"Dammit," Baelfire hissed as the chalk he'd been using snapped. "Just a bit more and I've got it…"
He didn't know how long he'd been in Neverland - it must have been decades at this point. Centuries, maybe. He shuddered to think that the Darlings might all be dead. He just hoped they hadn't forgotten about him, no matter how long it had been, or if they were already… gone.
Baelfire grit his teeth and shook his head. He couldn't let the hopeless thoughts consume him, as difficult as it was, considering the nature of Neverland. If he let Pan win… well, he didn't know what he was going to do.
He just wanted to get back to London, to the Darlings'. He'd been so happy there. So free from the magic that had ruined his life in The Enchanted Forest.
This place was just a never ending nightmare.
Letting out another sigh, he abandoned the drawing and moved over to the star map he'd created, carefully flicking it on and looking at the stars that twinkled above him. One of them would point home, and then he'd figure out a way to get there.
He had to.
In the distance, he could hear the Lost Ones whooping and cheering again. They did it every day, but there was something… different about this one.
Bae shivered and tried to focus on the stars again. "Come on Hook… you wouldn't have lied to me about this, right?"
No. He knew Hook wouldn't have steered him wrong about this - despite Baelfire's anger toward him, He and Hook really did have a good relationship before everything came out about his mother.
His mother. She'd abandoned him, he was willing to believe it now. There had been a heaviness in Hook's eyes when he'd explained it to him. As angry as he'd been, he did accept that Milah had run off - she hadn't loved his father, and had made that quite obvious, even if she'd been trying to keep her vicious language away from his ears.
But why would she have left him behind? That's what he still didn't understand. Was he such a terrible kid that he deserved to be abandoned by both his parents?
He felt a tear roll down his cheek, but ignored it and let it drop to the ground. Instead, he frowned as he stared up at the stars. Something in the star chart was missing, but what? It looked identical to the one Hook had taught him to make, but yet something didn't look right.
"Dammit, what am I missing?"
"Bae!"
He jumped, nearly dropping the star chart, but relaxed when he saw a familiar green dot slide through a simple crack in the makeshift door of his cave.
"Tink," he breathed, his heart rate dropping to a normal speed. "What is it? You sound worried."
Tinker Bell went into her human form, green wings fluttering quickly, like a beating heart. Her face was twisted in worry. "Pan's got a new Lost One."
"And?" he questioned with a frown. It explained the cheering, but Pan seemed to gain a new Lost One every other day. Although there had been a few days (or weeks, or months…) where Neverland had been unusually quiet, without the sound of new arrivals.
"This one has magic. She's a girl from The Land Without Magic and she has some," Tink explained. "I fear Pan wants to use her for something."
"Yeah, well, Pan always wants to use someone for something. If he brought her here, it's because she wanted to be here." Even though he'd had fun dancing with the Lost Ones, he'd still had Papa at the time. If this girl chose to come here… she likely didn't have anything.
"No," Tink said with a firm shake of her head. "She doesn't want to be here. I've heard her wish, but you know my magic is too weak to do anything against Pan."
Right. Otherwise she would have been able to grant his wish and get him back to the Darlings.
He sighed. "And you think I can somehow help her?"
Tink looked up at the stars on the ceiling. "Last time we spoke, you said there was a star missing. Which one was it?"
Bae followed her gaze. "Home. The star that will take me home."
"Hm. Funny how that's exactly where the new Lost One wants to go," Tink mused. "Besides, I know you, Baelfire. I know you wouldn't leave someone here that didn't want to be here."
Bae sighed and glanced at the small cache of weapons he'd managed to forge for himself. "Okay. Where is she?"
This wasn't Neverland. This was Hell.
Emma Swan curled herself into a tighter ball, ignoring all the whoops and cheers around her. Peter Pan was evil. That was a plot twist she hadn't been expecting.
When she'd made that wish, that stupid, stupid wish made in a fit of anger, she hadn't expected the shadow to come to her in the middle of the night, weaving a tale of grandeur and fun, where she could be away from adults.
Well, she was away from adults, but she was away from everything else that was familiar, and the worst part was, she couldn't leave. No matter how much she begged and pleaded, Pan wouldn't let her go.
How long had she been here? She couldn't even keep track of time. She'd tried to, but even if she went with her sleep cycle, the Lost Ones kept interrupting her, so she doubted she had been sleeping a full night. Or day. Whatever the hell it was here.
