Walking Through a Land Without Color

Bae scrambled over every piece of monochromatic underbrush in his path in his rush to get to where they landed. John, Alan, Will, and Morraine were standing in the clearing, all in living color; the contrast was jarring. "Are you all okay?" Bae asked.

"...Yes," Morraine said. "What is it?"

"We were followed."

"I assume the man behind you isn't to whom you're referring," Will said.

Bae glanced over his shoulder and looked back at his companions. "No," he said shortly.

"What is that?" Gerhardt asked. The darkness prickled at the edge of Bae's senses, as well.

"What do we do now?" Alan asked.

"Arm ourselves and work on finding a way out," Bae said. He turned to Gerhardt and asked, "Can you do that for us? Can you help us?" Gerhardt considered this for a moment and then nodded. "Thank you." Gerhardt nodded again.

The darkness surged forward from Gerhardt's left, and soon all eyes were fixed in that direction. "Don't try to fight," Gerhardt said. "South. Start running and never look back." Will and Alan didn't need to be told twice. Bae turned to John and nodded. Morraine pulled him close and kissed him before running after the group of Merry Men that formed their party.

Bae turned back to Gerhardt and said, "Come with us."

"No. You need to get out," Gerhardt replied.

"So do you. Come with us." Gerhardt glanced at the magic rushing for them and then looked at Bae, who nodded. "Come with us. Please." Gerhardt assented silently, and they ran out of the clearing.

Gerhardt quickly assumed the lead of the group, guiding them through paths and over streams until they reached a cobble-stone road that led to a major city, eventually, though they were still in the middle of nowhere. "That...that is impressive," John said to Gerhardt through his heavy breathing.

"How?" Gerhardt asked. It wasn't lost on anyone that he hadn't broken a sweat.

Will and Alan leaned into each other, panting to heavily to speak, so Bae said, "We...we're generally not...supposed to move that fast." Morraine nodded and straightened before approaching the road and checking in both directions. "You're fast."

"Oh. Thanks."

He turned and started walking. In spite of himself, Bae jogged to catch up. "Where're you going?"

"I don't know."

"You're not going to go back home or anything?"

"I don't have a home anymore."

"What happened?"

"First I died, then my brother Victor brought me back, then I killed our father because he was hurting Victor, then I was locked up, then the Blackness came and took my brother right out from under me."

"How long ago was that?"

"Twenty-nine years."

It dawned on Bae then that the Dark Curse had slipped into yet another world, and that opened up possibilities he couldn't even fathom. All he could manage was a small, "Oh."

Gerhardt stopped and turned to face him. "You're a good kid," he said. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Too late for that now, I should think." Bae recognized the bone-chilling voice of Sir Guy of Gisborne. Slowly he turned, until he faced the night and his willing accomplice, the yeoman archer.

"This looks like fun," Bae said flatly. "What, do you pursue your targets into other worlds so you're completely sure they're never found?"

"Is he giving you trouble?" Gerhardt asked Bae.

"Nothing I can't handle." Bae turned back to Gisborne and Robin and approached them against his every instinct. "What're you going to do, shoot us where we stand? Can you kill what's already dead?" Gisborne knit his brow, and Bae gestured to Gerhardt.

"We can sure try," Robin said, taking aim and firing directly at Gerhardt. Bae ducked and turned to him, to find him pulling an arrow out of the center of his chest. When Bae checked, he found the magical heart beating as strongly as ever.

"Apparently you can't kill what's already died once," Gerhardt said, studying the arrow. He threw it aside and started to approach their two attackers. Bae was at an impasse. He had no idea what anyone on either side of this equation was up against, what the odds of survival were for any party, or even what would play out in the next few minutes. Gerhardt paused before Robin and punched him in the face with enough force to knock him out. Gisborne stared at him. Bae plucked an arrow from his quiver and plunged it deep into Gisborne while he was distracted.

Gerhardt stepped back and watched calmly as Gisborne pitched forward and clutched the arrow buried in his gut. Bae shoved him back and looked at John, Alan, Will, and Morraine, who now started to whisper amongst themselves about the incident. "We should keep going," Gerhardt said. That settled the matter right there, and they started walking, following Gerhardt's lead.

OUAT

"Thank you," Gerhardt said to Bae after he had found them a place to rest for the night.

"For what?" Bae asked.

"For not treating me like a monster."

"I've known monsters."

"Were the monsters you knew dead?"

"That depends on how you define dead. You can be alive and be so depraved that it can be said you don't have a soul, and I can see how that leads to the statement that the soul 'died'."

"You're fifteen. How do you know about things like that?"

Bae looked up at the sky over the small village in which they had found themselves welcomed and lodged and fed. Another flash of lightning jolted across the cloud that perpetually covered this world. "My father became a dark wizard," he said after a moment. "He wanted to keep me from going to war, and the magic changed him, made him hurt people. He never did that before he changed. He couldn't hurt a fly, and now Fate means to tell me that my father, my own father, has become a remorseless murderer."

"Everyone says I'm a monster because of who I am, and because I killed our father."

"You did?"

Gerhardt nodded. "He was hurting Victor."

"Is your brother still alive?" Gerhardt nodded again. "The Blackness-the Dark Curse-took its victims to a town called Storybrooke. I think that's where he is."

"Really?" It was Bae's turn to nod. Gerhardt turned away and sighed.

"What is it?"

"I just hope he still wants me around."

"Why wouldn't he? He brought you back to life."

"But he always thinks I'm a mistake. Every time I tried to prove myself, he encouraged me, but he looked at me like he could put me under the knife again, and I would come out normal again." Bae bit his lip and regarded Gerhardt.

"Maybe you should talk to him," he said after a moment of Gerhardt's silence. "When we find him, of course."

"You're right. I should."

"Will you come with us?"

Gerhardt gave a resolute nod and said just as firmly, "Yes." In a more relaxed tone, he added, "I need something to do other than avoiding angry mobs anyway."

"It's not your fault people are narrow-minded. For all I know, you're their first encounter with the unknown."

"You're wise for a lad of fifteen."

"I've been around, and I guess I'm not really fifteen, since I was in Neverland for three hundred years."

"Neverland is real?"

"Yeah."

"And Peter Pan?"

Bae nodded. "Him too."

Gerhardt smirked and looked away again. "What if I went on an adventure with him?"

"You'd be stuck in Neverland for all of time, or until the curse came and claimed you, as well, as a Lost Boy. Or, if you're really unlucky, you'd have been sent to the Nowhereland as a Long Lost Boy and killed by your own worst nightmares. You'd never see your brother again, your father would still be alive and abusing him, you never would have died to be resurrected with a magical heart, you never would have become a sensitive, and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"I wouldn't be in a half-rotted body. I wouldn't be so damned strange." He looked at his stitched-up hand. "I'd still heal from my wounds." He sighed. "But you're right. I wouldn't have my brother."

"Really, it's for the best that things worked out as they did."

"Yes." Bae looked back at the sky, but Gerhardt still studied him. "Is Robin Hood real, too?"

"I think you'll prefer the legend to the truth."