Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited! Seriously, you all made my year! Any questions, comments, critics and suggestions made by readers will forever be appreciated.
In regards to this chapter: I'm sorry if any of the characters appear OC. I've never really written dialogue before, and that plays a big part of this chapter. So, sorry if I screwed it up! A slight change to the order of things in canon: I'm having Ruby take Henry to the diner before they confront the mob, not after. Also, for future reference, don't expect updates this fast. I haven't had school these past few days, so all I've been doing really is writing. I'm going to be choosing long chapters over quick updates, so don't expect a new chapter every few days. Alright, that's all I really have to say. Enjoy!
Of Broken Families and Shattered Souls
Chapter Two: In Which Two Lost Boys Meet After Both Succeed In Their Disappointingly Simple Escape Attempts (Really, They Had Been Hoping For More Subterfuge)
Henry had thought that things would be better when the curse broke. Things should have been better. Emma would know where she was from, Snow White and Prince Charming would remember who they really were, and then they'd all be together, as a family. And Henry wouldn't feel so alone anymore.
Only, Regina was his family too. She was his mom. And you don't turn your back on family, no matter who they curse or how crazy and lonely they make you feel. Except, Henry hadn't factored public sentiment into his ideas for after the curse.
The people hated her, of course. That was blatantly obvious from what the patrons of Granny's Diner were saying (mostly using words that Henry was never, ever allowed to repeat on the pain of eternal grounding.) The diner had become something of a command center for post-curse victims, and every second more tearful patrons walked through the door in hopes of discovering lost family within. Of course, just as many angry, spiteful people walked through, swearing revenge against his mother for what she had done. The sheer amount of them was one thing that stunned him, which was ridiculous in hindsight. He had known that the entire realm had been cursed. He had known that everyone he passed in the street had no idea who they truly were because of what had happened. Only, it hadn't really sunk in until the forlorn, sobbing people slunk through the door, desperately looking for even the smallest glimpse of those they had lost. They had all been miserable, and his mom was the one who had caused it.
That didn't mean he wanted her hurt, however. People could change, and so could his mother. He could change her, and they could all be together. Then maybe the sheer loneliness he had felt for years would melt away, replaced by his new family.
It wasn't that his mother didn't love him, she did. That was one thing he was absolutely sure of. It was the fact, that for all her love, she was still very much the Evil Queen. Growing up, his mother had always been a harsh, sharp woman to anyone who had upset her (except for him, after all he was her Little Prince), and despite all of his begging, pleading to be just a little bit kinder to everyone else, she had never stopped. And Storybrooke had always seemed wrong. Every year, he would move up a grade, but none of the rest of his class would. Nobody ever left, and bad things happened to those that tried. Everybody would do the same thing, over and over again, and act as if it all was completely normal. Henry had been the only one that aged at all. And, worst of all, nobody noticed it but him. He had tried, of course, to point out how strange everything was to people. Only, no one ever believed him. He was that strange Mills boy, the one with the overactive imagination. Then, his mother started to send him to therapy, and suddenly he had become that crazy Mills boy, the one with the problems and absolutely no friends. And every time that someone whispered about him behind his back, or his mother asked him to please finally get over your delusions, loneliness jabbed into his heart a little bit further. But then, when he had hit rock bottom, a book with Once Upon a Time scrawled out on its cover had saved him. More importantly, it gave him hope. Finally, it had all made sense. And he had known what to do. He would find his real mother, and she would bring back the happy endings and save everybody. She would save him. And if she had doubted it at first, that was to be expected. Heroes always doubted their destiny in the beginning. (And Henry had always made sure to push aside the little voice in his head whispering that she wasn't doubting her destiny, she just doubted him.) It hadn't mattered that she didn't believe. He believed enough for the both of them.
Now, however, Henry wasn't sure what to do. The curse was broken, and his plans kind of ended there. He knew he needed to do something to fix everything with his family, he just had to figure out what.
He hadn't been planning for long when to mob walked in. They had just arrived from his house (or from what used to be his house, he wasn't entirely sure what his living situation currently was), and eagerly brought forth the news that the Evil Queen had lost her magic, and that they had almost made her pay for all she did when the royals showed up to imprison her.