Whenever she asked about Wendy, John, or Michael Darling, the Lost Ones had just laughed, or looked at her in confusion, depending on which one she'd asked. This was such a weird version of Peter Pan that was apparently very, very, real.
The only thing about it that had made sense was the apparently antagonistic relationship Peter Pan had with Captain Hook. She'd never met the man, but the disgust on Pan's face had been enough to tell her he didn't like the pirate captain.
At least it was something correct from her old childhood stories.
"Hey Emma!" one of the Lost Ones called. "Come on! Don't you want to join the fun today? We're celebrating your arrival!"
"You can celebrate my leaving once I figure out a way off this island!" she snapped back.
The Lost One rolled his eyes. "Are you still on that? This is everything you ever wished for, isn't it? Why would you want to go home, where adults treat you like trash and you have to grow up?"
"Because I miss the sun! I miss TV, music, and art!" She missed changing clothes, and washing machines, especially for her baby blanket, which Pan had oh-so graciously allowed her to keep. But it kept getting dirty as she kept getting dirty on the island, and Emma wished for a washer to actually get it clean.
She hated being an orphan. Hated the adults that made her life a living Hell including the unknown parents who had abandoned her. But somehow, despite all that stuff, she wanted to go back to it instead of being stuck in this world where nothing made sense and everything was chaos.
Peter Pan was real, which meant fairytales were real and that was just something too mind-boggling for Emma to comprehend.
"Come on, Devin," Pan's silky voice suddenly said, grinning but not bothering to hide the malice in it. "Emma just needs some more time to adjust to Neverland, that's all. Tinker Bell is on the move, so why don't we go play a game of catch?"
"Don't hurt her!" Emma blurted when Devin rose to follow Pan.
"Oh come now, Emma, it's just a game! We aren't going to hurt Tinker Bell at all!" Pan said, malice still glinting in his smile. "Devin, let's go. Maybe by the time we get back, Emma will want to join us! And then you can show her how we play catch!"
The way his voice went from pure evil to innocent child wanting to play a game was absolutely terrifying, and apparently, hypnotic to everyone except her, judging by the way every Lost One followed Pan out of the camp, whooping and cheering as they rose their weapons into the air to chase after the elusive fairy.
At least Tinker Bell didn't seem to be on Pan's side.
Emma shuddered and curled back into her ball, clutching her baby blanket tighter to her chest. Her parents may have abandoned her on a highway, but at least they'd given her a name and a blanket. She would have hated to have been named something terrible like Mildred by a stuffy old nun.
Her parents had loved her at some point. They must have. That's why she needed to find them - she needed to know what happened.
She needed to get out of here if she ever had a chance of finding them. But how?
"Hey."
Emma jumped to her feet, fists raised and poised to strike. "I told you I don't want to play your stupid game!"
Though, as she got a closer look at the boy, she realized he didn't look anything like the other Lost Ones, or like Pan. He had a cloak, like them, but the clothing underneath looked more familiar. Vintage, something out of a Charles Dickens novel, but at least they didn't look like they were made out of leaves or animal skin. She also didn't recognize his face.
"Who are you?" she questioned softly. "Are you a new Lost One?"
"No. I'm an old one. But I escaped the camp. I've been on the run for a while now. Tink told me you want to go home, right?"
Emma nodded warily. Strange that this boy needed to be told - she'd have thought it was common knowledge on the island at this point.
"I do too. And I'm close to figuring out a way… but I need your help."
"Me? How?"
"I think we're going to the same place… the Land Without Magic?"
Emma frowned. What the hell did that mean? "If you mean planet Earth, then yes, that's where I'm going."
"Earth. Yeah, that's it, that's where I'm going too!" he agreed with a nod. "Come on, I've got a hideout that Pan doesn't know about. We can talk more there."
A hideout? Away from Pan and the Lost Ones? As much as her gut told her to not trust anything anyone said in this world, Emma scrambled for the backpack that had come with her to Neverland, sighing with relief when she realized it was still the same weight it had been when she'd landed. No one had messed with it then. Good.
"Okay," she whispered. "Let's go."
The boy took her hand, and they ran. Faster than she'd ever run when she was shoplifting food, or travel sized toothpaste and mouthwash. Faster than she'd run to get away from the Edwards family, faster than she'd ever run away from anything.
And finally, they were able to stop running as they burst into a cave she didn't recognize, with white chalk drawings on the walls alongside a frightening number of tally marks. How long had this boy been here?
"I should have asked earlier," she panted, dropping to the ground with a soft groan. "But who are you?"
