3.

Magnus knew the moment that the strangers had crossed the town line. It was subtle, like the furthest ripple out made by a small pebble in a large pond, but he felt the magic quiver under the pressure of change. It was the first taste he'd had in nearly seventeen years and for a breath of a moment he could see. The world around him had exploded into all the colours that that autumn brought with it and it had taken him so suddenly that he'd swayed. It was the Dark One's son that caused that. This curse had been cast to find him, and even it reacted to his presence ever so slightly.

"They're here."

He was still regaining his balance after the burst, brief as it was, and he hadn't heard his most loyal follower's approach. Now, dropped back into the pit of darkness that Rumplestiltskin had been responsible for so many years before, he could hear Caiden sink to a knee behind him, waiting for his response. Magnus turned towards the younger man that Storybrooke called Peter Kurtz and tried to recall the blond hair and the pale eyes that stood out so clearly in his features. He hadn't seen them since they'd been swept away by the curse and he wouldn't see them until it was broken and they were sent back home, their work complete.

"I am aware," he answered, his voice rougher than he expected. "Ruel Ghorm will meet them. You will take him with Ellis and Quinn to the Dark One. Do not alarm him and do not let yourself be seen until he has woken. We must play this carefully in a world where people do not know what great evil he harbors within him."

"Do you truly believe that simply seeing his son will bring the Dark One forward over Gold?"

A slow smile crossed the blind cleric's lips. There had been precious few times he'd even come close to killing a Dark One in all the years that he had hunted them, but there had been once he'd nearly ended Rumplestiltskin and there had been only one name on the wounded demon's lips when he'd thought that everything was coming to an end. "If there is something that can wake him up it will be Baelfire. Bring the Dark One and we will end this."

Neal watched the little town come into view and he could hardly believe his papa had come to this place. It looked quiet and quaint, like something out of a painting. It hardly looked like a place that the Dark One would have chosen to come to, even if he had found a way through.

He sighed. That was on the list of questions he had for Blue or his father or whoever he saw first that had more knowledge about all this than August did. How had Rumplestiltskin managed to make it to the Land Without Magic and why had it taken him so damn long? He'd spent so many years that he'd lost count in Neverland dreaming that he'd be rescued, but no one came for him. Finally, he had rescued himself and that had left him more bitter than he'd started.

Best he could tell with the way Neverland likes to pick people up from one time and spit them out in another, he'd been there over two hundred years. That much time hadn't passed in the Land Without Magic, but it would have for his father. He wasn't even sure what to expect.

They drove through the town and kept going. August kept mumbling bits of directions to himself like he wasn't entirely sure where he was going. He found whatever he was looking and took a sharp right, aimed at what looked like it might be a convent. Well, he was pretty sure they weren't meeting his father there.

August pulled the rent car around and killed the engine. "You coming?"

Neal unfolded, stretching as he did so. "Yeah, if you give me five seconds," he answered and followed him up the stairs to where the author paused, staring at the door like it should open automatically. "Please tell me you've been here before."

"I've been here before?"

"Right. Pinocchio. The lying thing."

"At least it's not the stealing-cars-thing," August groused and Neal rolled his eyes, reached past him, and knocked.

"There. That's how it's done."

August gaped and Neal grinned as the door swung open, but then it was Neal's turn to look a bit like a fish out of water. He stared at a very human, very not-sparkly, very-not-what-he-remembered Blue Fairy. She was dressed in a simple frock instead of her usual low-cut attire with ribbons and frills everywhere. Her hair was pinned down, not piled up and around and she stared at him like… well like she hadn't seen him in over two centuries. "Baelfire," she breathed. "Is that really you?"

"Hey. The bean worked. Papa just bailed." He had never spoken to a soul about what really happened that night and he was surprised at how the words just tumbled from his lips. Easy, casual, and somehow able to hide the deep ache that set somewhere in his chest at the thought.

"As I saw soon after," the fairy murmured she tried for a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Please, come inside. We have much to discuss."

"August said my dad's in some sort of trouble. How'd he get here?"

The Blue Fairy frowned a little. "That is rather complicated, but just know that the steps he took were… extreme. If there's anything left of your father that you once knew, Baelfire, he needs you now more than ever. Can you do that? After so long, can you be there for him just as you were when you were young?"

Something was off in her voice, but Neal found himself nodding anyway. He felt like he'd been swept up into some kind of dream - or possibly a nightmare - and had little control from here on out. "I came, didn't I?"

