Alright I'm kind of worried about this chapter. My reaction to the curse is more severe than the one shown in the show, but keep in mind that the curse brought over criminals, peasants, and royalty and mixed them all together without regard to family ties or past feelings towards one another. There's going to be a lot of confusion in the aftermath.
In regards to the price of magic: like the show, I'm not going to specifically assign a price to every little bit of magic used. That'd just be tedious. I will give really major bits of magic a price, but otherwise you can use your imaginations. With Baelfire, I see him as weighing the prices. If the repercussions of not using magic outweighs the repercussions of using it, then yes, he will use his magic. If he is able to do something without magic and doesn't put anybody at risk by not using it, then he's going to abstain from using magic.
Special shout out to ArdeaSpark, thanks for the great review! Also, thanks to everyone who followed and favorited. Okay, that's it. Enjoy.
Of Broken Families and Shattered Souls
Chapter Three: In Which The Seven Dwarfs Form Their Own SWAT Team, And Baelfire Learns That He May Quite Possibly Be Getting A Pickaxe
The first thing Emma was aware of was the heat.
Last time she had been outside, there had been the unmistakable chill that comes from a Maine autumn. Now, however, there was a type of heat bearing down that she would have expected in the summer.
Emma cracked open her eyes only to wince and close them again. Her entire body hurt, as if she had had fallen off Henry's castle.
Henry.
Emma's eyes flew open to an unfamiliar landscape. No wraith. No Henry. No Storybrooke. She had gone through the portal, to the Enchanted Forest (and if someone had told her that this would happen twenty four hours ago, she would have had them committed). She tried to get up, only to stop when she realized she couldn't move her hands apart. Someone had bound her arms with rope, as well as her legs.
"Stop struggling," a voice commanded. Normally, Emma would have told them to screw off, but the cold steel touching her throat was extremely convincing. She stopped struggling.
"Who are you?" Emma asked in challenge. The figure in front of her was clad in a some kind of samurai-looking ensemble, with a helmet covering their head. The sword pushed harder against Emma's throat. (And, really? A sword? What even was her life anymore?)
"Someone you have greatly wronged. Someone who will see that you are brought to justice for what you have done."
Yes, apparently Emma's day could get weirder. Her parents were royalty? Sure. Her son's adoptive mother was a Disney villain? Why not? And now there was a archaic-weapon-wielding, armor-clad person who was trying to be as cryptic as they possibly could threatening her with "justice" for an act Emma wasn't entirely sure she had committed. Seriously, how much stranger could her life get?
"So why are we breaking into my grandma's apartment?" Henry asked.
"It's not breaking in. It's more like entering with delayed permission. Besides, you have a key," Baelfire rationalized. Living on the streets of 19th century England (and honestly, Oliver Twist really didn't do justice to just how bad it was back then) had slightly blurred the lines of legality for Baelfire. Back then, there had been little to no sympathy for the homeless and the orphaned, and Bae had had to do some questionable things to survive. Finding Wendy, with her generosity and compassion, had been a rare experience for a street kid.
"You're picking the lock. I'm pretty sure this is illegal no matter what way you look at it," Henry replied. It was true that Henry had a key, but accessing the key was a bit more complicated. It was located in Henry's backpack, which was in turn located inside the locked apartment. Apparently it had been left behind when Henry had collapsed (a topic that Baelfire was fully intending to interrogate Henry on, along with how exactly Mary-Margaret and David were his grandparents), and all the other keys to the apartment had been taken through the portal with Mary-Margaret and Emma.
Which somehow led to Baelfire kneeling in front of the door, attempting to pick the lock with a twisted paper clip Henry had found in his pockets. They weren't breaking in, not really. This was Henry's family's apartment, they were just unable to ask for permission to enter at the current time (mainly due to the fact that the owners of the apartment had been stranded in an alternate realm). Frankly, Baelfire wasn't entirely sure what had led them to decide to come here. Before the mess with the wraith, Bae had been planning on walking to the nearest forest and finding shelter there (he had, after all spent most of his life living in forests and jungles) but that plan had changed the moment Henry had decided to come with him. They had spent several minutes debating where they should go, until Henry mentioned that his family had an apartment that was currently out of use (once again, its inhabitants had quite literally dropped off the face of the earth), and they probably wouldn't mind them staying there if it meant that he wasn't near Regina.
A click came from the door and Bae smiled up at Henry. "It's all in the tumblers."
"Where did you learn how to do that?" Henry asked. Baelfire had first figured it out in London when he had picked the lock on the door of a workhouse and taken off to live on the streets. He may have been starving in the streets, but he had been starving in the workhouses too, and at least he wasn't getting regularly beaten on the streets. He wasn't about to tell Henry that, though.
