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Fire with Fire

Chapter 2

"I'm sorry, I must have missed something," Sam said. "The Wicked Witch of the West? Green skin? Flying monkeys? That witch?"

"I would presume." Jefferson replied. "Though at this point I have been fortunate enough to not see her. And since I'd like to get home to my daughter I'd like to keep it that way."

Tron stacked the two discs on top of each other, and they stayed together. He growled unintentionally. "When did Clu decide he was sending these?"

"Last time I saw him, four…five days ago. We met at a café in Boston some three times or something after I started my search. His store was burned by the next morning after the last time I saw him." Jefferson said.

The Security Program set the discs down and pulled out the last item in the box, a black sash with a molded plastic dock for the discs.

"There's something else you need to know." Jefferson continued. "The Witch is looking for something, ingredients for a spell was Melville's theory. She was very interested in the discs, which is why Melville sent them along." He looked at Yori. "Do you still have the yellow feather I gave you?"

"Yes. I took it with me when we left Storybrooke. It was the first piece of another world that I ever had." Yori said.

"We don't know what else she was looking for, but she might be after that feather. It's a magic feather."

"Wait, what?"

"Turns out it can be used to create a magic portal."

"I spent a thousand cycles sitting in Clu's dungeon because you didn't tell me the random feather you gave me was magical?!"

"In the interest of total fairness, if I had known that it was a magical feather, I wouldn't have given it to you." Jefferson said.

"My hero." Yori muttered.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Melville never figured out what she intended to do with the items she collected, or what those items were. He did figure out that she meant to use them in a spell. Now. You look like you could use some time to think this over." Jefferson said as he stood up. "I can come back in a couple of days." He picked up his hat and tucked the newspaper back inside his hat. "By the way, Trevor, your magic… you didn't have magic before the Curse, did you?"

"No." Tron replied.

Jefferson nodded. "You weren't affected by the New Curse. It didn't drag you back to Storybrooke. That must have been your magic?"

"I suppose."

"Who did you ask to make that happen?"

"I talked to Mother Superior about it and she was able to help." Tron told him.

Jefferson nodded again. "That makes sense. That's the right answer." He stepped over to the middle of the floor and twirled his hat as he dropped it, opening a portal. "I'll see you soon." He said. Then he stepped through the portal and was gone.

~xXx~

"I wonder how Clu managed this." Kevin said, turning the discs over in his hand. "They look exactly like the Grid discs."

"I wonder why he did it." Sam noted, an edge in his voice.

"Maybe we can find out." Kevin said. He got up from the table and left the room.

Jet looked at Tron. "So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know." Tron admitted.

Yori looked at him. "We could go back."

Kevin came back into the room with his laptop, which he opened and started typing away at.

Jet reached for the discs and took them from Tron's hands. The Program let him. Jet pulled them apart. "These are pretty cool. What holds them together? Rare earth magnets?"

There was no answer, and Jet wasn't really expecting one. Alan reached out and took one of the discs and was turning it over in his hands.

"Well, you don't have to make a decision now." Lora said. "Take some time and think it over."

Kevin closed the laptop. "She's got a point. Neither of you have to go back if you don't want to."

Tron was still silent. Yori was the one who said, "We'll think about it."

~xXx~

Alan and Lora left shortly after that, and Tron and Yori retired to their house. Sam and Jet decided to hold a round of Space Paranoids in the basement. Quorra stayed, as well; while she had proved to be a good hand at video games, she preferred to goad Jet and Sam on while they played.

Sam had been dispatched upstairs to find beer. He had hidden a six pack in the garage last time he visited, and as he was heading back downstairs with the beer, he heard an exclamation of success form the living room. He paused and cautiously pushed the door. "Dad? You in here?"

Kevin was setting on the couch, with his laptop open. "I found what I was looking for. Jefferson was telling the truth."

"Based on how Tron and Yori reacted, I figured he was telling the truth." Sam said. "What did you find?"

Kevin grinned. "Security footage." He set the laptop on the coffee table. "Look at this."

The timestamp on the camera feed was date stamped from eight days earlier. The two of them watched the scene outside of a café. The camera view was wide enough to show part of the street and the opening of the alley on a far side of the café. For a few minutes, nothing happened, then a motorcyclist pulled up to the sidewalk in front of the café. He was dressed in black, with the only color in his outfit being the three orange lines that wrapped around the chest of his black jacket and the additional lines of orange down the sleeves. When he took off his helmet, they both saw that it was Clu.

Clu left his helmet with his bike and took a seat at one of the tables. Salt and pepper shakers as well as packets of sugar and sweeteners sat in a dish on the table. Clu observed the packets, then dumped the container out and began to reorganize them based on color.

Two minutes, passed, and then they saw Jefferson come out of the alley. He started when he saw who was sitting at the table. "Melville?"

"You were expecting someone else?" Clu asked, putting the last packets away, now organized.

"Well, yes. Trevor, maybe, or Yori. Probably both. Find one, find both." Jefferson said as he took a seat across from the Administration Program. "Do you know where they are?"

"No, but I expect I can find out. Why are you here, Jefferson? You don't strike me as the kind who would willingly leave home to come all the way out here."

"It is true that I'd rather be back in Storybrooke."

Clu paused. "Really?"

