Pan

As Bae and Morraine followed, they learned of a rather dangerous method of communication between worlds that involved victims of a sleeping curse and a room with no doors that burned perpetually. There were a few people involved in this communication: Snow White, the Princess Aurora, a boy named Henry, and a prince called Charming or David, depending on who was speaking.

While they camped one night, Bae poked the fire and said, "There's another way, but this one seems to be working for them. It's getting them what they need, it sounds like."

"But there are competitors, I've heard," Morraine replied. "Cora and the good captain."

"Oh, the captain. He's just as lost as us, but sworn to vengeance against Rumpelstiltskin."

"I'd love to see how you handle that."

"One thing's for sure: I won't use magic. I'm a perfectly good shot and completely self-sufficient. I don't need it." Morraine smiled. "It's true."

"I know it is."

He studied the fire for a moment and said, unprompted, "Pan will be looking for us."

"He has no power anymore."

"He thinks he can gain it again. He's deluded himself into thinking that he and whatever he creates and influences can last forever."

"He will start to age."

"I'd love to see how he takes that."

Morraine reached forward, and they were handfast over the flames. "Whatever it is," she said, "however he handles it, whatever he does to us, we'll be together." He smiled. "I love you."

"I love you, too." They scooted around the fire so that they sat next to each other, and they kissed. When they pulled apart, they leaned into each other, and he wrapped an arm around her back. "This is nice," he whispered.

"Yes, it is."

"It's a shame nothing lasts forever."

"Then it sounds like we need to work on finding more moments like this."

"Yes, we do." Her hand brushed his thigh, and he blushed and bowed his head. "I, um..."

"It's okay. I know you won't hurt me."

"I try not to. I worry about you sometimes."

"Thank you for that."

"Of course." Her hand rested on his knee, and he lay his free hand over hers. He smiled. This was perfect.

Something prickled at the edge of Bae's notice, and he straightened and tensed. Morraine looked first at him and then at the woods behind them. Two options instantly popped into Bae's mind as he reached for his bow and arrows. This must be bad, Morraine thought, going for the sword.

Bae nocked an arrow and turned to the source of the sensation, which was growing stronger. He had the impression that its cause was coming closer to him. They froze, and it seemed to Bae that the presence had also frozen. Was it watching them, waiting for their next move, or for them to attack it? Was it waiting for them to drop their guard so it could attack? Or, had it already attacked and was using their paranoia against them for their destruction? Bae forced himself to stop thinking like this, lest he work himself into a panic.

He and Morraine stood, still armed and ready, but they made no other move. The heat of the fire was at their back, and the presence almost burned at their front, though the fire illuminated nothing. Perhaps it was conjured to trick us, Bae thought. "Alright," he said, relaxing his hold on the bow and arrow. "I know you're there. I can feel it. I can feel you. I can feel your every move, and don't think I'm not watching and waiting for you." The presence seemed to dare him, but Bae dared not change his position or tighten his hold on his weapon. Morraine took her cue from him.

A twig snapped. "So you have substance," Bae said. Morraine stepped in front of him, and her grip on the hilt of the sword tightened. If it had substance, it was a threat. It moved closer to them, and as soon as Bae noticed the shadow in the trees, he drew the arrow and anchored. The shadow moved, and Bae adjusted his aim. Morraine drew the sword and stood ready.

"I think it's toying with us," she said. "It's waiting for us to do something foolish because of our paranoia."

"So is it wise to not give it the chance, or do we wait for it to get impatient?" he asked in reply.

"I'm a boy," the figure said.

"Pan," Bae whispered, letting the arrow fly. Pan caught the arrow and emerged from the shadows. The couple recognized something different about him almost immediately. "How old are you now? Ten? I thought you were going to be nine forever. That's how it was supposed to work, right?"

"Can it."

"Why? Can't handle it? We all know how dead set you are against growing up, how you're convinced that you never will, but all children grow up. Even you, eventually. I'm sure of it."

"What do you know?"

"Actually a good deal, knowledge that only comes from a certain set of life experiences which I doubt you've had." Peter scoffed and tossed the arrow aside. Bae made note of where the arrow landed. The boy approached them, and for some reason it struck both Bae and Morraine how comical it was that a boy could strike such fear in them. Bae's father was one thing, being both a full-grown man and twisted by magic into something beyond description, but this was just a boy. It was too strange to take too seriously.

"You think this is funny. Cute."

"It is funny, though cute is debatable."