Henry felt sick. While they may all be thinking about her as the Evil Queen, he couldn't help but think about her as his mother. For all of her faults, she had been a good mom. She had tucked him in at night, chased away the nightmares, and always been there when he had needed him. Until he started noticing everything wrong about the town. Then, she started lashing out, denying everything, making it seem like Henry was the one that was wrong.
But that didn't matter now. He could fix this, make everything better. He had to, and he would start now. He would go and visit her at the Sheriff's Station. He wouldn't, couldn't leave his mother sitting all alone in a jail cell. She had to know that, despite everything, he still loved her and wouldn't give up on her.
It wasn't particularly hard to escape the diner. Ruby was too busy coordinating the disgruntled citizens to properly watch him like his mom had asked (Emma, not Regina. Having two mothers was more difficult than he thought), and Granny had already dug up her old crossbow (and where she had been keeping that, Henry had no idea) and was attempting to "keep the peace." All he really had to do was walk out the door and down the street. It was almost disappointing, really. He had been hoping for more subterfuge.
As Henry walked he passed more and more stunned, stumbling townsfolk and turned his head each time he saw them. He didn't want to risk being recognized as the Evil Queen's son, and be used as a tool for revenge before he even managed to reach the Sheriff's office. The sky was rapidly darkening, and that helped him hide, but he didn't want to bet his life on only the cover of darkness. Soon, the Station came into view.
And something was very, very wrong there.
The door had been ripped clear off its hinges, and a shrill, horrific sound was bursting from the building, a promise of the horrible things he would find within.
Henry didn't hesitate. (Regina probably would argue that that was his Charming family genes at work.) He charged straight through the jagged crevice that once housed the door, and came face to face with a horrific sight. His mother was there, and something was devouring her. That was the only word he had for the terrible, consuming vortex that connected her to some kind of creature. The beast was terrible in itself. Clothed in a tattered robe, its bony, grotesque figure hovered several feet above the ground. And it was attacking his mother.
"Mom?!"
When she didn't answer Henry's scream, he truly began to feel fear. She was going to die, and nobody would really care. Nobody except Henry. Would they even search for her killer? Creatures were usually sent to attack people, Henry knew that. Would they try to find whoever had sent the beast, or would they all just decide that they were better off without the Evil Queen, and not even search?
However, it didn't matter what everyone else would do. They weren't here, he was. And he was going to protect his mother.
Henry wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, he just knew he had to do something to stop that thing. He barreled full force into the figure, grabbing hard on its dark cloak in an attempt to yank it to the side, away from his mom. He felt his left hand catch on a piece of metal, and then a horrible, horrible burning shot up his arm, forcing him to release.
No sooner he had released had he been thrown into the wall by the monster. Blearily looking up, Henry saw his mother gasping for air not far away, barely able to move. Then, he saw the creature that had attacked her slowly turn towards him and lift its hand.
That was Henry's last clear thought. After that, there was an all-consuming blackness to the world around him, as if all the light had been drained away. A horrible hooking sensation had dug into him, threatening to rip him in two. Henry thought he may hear voices, but they were distant and distorted, as if he were underwater. They began to fade further and further away, until one voice cut through the haze, pulling him back to reality.
"HEY!"
In hindsight, perhaps following the mysterious screeching noise hadn't been the best idea.
At the time, it has seemed like the logical thing to do. He had just escaped what may quite possibly be the most pathetically guarded insane asylum in all the realms, and needed to find somebody that actually knew what was going on. Baelfire had found in the past that unearthly screams usually meant that some kind of supernatural creature was on the hunt, and they were typically hunting the most hated person in a given area (which generally translated to him). However, since he was relatively sure that the beast was not in fact after him, it most likely meant that it was tracking the castor of this curse, and she would be the most likely person to have the answers he was looking for.
And so Baelfire followed the trail of screaming car alarms and shattered glass to a mangled building that possessed a sign proclaiming it to be the Sheriff's Station. Just as he arrived, however, he saw a man and two women run in ahead of him. Quietly, Baelfire slipped in after them. He could easily see what was happening and slip out before they noticed him.