"It's back," Jefferson said with a nod. "No one knows why. The Charmings are looking for help, which is why they dispatched me. They want Emma back, which Hook is helping them with. They also want Trevor and Yori to come back and help. I'm trying to find them."

Clu nodded. "I can find them. Give me some time."

"Can you find Emma as well? Shorten Hook's search?"

"I'll see what I can do."

The footage ended. "It doesn't show much." Sam noted.

"Aren't you even a little curious as to what happened to bring the Mad Hatter here?" Kevin asked.

"Tron and Yori brought him here." Sam said.

"The catalyst, Sam, the catalyst. Why did he need them?" Kevin grinned. "Exciting stuff man. Watch the next one."

The next feed showed the same café, and was date stamped from three days after the first feed that they had watched. This time when Clu arrived, he had with him the wooden box that Tron had received earlier that day. He arrived first. Jefferson showed up a few minutes later.

"Well?" Jefferson asked as soon as he sat down.

Clu pulled a sheet of paper out of his jacket pocket and slid it across the table. "The address I found for one Trevor Ward, Encom contractor, in San Francisco."

"Good." Jefferson said. "It's going to take me a little while to get a portal that will open there, but it can be done."

"When you go, take this and give it to Trevor." Clu slid the wooden box across the table.

"What's this?" Jefferson asked.

"Something I need to get rid of. Admittedly, in a perfect world, I wouldn't have to give to him, but better him then the witch." Clu said, his tone matter-of-fact.

"What witch?" Jefferson asked suspiciously.

"The witch who walked into my store today. Sent her flying monkeys in first to clear the way, but, the Wicked Witch of the West walked into my store."

The wooden box slipped through Jefferson's finger and landed on the table with an audible thud. "What? Are you sure?"

"I can't think of anyone who would use flying monkeys. Her reputation in this world precedes her." Clu said matter -of -factly. "She was very interested in those discs. She won't get them. That's not going to happen. What do you know about her?"

"Not much. Jumped through Oz once. Got out of there as quick as I could. She had…quite the reputation there as well." Jefferson said as he took his hat off. He looked around briefly, then, when he was sure no one was watching, shoved the box inside his hat.

"What are you watching?" Quorra's voice behind him made Sam jump.

Kevin hit the pause button. "Just looking at some security footage."

"Seein' what Clu was up to before he got killed." Sam said. "Why are you up here?"

"You were taking way too long to bring back the beer," Jet said, appearing in the doorway behind Quorra. "Why are you looking at that?"

"Seeing what we can find out, I guess." Sam admitted.

"Let's watch." Jet said.

Kevin hit the play button again.

"Has Captain Hook found Ms. Swan yet?" Clu asked.

"He's working on it." Jefferson replied.

Clu nodded. "I have some information for him." He slid another paper across the table. "Tell him to go to this post office in New York and ask for a letter left for him under the name Killian Jones. He might find it useful."

Jefferson nodded. "What are you going to do?"

"Now that the witch has made me? The next move is hers. Don't worry about me. Worry about what she's after. She asked a lot of questions and was very, very interested in my discs. She had a scroll with her that I only got a glimpse of, but it looked like a spell. I think she's looking for ingredients for a spell." Clu said.

"And you think she's going to use those discs in her spell?" Jefferson asked.

"Nothing would surprise me at this point."

"You know a lot about magic."

"Yes, I've been studying up on it." Clu said as he stood up. Jefferson stood up as well. The two men looked at each other for a long moment, then Jefferson turned and headed back towards the alley.

Clu turned back towards his motorcycle, siding an iPhone in an orange case out of his pocket as he did. He glanced at it, then said, "I've done all I can do. The witch is coming back." He slid the phone back into his pocket. "I'm not going to run from her." He put his helmet on, started the motorcycle up, and drove away.

"So, he knew she was coming." Sam said.

"He didn't run from it either." Jet noted. At the looks from Sam and Quorra, he added, "Look, I'm not saying he's a good guy. All I'm saying is that he didn't run, and he knew something was going to happen."

"Does it show what happened?" Quorra asked.

"There's one more video." Kevin said. He clicked forward to another file, this one dated the day after the last meeting between Jefferson and Clu and matching the date on the newspaper.

It was the same café. As before, Jefferson came around the corner and went to the table and sat down. The minutes ticked past, and Clu did not arrive. Jefferson began to look around.

A waitress noted him, and came over. "Are you waiting for someone?"

"Yes. Do you have the time?"

She glanced at her watch. "It's two forty-four."

"He's late." Jefferson muttered. "He's never late." He stood up and walked away, leaving the confused waitress staring after him. The clip ended as abruptly as it began.

"Those were the only three pieces of footage I found." Kevin said.

"And all it really does is prove that the Mad Hatter was telling the truth." Sam said.

"Do you think that Tron and Yori will go back?" Quorra asked.

Jet shrugged. "Who knows?"

[A/N:] The exposition chapter! No real wham lines at the end of this one. In other news, I've gotten the first chapter of People Like Us up on AO3. Man, HTML tags are a lot of work.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I was so excited to see what everyone thought! Atom king, I don't know that the whole Once crew will go there, but if this story goes the way I planned, we might see a glimpse of the Grid again. But I make no promises.

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter!