Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 12, Chapter 7

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Mr. Gold waited patiently. He was sitting in the jail cell of the Sheriff's Office while Sheriff Swan was eating a sandwich. She offered him half, "You know, I still owe you that favor. A delicious way to clear the books."

He declined, claiming that when he called in the favor it would be for more than a bite of food.

Seconds later Mayor Regina Mills entered with her son Henry in tow. Her first words shocked Ms. Swan. "Sheriff, you have thirty minutes to visit with Henry." She wanted to be alone with the prisoner for a while. After shaking off the surprise Emma took Henry to the ice cream shop at Henry's request.

Once the room was empty Regina sat down next to the pawn broker's cell. He knew why she was here.

"You put him up to it, didn't you?" he asked, referring to Moe French breaking into his house. Several people had seen the altercation between Mr. Gold and Mr. French when the pawn broker repossessed the truck as collateral. Regina was among them, even remarking on the ugly scene.

Regina smiled, knowing she had the upper hand. She decided to use it for all it was worth. She had this sneaking suspicion, one that had been nagging at her for weeks but which she could not confirm. The mayor never had the leverage to use against the pawn broker until right this very minute.

She coyly avoided the question while providing the answer he sought. "I merely told him that men of power take what they want." Moe French didn't take those things by accident, Regina had indeed put him up to it. Even specifying what to take that would cause Mr. Gold the most emotional pain.

"Do you have what I want?" he asked her.

"Let's make a deal," she replied.

Gold was accustomed to taking advantage of those who were in a desperate situation. It allowed him to construct deals in his favor. Now he was on the opposite side of it. He was the one who was now in the desperate situation. Regina knew this or she wouldn't have suggested it.

The pawn broker recognized what she was doing and professed no interest in any deals with the mayor. However, she reminded him that with no deal he did not get his property back. He had been effectively backed into a wall. Gold agreed.

"I just want you to answer a simple question," the mayor stated. "What's your name?"

"Mr. Gold," he replied, amused at this foolishly simple request.

"Your real name," she added for clarification. "Have you gone by any other?"

"Mr. Gold has been my name for all the days I've lived on this Earth," he said definitively.

She smiled. Regina knew he was trying to avoid the answer and hoping she wouldn't notice.

"What about time spent elsewhere?"

Mr. Gold acted a bit confused by her query. But Regina insisted he answer her question or lose his property forever. "What's! Your! Name!"

Realizing he had no other choice he finally spoke, quietly seething that he had been outmaneuvered by her. "Rumpelstiltskin, Your Majesty," he replied with a seething hatred for her. This confirmed her suspicions. He did remember, and as much as she did.

From her purse Regina removed a small tea cup with a chip in it. She held it out to Mr. Gold who took it greedily, coddling it as though it were impossibly priceless. Regina told the pawn broker that things were going to change. Mr. Gold, however, said in no uncertain terms that nothing was going to change. Not in Storybrooke or between them, even suggesting that he would be running this town instead of her given enough time.

The mayor wasn't fazed by his statement. He was behind bars after all. And she had one more ace up her sleeve.

~O~

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

The doors to Rumpelstiltskin's Dark Castle opened. The Evil Queen, Regina, entered. She had a request.

"I need to talk to you about a certain…, mermaid."

He had absolutely no interest in helping her, especially after what events she helped set into motion. "Your deception failed, Your Majesty," he hissed. "You will never be more powerful than me."

Regina was well versed in dark magic, the same kind that Rumpelstiltskin used. In fact, she had once been his student. But where Regina never finished her training and wielded her powers like a broadsword, Rumpelstiltskin had mastered every facet of the magic, applying it with the precision of a scalpel.

The Evil Queen had no idea what he was talking about. She did convey some news that was of interest to him. "Did you hear about that girl who used to work of your? What was her name again?"

"Belle."

"Oh yes. Belle." Then the queen recounted what happened to Belle when she returned home. She was shunned by the villagers and her father because of her association with him and because her fiancé had disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

"She needs… a home?" he asked, truly concerned about Belle's well-being.

The queen laughed. Rumpelstiltskin clearly did not know. Her father locked the girl in a tower alone, where she was cleansed by clerics using the most torturous methods imaginable. Unable to endure her imprisonment any longer, Belle flung herself to her death.

Before leaving, the queen commented that the castle is looking a little dusty. "You need a new girl."

Rumpelstiltskin wept. The only person who had loved him unconditionally was gone. Belle was lost forever all because he could not give up his power for anyone.

~O~

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

In the basement of Storybrooke General Hospital is a psychological ward for the insane. At the desk worked a severe looking woman who could be mistaken for Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. The mayor stopped at the nurse's desk and asked if anyone had come to see her today.

"No," the severe nurse replied. "No one has come to see her. Not ever."