"My name is Baelfire… what's yours?" the boy replied, joining her on the ground and discarding his cloak.
"Emma. So… how did you find out about me? I haven't seen you at the camp."
"Tinker Bell told me," he explained. "She thinks the reason my getaway plan is missing something is because of you. And if we're both going to the same planet, I think she was right. We're the two people here who really want to get out."
Emma supposed she couldn't argue with that logic. "Okay, so… how do we do this then? How do we escape?"
"We need The Shadow. It's the only way."
Emma paled. "What? Seriously? We can't trust that thing won't try to take us to… I don't know, Duloc or something!"
"It won't take us there, I promise. Besides, after the way Farquaad was running it, I doubt it's even still standing," Baelfire said with a shrug.
"... Are you telling me Shrek is real?"
"What's Shrek?"
"You don't know what Shrek is? It's only one of the best movies of all time!" When Baelfire seemed even more confused, Emma shook her head. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. Are you sure we can trust this Shadow after it dragged the two of us here?"
He nodded. "I'm positive. Tink's magic isn't powerful enough to get us out of here, and there aren't any more magic beans."
Because of course magic beans were real too.
Emma finally sighed. "Alright, fine. How do we catch this stupid shadow then?"
"We need to use light… I think trapping it in my star map will sort of reset it and force it to go where we need it to," Baelfire explained, holding out a halved coconut with a bunch of holes in the top. "I don't like this plan either, but it's the only chance we have."
"I get it… it seems hopeless otherwise," she agreed, glancing around at all of the drawings (and the frightening number of tally marks) on the wall. "Did you draw all these?"
He nodded.
Emma paused at one, at the familiar clock she'd seen so often in movies and pictures. "Is this Big Ben? The famous clock in London?"
"Yeah," he said, face brightening. "I lived there for a few months, with the Darlings."
There were too many questions running through her mind, but she knew she didn't have a lot of time to ask them. "So you're from, what, the early 1900s?"
"It was 1904, last I checked, yeah. Why? What year are you from? I noticed you don't have a dress like Wendy and Mrs. Darling."
Oh. Oh no. If Peter Pan and all the characters were real, and Baelfire was from Earth, like her, but from 1904…
"Baelfire, I'm so sorry, but it was 1996 when I left."
His eyes glazed over with tears for a brief moment. "It's okay. I - I sort of expected that it had been decades. I expected they'd be gone."
"What are you going to do when we get home?" she asked softly.
He shrugged. "I figured it out before and I can do it again."
She nodded slowly. "But… maybe it'll be easier if we do it together."
Baelfire nodded and smiled. "Together. Now come on, let's get home."
They traveled away from the hideout, just in case the plan failed. Emma held the coconut in her hands, clutching it tight to make sure it didn't fall. They hadn't lit the candle yet, and they only had one match, so they had to make it count.
Tink had joined them, hiding in her small form in Emma's backpack.
"How do we draw out the shadow?" she whispered.
"You don't have to. I know everything that happens in Neverland…" a voice suddenly hissed from behind them.
Emma jumped and tried not to scream, but Baelfire was quicker, launching himself at the shadow. She opened the coconut with a shaking hand and tried to light the match with the other, but the shadow struggling against him caused it to go out immediately.
"No! No! Please, I need you to light up!" Emma cried, staring at the candle in horror. "Light, dammit!"
And to her great surprise, it did, and began dragging the shadow into it.
"Dammit, fine Baelfire, Emma! What is it you want?" the Shadow hissed, only just hanging on.
"You're taking us out of here," Baelfire said. "We're going back to the Land Without Magic."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I put this lid on the coconut and trap you in there forever!"
The threat was enough for the Shadow to comply, dragging them back through time and space or whatever the hell it was they warped through. They were dropped on a sunny dirt road, and the Shadow retreated back to Neverland without a word, leaving them alone, before Tink popped out of the backpack, looking like a fully grown adult, but missing her wings.
"I can't believe that worked," Tink said with a wide smile. "All those years, she banished me to Neverland, and now I'm free. Stinks I can't use what was left of my magic, but… hey Emma, are you okay?"
"What time is it?" she whispered, still trying to gather her bearings. "What year is it? And where are we?"
Baelfire squinted at the sun. "Judging by the position of the sun in the sky, I'd say it's about ten, ten-thirty in the morning. And it looks like there's a sign up ahead. Maybe it'll tell us where we are."
Emma nodded and followed him to the sign.
Welcome to Storybrooke.