However, the sight that greeted him wiped all thoughts of fleeing from him mind. A wraith, of all the cursed creatures out there, had been summoned and was attacking a young boy who had already collapsed to the ground. The three adults who had ran in ahead of him weren't much help, not that there was much they could do to stop it. The two females were being kept at bay by the wind summoned by the Soul-Sucker. The man, whose weapon of choice was apparently a chair, had already been tossed into the wall and hadn't managed to sit back up yet.
That left Bae to help. Baelfire shouted in a desperate attempt to get the wraith's attention.
"HEY!"
His hand surged forward, sending out a wave of flames. The wraith fled as the inferno approached, abruptly severing its connection to its victim. With a scream, it crashed out the window, leaving its stunned audience behind. Baelfire watched it leave. He knew that it would be back. It wasn't in its nature to give up its prey so easily
"What the hell was that thing?!" The blonde haired woman had already rushed to the boy and was helping him sit up. Now, seeing that he was rapidly recovering, she was demanding answers.
"A wraith," Baelfire answered, sounding much calmer than he felt. The Evil Queen, who he recognized from wanted posters back in the Enchanted Forest, was also present. She currently was weakly attempting to shove off the assistance of a pale, dark haired woman as she gasped for air. This scene wasn't adding up. The former monarch had obviously also been attacked, and was the most likely target for an assassination. But then why had the boy been attacked? It wasn't in a wraith's nature to strike against bystanders, especially with its prey so close.
"Well why was it here?" She snapped back, irritated by his brief response.
"Gold summoned it," the Queen rasped. "He summoned it to kill me."
Baelfire tuned out the conversation as it quickly descended into childish bickering between the adults. He slowly approached the boy in an attempt not to startle him. This kid had done something, something to make the wraith attack. Bae just needed to know what in order to know just how bad this situation was.
Bae's heart sank. It was so much worse than he had hoped. (And that had been a mistake in itself. Hope only invited disappointment.)
"No, it's Regina's problem!"
"Actually," Baelfire cut in as he picked up the boy's left hand, "it's not."
This brought the surprised adults attention back to him. Apparently they had forgotten about his existence during the course of their argument.
"What do you mean?" The blond woman warily asked.
"It's not hunting her anymore. It's hunting him." Bae gestured to the unfortunate boy sitting next to him.
"What the hell are you talking about?" The woman desperately snarled, her eyes widening.
Baelfire ignored her. Instead, he turned his attention back to the boy. "You grabbed the wraith, didn't you?" Wordlessly, he nodded, his eyes fixed on Bae's face. "And when you grabbed the wraith you touched something, something that burned you?"
"Yes," came the whispered reply.
With a sigh, Baelfire helped the boy up. "The wraith will be back. You won't want to be here when it comes. You need to find a place more easily defendable."
"What are you talking about? It's gone, you got rid of it with your magical fire stuff! Besides, Gold summoned it to hunt Regina, not Henry! Why would it change targets?" the blonde woman, who was most likely very new to magic based on her questions, replied.
"Wraith's are called forth from their realm through the use of an amulet. Once they're summoned, they can't return until the price of the summoning has been paid, more specifically, the soul of the person marked by the same amulet that summoned them. What's worse, they hunt with a single-minded determination. They can only have one target at a time, and that's whoever's marked. When Henry touched the amulet, he marked himself, which caused the burn to disappear from Regina's hand and appear on Henry's. Unfortunately, Soul-Suckers never give up on their targets. The flames only weakened it. It will be back when it regenerates."
"He's right," the Queen broke in. "It will return, and when it does it will be after Henry." The sheer misery on her face shocked Baelfire. Perhaps the Queen hadn't ripped out her own heart after all.
"What the hell did you do to my son, Regina?" The woman (and Bae should probably figure out her name) spun on the Queen and pinned her with a glare.
"My son," Regina snapped back.
As they argued, Baelfire watched the boy. He was watching his mothers(?) as if this was a familiar scene, on that he was tired of. As he looked on, the boy took on an expression of hopelessness. He looked lost.
"Your wraith problem," Baelfire interrupted before he could change his mind. "Do you want any help with it?"
"What do you mean?" the man warily questioned.
Baelfire rolled his eyes. "Well based on the state of the Queen and the success of your attempts I'd say that none of you have much experience fighting a wraith. I'd like to offer my assistance."
The dark haired woman with the pixie cut searched his face for ulterior motives. "Who are you?"