Regina grinned, she liked it when things worked out the way she wanted intended. This was one of those times. Despite getting outmaneuvered repeatedly by Rumpelstiltskin in The Enchanted Forest and again by him here in Storybrooke where he was known as Mr. Gold, Regina took comfort in knowing that she could still hurt him. Hurt him in a way he could not defend or manipulate to his favor.

Years ago she had come to his castle and spoke blatant lies. She claimed that Belle had been tortured until she committed suicide. The truth was far from that. Regina stepped down the imposing hallway, its walls built from cinder blocks which were painted in white and were poorly lit. The entire wing was designed to suck the soul out of anyone who was consigned to this wretched hole in the ground.

She stopped at a door and slid open the peephole. Inside was a young woman. This young woman had been here, kept in isolation within the tiny walls for twenty eight years. The woman was Belle, though she had no memory of her life in The Enchanted Forest. All she knew were these four walls of the Psych Ward. As long as this girl remained here, unknown and unloved, Regina had her victory over Mr. Gold. It may have been small, but it was a more than satisfying one.

~O~

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND

If your mother were here today I dare say she would be most disappointed in you.

Those words, spoken by Milori the Lord of Winter, wounded Clarion deeply. She could not put aside the feeling that he was correct. While asleep she dreamt of the faces of her subjects peering at her through the corners of their eyes, judging her. Condemning her. It left young queen feeling shunned and more alone than ever.

Mixed into all of this were feelings for Milori. Though he spoke those words to her he did not say them in spite. His tone was of pity, as if disappointed in her potential not achieved. He felt for her. Cared about her and wanted to have faith in the new queen. Clarion wanted to love him in return, but could not. Not after her mother's final words to her. Not after witnessing the destruction to Pixie Hollow that followed the capture and torture of her father. The torture meant not to extract information from the prince, but from the queen. They took advantage of their bond and exploited it for all it was worth.

Unable to find a proper resolution to her problems Clarion visited the private garden where her parents were buried. Here a pair of memorials stood in honor of the fallen queen and her prince. She stood before a tall and imposing statue of Queen Clarus which was flanked by an equally arresting statue of Prince Devin.

Clarion felt as though she were standing in the presence of greatness. She was. Even as a child Clarion recognized just how towering a figure her mother was. Queen Clarus was never reactionary and kept her wits about her through every crisis facing Pixie Hollow. Clarus was strong of mind and body. And of heart. Her advice to Clarion was always well thought out, though she never told Clarion the solution. Instead Clarus offered sage wisdom which Clarion used to solve the conundrum on her own.

That is what the young queen needed right now. This was why the Clarion was here.

"Mother, please. I need your help," Clarion asked, staring at the sculpture of her mother, which stood straight and tall and regal. "What am I to do? I try to follow your example, but the people hate me. The Lord of Winter suggested that I have betrayed your memory. That cutting myself off from the common folk I have become everything you were not. How do I rule a kingdom? How can I be the queen you wanted me to be?"

Tears began to stream down the young Clarion's cheeks. She sniffled and cried as she spoke to her parent's graves. Her tall wings drooped with despair. "I don't know what to do," she wept. "I am lost without you."

Nothing.

"ANSWER ME!" she cried out to the statues.

Clarion was met with a deafening silence.

"…please" she whimpered.

No answer was forthcoming. Clarion had remembered when she commissioned these memorials. She wanted them to reflect her parents' strength. Here they stood tall and straight, regal and composed, implacable and defiant as any good queen and prince should. The carvings captured her parents' likenesses very well, but at this moment something about them was wrong. They were cold, emotionless and distant.

This wasn't who they really were, she recalled. The moments which she remembered with greatest clarity were the private family moments that no one else saw. The subtle and not so subtle ways her mother and father doted on her. As a child when she witnessed her mother and father embracing little Clarion would race in between them wanting a hug, too. They always accommodated her.

Publicly Queen Clarus carried herself with regal splendor and maintained an unflappable bearing befitting a monarch. Yet she was never as detached from her subjects as Clarion was right now. Clarus wore a queenly veil for the benefit of her subjects, but inwardly she cared for them all dearly.

Milori was right. Her mother would be disappointed. But that would change. Love was not weakness, but strength. It give her mother purpose and now it would give Clarion purpose. Perhaps it could be exploited by others, but the rewards more than outweighed the risks.

With this revelation the young queen realized that she wasn't cutting herself off from her people, but from herself. Clarion did not want to feel the difficult pain of losing her parents, much less the crushing agony of how they died. Now she gave herself what she needed most. Permission to grieve. To love her parents for the gifts they had given her.

Now Clarion was ready. Ready to be queen. Ready to care for her people. Ready to open her heart to a certain Lord of Winter. From this day forward she met Milori, Lord of Winter, each evening at the border right before sunset, just to be together and watch the sun sink into the western sky.

This marks the end of part 1. I hope you have enjoyed the ride so far.

Season 1 will continue in part 2. Hope to see you there.