"You're a good son," she echoed the words from so very long ago. "Come, there's someone that you need to meet."

Regina entered the records room and turned up her nose. It smelled stale and old, like nothing had happened here for years upon years. Around seventeen, she imagined, as that's when everything had suddenly poofed into being. Oh, the records dated back further than that, of course. Rumple's little curse had really done a trick on this place. She hadn't known exactly what to expect when the purple cloud filled with dark magic had filled her lungs and she'd been pulled between the worlds, but she'd certainly been satisfied - at least until the boredom set in - with the amount of knowledge of the world that the curse had provided her with without overrunning her own memories. She knew why she was here. She knew who she wanted to make suffer.

"Mayor Mills, what can I do for ya?"

She had no idea who the clerk working for Mr Krzyszkowski was - or who Mr Krzyszkowski himself was, for that matter - back home, but something about him rubbed her wrong. He worked part time in records, part time in her office, and did a lot of nothing as far as she was concerned. She'd have had him executed for his laziness had they still been in the Enchanted Forest, but alas, murder was so much trickier in this land. Anyway, she wasn't sure what a change such as a death would do to her curse. It wasn't exactly something she'd asked Rumple about before it was cast. Not that the imp would have told her anyway.

"I'm looking for information."

"Most people are that come in here. Granted, most people don't come in much. What can I get for ya?"

"You already asked me that," Regina growled. "I don't have a name, just an occupation. I need information on the groundskeeper at the convent."

"Mr Dawson?" the clerk asked, blinking owlishly at her like she'd told him so terrible secret that no one was supposed to know.

Regina sighed heavily. "Did I not just tell you I don't have his name? If that's it, then yes. Just get me the damn file so I can get out of this dungeon."

"I can get it on your desk first thing tomorrow if you like, Madame Mayor."

"If I'd wanted it on my desk first thing in the morning I would have told you to put it on my desk then! Get the damn file!"

The clerk scurried then, his green eyes wide. He bent down into the drawers and started digging until he came back with a thin file and handed it over. "Here you go," he answered in a squeaky voice. Maybe he'd been a mouse. Maybe she could find a way to turn him into one now. It would certainly suit him better.

"I'll get it back by the end of the week," she said as she started out.

"But, ma'am, I'm supposed to have you sign it out. All the forms. Mr K'll have my ass if I don't!"

"Good luck with that," she answered with a wave and her heels tapped the floor as she started down the hall and towards her office. She waited until she was behind the door to open it up, eyes skimming the information. There was precious little and none of it told her who he'd been either. Here he worked for the convent, was hired on by the blue bug herself - so the records said anyway - and had a medical record a mile long. There was nothing of any use, of course, and she threw the file across the room. "Worthless," she grumbled. Jacob Dawson seemed just like anyone else there: miserable and hardly a challenge for anything. She would have to check her secondary source of records that she'd discovered about five years into the curse: Dr Hopper's records. The curse had delivered details on everyone - well, everyone except for her of course - into his office, even if they were not regular patients. Even Rumple had one, not that he likely thought about it.

Regina huffed and looked at the papers scattered across her office floor, remembering the supposed reasons she'd gone down there in the first place. She stood and moved over to the pile, stooping to pick them up and flip through them again. There. A current address. And wouldn't you know it, he lived on the property that the convent sat on. Property owned and leased out - not to him but to the nuns - by Mr Gold. Well, he might not be anything of any interest now, but he could be made to be.

Caiden hadn't known what to expect when Magnus had told him that he would be meeting the Dark One's son. The young man that followed Blue through the door seemed normal enough by that world's standards. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a jacket still on his back and a scarf pulled tightly around his neck. He looked wary, but not quite suspicious, though his expression might turn that way at any time. Dark eyes swept over the room that he and Magnus were waiting in and he felt the gaze linger on them and he resisted the urge to take a protective step in front of his master. He was limited here in this world without magic, and if the Dark One's child knew who they were - if he even suspected - they needed to be ready for a fight at any time.

"Baelfire, this is Magnus and Caiden. Caiden will take you to your father," the lead fairy said and looked ready to run. The closer they got to finishing this the more nervous she seemed. He understood her aversion to killing, really he did, but some creatures could not be left to roam to worlds. It was very likely that they were helping this young man's father. If there was ever a chance that his spirit - if he'd kept any part of his soul clear of the curse at all - would be free of this darkness in death, it was if he met it here. They were doing Rumplestiltskin a kindness that they could never have offered to another Dark One before.