"Uh, I taught myself. A long time ago," Bae uttered in response as he swung the door open. Henry walked in, followed closely by Baelfire.
"You know, you should probably change into something that makes you look less like a fugitive," Henry told him.
"Oh, yeah. I guess you're right," Bae answered. He flicked his hand and the baggy clothes were engulfed in smoke. Jeans, a long sleeved dark green shirt, and a brown leather jacket replaced them. Bae was fairly sure this was the standard attire for this realm. "Better?" he asked, but Henry didn't reply. Baelfire looked up and saw him. Henry had sat down at the counter and was resting his head on his arms as he stared miserably at a picture of a smiling Mary-Margaret and Emma. "Henry…" Baelfire started before he stopped. What could he say to make this better? "We'll get them back. I promise."
"How do you know that?" came the forlorn response. "What if we can't get them back? You said yourself that inter-realm travel is one of the hardest types of magic."
"That's true, I did say that. But what I didn't tell you was that I have spent centuries studying that very same magic. Henry, if there is a way, and there is, I promise you I will find it."
Henry looked at him with something akin to hope. "Centur—" A ring came from the cell phone lying on the counter, cutting Henry off.
"What is that?" Baelfire asked.
"My mom's cell phone. She must have left it behind when I ate the turnover." Before Baelfire could question him about that confusing statement, (and really, they had only met because Bae had been looking for answers. He should probably actually get some) Henry answered the phone. "Hello? No, the Sheriff's not here. What's wrong?" A pause. "Wait, what? Hello? Hello?" Henry adopted a panicked countenance, and pulled the phone from his ear.
"What's happened?" Baelfire demanded.
"Some former bandits have taken control of the Rabbit Hole and are demanding a way back to the Enchanted Forest in exchange for their hostages," Henry answered, his eyes locking worriedly with Bae's. "It sounded really bad on the phone."
"Okay, stay calm. Who's in charge of problems like this?"
"My mom. But she's…."
"Gone," Baelfire completed with a sigh. "Is there anybody else?"
"I'm not sure," Henry replied as he bit his lip. "Maybe some of my grandparents' friends could help, but I don't really know any of them."
Bae came to a decision. "Is there anywhere safe you can stay while I handle this?" he questioned as he picked up his bow.
"Wait, handle it? What are you going to do?" Henry asked in shock.
"I'm not sure. Something. I can't abandon those people. Who knows what will happen to them when we can't produce a portal. But I can't just leave you here. This town is going to hell, it's not safe."
"I could go to Granny's," Henry said, then winced. "Though she's probably really upset with me. I kinda ran out on them earlier."
Baelfire didn't have time to get answers about what that meant (as had become the recurring theme tonight). Instead, he held out his hand to Henry. "Focus on where we need to go," he said as Henry grabbed his hand. Then, he waved his hand over their heads, and the two lost boys disappeared in a golden haze.
Apparently, things could get much stranger.
Mulan was here. As in the most kick butt Disney princess ever, Mulan (even though she wasn't technically a princess, Emma was fairly sure Mulan was still classified as one by Disney). As in who every little girl wanted to be when they grew up, Mulan— or at least the self-empowering ones. There were those who wanted to have Prince Charming ride to the rescue, slay the dragon, and wake them up with True Love's kiss, the ones who wanted to be Sleeping Beauty. Who also happened to be here. And they were both royally pissed at Emma and her parents (yep, that still felt weird).
Bailey had based his agreement to the plan off the idea that there was no one in this realm. That, however, was a total misconception seeing as Emma was chatting with two fairytale characters, both of which hated her for no conceivable reason. Really, you'd think that they'd at least tell her what she was charged with, but apparently they were too busy brooding.
Emma sat propped up against a rock as they waited for David and Mary-Margaret to wake up. Yes, both of them were here. It was for this reason that Emma was joining Mulan and Aurora in the "Royally Pissed Club." If they were both here, who was looking after Henry? Regina? The last thing her son needed was to be stuck with the person who had tried to frame him as crazy while his family was trapped in another realm. Emma wondered how the town was faring. For some reason, she wasn't that optimistic about the current state of Storybrooke. When they had left, mass property damage had been committed by the wraith and the people had been rising up into mobs. The only people resembling an authority figure pre-Curse had been her and Regina, and seeing as post-Curse the citizens had tried to lynch the (now former) mayor, it had just left her. Now that she was AWOL, the town might as well be considered lawless.