"No one of importance."
"That didn't sound like a name"
"That's because it wasn't," Baelfire snapped. "Now do you want my help or shall I go elsewhere?"
"You'd help us but not tell us your name?" The boy's blonde mother (this whole two-mothers thing was going to get confusing) seemed to be the most suspicious of his offer.
"I'm not helping you. I'm helping him," he evenly stated with a nod to the boy. "There's not much time. You need to make a decision."
Blondie tried one last time. "Why would you help him?"
"Because he needs it. I don't require much motivation beyond that."
"Alright," the blonde sighed, "how do we kill the wraith?"
"We can't."
"But you just said—"
"That I'd help fight the wraith. I never said I could kill it. You can't kill something that's already dead."
"You already said that wraith's never give up. If it won't give up and we can't kill it, then how can we save Henry?"
Baelfire paused to think. There were ways to stop something without killing it, but most of them took time and materials, of which Bae had neither. "We need to delay it as long as possible. Soul-Suckers only hunt by night. If we can delay it until morning, then we may have a chance of trapping it."
"A chance? What if we can't delay until sunrise? Why can't you just trap it now?"
"This may come as a surprise to you, but magic is difficult, especially when it comes to dark creatures. If I had my things from our realm, then yes, maybe I could build something that would work. At the moment, however, our best chance would be to buy ourselves some time."
"Not necessarily," interrupted Regina. " If we sent the wraith to another realm, then it couldn't get to Henry. He'd be safe."
"Do you happen to have a portal handy? Inter-realm travel is one of the most difficult magicks there is, and we don't exactly have the resources to make one here."
"Actually," the former monarch answered with a superior look, "I do."
Mr. Chair-Wielder was skeptical of her plan. "But where would we even send it?"
"Where it can't hurt anyone. Our old realm."
"You said Our Land was gone."
At this point Baelfire interrupted. "Wait—gone?"
Regina glared at him. "Yes. It was destroyed by the curse. By sending the wraith there, we'll be sending it into oblivion."
Baelfire searched her face before smirking. "Right. Pull the other one, Your Majesty. I think it has bells on it."
"Excuse me? I don't recall asking for input from the Peanut Gallery!"
"Do you honestly expect anyone to believe that you, a single sorcerer, managed to destroy an entire realm with your little curse? Dear gods, you'd have to be a special kind of idiot to buy that story!" Baelfire paused when he saw the look on the other adults faces. "Oh. You all bought that story," Bae grimaced. "Sorry."
"Look, we don't have time to debate the current state of the kingdom," Blondie cut in. "We need a plan, and fast."
"How many people were brought over from Our Land?" Baelfire asked Regina.
"All of them. The curse encompassed the entire realm," she replied, daring Bae to argue. He didn't. It was quite unfortunately possible, but only for a very steep price. He wouldn't put it past her to pay it. "Why?"
"Because your plan has its merits, even if we weren't sending the wraith into oblivion. If there's no one in Our Land, there's nobody for the wraith to hunt. It would probably just end up angrily flying around for eternity."
Henry's blond mother had come to a decision. "Regina, where is this portal of yours?"
"My office."
"Alright. David, you and Mary-Margaret go and find something we can use as torches. If fire weakens this thing, then we're going to need a lot of it. I'll take Henry, Regina, and Magical Anonymous over to the town hall to get her portal. Meet us over there as soon as you find something."
"Emma are you sure—," the man, David apparently, started.
"Yes."
Slowly he nodded. Before he left he glanced at the newly dubbed Magical Anonymous (who was currently utilizing all his willpower not to roll his eyes at his ridiculous nickname) and said, "Your things from Our Realm that you mentioned may help. What do they look like?"
"Why do you ask?" Baelfire wondered aloud, surprised at this new line of questioning.
"Because I think I have an idea of where they may be."
Instead of answering, Bae walked over to the wind-disturbed desk and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen. Quickly, he sketched a drawing of his missing property and handed it to David. It wasn't his best work, but it would do. After taking the picture, David and Mary-Margaret wordlessly walked out, leaving the four of them together.
"Alright. We need to get moving. Regina, lead the way," Emma ordered.
The ex-Queen rolled her eyes but obeyed, closely followed by the silent Henry. But before Baelfire could follow, Emma grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"What happens to Henry if we fail?"
