Not Going Without a Fight

Bae paused on a hill overlooking the castle and the surrounding area. The forest he remembered had apparently been reduced to prairie and farmland, but whatever villages may have dotted the landscape had been destroyed by the curse, leaving behind the land itself and only a small haven and a handful of survivors.

So, why were there survivors? he asked himself. Why was there a haven? Were there more havens? Could he find Morraine in one of these places?

For a moment, he wondered if she was in Storybrooke, but he immediately quashed the notion. A Long Lost Boy had told him that a girl calling herself Morraine had been taken to the Nowhereland and kept as a seer. The boy even answered all of Bae's follow-up questions correctly to the best of his ability, and she had even asked if the boy knew anyone called Baelfire. He was certain that if she was anywhere, she would be in the Nowhereland, and it would be a bubble protected from the curse by the sheer force of Peter Pan's will.

He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind, searching for the distinct sensation of one of the shells Peter had created to isolate his island paradise from the rest of the Enchanted Forest. Something prickled on the edge of his awareness, something just familiar enough. He turned toward it and walked down the slope of the hill.

OUAT

"Are...are you alright?" Bae asked Morraine one afternoon in the forest surrounding the village, after they had separated themselves from everyone else.

"Ogres are cruel beasts," she replied, "but they are simple. Man is cruel, as well, but man is also intelligent. Man is creative in its cruelty."

"Where did you learn that?"

"From one of the generals."

"It's, um, quite a..."

"A high-class statement? Yes, it is."

"Were they expecting you not to pick it up?"

"They don't need to know that, and now they won't have to."

"Those men that Papa..."

"Yes." Bae nodded, looked down, and chewed his lip. "What're you thinking?"

"I'm, um, I'm glad you're alright. Really."

"But that's not what's on your mind. You're thinking about your father, aren't you?"

Bae swallowed and nodded. "Please don't tell him."

"I won't, but I need you to know something." She turned to face him. "Your father, no matter what he does or what he is now, is a good man."

"Tell that to the men he keeps killing."

"I'm not asking you to approve of his methods. I'm asking you to remember the man he was and that he still loves you, very much. And now that he can, he'll do anything and everything for you."

"I don't want him to do everything for me," Bae hissed. "I want things to be the way they were."

"Tell him."

"I can't. There's nothing I can say to that beast." He took a deep breath. "He's a monster, and the thought of telling him something he won't like scares me to death. Do you know how little I've slept, wondering who was going to die the next day?"

She put her hands on his shoulders. "Look at me, Bae. If you need a constant, look at me. Look to me. I will never stray. I give my word." Bae nodded, and Morraine pulled him into a hug.

OUAT

Morraine felt the Long Lost Boys pause behind her, and she paused with them. Something was moving at the edge of her awareness. Great, she thought. What else do we have to face to get out of this hell hole? She rolled her eyes and took a step forward. "What now?" she snapped. "I will be faced this time. And you'd better have a form I can fight."

"Figures you'd figure it out," Pan said behind them. Morraine turned to face him. "You're such a killjoy, though. I wanted to see something awesome, some epic fight to the death. With you dying, of course."

The Long Lost Boys seemed caught between clustering even more tightly together and scattering with the four winds in search of hiding places. "At least you care to show your face," she said. "Not like the presence you conjured for me as my fear. Rather a weak effort, if I do say so myself."

"You think I'm weak?"

"In some respects, you are deficient."

"How am I deficient?"

"You're only a boy."

Peter conjured himself a sword. "You're just a girl."

"That's not the reason you're trying to kill me." He swung at her, and she ducked. The Long Lost Boys chose to disappear into the surrounding forest. "Do I need to fight you? Surely you can think of an opponent who can do better. After all, you've never really fought anyone to the death. Your opponents still live. Opponent, I should say, since you've only ever fought Captain Hook."

"What do you know of fighting? What fights have you ever been in?"

"A fight for my life against a monster of a man." She stepped toward him. "A monster you somehow knew to conjure and now, a monster who no longer has any power over me. But he's not the only one. I can see you trying your hardest to influence me, and you can't, because I feel nothing."

"So what?"

"So...you have no power over me. You have no power over any of us unless we let you. You can't force yourself on us. You can't force your power on us. We live, with or without you." A boy in front of her and to her side cheered. Peter wheeled on the boy and waved a hand. When nothing happened, he tried again. "I told you so."

He wheeled back on her and snapped, "Do girls never stop talking?" Morraine slapped him. "What was that for?"

"Do you ever stop talking?" She turned away from Peter Pan and said, "Come on, boys, if we're going to leave, we're leaving now." The boys rushed from their hiding places and formed their loose formation behind her.

"Like hell you are," Pan snarled, and he rushed forward.