The warrior was glaring at her again. She had taken off her helmet and sat down across from her over half an hour ago, periodically glowering at her as they waited. Currently, she was sharpening her rather large sword in a totally unthreatening manner. Emma sighed. She really, really wished she hadn't fallen through that hat.
The sound of shifting rubble came from the side. Emma glanced over. It looked like Mary-Margaret and David were finally awakening. Maybe now she could get some answers.
Henry and Baelfire materialized on top of the counter in Granny's Diner, much to the shock of its patrons. Not that there were many of those. When Henry had left, the place had been packed full of disgruntled citizens. Now, only Archie, Granny, and the Seven Dwarves were still there. Based on the closed sign on the front door, Granny had kicked them all out while they figured out what to do.
"And just where have you been young man?" Granny challenged after the two boys hopped down from the countertop.
"It's kind of a long story," Henry answered uneasily. Granny had been scary before the curse broke, and now that she had a crossbow and memories of war she was terrifying.
"Uh-huh," Granny said, clearly not impressed. "Ruby has been out looking for you for hours. And who is your friend?" She asked, glancing at Bae suspiciously.
"Bae. And none of that's important right now! Emma and my grandparents are gone and bandits have taken the Rabbit Hole hostage! We need your help!"
"What do you mean gone?" Grumpy asked.
"And does why does that kid have a sword?" questioned Sneezy.
"And what do you mean gone?" wondered Happy.
"Hostage?" asked Doc.
"And what do you mean gone?" chimed in Bashful.
"That's not important!" Bae snapped. "We need to get to the Rabbit Hole!" Bailey hesitated. "Where is the Rabbit Hole?"
"Everybody calm down," interrupted Archie, ever the peacekeeper. "Now, Henry, can you tell us what's happening?"
Henry took a deep breath. "Mr. Gold summoned a wraith to kill my mom but then I grabbed it and was marked so it started to try and kill me instead, but then Bae showed up and chased it away with magic. We decided to send it to the Enchanted Forest with the Mad Hatter's hat so that it couldn't hurt anyone, and it worked but it dragged my mom, Emma that is, in after it and David and Mary-Margaret jumped in after her but we can't get any of them back because my other mom kicked the hat into fire and now it's broken. I wouldn't go back with my mom and Bae didn't have a place to go so we decided to stick together, only we found Emma's cell phone and answered it when it rang and a bunch of bandits have gotten together and taken over the Rabbit Hole and now they want a portal in exchange for their hostages but we don't have one anymore. Now Bae says he's going to 'handle it,' but you guys can't let him go alone! He may be really scary when he wants to be, but nobody should fight alone! So one of you needs to go with him to the Rabbit Hole to stop the bandits!" Henry finished with a gasp, then looked around at the others. They all gaped at him with dumbstruck expressions. Every one of them was silent. Except for Bae.
"I'm scary?" he demanded with a frown. "I'm not scary!"
"You fire flaming arrows at wraiths and send waves of fire at your enemies with a flick of your wrist. You're definitely scary when you want to be," Henry shot back.
"Alright! Whether he's scary or not, we can't have a kid handle a hostage situation! The dwarves will handle it," Grumpy cut in.
"If he even is a kid," Henry mumbled as he flopped into a booth.
"What?" Bae and Grumpy/Leroy asked together, then glared at one another.
"'Twenty or thirty years?' 'Centuries?' How old even are you?" Henry asked.
"Oh," Bae winced. "Right. You know, I'm not entirely sure. I'm just terribly unskilled at aging. Absolutely no talent at it— never mind, that's not the point," Bailey shook his head then looked at Leroy. "My age isn't important. I can handle anything that happens. Besides, my magic can get us there a lot faster than walking," he said as he faced the dwarves. "All I need is someone to focus on where we're going."
Leroy glanced Bae over with a considering look. "You any good with that sword?"
Bae smirked. "Very."
The dwarf sighed. "Good. You'll need it. Alright, gather round men! We're going to the Rabbit Hole," he declared, then looked at Bae. "Okay, Magic Boy. Do your stuff."
Bae rolled his eyes and lifted his arms. "You people have zero creativity at nicknames. Really, am I only identifiable by my magic?" he complained as he twisted his hands. Gold smoke tinged with puffs of silver swept up from the floor and wrapped around the dwarves and the wizard. The fog cleared, and they were gone.
"Well," Henry stated, looking up at Granny. "I think that will go well."
"Em… Emma! Emma?" Snow gasped when she woke. Her heart jumped with fear. Her daughter couldn't be missing again. Snow couldn't lose Emma again. Not after she just got her back.
"Thank you for joining the party, Mary-Margaret," came her daughter's voice. "How's David?"
