get the baby to safety and according to him, on her twenty-eighth birthday she'll find us and rescue us all." Charming 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.

"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.

"What can I do Snow? 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. My power is not nearly enough…"

"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. We've heard stories 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 perhaps 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 that witch, which could help them. She had Mombai's spell book.

"Of course. I will do whatever I can to help. This curse is a threat to us all and even though I may not have the power to stop the curse myself… I will do everything I can to protect Snow and your daughter. Oz stands shoulder to shoulder with your kingdom 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. But as Tippetarius Oswin put her hands in front of her face to shield her eyes, a warm feeling washed over her. Like a long nightmare was finally coming to an end.

Tippetarius or Tip as she preferred to go by given her lengthy first name, wasn't sure where this feeling had come from. Maybe it was because of the weird dream that she had, a dream that seemed to be real to be a dream and yet for some reason the more Tippetarius 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, Tippetarius 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, if anyone would know anything about weird dreams than it would be the town's psychiatrist. However, that would have to wait until later as right now Tippetarius needed to hurry along, she had been hovering around for so long that she was going to be late if she kept this up.

Taking a deep breath Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius knew very well as she spent a great deal of her time with him as she was pretty much his nanny. Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius was very much looking forward to catching up with him.

Making her way up the path, Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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…" Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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. Tippetarius 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. Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius, coming to a stop just short of crashing into her. Tippetarius 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 days.

"Hello bud." Tippetarius replied with a 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 Tippetarius loved and adored. Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius as he looked at the dark sunglasses that were covering her eyes.

Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius by her first name but he was generally trying to be funny when he did that.

"I wish, I'm just tired Henry." Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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…" Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius holding out her hand towards him. Almost as if there was something wrong with her hand but the last time Tippetarius checked, it wasn't green and scaly. It was soft and smelt of lemon because of the cream that Tippetarius used.

"I am not a baby any more 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?" Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius' 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 Tippetarius than to go against her.

"So are ever going to talk 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. So you can imagine my surprise when the Sheriff told me what you've been getting up to." Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius was rather intrigued to find out how one ten year old boy had almost turned this entire town upside down.

"Tip…" Henry began awkwardly looking around in a rather uncomfortable manner as he knew that he was in some kind of trouble with her. Tippetarius 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 steal someone's credit card Henry, I would have rather you stolen mine than Mary Margaret's." Tippetarius idly quipped as her and Henry continued to walk in the direction towards Storybrooke Elementary.

"You're not mad?" Henry asked in mild surprise and Tippetarius 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 her 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 Tippetarius' 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 Tippetarius felt like she was on the verge of tears. She never knew that Henry had been having this much of a hard time, for the last few weeks she had noticed that he had been acting a little odd and every time Tippetarius had asked Henry what was bothering him, he always denied something was wrong. Now Tippetarius could see that this was the issue that had been eating away at him. Henry had been struggling with all these abandonment issues and she had no idea things were this bad.

"Oh Henry, why did you talk to me about any of this? I know that I'm not cool and a bit of a dork but I am always here for you. I thought you knew that you could always come to me if you needed to talk." Tippetarius explained in a soft tone of voice as her and Henry approached another 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 really have parents. I didn't want to bother you Tip…" Henry weakly stated and Tippetarius 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.

"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." Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius 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.

"Without a doubt, but I suppose you knew that already." Tippetarius 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. "

"Pretty much Tip."

"You know, I think I knew someone called Emma. I can't remember much about her but she was somebody who meant a lot to me…" Tippetarius 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, Tippetarius 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 Tippetarius just couldn't place it.

But whoever this Emma Swan was, surely she had to be an interesting character to have shaken up this little town with her mere arrival.