So Meg stayed at the pawnshop and waited for Pan to find her. A million scenarios played in her head. What else was she going to do? She certainly wasn't going to walk to her certain death. She was no hero. Plus, death wasn't even the ending it promised to be. Not for her. The Underworld was bad enough the first time. The others had come to try and think of a plan. They were hitting so many dead ends. They still didn't know Pan's end game and Meg wasn't sure she could kill him. She had spaced out for a better part of the conversation as she tried to find her own solution so she wasn't sure how the others had ended up here.
"How strong is your magic?" Emma asked. Meg shook herself out of her daze. She said the first thing that came to mind.
"Not strong enough to protect the entire town." Meg answered. In truth, she wasn't sure how strong it was.
"Is it enough to slow down Pan?" Emma questioned. Meg nodded, cautiously. She didn't like where this was going.
"It should be. What do you need me to do?" Meg asked. Before anyone could say anything, Regina stepped forward. She waved a hand over Meg's arm and a cuff appeared. It looked exactly like the one she had earlier. Meg looked up startled.
"Don't worry, you can still use your magic. It's a fake. Just to buy us some time. Go back to Pan's hideout." Regina stated. Meg hesitated.
"We'll come get you, I promise." Belle reassured. Meg nodded and walked back to the treehouse. It was nearly sundown. She started to jog to make up for lost time. She climbed up the ladder and made her way inside. To both her relief and dismay, her husband wasn't there.
There was nothing she could do but sit and wait and think. She couldn't use her magic because she had to keep up the charade that the cuff was real. She couldn't stay with the others because she needed Pan to think that she was on his side now. All the while, she had to trust that her son and her new companions would have a halfway decent rescue plan. Assuming they didn't just leave her with Pan for the rest of eternity.
"I must say, Rose, I'm surprised you came back." Pan stated, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Where else would I go? I have no magic. Rumple hates me now that he thinks I'm on your side. I don't have anyone. I'm a Lost Girl. And where do Lost Children go? To Peter Pan, because Peter Pan never fails." Meg replied. She didn't know what scared her more; the fact that she half-believed what she said or the smile on her husband's face when she said it.
"So what? You're going to keep me prisoner? Keep me in a cage with this cuff on for eternity?" Meg demanded.
"I think that you've proven that you can't be trusted with magic. There is one thing that you could do just to prove to Rumple, and more importantly to myself, that you're really on my side; help me to destroy the entire town. If you help me with that, then you can have your magic back." Pan said nonchalantly.
"That wasn't the deal that we made, Malcolm. You said that if I was on your side then you would spare them!" Meg yelled, half surprised that she called him by his given name. She didn't even get a chance to mention that there was no way she could destroy a town without magic, even if she wanted to.
"But you're not on my side, are you, Rose? They'll probably try to save you which is a bad move on their part because you're not on their side either. You're on your side. You've always been on your side." Pan spat. Pan lifted his hand and in it was the cuff.
Instinctively, she looked down to see for sure that it was gone. Pan rolled his eyes at the imitation cuff. She tried to freeze Pan where he stood. It didn't work. Pan had somehow deflected it. Confused and surprised, she tried again. Once again, he deflected it. They were circling each other now. They never broke eye contact.
"How'd you know?" Meg questioned.
"I made the cuff! I know a fake when I see one. What happened to mine?" Pan demanded.
"It incinerated right off my wrist." Meg informed. Pan looked mildly impressed.
"I knew your magic was more powerful than you let on. It's a shame that you waste it when you could use it for so much more." Pan said. Why wasn't he making any moves? Why was he just dodging hers?
"And what do you suggest I do with it, dearest?" Meg questioned. He didn't answer. In the blink of an eye, he had taken a knife out of his pocket and threw it. It pierced her heart.
At first she didn't feel anything but shock. It didn't take long for the excruciating pain to kick in and she screamed. She had crumpled to the floor in pain.
"What are you doing?" Meg yelled, trying to hold herself up on her elbows.