Snow's heart almost stopped with relief. Her daughter was here with her, like she was always supposed to be. She tried to get up, to go to her, to make sure her daughter was alright when she stopped. Her hands were tied, along with her feet. She glanced around and saw an annoyed Emma and groggy David, both also bound.
"You're all awake. Good. We have a long march ahead of us," a female voice flatly stated. Snow's head snapped towards the sound. A oriental female wearing the armor of a warrior was standing near her daughter, currently sheathing her sword. Near her there was another one, dressed less practically in a dress and shawl. While the warrior had a stiff, practiced countenance, the other woman looked devastated. She glanced at Snow, and adopted an expression of absolute hatred.
"Uh, march? Where are we going?" her daughter (her daughter!) asked.
"A place where you will be brought to justice," came the sharp reply.
"Really, justice? Can we at least know what you're accusing us of?"
The soldier pinned her daughter with a glare and slowly began to walk towards her. "You brought the wraith here." Step. "The wraith that attacked Phillip." Step. "Phillip is dead because of you."
"He's not dead," Emma responded, shocked.
"What?" the two unknown women asked together.
"Alright, so how are we going to do this?" asked one of the dwarves (Baelfire still wasn't sure which one was which. He was fairly sure they were all named after emotions. Which one was this, Smiley? Joyful?).
Bae looked over the seedy bar with a practiced eye. The curtains were drawn over the windows, and the door was locked. "We can't just go barging in. We don't know anything about the people in there. Somebody could get hurt."
"Can't you look inside with magic?" questioned another dwarf. (Who was he? Allergies?)
"It's not that simple. I have no scrying bowl, no ingredients, nothing to channel an image. Besides, using magic in combat situations is always dangerous. You never know if a price will be taken in the middle of a fight," Bae paused as he focused. "Is there a back door?"
"Yeah," Leroy (at least Baelfire knew his name. Thank goodness for name tags.) answered, nodding towards an alleyway. "Through there."
Bae walked to the door, a half-formed plan in his mind. The dwarves closely followed, barely tolerating his presence. Baelfire ignored them. There was a way around this problem, he knew it. He just had to find it. Bae smirked when the last part of his plan clicked to place in his mind. "Hey, buddy," he muttered as he crouched down to pick up the rat. "I've got a job for you."
"He does know that's a rat, right?" one of the dwarves loudly whispered. Baelfire ignored them.
A few minutes later, the newly picked lock in the door clicked open. "You all know what to do?" Bae asked, glancing at his companions and receiving nods in return. "Good. This should only take a few minutes, then we'll have all the information we need. Just make sure to handle anyone that comes along while I'm out of it."
"This better work, Magic Boy," grumbled Leroy.
"It will," shot back Bae. Then he looked into the rat's eyes and felt his magic twist in his gut. This wasn't switching consciousness', not really. He was more superimposing his mind over the animal's. It wasn't dangerous, not if you knew what you were doing, which Baelfire did. Back on Neverland, Bae had only two hobbies: escape and irritating Pan as much as humanly possible (and he had become incredibly accomplished at both of those things). About a hundred years into his confinement, Baelfire had figured out how to use animals to spy on Pan. All he had to do was push his consciousness over the animal's, and the boy-demon was none the wiser. That way, Bae could monitor the Lost Boys every plan (and watch Pan's rather spectacular temper tantrums over Baelfire outsmarting him) without actually being at risk. This would perfectly suit their purposes now. The hostage takers would never notice a small rat in the room, and wouldn't care if they did.
Superimposing was always strange. For one thing, he could always feel the animal's mind running underneath, a constant stream of foreign thoughts and urges. Also, how everything looked also changed. Now, as Bae entered the mind of the rat, the world grew. He quickly scuttled through the back door and into the bar. The building reeked of alcohol and vomit, especially to his now sensitive nose. Soon, he heard the whimpers.
The hostages were all grouped together in the back of the bar, bent over with their heads on the ground and their hands on their heads. Armed men paced the bar agitatedly, not paying any attention to the small rat watching them. They all had a strange, roughly drawn tattoo on their left arm. It looked consisted of a dark snake wrapped around their wrist, baring its fangs to the world. They appeared to be led by the drunken idiot stumbling around the floor, waving his sword randomly as he slurred out orders. Apparently David hadn't been the only one who went to Mr. Gold's for their old weapons. (And Baelfire tried very, very hard not to flinch at the reminder of his father.)
Baelfire quickly memorized the bandits locations before severing his connection with the animal. He shook as he reentered his own body. "Well, what happened?" Leroy demanded. Bae looked at them. While he had been 'gone' one of them must have gone looking for weapons, because all of them had makeshift bludgeoning tools, mainly boards and metal pipes.
