A/N: This a SwanFire AU story I wrote. It's written as if Rumple had never become the Dark One, and Bae was sent to fight in the Ogre Wars. There was no curse, so Princess Emma was born to Queen Snow and King David, and grew up in the Enchanted Forest during the Ogre Wars. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Baelfire watched from beside his lonely campfire as the boy showed off the new pin on his uniform, and all his friends gathered around to admire it and express their jealousy. A purple banner on his sleeve. It marked him as one of the Captain's Rear Guards.

He was being moved off the front line. The other kids had a right to be jealous. The boy was safe. Bae eyed him with jealousy.

Slowly, the other kids got bored and returned to their own groups of friends around their own campfires, and Bae decided that was his chance to make a move. He stuck his shivering hand in his pocket, as much to warm it up as to make sure the items he had stowed there were still with him. He smiled to himself as he recounted the small treasure in his pocket, then got up and went over to the other boy's circle.

Bae sat down next to the other boy on a log placed a bit too close to the fire for comfort, and leaned close to him, whispering in his ear, "I hear you've been moved off the front lines."

The other boy grinned at him, and pulled away to show Bae is new patch.

"That's right I have, friend," he said condescendingly. "I'm part of the Captain's Rear Gard now."

Bae returned his smile, the smirk on his face hidden by the darkness and not revealed by the flickering firelight. He scooted over on the log, closing the gap the other boy had made between them, ensuring no one else would overhear him.

"Well, friend," Bae said, mocking the other boy's condescending use of the word. "I have a proposal for you."

Instantly, the other boy was interested, but, with typical teenage bravado, he attempted to remain nonchalant. "What's that?" he whispered, not quite managing to conceal his interest.

"You give me that purple banner of yours, and I'll give you something worth far more."

The boy snickered. "What could possibly be worth more than a position that takes me away from the front?" He laughed.

Once again, Bae grinned. Without a word, he pulled out a necklace from his pocket. On the thin chain was a small metal cross. Bae had seen the boy wearing it the week before, and heard him boast about how his father had given it to him to keep him safe in the war. It's been blessed by a priest, the boy had told his friends, and it means I'll make it home alive. For the boy, the necklace had represented the one thing every child in the ogre wars ever wanted: hope.

But he'd lost it. In a card game.

An older boy had challenged him to a game of cards, and not being able to resist, the boy had foolishly gambled with the one thing he had, and the one thing he could not afford to lose.

"Where did you get that?" The boy shouted angrily, and Bae quickly shushed him before they caught the Captain's attention.

"Let's just say your gambling partner is a bit too loose with his possessions," Bae smiled.

The boy laughed. "You're a thief." Bae just shrugged, and the boy sighed. "Okay little thief. What do you want?"

"I already told you," Bae whispered. "I want your spot on the Rear Guard, and you can have your necklace back."

The boy's indecision was written all over his face. "You're too young to be on the Guard, the Captain will notice," he protested.

It was Bae's turn to laugh. "You're, what, maybe a year older than me? And he promoted you. There aren't that many soldiers left, so the Captain is resorting to promoting kids to his Guard. He has no choice. Believe me," he shrugged again, "he won't notice."

"And you're willing to risk your life on the assumption he won't? If he does, he could kill you."

Bae gave the other boy a resigned smile and sighed, "better to take my chances there than on the front line. Question is, are you willing to risk going back to the front line to have your precious necklace back?"

The other oy grinned, and Bae new he had him. "I'm the best fighter here," he boasted, and Bae knew it was more or less true. "I'll be fine." He unpinned the ribbon from his sleeve and held it out to Bae. "Now give me the necklace." Bae took the ribbon and handed over the necklace. He said no more, just nodded to the other boy and returned to his own lonely log by his fire.

The other boys in his squadron would have been so jealous, Bae thought with a sad smile. He missed the friends he had made here. Most of them had been killed, the others wounded and sent home. He was the only one left in Squadron 86. And soon, he thought, there would be no one left, because tomorrow he'd be marching with the rear guard.

As a precaution against the other thieving kids in the camp, Bae unpinned the ribbon from his sleeve and tucked it away in an inside pocket of his vest, where no one could reach in without waking him up. Then, wondering what it would be like to be off the front lines, Bae curled up in his dusty, threadbare blanket next to the fire and went to sleep.

Bae woke at the first sight of dawn the next morning, instantly awake in the way soldiers are taught to be. As he stretched and began to roll up his blanket and put out the remaining embers of his fire, he looked around at the bustling camp surrounding him. Everyone else was waking up too, and there was a feeling of mixed excitement and apprehension swelling throughout the camp.

Today was the day they were supposed to liberate the Royal Palace. There had been rumors that the ogres had surrounded the palace, and the Queen's guard did not have enough men to fight them off, trapping the Royal Family and their entire court inside. It was likely to be an ugly fight, but Bae was not worried. He wouldn't be in the midst of the fighting today.

Remembering the events of the previous evening, Bae pulled the ribbon out of his uniform and pinned it on his sleeve. He briefly wondered what it would be like to meet the Royal Family, but then pushed those thoughts aside. He was only a foot soldier; he's never meet them. Besides, he had more important things to worry about today.