Baelfire sighed. This was one question he didn't want to have to answer. "The wraith will steal his soul and take it back to its Netherworld. There, Henry's soul will be tormented for all eternity. There are some ways to reclaim a spirit if it's been recently taken, but they're complicated and dangerous." Baelfire looked the determined mother in the eye, attempting to convey the gravity of the situation. "We can't let it come to that."
She looked back at him, equally grave. "We won't."
While his moms inspected a large leather box, Henry curiously watched the strange person that had saved him. The boy was an enigma to Henry. He showed up out of nowhere only to defeat a wraith right before it finished (killed) him, with magic of all things. He had offered his help but refused to give them his name. And now he was glaring at his mother's fireplace.
"Are you okay? You look like you're trying to bludgeon the fireplace with your eyes," Henry warily asked. While he had offered to help, they really had no idea about his motives. It would probably be best to be cautious around him.
"There's no matches. What is the point of having a massive stack of wood next to a hearth when there is nothing to light it with?" the boy mumbled in response.
"I don't think my mom actually uses the fireplace. It's more for decoration. What do you need the matches for?"
"It's not the matches I need. I need to burn one of these logs for ash. I can use that to draw runes, but I need something to light the log with."
With a sigh, the boy picked up one of the logs and placed it in the center of the hearth. With a wave of his hand, flames roared to life. Without turning around the boy spoke. "You have a question. Ask it."
Henry hesitated. "Why didn't you use your magic in the first place?"
"All magic comes with a price. You should never amass a debt if there is another way. But that wasn't your real question."
It hadn't been, but Henry didn't know how he knew that. "Why do you know so much about wraiths?" he asked, sitting next to the boy.
"I don't. Not really." He raised a hand to stop Henry's protests. "It's true. Somewhere out there, there is somebody that know ten times as much about wraiths as I do. I only know some of the most basic facts. But what I do know… Well, I guess you could say that wraiths weren't my true goal throughout my research. I was trying to learn how to fight a different creature when I stumbled on information about the wraith. While the two creatures were very different, they were cut from the same cloth. I guess you could call them distant cousins similarity-wise. Only, there wasn't really anything known about what I was fighting. I learned about wraiths in hopes of finding a way to fight my creature."
"Did you? Find a way to fight it that is."
"Eventually." Henry could tell by the look on the boy's face that this strain of the conversation was over. "I believe it is my turn to ask a question."
"Oh. Uh, okay. Ask away," uttered the shocked Henry. He hadn't thought that the boy would want to ask him anything.
"Most people would have never gone near a wraith. Why did you?"
"I just—I wanted to save my mom. Not that I did very well at it."
The last part had been mumbled, but the boy still heard it. "What do you mean? You seem to have succeeded in you goal. Your mother is no longer marked."
"Yeah, well look at where it got us! You're all putting yourselves in danger and it's my fault! Henry glared at his burned hand. "It just feels like every time I try to do something I mess it up."
There was a pause from the other end of the conversation. Then, "Henry, ther— your head is bleeding."
"What?" Henry looked up. The boy was looking at his the side of his head with concern.
"Your head," the boy stated with a gesture. "It's bleeding."
Henry lifted his hand to his head, only to find it came away bloody. "Oh. I guess I hit my head when the wraith threw me into the wall." He hadn't noticed before now. He had been too preoccupied with other matters.
"I can help that if you want," the boy said, glancing at Henry for permission. Seeing it, he raised his hand to the wound. Henry felt a soft pulse, and the boy lifted his hand away.
"I can't heal your hand. The mark won't allow it. Pressure helps though." At this the boy ripped a strip of cloth from his pants. (He was wearing rather strange clothing. Henry wondered if he had just walked out of his home wearing the first thing he had found when the curse broke.) Wrapping the makeshift bandages around the hand, the boy tightly knotted it, causing Henry to wince. "Sorry. There's not much else I can do right now for the pain, but it should hurt less in time."
"Speaking from experience?" Henry questioned, glancing down at his companion's hands. On each of his hands there was a scar, obviously made by a burn. They looked like runes, but not like the one on Henry's hand.
The boy tightened his hands into fists. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the door opened.
