after the destruction of geppetto's empire, two thieves accidentally release the physical embodiment of darkness. the entity, who called himself mister dark, declared a vendetta against fabletown as one of the artifacts they used to fight the empire contained a portion of his power. in an attempt to defeat mister dark, totenkinder reverts to her original youthful form, and sets off on a journey to find more information on mister dark, during which she meets dunster happ, the leader of a group that initially contained dark. after consulting happ, she duels dark, defeats him, and seals him in gold. unfortunately, mister dark subsequently breaks free, a rematch occurs and dark wins by biting totenkinder in the neck when both are in mythical forms. though he defeated her in battle and apparently withered her away, she was not dead. instead, in a desperate act she turned herself into a drift message and sent herself off to the farm to meet with dunster happ, her lover. however, she was surprised to find maddy and ozma waiting for her as well. maddy realized that she had survived the battle and both waited for her. while ozma had hoped to use frau's powers again to fight mister dark, frau reveals that the battle was her final attempt. she also tells them as of now, she's retired from all wars. she and dunster have no plans to join the group in haven.