"I had to test out a theory. I was curious. Ever since I was unable to rip your heart out, I wondered how or if I could kill you." Pan explained, he reached over and pulled the knife out. Meg's wound healed almost immediately. She sighed in relief at the absence of pain.
"Apparently your deal came with more perks than mine. Which is exactly why I need you. I can't get a deal with the God's. It would take too much time and I've already got you. So I planned this whole set up. I planned your reunion with Rumple and made sure you thought I was going to kill you. I still might. I helped Belle reach out to you. I pretended to be Belle to see where your head was at. I made you think that you had to reveal your past in order to win. I let you find my treehouse because I knew you couldn't resist trying to find where I was hiding." Pan continued.
Meg sat up in shock. He had planned the whole thing. He had planned every last detail of her coming to Storybrooke. He knew exactly how everyone was going to react. She had played right into his plan by trying to figure out his plan. She had spent too much time overthinking. Meg was reminded once again that they were all pawns in his game. She felt numb.
"What do you need my magic for?" Meg asked, absently.
"To bring back Neverland. Amongst other things." Pan stated. She looked at him incredulously.
"I have a lot of power but not that much. I can't bring back a place that may or may not exist. Do you know how much magic that would take? I could die." Meg protested. Pan kneeled down in front of her.
"That's not really true, is it?" Pan asked. There was no concern. He was mocking her. He wasn't killing her because he needed her alive. It was getting harder and harder to believe that she loved him.
"Fine, let's say that I can bring back Neverland, and that's a big if, what next?" Meg questioned.
"That's not for you to worry about, Rose. One step at a time." Pan told her.
"You asked me if I still loved you. When you asked I almost said yes. Now, I can't believe that I ever did." Meg admitted. For a brief second, there was hurt in his eyes. He quickly changed it back to his nonchalant demeanor.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night…dearest." He mocked, and then winked at her.
Meg walked around the woods looking for the seer that was rumored to live here. She had been searching for hours and was seriously beginning to doubt that the seer was even here. Maybe the story was wrong or something got lost in translation. Meg's frustration set in.
"You won't win him back this way." A voice said from behind her. She turned around and saw a red haired little girl whose eyes appeared to be sewn shut. More accurately, it looked like they were sutured shut and someone forgot the necessary thread. The girl held her hands up and sure enough, there were her eyes. This had to be the seer.
"I'm not trying to win anyone back." Meg protested. The seer's expression stayed uninterested but Meg could feel the little girl's judgment.
"There is a price to be paid for reuniting with your son." The seer warned. Meg looked at her confused. She wasn't reuniting with her son just yet. Hopefully soon but she had other tasks to accomplish first.
"What price?" Meg asked. Her question was followed by silence. Meg rolled her eyes.
"What price?" Meg reiterated, her tone more demanding than before. It was met again with silence.
"I don't have time for this." Meg stated. With the flick of her wrist, the seer was trapped inside a cage.
"LET ME OUT!" The little girl yelled. Meg ignored her and put a blanket-like covering over the top. She then moved the cart to the edge of the camp where she knew her son was. She found the nearest soldier.
"I need you to guard this and do not open it no matter what you hear. It's a prisoner. It may help with us win the war." She instructed. She handed him all the money she had. It wasn't much but she then described her son to the man and told the soldier to have him guard the cage instead. The soldier didn't ask questions, only nodded. Meg left but she didn't go far.
Meg made sure to find a place that would allow her to see what was going on but also make sure that she was out of sight. It killed her that she had to do this but there was no way Rumple would survive the Ogre Wars. Nobody did. Meg needed him alive.
There he was. The soldier was now explaining to Rumple what needed to be done. Meg didn't want to stay to watch but couldn't leave yet. She had to be sure to release the seer afterwards. She watched as her son lifted the covering on the cage. He looked appalled. She couldn't see the seer but Meg could see her son's reaction. He showed disgust, disbelief, and concern. Eventually, he was relieved of guarding the seer. Meg waited until she was sure that her son wouldn't see her before going to get the seer.