"Twelve of them. All armed, identifiable by the tattoo of a snake on their left arm."
"We know them," Leroy grimly stated. "They were a problem back in the Enchanted Forest. We were going to send out a patrol to deal with them, but with the curse…"
"Well, we'll just have to deal with them now," sneezed the dwarf in the pharmacist's coat. "What's the plan?"
Bae bit his lip as he thought. They needed to get the civilians to safety, but he didn't exactly trust any of their negotiation skills. None of them would be able to talk the criminals down from this ledge. "If someone created a distraction, then the rest of us could sneak the hostages out the back. That way they wouldn't be in danger in case of a fight."
"Well, who could be the distraction?" asked the inanely happy one. They all looked at Bae. He sighed. He really, really shouldn't have followed that mysterious shrieking noise after escaping the asylum.
Baelfire had several options for a distraction. He could try his hand at reasoning with them, even if he unsure of his abilities in hostage negotiations. He could promise a portal in a bid for time.
Instead, Bae decided to insult them.
His magic transported him into the bar, leaning against the wall that faced the hostages. Several of the bandits widened their eyes and raised their weapons, but before they could say anything, their so-called leader began to speak. "I guess the Sh-Sheriff didn't rea-real-realize the urg-urgency of our de-demands," he slurred. "Maybe a dead hostage would per-persuade her."
Baelfire rolled his eyes. Honestly, just because you were holding up a place with liquor it didn't mean you had to drink it in the middle of the crime. "Yes, thank you for demonstrating to everyone here the effects alcohol has on decision making. Your little show has been very enlightening," he replied in a bored tone. Every bandit spun to face him (with the more drunken ones almost falling over in their haste). Bae could see the dwarves slowly approach from the back. He needed to keep the criminals from turning around.
"You're not the sheriff," one of them observed (and frankly, with how drunk they were, Baelfire was surprised they had the mental capacity to figure that out).
"How astute of you. If banditry doesn't work out, you should become a detective and really put those deductive skills to work. Now that we have established that I am not, in fact, a blonde female with a fondness for red pleather, can we get down to business?" The dwarves reached the hostages and began to lead them out of the bar.
"We talked to the Sheriff, not you. Why are you here?" another bandit, one of the few that wasn't completely inebriated, chimed in.
"Technically, you spoke with the Sheriff's son, not the Sheriff. Either way, she's not here, I am. Now, shall we talk about why we're all here?" The dwarves had almost half the hostages out.
"Right," slurred the "leader," waving his sword in a wide arc that several of his men had to leap out of the way to avoid. "We want a way back to the Enchanted Forest. Or things is gonna get ugly for them hostages."
Baelfire stared at them. "Seriously? That's your plan? You all may quite possibly be the worst bandits I've ever seen." Leroy shot a glare at him. Bae ignored him. They wanted a distraction, well, he was distracting, and the dwarves had snuck most of the captives out right under the nose of the incompetent felons anyways. "You all didn't think that maybe if we found a way back, we'd take the entire town, making your entire plan unnecessary? No, instead, you broke into a bar and held its patrons hostage while helping yourselves to the liquor," Bae ranted, trying to keep his worry from showing on his face. There were still a few hostages left, but the dwarves had stopped and were staring at the one in the lab coat. He was currently desperately trying to hold in a sneeze, and appeared to be fighting a losing battle. Several of dwarves closest to him shoved a finger under his nose. He relaxed, and his friends removed their hands. Bae held in a sigh of relief.
"ACHOO!"
"Damn," Baelfire swore as he drew his sword. "Get them out of here!"
The bandits, finally noticing that they had been played for fools, drew their weapons as two of the dwarves ran out the last of the innocents. Baelfire intercepted the head idiot's sword as it fell. "I bet you're wishing you hadn't drank that much now," he commented as they exchanged blows. Bae flicked his sword and disarmed the man with the move, sending it spinning into the air. He grabbed it by the hilt as it came back down, pointing both swords at his opponent. The bandit looked blearily at the two blades, and promptly threw up. Bae stopped to look at the now bent over moron, then rammed the hilt of his sword into the man's head. Then, he looked to see how his companions were faring.
