The Cabin

Bae took all of fifteen minutes to explain what happened to him in Regina's basement, all of this across Rumpelstiltskin's table. Rumpelstiltskin, who had spent Bae's tale leaning forward and nodding at all the appropriate moments, settled back when his son finished. "You made a deal with Zoso?" he asked.

"Yes," Bae replied.

"And you asked him if he would go back on it?"

"You're not the only one who refuses to repeat his mistakes." Rumpelstiltskin nodded in understanding. "When I said there was a way to break the knife," Bae said slowly, "I meant it. I never told them out loud, and I made sure they never heard it in my thoughts, but...I think the knife can only be broken if you're dead."

"Bae...are you sure about this?"

"I don't know."

"You were able to force the smoke cloud back, you said?"

"...Yes. Why? Where is this going."

"I'm just thinking back to what I know about sensitives. If you did force the cloud back, then you, in theory, could be able to pull magic in the same way."

"In theory?"

"I won't ask you to try this theory right away, of course, but it might be of use in the future."

"You think so." Rumpelstiltskin nodded. Bae looked down at the table, clasping his hands in his lap. He worried his lip and finally looked up at his father. "You...you think it can be done?" Rumpelstiltskin nodded again. "And if it can't?"

"Then I can rest knowing that you tried."

"What about them?"

"I doubt anyone has tried for them in a long, long time."

Bae nodded. "Can I see August about something?"

"Something that happened to you?"

"Something I saw and heard, more like. I think he might know something relevant."

"Do you, now?" Bae nodded again. "Alright, go." The teenager smiled and left the table.

OUAT

August had just finished bolting his apartment door when Bae appeared at the window. "I guess I'm not getting rid of you," he said.

"Not in the least, apparently," Bae replied. "I need a word with you, if you have the time."

"I've got nothin' but time, kid, but I'd appreciate it if you called ahead first."

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry. I forgot. You're new here. Anyway, as long as you're here, make yourself comfortable and spare me from my boredom."

"Being a puppet too hard on you?" Bae asked with a smile. He walked over to the desk and took a seat.

"Emma nearly flipped out when she saw me. There's no telling what else could happen if the others found out I'm a, still alive and b, a puppet."

"Good point."

August sat on the bed. "Okay, kid, what've you got?"

"Tell me all about your experience with the Blue Fairy."

"There's not much to tell. First, she brought me to life, before I ended up in Sherwood and thus the middle of hell. Then, after I tried to save my father from a gigantic whale, drowned, and washed up onshore, she made me human, to find that my father was alive and well. And she told me I've got to be brave, truthful, and unselfish if I want to stay human. And suffice it to say, I haven't been. And I had to be brought to life, again, presumably by the Blue Fairy. Why do you want to know all this?" Bae summed up his encounter in the basement, playing up the emphasis on the Blue Fairy copy more so than when he spoke to his father. "Okay," August said when Bae finished.

"But there's more."

"Go on."

"I have prior experience with her, back in the village, before Sherwood. My father had just become the Dark One, and he was turning people into snails and doing other nasty things for my meeting the slightest harm. M told me about her, called Reul Ghorm and described to me as 'bigger than anything', and I sought her assistance. She gave me a magic bean, said it was the last of its kind, and told me to take my father and follow it wherever it may lead."

"And he let you go."

"Yeah, but for this context, that bit is trivial."

"Really? Wow."

"What matters is how...smooth the ride was. I mean, I know I wasn't much of a sensitive back in the village and was forced to develop it in Sherwood, but even so, if someone pulled me from the path, I would've felt it. It takes a lot of force to do something like that. You don't even need to be a sensitive to know that."

"Okay, so your ride to Sherwood was smooth, you weren't pulled out of your path, nothing went wrong."

"The thing is, she told me I was going to a world without magic."

"I thought fairies didn't lie."

Bae chewed his lip. "In all the stories, they...well, they don't. They find other ways to decieve, but they don't lie outright."

"Sounds like the Blue Fairy decieved you."

Bae looked at August, his brow creased slightly. "And if the Blue Fairy copy really does exist as Zoso's spirit suggests she does..."

"Bae, I think we might have a problem."

"A blue-clad, tiny, flying problem that curiously sounds like a bee. The question is, what do we do about it? We can't jump to conclusions. After all, we're dealing with, if M is right, the ultimate power, bigger and possibly worse than even Papa."

"Possibly?"

"She answered my question about bigger, but not my question about worse." August nodded in understanding. "Look, until we know better, we have to put the Blue Fairy problem aside. Right now, Regina, from her prison cell, has taken two hostages, and it's very likely she hasn't given up on trying to keep her curse together, even if it kills all of us. It no longer matters if she's in prison or no. Her influence is too great. She tried several times now to kill me, or take me alive, or whatever she intends for me, and she knows, or at least senses, that I am Rumpelstiltskin's son. She knows he loves me, and since this curse seems to require what the caster loves most, I would be an obvious target."

"And so would Belle."

"So I take it you've heard about their relationship."

"Are you kidding? It's the talk of the town. Speculation runs rampant, but the core of it, that your dad and Belle have a little thing going on, hasn't changed."

