| Synopsis
| - Morning arrived on the Farm, and Rose Red comes out of the barn after spending half the night helping Weyland repair the tractor, though Bo Peep's sheep has other ideas about what they were up to. Rose meets up with Stinky, the badger, on her way to the farmhouse to relieve Mustard Pot Pete for the day. Pete points out there were many complaints last night that he had to file. Most of them concerned the old cottage previously owned by Baba Yaga, springing to life after hundreds of years and rampaging around the Farm on it's chicken legs. A posse of animals were still trying to rope it down.
Meanwhile, Snow White was starting to get concerned about Boy Blue. He hasn't been at work for five days, and no one else has seen him since he wandered off with Red Riding Hood.
Boy Blue was currently strapped to a chair, bruised and scarred from five days of torture. The faux Riding Hood admits she's impressed that Blue held out for so long. He successfully ruined her original plan, to stay among the Fabletown community for years, learning their secrets and reporting back the Adversary. Unfortunately for her, he and Bigby Wolf knew the original Red Riding Hood too well to be fooled by her act. So now, she was improvising. "Riding Hood" tells her wooden subordinates that she still has one further use for Boy Blue...
Snow White receives a late night phone call from Bigby. He was at the Canadian Gate to the Homelands, where the Fable guards were all dead. The gate had been opened from the other side. Worse, their were several tracks in the snow that suggested at least three large trucks that were loaded up with something had left from the gateway. Bigby fears it could mean an invasion was headed to Fabletown, and he told Snow to lock everything down. He would get there as soon as he could, but first, he needed to destroy the gate. Until then, it was up to Snow to hold down the fort.
The Fables gathered together in the Business Office were in a state of panic. There hasn't been a Lock-Down drill in ages, and no one could remember what to do! Snow White spoke calmly to the group, reminding them there was still time to prepare before any battle started. First they'd need to send a communication to the Farm, then she'd speak to the 13th Floor witches to discuss their part in the battle.
Her rallying speech was suddenly interrupted by a gunshot. The crowd follows her as Snow rushes to the front lobby to find out what had happened. Jack shouted that they came back, the thugs that beat him up. And when they round the corner, they see the three wooden soldiers, wearing their black suits, with a badly injured Boy Blue draped around ones shoulder. Trusty John had been shot and lay bleeding near the front door. The wooden men toss Boy Blue to Snow White's feet, as a sign of their peaceful intent. They then begin reading from a rolled up parchment, from the Adversary himself. The Emperor, as the Adversary is called by his loyal subjects, has declared that Fabletown be allowed to keep it's independence for now, though in a show of good faith, all magical artifacts taken from the Homelands must be returned. A large battalion will arrive in Fabletown tomorrow to retrieve the items, any resistance will be severely dealt with. The wooden men hand the letter to Snow White. They also add that as new information had just reached them, Pinocchio must also be handed over tomorrow. He is the first crafted, their eldest brother and they wanted him back in their family, despite his horrible curse of humanity. At last they depart, leaving Snow White and the others feeling a new sense of uneasiness. Snow tells Flycatcher and Pinocchio to take Boy Blue to the hospital, then to come back as quickly as they could. There was much to do.
Later that night, Flycatcher walks into Pinocchio's room to tell him that Dr. Swineheart called. Blue should make a full recovery. Pinocchio doesn't even flinch, as if he didn't hear him. Flycatcher notices him packing his suitcase. Pinocchio tells him he's leaving with the battalion tomorrow. He knew firsthand that wooden soldiers were very tough to beat, they never eat, they never tire, they feel no pain, to fight them off would be incredibly dangerous. And besides that, there was one other reason he had to go. Pinocchio became teary eyed as he told Flycatcher that the wooden men's existence meant his father Geppetto had to have created them... that he was still alive and a slave to the Adversary...
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)