He started to wonder what he was supposed to do. Every morning, his squadron leader had put them through the morning drills and then let them eat breakfast before leading them into formation and carrying on whatever duties their squadron was assigned for the day.

But his squadron leader had been killed yesterday.

The army had been marching toward the Palace in relative peace yesterday, when they had run into a surprise attack of ogres in the woods. It had been nearly lunchtime, and the front lines had stopped moving to settle down and eat, when the ogres had ambushed them. Most of the soldiers didn't even have time to draw their weapons, and what had been left of Squadron 86 had been decimated.

Except Baelfire.

He hadn't been sitting down when the ogres came; it was only through pure luck that he had been sorting through his arrows and tightening his bow at just the right time. He had managed to kill one of the ogres and follow the rest of the fleeing army down the hill and into the valley to where they currently were. He wasn't sure how the battle had ended, he had only done what he could to survive and gotten away. He'd tried to help his squadron leader, but by the time he'd killed the ogre that was coming after him, he was too late.

It was that night that Bae decided to change things. That's when he had gone after the other boy's necklace. He knew the boy had been promoted after the battle, and he also knew the older boy who had won his necklace in the card game. Bae figured that boy would be an easy mark, and he was right. He'd stolen his way to the Rear Guard.

That thought brought him back to reality, and he looked around the camp in momentary confusion. He was so used to following orders that he wasn't sure what to do.

Luckily, he caught sight of his Captain's elegant purple banner waving in the wind not far away, and he knew that meant his Guard would be close by. He packed up the rest of his meagre belongings and headed toward it.

As Bae approached the banner, he saw groups of older boys with purple banners on their sleeves lining up and preparing for morning drills. For a lack of something else to do, Bae headed toward them.

He was stopped by a tall man in a fancy uniform bearing the Captain's regalia.

"Hey, boy!" The man shouted, and Bae looked up at him, trying to look confident. "What's your name?"

Bae briefly wondered if he should give the man the other boy's name, but there had been so much confusion lately, he doubted the army actually kept records of who had been promoted, so he responded, as confidently as he could manage, "my name is Baelfire, sir."

"And what are you doing here, Baelfire?" The man demanded. "What squadron are you assigned to?"

Bae took a deep breath, stood up as tall as he could, and said, "I was in squadron 86, sir. But my squadron leader and the rest of my squadron were killed yesterday. I was promoted after the battle." He pointed to the banner on his sleeve. He was surprised at how easily he lied to the man. It's surprising what you'll do to keep yourself alive in the middle of an unwinnable war.

The man looked at him curiously. "86? You were on the front lines, then?"

Bae nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Hmm." The man eyed Bae, sizing him up. "A bit young to be on the Guard, aren't you?"

Bae shrugged. "Perhaps, sir," he said, "but I can shoot a straight arrow."

The man laughed. "I'd say you can, if you've managed to keep yourself alive this long on 86. Well, Baelfire, son of no noble I know of, welcome to the Rear Guard."

As the man turned to walk away, Bae said, "Rumplestiltskin."

The man turned back around. "What?"

"I'm Baelfire, son of Rumplestiltskin," he said, trying to make it sound like he belonged with people of noble lineage.

"Like I said," the man grinned, "no noble I know of."

The next day was a blur for Baelfire. He marched with the Guard as the army advanced on the surrounded Palace, but as he suspected, they were kept out of the fighting. He had expected it to be a restful day, but instead he found himself put through drills any time they weren't marching.

When the rest of the army broke for lunch, the Guard did sword drills. When the rest of the army got closer to the Palace, the Guard ran marching drills. When Bae could see the towering stone walls of the Palace and hear the awful sounds of fighting not far away, the Guard did archery drills. Most of it Bae couldn't remember, as he'd spent most of the day trying to keep up with the older, bigger boys.

The one part of the day he did remember, however, was, toward dusk, when a loud triumphant cheer had rung up from the valley surrounding the Palace. The Rear Guard had been over a hill about a quarter of a mile away, and thus were unable to see the actual battle take place. They could hear it, though. And they heard it when they won.

Excited chatter started spreading though the Guard as they wondered what had happened.

"Did we actually win?"

"Is the Palace free?"

"What do we do now?"

"I hope my kid brother made it out."

For his part, Bae was too tired to think or say much of anything, other than to hope that the end of the battle meant the end of running drills for the day. He followed along as the Guard broke their drills formations and started crowding around their Captain, hoping for news. Bae heard someone yell that a messenger was coming over the hill, so he waited in anticipation for news.

He didn't have to wait long.

Bae was too far back to hear what the messenger actually said, but the message was relayed through the ranks of the Guards as the 50 or so voices there proclaimed: The Palace is free!

Baelfire celebrated with the rest of the Guard, laughing and talking to whoever he found himself next to, until the Captain called for them all to calm down. Slowly, the men and boys quieted, wondering what other news their Captain had for them.

"In appreciation for freeing her family, Queen Snow as invited me to dine with the Royal Family tonight," he said, and Bae had to resist snickering. Of course the Captain would be invited to the Palace, although he hadn't actually done any of the fighting.

Bae's frustration with the Captain was put out by the Captain's next words.

"Cheer up boys, you'll be sleeping in the Palace tonight!"