"And that means that Jefferson was only taken because he was a witness to the kidnapping of Belle and refused to leave her. After all, he has a duty to my father to perform. They have a deal."

"Well, I think I saw a cabin in the woods we should check out."

"What about Papa. I just...I mean..."

"You just got started living with him again. I got it. I'll get you there and back in no time at all."

"What if they're there?"

"We busted in on our first move twice now, and look where it got us. We've gotta be ready."

"True. But how do we get there and back in any decent amount of time?"

August tilted his head toward the door of his apartment. "Let me show you."

OUAT

Bae followed August out of the apartment and down the stairs and down to the parking lot. "What is that black steed?" Bae asked.

"That black steed is our ride," August replied.

"Besides that."

"It's called a motorcycle, and it's not exactly a steed since it can't steer or power itself."

"You mean you need to focus on it constantly?"

"Pretty much, but you can learn how to do that and focus on the road."

"It can be done?"

"Yep." August pulled two helmets out of the saddle bag and tossed one to Bae, who was quicker to figure it out than he was with a car door. August swung his leg over the metal steed. "Hop on." Bae took a tentative step forward, studying the beast, wondering if it would run away from him if he got too close, in spite of August's previous statement, or try to kill him in some way if he made contact with it. "C'mon. You don't wanna just stand there all afternoon, do you?" Bae shook his head and walked over to the steed and swung his leg over, positioning himself behind August, thereby being seated on the rack above the rear wheel. "Hold tight," August said, and Bae took fistfuls of the puppet's jacket in his hands.

August started the motorcycle, kicked the stand up, and backed up. Bae's heart jumped in his chest as August rode onto the street and sped up. He felt a pleasant vacancy in his gut, and the wind raced through the hair under his helmet and the clothes he wore. Bae yelled and let out a laugh, and his hold on August's jacket relaxed. August grinned and chuckled, and he turned a corner. Bae tightened his grip for fear of falling off this strangely wonderful machine. "You're doin' good, kid," August said.

"Thanks," Bae replied.

"When this is over, I'mma teach you to ride this bad boy, if you want. If we don't total the bike first."

"You want me to learn how to ride this thing?"

"Yep. I know that kinda joy, kid. Had it myself when I first rode, almost exactly. You'll never grow out of it."

"You think so?"

"Yep, absolutely. Some people are just born to ride."

Bae gave a short hum to himself and looked off to the side. His brow creased for a moment, but then he smirked and looked back to August and the open road ahead. August followed the winding path into the forest and then slowed to a stop and propped the bike up on its stand. Bae dismounted and looked off into the forest, at the overgrown trail leading to the silhouette of a structure surrounded by trees. "I take it that's our destination," he said.

"If I remember right," August replied. They picked their way, Bae first and August second, through the underbrush to the cabin. Along the way, Bae reached out to see if he could feel anything, but the closer they got to the cabin, the more the cabin felt completely normal.

"It should be safe, at least from magical beings. So far as mortals, though, I can't say."

"Shouldn't matter. We're here to check the place out, see if they're here or not, and then we're going back, just as we talked about." Bae nodded, and they approached the cabin. August walked up to the window and peered inside. "Looks like the living room," he said.

"See anyone?"

"Nope, but that's not to say that the place is empty."

"You want us to actually go in?"

"We're just casing the place. Will you relax?"

"I can't. A battle may present itself at any moment. We need to be ready, and you can't when you don't have your guard up."

August sighed and rested his head against the glass, shaking it as well as his state would allow. Bae huffed, walked over to the door, and tried the handle. "Finally," August muttered, walking around so that he was behind the teenager and followed him into the cabin's ground floor, nothing but living room, kitchen, and dining area. "Feel anything?"

"No, nothing. Hear anything?"

August paused and then said, "Nope."

Bae glanced at the hall leading to the back door. "I'll look back there, you've got the front areas. Yell if anything happens."

"Whatever you say, kid." August moved to the dining area, and Bae walked down the hall, listening for creaks in the floorboards. Don't move too quickly, he told himself. Reconnaissance only. See if there are hostages or hostiles present first, then assess the situation and move from there. Morraine would do exactly the same thing, follow exactly the same process.

He smiled at the thought of Morraine, and his muscles uncoiled slightly. She was always so calm in the face of battle, and it made him smile more often than not.

He turned to the first door he saw. It was closed, but he dared not check to see if it was locked, regardless of how normal it felt. He took a deep breath and continued down the hall, feeling his way as much as following his eyes.

"Shh, I hear footsteps," Jefferson whispered from behind a door at the end of the hall. Bae stopped. Someone tapped on the door to his left, and he reached out and tapped in reply.

Someone gasped, and another voice, Belle, whispered, "Is that Rumpelstiltskin?"

"I don't know."

Bae turned and walked briskly down the hall before their conversation could continue, though they would undoubtedly remark upon his departure. He found August in the living room. "I found them," he said.

OUAT

August pulled up in front of Mr. Gold's mansion and waited until Bae dismounted before following suit. Bae handed him his helmet and ran up to the porch. August left his own helmet on the handlebar and removed his gloves before walking inside the mansion.

"What's all the fuss about?" Gold asked, looking from Bae to August.

"We have proof of life for both Jefferson and Belle," August replied.