Baelfire reminded himself to never underestimate a dwarf. The gray haired, bespectacled one was currently breaking a large wooden board over the head of a bandit as he ducked another bandits attack. He hurriedly smacked the remains of the newly broken board into the back of the head of a third bandit before ramming his foot into the side of a fourth. Leroy parried blows with his lead pipe, then reached behind him to grab a large whiskey bottle. He swiftly took a swing of the spirit before crashing it into the face of his opponent. Not about to be left out, Baelfire entered the fray. The bandit's sword was badly balanced, with a too heavy grip and a too light blade. Bae tossed it up in the air and caught the blade between the tips of his fingers. He drew his arm back and whipped the sword through the air. The weapon rammed home in the wall of the bar, effectively pinning the sleeve of a bandit before he could club a dwarf over the head. The strange, silent dwarf in the purple hat nodded his thanks to Bae before continuing to fight. A few minutes later, the last bandit had fallen and the Seven Dwarfs (plus one) had won.
"We can keep them at the Sheriff's Office for now," stated Leroy as he tried to catch his breath. "We'll figure out what to do with them at the town hall meeting tomorrow."
"Right," Bae said, wincing. "About that. The Sheriff's Office is slightly… broken."
"Broken," Leroy dead panned, staring at the wayward wizard. (And Bae was fairly sure that he had done nothing to deserve that look. The current state of the local jail was not his fault… for once.)
"Only slightly. Or well, mostly. The wraith didn't care much for doors." They were still staring at him. "Okay then… I guess I'll go fix it… You all make sure the hostages are okay," he commented, turning on his heel as smoke began to sweep up from the ground (and recently he had been using that so much more than he would prefer). Baelfire took the criminals with him. It would just waste his time to go back for them.
He snapped his fingers and the trashed jail flew back together. The bars of the cell wouldn't be as sound as they would otherwise be if fixed without magic, but Bae couldn't help that. They needed the jail, and magic was the only way to fix it fast enough. Another twist of magic and the moronic criminals were in the cell. They'd probably wake up the next morning with bruises and hangovers. Strangely enough, Bae didn't pity them. For extra measure, he set up wards around the prison to make sure they couldn't get out. Then, Bae spun on his heel to travel back to the Rabbit Hole. Ambulance lights flashed as frazzled emergency workers helped the victims into vehicles, aided by the dwarves.
"The bandits are locked up. They probably won't wake up tonight, but if they do they won't be able to get out." Before anyone could reply, Emma's cell phone buzzed. Henry had given it to Bae, not that he knew how to use it. While Bailey Darling had used a cell phone, Baelfire hadn't touched one until Henry had shoved it into his hand. Fumbling, he pulled it out of his pocket and tried to flip it open. It took him six attempts in four different orientations to figure out how to answer the phone. By that time, the call had already gone to voicemail. Bae looked at the small screen. 87 missed calls flashed up at him. Baelfire groaned. Apparently Emma had missed quite a few calls while they had fought the wraith. "This town is falling apart." It was true. Even now, Bae could see fights breaking out in the street.
"It's the curse. They don't know how to deal with the aftermath. It made them all miserable for thirty years, and now that it's broken they can't handle it," observed the gray haired dwarf that had previously proved his battle prowess with a wooden board. "If we could just calm them down until the town hall meeting tomorrow, then we could deal with this better."
"Well," Bae sighed as he gestured to the chaotic street, "let's start here." Baelfire walked to a bench and jumped up on it. He looked over the road that was filled with bunches of people, some confused, some depressed, some just plain angry. "Excuse me! If I could get your attention please!" Everyone ignored him. Baelfire let out a shrill whistle. They still ignored him. Bae sighed. This was shaping up to be a really long night. He bunched his hand into a fist and pushed it upwards, blowing his magic out with it. Fireworks shot into the sky and exploded in the air. The people on the street stopped fighting and stared at him. "Thank you." Bae paused. He probably should have figured out something to say before he got everybody's attention. "Now, I realize that the curse has caused a lot of chaos," someone snorted in the distance. Bae ignored them. "But we need to keep our heads. I know that it feels like there is two different people in your mind, that you can't reconcile your cursed identity and your past. The same thing is happening to me. The same thing is happening to your neighbors, to the people you're fighting, to everybody you see. I know you're angry and confused, but that's no excuse to tear each other to pieces. The fact of the matter is, we all got stuck in this town together, and we need to figure this out together. Now, there is a town hall meeting tomorrow. There we can all start to figure this out, but until then you need to go home. And if you can't go home, then stay at the inn, or a friends' house, just stop fighting in the streets. Well…" Baelfire paused. "That's all I have say." He watched the crowd. No one did anything. Then, one person turned around and walked away. Then another. It had been by no means a great speech, but apparently it had been enough. They all left, leaving Baelfire and the dwarves.
"Nice speech," Leroy snorted. "You make that one up on the spot?"