"Torches! I know they're old fashioned, but so am I," David announced. "Here kid, something for you too." The man had a bag made from a strange assortment of leathers slung around his shoulder, along with a bow and a sheath of arrows. In Mary-Margaret's hands there was a old but well-cared for sword.
"You found them!" Baelfire exclaimed. He hadn't expected the man's search to yield anything. Yet here he was, holding the few possessions he had brought with him from Neverland. "Thank you. Where were the being kept?"
"Gold's shop. He had my sword and Emma's baby mobile, I thought he may have your things."
"Who is this Gold? You've mentioned him several times, but I don't recognize the name."
"In Our Land he was Rumplestiltskin. Be glad you don't know him."
Only years of playing deadly mind-games with Pan kept Bae from reacting to his father's name. Years, hundreds of years, had passed since he had last seen his Papa. And now, when he finally hears news of him it's to find out that he had summoned a Soul-Sucker to attack Henry's mother. What else had he done since Baelfire last saw him? How many people had been hurt because they had discovered that damned dagger all those years ago?
"So how are those going to help us fight the wraith?" David asked, breaking him from his reverie. In answer, Baelfire took his bow and notched an arrow. He pulled back the string as his finger ghosted over the symbol carved on the grip. When he did, the arrow burst into flames, alight but not consumed by the fire. "That would work," David murmured in reply.
"That wasn't what we really needed," Baelfire responded as he dug through his pack. "Here," he said, pulling an amulet from one of the pockets. The necklace consisted of a dark blue rock hung from a leather cord.
"A rock. Fantastic," Emma sarcastically stated. "How exactly is that supposed to help us?"
"This rock was one of my many attempts at developing the perfect cloaking device. It was eventually circumvented using human magic, but the wraith won't be able to get around it," Baelfire responded.
"Human magic? Did you use it to hide from the creature you were telling me about?" Henry asked, looking at him with interest.
"Among other things."
"How long did it last before it stopped working?"
"Oh, twenty or thirty years or so," Bae responded as he tossed Henry the necklace. "Put it on. I can't completely block the wraith's mark, but this will buy us time while it tries to pick up your trail again."
"Wait, twenty or thirty years? You don't even look sixteen yet," Emma stated, obviously skeptical of his answer.
"Looks can be deceiving," Baelfire answered as he turned to walk back to the fire. "Do any of you have any water? I need some to make a paste from the ashes."
"What on earth do you think you're doing?" Regina snapped, apparently only now seeing the fireplace. "That is only for decoration!"
"I'm sure he was only trying to help—" Mary-Margaret tried to intervene, only to be cut off by the incensed ex-Queen. (And frankly, Baelfire thought her frustration stemmed more from her curse breaking than his use of the fireplace. She was probably just using it as an excuse to get upset.)
"I don't care what he was trying to do! Why are we even listening to some kid that looks like he escaped from a mental institution?"
"Regina! He is here to help us, you shouldn't be insulting him! Apologize to him," the petite woman tried (and failed) to rebuke the Queen (who was quite successfully ignoring her).
"Don't bother. I did escape from the asylum."
"Wait, what?" Emma choked out. "Why?"
Baelfire (quite ironically) looked at her as if she had gone mad. "Why wouldn't I? I am not actually crazy, and it's not as if the local asylum was an impenetrable fortress. Honestly, that security was embarrassing."
"No, why were you in there in the first place?"
"Curse," came the succinct reply. This earned a glare from the irate mother, which led to Baelfire deciding to modify his answer. (While he may have defied Pan, that didn't mean he was going to go looking for trouble. He wasn't about to push his luck by refusing to answer her.)
"My curse was to be a patient in Storybrooke Mental Asylum. My insanity was curse manufactured, and when the curse broke, so did its effect on me."
Emma, looked like she wanted to pursue the topic further, but was cut off by a piercing shriek in the distance.
"It's lost the trail," Bae pensively stated as he looked out the window. "That would have only made it angry. We need to hurry before it gets here. Where will we be opening the portal?"
Regina led them through a side door to a large room. "I'll open the portal, you all just make sure that thing doesn't get near my son."
"David, start prepping the torches. Kid, you—" Emma cut herself off before looking to Baelfire.
"What?"