Baelfire extended a hand. "How do you know him?"

"Many magic users are well acquainted in the Enchanted Forest," Magnus answered and Caiden saw Baelfire stiffen a little.

"So you use magic too?"

"They're on the right side of it," the Blue Fairy assured him, though Caiden hardly thought he looked convinced.

"Yeah, well, it was magic that screwed my family, so you'll forgive me if I'm skeptical."

"Your father is in great danger, Baelfire."

"That's what everyone keeps telling me, but no one seems to be able to tell me why."

"I'll take you to him and he can explain," Caiden said softly and watched suspicion final settle into his expression.

"Let's get it over with then. I have a life to get back to."

He'd been shuffled off quickly enough and August tried to remind himself that he wasn't responsible for whatever happened next. He had his papa's shop address in his pocket and he was on his way. He'd done what was asked and that was that. He didn't know Neal, he didn't know who Neal's dad was, and he didn't want to. It was all in his hands now.

August had always been a good liar, but even he couldn't keep that one going. He paused at the door that would lead him out to the hall and to the exit. Maybe he could wait until Neal came out and then go to see his papa. They'd come this far, after all.

The sound of feet shuffling quickly filled the hall and the writer melted out of sight. They'd made it pretty clear that he was expected to leave, so it was better if one of the wandering nuns didn't see him lingering.

It wasn't a nun. August didn't know who he was, but he was young and dressed like he worked a low paying desk job. His steps were hurried and the look on his face was sour as he scurried past, nearly knocked down by the opening door.

The man that exited seemed to know exactly where the hurried messenger was, even though his strangely coloured eyes never focused in on him. He reached out, voice low and demanding. "What?"

"The Evil Queen stopped by the records room today. She was asking about you."

Sightless eyes blinked. "It does not matter. Caiden has already gone to deliver Baelfire to his father. Soon Gold will remember who he is and we will have an end to the Dark One's curse."

"Will Caiden be the one?"

"No. He will bring him to me. This must be done correctly to ensure that the curse does not survive its host's death."

August pressed himself as close to the wall behind him as he could. The Dark One. He'd heard stories of a monster that made deals and cursed you - if you were lucky - if you couldn't live up to your end. He was supposed to be such a demon that Snow and Charming had locked him up in an inescapable cell deep in the mines. He'd been the only one powerful enough to predict the curse and he had been the one to foretell the part Emma still had to play. August hadn't even thought about someone like the Dark One coming through, much less that he'd have a son. No wonder Neal had been so against bringing the woman he loved anywhere near his father. The man was as evil as they came.

But he was still Neal's father and they were going to use him unwittingly against him. August leaned back and but his lip. He could run away from this. He didn't owe Neal anything, but even so he couldn't banish the younger man's look of worry that he'd had when he had heard his father was in trouble. Demon or man, he was Neal's papa, and August didn't think he could live with himself if he let this happen.

"We're not alone," the larger man said and August felt his breath catch. Who the hell were these people? One couldn't see and the other had been so fixated on the conversation that it would have taken a bomb dropping to distract him.

There was nowhere to go, so he didn't even try. The younger man rounded the corner and August offered what he hoped was a convincing smile. "Hey, you'd be shocked how hard it is trying to get out of this place."

"How'd you get in here?" the nervous messenger demanded.

"The Blue Fairy invited me. I'm August - Pinocchio - and I'm the one that brought Baelfire for you guys. You're welcome, by the way."

"Fetch Blue," the giant of a man said and his gaze went straight through August. "I won't risk this plan falling to pieces in the last moments because she was careless."

"Listen, I was told I could go see my papa. I haven't seen him since the curse hit, so if you don't mind..."

"I do mind. Have a seat, little puppet. You'll have a splendid view of an event that will change our world."

August didn't answer, but he didn't move either. Blue was in on whatever this was, but he couldn't convince himself that that made it right. Not that he'd ever had the best natural moral compass, but some things were impossible to ignore.

Neal had become a very distrusting person somewhere along the way, so when Caiden shuffled him off on yet two other young men and he found himself surrounded by people that seemed to have no connection to anyone that he knew personally, his guards went up. He watched their every step and didn't say a word. He hadn't been in a fight for his life in some time now, but he knew what it was like to be marched off under false pretences.

