Planning

Emma and Henry walked into the pawn shop, and Emma took a deep breath. She leaned against the desk across which Mr. Gold stood and said, "We've got a theory, but it's a wild one."

"Let's hear it," Gold replied.

"You sure about this?"

"Trust me. Whatever it is, I'm sure I can take it."

"Your son isn't in Storybrooke."

"Well, yes, what time is it, thank you."

"We don't even think he's on Earth," Henry said, removing the book from his backpack and opening it to the page the portrait marked. "We think he's in Sherwood."

Gold studied the picture of the youth taking aim with a bow and arrow. "Sherwood?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, I think it's supposed to be some other world, like Wonderland," Emma replied.

"Technically a part of the Enchanted Forest, trapped in a bubble by someone I've been waiting for for a very, very long time."

Henry gave Emma a concerned look, but her eyes remained fixed on the pawn shop owner. "So I take it your son's not the only one you're trying to find."

"Yes." Gold looked up from the book, closed it, and handed it back to Henry. "If this theory is true, then there's only one way to get to him. One of the curses has to be broken."

OUAT

The girl pulled her companion west, to a tributary into the river that crosses the clearing. She settled onto a rock, panting, and watched the boy stand at the bank of a river with his arms akimbo, staring out into the forest. "We've come so far today," he said. "And now we have to run and hide."

"But we've found our next position," she replied, "which is above and beyond our orders."

He turned back toward her. "I'm sick of running and hiding, and I'm sick of others promoting running and hiding." He adjusted the quiver strap on his shoulder. "We need a plan, and then we're going back."

"You're out of your mind."

"And you're sane?"

"None of us chose to come here," she snapped.

"But as I recall, you chose to go on this mission with me."

"Because I believe in you, Bae."

Both stopped. He hadn't heard his real name or even his nickname in months, and if she was who he thought she was, then she probably hadn't used it in just as long, if not longer. "What do you believe in me for?" he asked in a soft voice.

"You're a fighter. You're strong, just like your namesake the fire, and I chose this because from the first, I knew who you were. I know your true name, and I suspect that you know mine." Bae bowed his head and turned back toward the river. She rose and lay a hand on his shoulder. "It doesn't matter, anyway. We have only each other and our fight."

"And what if there's no fight left?" he asked, turning toward her. "What happens then?"

"It depends on the outcome of the fight. If we win, we can go home."

"If there's anything to go back to." He bowed his head again. "Time flows differently here, remember?"

She leaned closer to him. "The Dark One is immortal," she whispered. He jerked his shoulder out from under her hand. She nodded and stepped up to the bank of the river. "Don't waste arrows on the guards, especially when we're so far away from camp."

"Can we hold the position?"

"If not, then we have to get into the city and hide there until it's safe to move again."

"We could get captured and killed in the city more easily than anywhere else in Sherwood, more easily than anyone else, even. Remember the citizens of the city. They know us by their clothing, if they know nothing else of their reality."

"We're the easiest targets, yes, except the numbered ones, Fallon especially."

"But he made for the Ring in search of an opening."

"Our last chance at salvation if we can't kill the prince. And if he can come back to tell us where it is." She looked at him. "But whatever it comes to," he whispered, looking back, "we can't reveal our names, in any way."

"Right."

"Do you think they've gone?"

"One way to find out."

Bae and his companion walked back the way they had come.