"If we're going to do this we're going to need to at least be able to call you something. I realize you're trying to pull off some kind of mysterious wizard look here, but we can't have any confusion when this thing shows up just because we don't know your name."
This caused Baelfire to pause. It was a valid request, but he couldn't tell them his real name. True Names had power, and he couldn't exactly going handing out his with the amount of enemies he had. "Bailey. Bailey Darling. It was my cursed name… I think." Now that he no longer had to deal with the curse muddling his mind, his cursed identity was coming back in bits and pieces. It was still fractured and uncertain, but at least it was something. "You can call me Bae for short."
"Alright then. Bae, start making your ash runes. You can use the water cooler to make the paste."
At this, they all set to work. Baelfire carefully drew the symbol for fire on the ground. If the wraith got too close, he could activate the rune and hopefully it'd act as a giant bonfire. He could never be too sure when it came to using ashes. Chalk would be better, or blood. It would be the most effective if it was carved into stone. He had warded his hideaways back on Neverland that way. Pan was most likely still looking for them.
"Hello, Bailey," said Mary-Margaret as she crouched down next to him.
"You think it's too dangerous and you want me to leave," Baelfire bluntly stated before she could start. It was ridiculously obvious by the soft-spoken way she was approaching this conversation. She was trying to get rid of him without hurting his feelings. Honestly, Baelfire would have found it funny if it wasn't so annoying.
"No! Well, kind of— it's not that we don't appreciate all of your help so far, we do! It's just that this is going to be very dangerous, and we think it's probably best if you go back to your family so that you don't get hurt," she rambled off in an attempt to salvage the conversation.
"My family's dead," Baelfire quietly answered as his hands tightened into fists. "There's no one to go back to. There hasn't been for a long time." It wasn't a lie. The Darlings, the only family that hadn't abandoned him, were long gone. He would never find his way back to them, and was a fact that would hurt him for every day of his life.
Mary-Margaret responded, but Baelfire wasn't listening. Instead, he was focused on a bulb that was flickering over and over again. This bulb was soon joined by another. Then, another. Slowly, Baelfire reached back into his sheath and pulled out an arrow. As he stood up, Bae notched the arrow and drew back the bow. "Henry, I need you to walk behind the symbol. Get space between yourself and the door. Regina, you'd better open that portal." His finger brushed the rune on his bow. The arrow began to burn.
"Bailey what—"
The door exploded inwards as the wraith shot into the room. "Do it now Regina!" Baelfire shouted as he fired his first shot. The creature quickly veered out of its path, with only the ends of its robes getting hit. Without hesitation, Baelfire loaded another shot, walking forward as he aimed. When he reached the partition, he fired again. A soft nudge from his magic closed the gates and set them alight. The wraith began to lash out with its magic. Baelfire quickly ducked to avoid the first pulse, loading a third arrow as he went. Spinning to avoid the next tentacle of energy, he raised his bow and fired. "Regina where is the portal?"
"Working on it!" Came the harried reply.
"Work faster!"
The next strand of magic caught Baelfire in the side, ramming him into the wall. He looked over and saw the wraith glide towards
Henry, its arm outstretched. "No!" Baelfire's hand shot out, sending with it a wave of magic that set the runes alight. The sudden wall of fire caused the wraith to veer to the side…. Right into the portal that had just opened. With a shriek, the creature was sucked through, only to send one last tentacle of magic out after it. It wrapped around the ankle of Henry's mother, yanking Emma in after it.
"No!" Mary-Margaret screamed. "I'm not losing her again!" With that (confusing) statement, she leapt in after her, disappearing into the swirling vortex.
"Neither am I!" David yelled as he leapt. A moment later and he, too, had vanished to a different realm. No sooner had he gone had the portal disappeared, severing its connection with the other world. Baelfire was stunned (which was, all things considered, fairly hard to do). Had the person that appeared to have the most authority in this town just been taken to another dimension? Had the two people who appeared to be the next most authoritative jumped in after her? This was (just a tad) worrisome for the already hysterical town.
It appeared that things were going to get much, much worse before they got better. Because no sooner had the portal closed had Regina taken one look at the hat and kicked it into the flames. "Regina, no!" Baelfire quickly deactivated the rune and rushed forward, but it was already too late. He held the hat to the ground and tried to spin it but to no avail. The hat was far too damaged to sustain a portal. He wouldn't be getting the three of them back that way. He turned his furious gaze onto Regina. "What have you done?" Henry cared about these people, and they cared about him. Regina had taken Henry's family away from him!