His first thought - and the only one that made a whole lot of sense to him at that point - was that his father had set this up. He knew Baelfire wouldn't come to him under anything less than the most dire of circumstances, so he'd created some. He'd been too afraid, too much of a coward to simply come to his son and admit he was wrong. He had to go through the theatrics and rely on Bae's - Neal's. He was Neal now, dammit - lingering hopes that he'd tried so desperately to crush before they drowned him. He thought he had. He thought he'd finally moved on. Then August Booth showed up saying his papa was in trouble and gullible little Baelfire had come running. He was going to kill him.

There were a lot of holes in that theory, but they didn't seem quite as important in that moment. He still didn't know who these men working with Blue were, or why the Blue Fairy would help his papa in anything after the whole bean incident. He probably had her snowed with some long story of doing anything for his son. That was one he loved to pull. Anything except keep his promises, of course. He couldn't believe he'd been stupid enough to drop everything and come running.

Neal stopped where he was walking. "Where the hell are we going?" he demanded. He was done following. He wanted answers.

"Just up ahead," one of the men that he'd barely been introduced to said, motioning to a shop with a sign that hung in front of the door. Mr Gold Pawnbroker and Antiques Dealer. He felt a little underwhelmed.

"Okay?"

"Your father is inside."

He snorted and stalked forward, making them to trail behind for a change. The bell over the door to the little shop announced his entrance and he found himself standing in an actual antiques shop. He wasn't quite sure what he expected, but the quaint, packed little shop was not it. It smelled like old books, leathers, spices, and an assortment of things. Figurines peered out from behind glass cases and bikes hung from the walls. Behind the old-fashioned register were half a dozen or more paintings of varying types, and on a shelf sat a ball that looked strikingly familiar. The leather was cracked and worn, but it sat in a place of honour like a trophy for all to see. It didn't make sense.

The curtain that seemed to separate the front of the store from the back pulled open and a somewhat familiar figure shuffled through. Somewhat, Bae realized, because while the man wore his papa's face, there were plenty of differences. He didn't have the flamboyant mannerisms of his father just before they'd parted, but the way he stood didn't remind him of his papa from his childhood either. The limp was there, but the way his shoulders were pushed back and squared, his head held high, and the impatient look the seemed etched into his features all seemed more of a mixture of the two men he'd once been.

Neal found himself stepping forward. "Papa."

Dark brown eyes blinked. "Excuse me? Can I help you with something?"

The words and the lack of recognition were more a kick to the gut than Neal could have imagined them to be. He didn't know him at all, even if he'd been expecting him. "It's me, Papa. Bae."

He wasn't playing games, that much Neal thought he was sure, and when he turned a questioning look back to the men that had brought him, he thought they looked disappointed. One, though, looked more irritated than the other. "Don't you know your own son?" he demanded, and the man that looked so much like Bae's papa levelled a glare.

"I don't know what you're playing at, but I don't have a son. Unless you're planning to buy something I would suggest you leave."

"Come on," the second man said, taking his friend's arm and pulling him towards the door. "It didn't work. Let's go."

"The hell it didn't. He's toying with us! Don't you see it? He knows what this is and he's faking it!"

The shop owner looked thoroughly confused now. "It's time for you to go, otherwise I'll be making a call to the sheriff's station," he warned, turning to limp back around the counter and to the phone.

"It doesn't matter if he knows," the more agitated of the two men growled. "What matters is that it ends, and we can do that now."

Neal saw the flash of the gun as it came out and he didn't look around to see if the shop owner had seen the same. It had been a long time, but he'd know his papa anywhere, even if his papa didn't know him, and this was most certainly him. August hadn't lied when he said he was in trouble, and that was why he was there. Maybe that's what made him dart forward, a warning on his lips, but he didn't have a chance to get it out before the shot went off, nor did he have time to register why a pair of dark eyes that were the same shade as his own were wide and startled before he felt himself jolt forward, a burning pain flashing and the world went black around him.

TBC

Notes: Usually my update days will be Monday and Thursday, but as the first couple of updates seem to be falling on holiday weeks, I'll be updating again Friday as long as all goes well.

Next time - When Neal lands himself in the hospital for a short stay after trying to save the odd Mr Gold, his visitors bring about a lot of questions and only a few answers to satisfy them.