"It was better than nothing," Bae defended. "Besides it worked." Emma's phone rang again. "Or at least it worked for this specific street," he amended.
"Someone needs to take care of all of those calls," the dwarf in the lab coat (and Bae should really figure out their names) stated.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Baelfire answered. "Do you all know how to handle more than a bar fight?"
"Do you?" Leroy shot back.
Bae smirked. This was likely going to be a very long night, but maybe he could get some answers in the process.
He should probably start by figuring out the their names.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" hissed the warrior.
Quite frankly, Emma wasn't entirely sure what she had meant. All she really knew was that a fairytale prince had been attacked by the wraith, that there was supposedly a way reclaim souls stolen by said wraith, and that the two extremely angry Disney princesses may be interested in learning that fact.
"Emma?" came David's voice. "What are you talking about"
"Back in Storybrooke, I asked that magic kid, Bailey, what would happen if we couldn't stop the wraith. He said that the souls they stole were taken to Netherworlds and that he knew ways to get them back."
"How?" begged Aurora.
"I don't— he didn't say. I was more focused on keeping the wraith away from my son than on what to do if we failed."
"But there is a way," Mulan stated with a determined look. "This Bailey knows it."
"Yeah, I guess so. But he's in Storybrooke."
"Storybrooke, you're planning on finding a way back?"
"Yeah," Emma warily stated.
Mulan drew her sword and stepped towards Emma.
"Hey!" David shouted, desperately struggling against his binds. "Get away from my daughter!"
The warrior ignored him. She raised her sword above her head and let it fall. The blade sliced through the ropes binding Emma. Mulan held her hand out to the blonde. Emma warily inspected the hand before taking it. The soldier helped the sheriff to her feet.
"When you return to this Storybrooke, we will come with you. Then, your Bailey will get Phillip back," she stated determinedly. "He has to."
Ruby had had a very long day.
After the curse broke, Ruby had been trying to help the distraught citizens when Henry had run off. She had rushed off to find him, and ended up in a wild goose chase all across town. She had called Emma at least ten times, but never got a reply. Then, when she finally managed to trace Henry's scent back to him (he was at the diner, right back at where she had started), she learned that Emma and her parents were gone, disappeared to the Enchanted Forest. Apparently there was some wizard of indeterminate age who may be able to get them back, but he had run off with the dwarves to handle a situation at the Rabbit Hole over four hours ago. Before she could go to find out if everyone was alright, about half of Storybrooke had run in demanding rooms to stay in. The curse had thrown together families with no heed to previous relationships, vendettas, or sexual orientation. The only constants were that there was not a single happy family in Storybrooke, and all of them wanted to to stay at the inn instead of at their unhappy households. Ironically enough, the curse breaking generated more business for the inn than occurred throughout the entire duration of the curse that had created it. At the moment, there wasn't a single vacancy.
It was this fact that was causing the dilemma for Ruby. If there was space, they could have given Henry a room, seeing as he was currently refusing to go within a hundred feet of Regina (not that Ruby could blame him, she'd do the same thing if she was in his position). He was claiming that he could stay with the mysterious Bae, who still hadn't returned from the hostage situation. Ruby wasn't so sure. According to Archie, the boy looked no more than fifteen, but no one actually knew how old he was (apparently he was "unskilled at aging," whatever that meant). Ruby was still musing at her quandary when the door opened.
"Somebody get this man a pickaxe, because he is now an honorary dwarf!" declared Leroy (or was he Grumpy? Ruby said one thing while Red said another) as they walked in. Red raised an eyebrow. Dwarves guarded their pickaxes with the same vigor that dragons guarded gold. Why would they give one to someone they had just met?
Ah, that explained it. Doc's glasses were bent at a strange angle and his clothes were torn. Dopey had a cut on his forehead and was cradling his arm. Grumpy had a black eye and a bruised cheek. A teenager she didn't recognize had torn jeans and tousled hair. They had been fighting together (the quickest known way to bond with a dwarf).
"Did you all stop the bandits?" Henry asked. Late as it was, he was still brimming with energy.
"Oh, we stopped the bandits alright," answered the boy (who must be Bae) as he sat across from Henry.
"Along with taking care of eight domestic disputes," chimed in Sneezy.
"Three cases of vandalism," listed Doc.
"And a cat stuck in a tree," finished Happy.
"We also reassured almost every single person in this entire crazy town," noted Bae. "I'm so sorry I took so long. How are you holding up?" he asked Henry.
"I'm fine. Can we go home now? That is," Henry said looking at Ruby, "if that's okay."
