The Seer

Her head rolled to her chest. Her knotted hair fell in front of her sweat-drenched face, and her breathing was heavy. She looked up through her lashes at her ginger-haired captor, who again demanded what she had seen. "Sunrise," she replied. "A first sunrise. It burns like only the sun can. It is nothing you can manufacture. The light will finally penetrate the shell you have created around this world and bring it back to the Enchanted Forest."

"So where are we now?"

"The Nowhereland is now on the border of the haven, but the shell still exists."

"Where's Neverland?"

"The curse broke that shell, at least. The Never Never Land has been taken." He backhanded her. She released a breath and then glared at him, the fire burning through her deep brown eyes. "That is what I see, and that is what I know."

"And still the nightmares have not consumed you."

"And you have no reason to live."

"I've every reason to live. I will always be a boy and have fun."

"Not anymore. The Dark Curse has been lifted. Time moves again. For all of us."

"So how do I make it stop?"

"You can't, Pan. Even Time is no slave to you."

"Not even in the Nowhereland?"

"You wouldn't last a day here. This is your land of nightmares, remember? All nightmares, including your own worst ones. They are very, very real, and you've done this. You made them this way." He backhanded her again. "You know I speak the truth," she said. "Otherwise you wouldn't be so angry."

Peter Pan pressed his hand to her throat and slammed her head into the trunk of the tree. "I'll kill you for that."

"No you won't. You see too much of yourself in me. It would be a suicide to your mind, a death of a sense of self that you see in me and therefore a blow to your own sense of self." He started to squeeze the breath out of her. "You...need...me." He tore his fingers off her throat. She gasped and breathed deeply but kept her gaze level. "You need me, Pan. Otherwise you would know nothing of the world beyond this shell that you've created. Without me, you'd be trapped."

Peter Pan glared at her and then walked out of the forever-black clearing. One of the Long Lost Boys poked his head out from behind a dead, blackened tree and whispered, "Is he gone, Seer?"

"Yes," the Seer replied. "He's gone. Gone to the edge of the Nowhereland, as far as he dares to go."

"What do we do?"

"Give me a weapon," she said, "and I will win us our freedom."

OUAT

Morraine took a seat at the bar and began to study the table when she heard Rumpelstiltskin ask, "How long?"

"Two years," she replied.

"Only?" She smiled and nodded, and he sat next to her. "Do you want anything? Are you thirsty?"

"Actually, I'm here to see you."

"What for, dearie?"

"Baelfire's missing, and I heard you might need help looking for him."

"You want to help me find my son?"

"He's my best friend. Of course I do."

"So what's your plan?"

"He got sent to another world, yes?"

"Yes."

"So you send me to another world, or give me the means to get there and communicate with you, and I'll let you know if I've seen him. And if I find him, I swear to you I'll look out for him to the best of my ability."

"Thank you for that."

"Can you do it?"

"Well...I personally can't, but if you think of a way, I'll give you the means."

"How will I know them?"

"I will mark them for you and send them to follow you. They will answer to you alone."

"And I will use them for their intended purpose, to alert you to Bae's location should I find him. Do we have a deal?" Rumpelstiltskin smiled, and they shook hands. "Now, in honor of two years, cider?" His smile broadened, and he ordered two glasses of apple cider.

OUAT

"What do you see?" the boy asked. He returned with a sword that he seemed barely able to hold, even without the fact that it had suddenly begun to move toward the Seer.

"I do not see this time," she replied. "I think." The boy released the sword, and it slid toward her, stopping at her feet. "That doesn't help me." The sword balanced on its tip. "Can you cut me out of here?" The sword unsheathed itself and balanced in the air as if an invisible arm were wielding it. Then the blade swiped at the tree, cutting the ropes like butter. Her once-half-numb arms were suddenly tingling with the feeling of their full allotment of blood. She sheathed the sword and tied it around her waist. "Thank you," she said to the boy, who nodded in reply. "Now, I believe it's time we begin our exit."