"Are you two going to banter all night?" Morraine asked, eyeing both parties with some degree of annoyance. "Because I'm getting tired, and the fact that you're here gives me the very strong desire to pick a bone." She held the sword level with Pan's heart.

"Are you threatening me?"

"Actually, yes, and you're interrupting a perfect night with my boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend?"

"Don't be so surprised. We all grow up, just like he said. Or were you not paying attention?"

Peter Pan conjured himself a sword and lunged for Morraine. Bae drew another arrow and, in the midst of Pan's fight with Morraine, waited for him to turn just right, knowing he wouldn't catch it. When he loosed, the arrow struck him in the neck, near the base of his skull. Pan clapped his hand on the arrow and tore it out of his flesh before turning on Bae and taking a swing at him. Bae ducked and fired another shot, which landed in his chest, but nowhere fatal. Bae drew another arrow and stared levelly down the shaft. "Next time I won't miss," he said coldly. Pan wrenched this arrow from his body and threw it to the ground.

"This is getting ridiculous," Morraine snapped. "It should be obvious by now that this is getting us nowhere. What are you doing here, besides getting revenge on us? Or is that all you're doing?"

"That's about it," Pan said simply and with a brusque nod.

"Alright," Bae said, lowering his weapon. "What do you say to an arrangement where no one has to die?"

"Why?"

"Because the way it looks right now, none of us want to," Morraine said.

"Who's side are you on?"

"His." She tilted her head in Bae's direction. Pan scoffed and smirked, and he turned his attention to Bae.

Bae kept his gaze level. Peter Pan no longer intimidated him. In fact, he found it hard to imagine how he could have spent three hundred years in such a state, now that he had been free for twenty-nine years. "She has a point," he said evenly. "And here's another: I only kill threats, to myself, her, or anyone else."

"So why are you about to shoot me?" Peter asked. Something almost imperceptible had changed in the boy that wasn't lost on Bae.

"We were fighting just a little while ago, as I recall, and you are very unpredictable. Unless you can prove otherwise, I'll consider you a threat. Fair enough?" Peter chewed his lip, looked to the side, and then nodded. Why was he now more rational? Were the effects of his self-made world wearing off? "Now, we are willing to negotiate so that no one needs to die, as my friend has just said. Is this suitable?"

"How do I know you're not gonna go back on me?" Pan snapped. There was something the Lost Boy Bae could appreciate.

"I'd ask you the same question, but going back on a deal isn't something I do. What I'd like to know is if I can say the same about you."

Pan licked his lip and studied Bae. "You gonna run again when you're supposed to die?"

"I wasn't supposed to die. That was an arbitrary decision that you made and probably would've regretted a week later."

"What were you doing around the Nowhereland?"

"Making a promise which I did later keep. Can I say the same about you?"

Pan smirked, though Bae noticed the flash of something else entirely in his eyes. "Look," he said. "Nobody wants to die, okay, fine. But somebody has to."

"The Long Lost Boys?" Bae asked. "Us?"

"To die would be an awfully great adventure."

"You have to be the only person I've ever met that thinks that," Morraine said. "I have serious concerns about your mental health."

"I have concerns about yours, if you're not going to fight with us."

She stepped closer, raising the sword to his throat. Pan stepped back and held his hands up in the universal gesture of surrender. "Don't tell me I'm crazy because I won't fight," she hissed. "I've seen war, and I've seen cruelty. I've seen crazy, and crazy I am not. I won't stand for you calling me something that isn't true. Do I make myself perfectly clear?" She moved the sword closer to his neck, eliciting a nod. "Good." But she refused to lower her weapon.

"I can do this all night," Pan said.

"I'm sure you can," Bae replied, "but we can't, so either we negotiate something now or we wait until all parties are weary for want of sleep. Does that sound fun?"

"Maybe."

"Interesting sense of humor," Morraine said. "You're the only one that exhibits that, as well. Are you human?"

"Why's she askin' that?"

"I'd ask the same thing, but for different reasons," Bae said, "particularly your magical ability."

"Why do you wanna know about that?"

"If you can create worlds, can you traverse them?"

Pan narrowed his eyes. "Where's this going?"

"That's my business, and I'll reveal what I choose when it's necessary, if it's necessary."

"So why should I listen to you?"

"I'm not asking for anything, except that I'm curious about your magical ability and where it comes from."

"What do you want it for?"

"You can create worlds, so can you traverse them?"

Pan blinked and knit his brow. This was getting amazingly confusing, and it was doing so very quickly. "What the hell do you want?"

Bae sighed. "I need to go somewhere."