And that was the question Ruby had been asking herself since the strange boy had walked through the door. This boy was a complete unknown, could she really let Henry go off with him? But he had helped Emma and the Charmings deal with the wraith, and the dwarves seemed to adore him (or they were as close as a dwarf came to adoring anyone). If Henry didn't go with him, where would they put him? There was no room at the inn, and they couldn't exactly make him sleep in the diner. "Alright," Ruby acquiesced. "But only for tonight. We'll find somewhere for you to stay after the town hall meeting tomorrow."
"Thanks Ruby!" Henry beamed as he shot out of his seat. "Ready Bae?"
"Alright, I'm coming," he laughed. Emma's phone rang. Every dwarf (honorary included) groaned in unison. Ruby walked forward and picked up the phone.
"Sorry guys, your night may not be over just yet. That was the asylum, apparently there's been an escape."
"I think that one can wait until morning," Bae hurriedly replied. Henry snorted. "I'm sure that whoever it was isn't crazy. He—or she is probably an upstanding citizen just put in the asylum by the curse. Henry, time to go." He rose and held out his hand. A laughing Henry took it as a glittering haze enveloped them.
Ruby sighed when they disappeared. Now, she had to figure out how to keep the town from falling apart.
"So what's the plan? For getting my family back, I mean," Henry clarified.
"We need to get all the information we can about what the Enchanted Forest is like. It'd be a heck of a lot easier to tell them how to open a portal back than to pull them here ourselves," Bae responded. "The problem is I don't have a reliable source about the curse or what it did."
"I do," declared Henry. He swung his backpack to the ground and opened it. Excitedly, Henry pulled out a book. Once Upon A Time glittered out from its cover in gold lettering. "Everything I know about the curse I know from this book," he said, holding it out to Bae.
Baelfire carefully took the storybook and flipped open its pages. The tome was beautifully illustrated, with faces that appeared incredibly life-like. However there was something else, something that seeped outwards from its covers… "This book is magic. Where did you get it?"
"Ms. Blanchard— my grandma— gave it to me. She said it would give me hope."
Baelfire had a feeling it had done a lot more than that, but he said nothing. "It's late Henry. You really should go to bed."
"But I want to stay up and help with Operation Tiger Shark!"
"No buts, you need to sle— wait, Operation Tiger Shark? What does this have to do with tiger sharks?"
"Nothing, that's why it's perfect! No one will know what we're talking about then."
Bae shook his head and laughed. "Alright, Operation Tiger Shark it is. But that doesn't change the fact that you'll be able to focus better after you sleep."
"Fine," Henry grumbled. He marched over to the bed in the corner and moodily yanked closed the curtains.
Baelfire smirked. "Goodnight, Henry!" he called.
"Whatever!" came the reply.
Laughing now, Bae walked over to the couch and sat on it. Then, he stopped. What was he thinking? He had only met this kid a few hours ago, and suddenly he was laughing and smiling with him. With a sigh, Baelfire looked at the scars on his palms. He had had damn good reason to do those, or at least, it seemed that way at the time. Now, he wasn't so sure. Either way, he had made up his mind long ago to give up on finding a family. He only ended up hurt in the end. So why was he here, with Henry? Baelfire shook his head. It was all so complicated. He opened the book. He had promised Henry he would find his family, and no matter what, Bae would keep that promise. He began to read. Once upon a time there was a…..
I was planning on having the town hall meeting this chapter, but it was already too long so that part is going to be in the next chapter. In regards to Baelfire's scars: there's a backstory, but you're going to have to keep reading to find it out. Prepare for angst. In regards to Baelfire's age: yes, I am that person who has actually done the math. Bae's around 14 when he ends up in London, but the show doesn't tell us when he's there past the fact that it's in the 19th century (the writers mentioned it in a behind-the-scenes clip). But Big Ben is in the background, and that was built in 1859. So we can put Bae's arrival at the earliest 1860ish. Season two airs in 2012, and I gave Emma about a year to break the curse, and I gave Bae about an accumulative year from the time he spent in London and in the Enchanted Forest after escaping Neverland. Now, that means he spent about 123 years in Neverland in Land Without Magic time. However, Wendy says that time works differently in Neverland and goes on to describe the Lost Boys' habits at nightfall and during the day, so we know that despite only being gone for a few hours London time, she was in Neverland for at least a couple days. I've put the ratio at about four Neverland days for every one Land Without Magic day, so Baelfire was in Neverland for 492 years. Factor in his age from when he arrived in London (14), and the amount of years he spent out of Neverland and in the curse (30), and that makes him about 536, give or take. Yes, I have put a lot of thought into this. Alright, school starts again Monday, so updates are going to be slower. Thanks for reading!