David: "But I love you."

Mary Margaret: "And that is what makes it all so sad."

Once Upon a Time, "The Return"

Bae knew that his father had become a monster. He was an old apple, rotten to his core. Dark magic had transformed him into someone unrecognizable, and Bae no longer claim he had a father. He had lost him the moment hebecame the Dark One. And because of this metamorphosis, Bae hated his father. But no, he didn't...he hated the man his father had become.

Bae was still young, naïve. He just wanted his family back. He was willing to do anything. He would go to the ends of every world to return the life he once had. And Bae though he could do it, because he still believed in the good in people. And his naivety would prove his downfall. Children know of good and evil, that is certain. But what they do not learn until much, much later is that evil is so much harder to best. Life isn't like the storybooks; you don't just scrape the soot from someone's soul with a few kind words.

Unknowing, Bae made the deal with his father, thinking that if he succeeded, his life would return. His father might have been twisted into a twisted facsimile of the man he once was, but his word was iron clad.

The solution was almost easier than expected, practically falling into his lap. Had Bae ben a few years older, a few years wiser, he would have known such things were too good to be true. But he had grown up a peasant and that is not a past which easily leaves you. He had been brought up from the knee not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, when the Blue Fairy gave him the bean, he said nothing, though he felt as if his heart would leap from his ribcage every time he dared glance at it. His father, his family, normalcy, all was in his reach.

Needless to say, he kept the thing in clenched fist all the way home.

Bae knew his father was skeptical of the plan; expected it to a certain degree but he had promised. He had made a deal. His father never broke a deal. That remained his solace, through quiet hours of waiting, piling on top of each other like the snow on mountain tops that never quite melted.

The walk through the woods was a quiet affair, when it finally occurred. There was so much Bae wanted to say. 'Thank you," or perhaps share the good memories he retained of the place they were leaving behind. He did not hate it after all, not all of it. He just hated the convoluting force it had become. At the time, words felt wrong. Nothing quite fit the size of the silence between the two of them.

Had he known what was coming next, maybe he would have said goodbye. He liked to think so.

When they reached the clearing, Bae was ready. Though his heart pounded, that was expectation, not fear. He would miss this place, yes, but he had his memories. Besides, a forest did not a home make. His father, magicless and whole did. His palms sweated in anticipation as he tossed the bean before him, wishing with all his might. The stone hit the ground and a green vortex erupted from the spot with a delayed but impressive force. Bae was almost too eager to leap inside, see what other worlds would hold for the pair of them.

But his father was not.

He didn't seem to understand that this was the only way that they could be together. It was not a trick. It was their salvation and his father wouldn't listen. Did he not want their family back? Did he not want him?

Bae never thought his father could be deaf, but he didn't seem hear a single word when he was told it would be okay, when Bae told him that he had to do it. His father drove the dagger in the soil and said, "I can't."

Bae finally realized. All magic came with a price. It might have taken him fourteen years to understand but now it was clear as crystal. His father, in taking the ultimate magic, would pay the ultimate price for his gift: Bae himself. Or perhaps, this was how Bae was meant to pay for his passage into the world beyond the portal. He preferred to believe the former. It made the next words come easier.

"You coward! You promised! You broke our deal!"

The next thing he remembered was falling. He thought it would occur forever, that this was some kind of cruel fairy trick but eventually he pulled from the dizzying vortex and landed somewhere beautiful in its strangeness. There were strange people all around, of all colors wearing equally diverse garments, some of which he had never seen. The air smelled of every food he could imagine, and then some. And best of all? The crackle of magic was nowhere to be found. The fairy's world had held true; this place was everything he could have wanted. Bae learned to follies of perfection that day, when he glanced all about him and realized his father—the man he had once called his father at the very least—was nowhere in sight.

Anger flared inside of him. His neighbors had been right; his father was a coward. Idols fall in the blink of an eye and Bae's largest had just toppled. Of all the deals his father could have broken, he chose this one. Bae's father had let him go, literally let him fall all alone into a strange, magicless universe where anything could happen.

Bae was surrounded by the strange people and they were asking him so many questions. He just had one: what was he supposed to do?

He allowed himself to be led away, taken him to other who were supposed to "help" him but. They couldn't do what he really needed. They couldn't send him back to his world. They couldn't bring his father back to him. Instead, they put him with strangers who were supposed to compensate for a family. But Bae doesn't think he will ever know one again.

Bae wished he could hate his father for what he had done. That would have been so much easier. But he still loved him. And that is what made it all so sad.