Just like Pan had taken the Darlings away from Bae.
"I've gotten back my happily ever after," she stated, evenly meeting his gaze.
Before Baelfire could scream at her, because didn't she even care how this would affect Henry (and he'd psychoanalyze himself later to find out why he cared so much), they both froze at the sound of Henry's voice.
"Mom?" His voice sounded hollow, as if he was still trying to figure out what had happened. Or perhaps he had figured it out, and just didn't want to believe it.
"Henry," Regina exclaimed as she walked over to the shell-shocked boy. "It's okay, it's gone, you're safe now."
"Wha-what about my mom, m-my grandparents?"
"I'm sorry Henry, but they're gone. I don't think we can get them back."
"No, you're not! They're gone because of you! You really are the Evil Queen. I don't want to see you again."
"No, don't say that! I love you."
"Then prove it! Get my mom and grandparents back! Until then, leave me, leave everyone alone!"
"But where will you go?" Regina asked, aghast.
"I don't care," Henry replied, obviously trying to hold in tears. "As long as it's not with you." At that he he turned and left the room. Regina watched him leave.
So did Baelfire. This was a horrible idea. Henry probably had tons of friends he could stay with, plenty of people to take care of him. He didn't need a broken little lost boy like Bae dragging him down.
"Hey kid! Henry! Wait up!" He'd just make sure that Henry knew where he was going. Then, he'd disappear from the boy's life, and would never have to risk letting all his problems bleed into Henry's world.
Baelfire had always been horrible at lying to himself.
Henry was desperately trying to hold the pieces of his shattered heart together. His family was gone and because of his mother he couldn't get them back. No, it was because of the Evil Queen that he couldn't get them back. Henry had wanted so badly to believe in her, to believe that she could be better. But now, he couldn't. Not after what she just did.
"Hey kid! Henry! Wait up!" Henry didn't stop at the sound of the voice. He didn't want to talk to anyone. "Kid!" The owner of the voice skidded to a stop in front of Henry. It was that boy, Bae. The one that had been helping them before everything had gone so wrong. Henry stopped and looked at him. He wouldn't cry, he wouldn't cry, he wouldn't cry. He could not have a complete breakdown in front of someone he barely knew.
Bae didn't ask if he was alright, and for that Henry was grateful. He wasn't okay, he didn't feel like he ever would be okay, but he didn't want to have to say it out loud. Instead, the boy asked, "Do you know where you're going, kid?" That made Henry frown. He didn't, not really. He just knew that he couldn't be in the same house as the Evil Queen. The boy seemed to deflate at this, but tried again, "Alright, do you have someone you can stay with? Someone who can watch after you until we get your family back?" Another frown, and then Henry slowly shook his head. Who could he stay with? He didn't have any friends. There was Archie, but he lived in a small, one room apartment that barely fit him and Pongo, let alone Henry. Ruby and Granny had always been fond of him, but his mother had never really wanted him near them, so he didn't know the two of them outside the diner. Who else was there? The dwarves? They were friends with his grandparents, but Henry had never even spoken with the majority of them.
There was an unreadable expression on Bae's face. With a sigh, the boy forced a smile on his face. "What a coincidence. Neither do I. Any chance you'd want to stick together until we figure it out?"
Henry looked over the boy carefully. He didn't know him, didn't even know his real name. The boy would probably be better off without him. He obviously knew how to take care of himself, and didn't need someone like Henry dragging him down. Henry was about to say no, about to tell the boy that he didn't need the charity, he'd find his own way when he stopped. Something in the boy's eyes told him that he was just as alone as Henry. Slowly, Henry smiled and nodded. They could figure it out, together. They'd find somewhere to stay while they figured out how to get his mom and grandparents back. Then, Henry could have a family again. And so could Bae.
Second chapter done! I always wondered what would happen if David had also made it through the portal, so now I have the chance to create a storyline where it did happen. I also was always kind of upset that they both tried to go through. I know that they didn't want to loose their daughter again, but they had a kingdom and a grandson to worry about.