Chapter Text
“She actually said that? She’s gonna manipulate someone else to take the moonstone?” Varian paces in his old cell. “Okay, this is bad. This is really bad, the last thing we need is another,” he winces, “well, you. No offense.”
“None taken,” Cassandra says softly. “Varian, I know officially I asked you here to tell you about that ghost girl, but I’m… There’s another reason, too.”
“Yeah?” he asks nonchalantly, but his eyes betray that he knows exactly what she’s working up to. It makes it easier. It makes it harder.
She fights down her pride like acid in her throat. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kidnapped you, or used that truth serum. It was wrong.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” she repeats, incredulous. “That’s it?”
“Well, I did almost crush you with a metal machine once,” he says. “Let’s just say we’re even and move on.”
She laughs, once, startled. “You’re really not gonna hold a grudge.”
“I’ve done grudges. Didn’t agree with me. Besides,” he softens, “I know how hard it is to earn back everyone’s trust and forgiveness. It will be tough for you, too, and I won’t add to it.”
“How did you do it?” she asks, her voice hoarse.
“How’d I do what?”
“How did you get them to forgive you?” Cassandra has to know. “How did you forgive yourself?”
Varian considers the question. “I don’t know. As soon as I decided not to be on the wrong side of history, Rapunzel just accepted it. Even after I kidnapped her mother. Even after I almost encased her mother in amber. Even after, well, everything.”
She flinches and looks away. Varian notices the reaction.
“I think they accepted me because they believed I could be better,” he says. “So I decided I wanted to be the person they thought I was. I wanted to,” he laughs softly, like sharing an inside joke with himself, “make them proud. I think you just have to…keep going. Don’t stop trying. No matter what.”
“…That’s some good advice.”
“I have my moments,” he teases.
“Thank you, Varian.”
He smiles, crooked and bright, and for the first time, Cassandra has hope that she can do this.
“Varian told me of the situation. I know you wanted me to leave, but…” Rapunzel lets the sentence hang in the air. Cassandra can’t look her in the eyes.
“Cass, I'm—”
She glances up, then. “Cassandra.”
“…Cassandra. Gothel and the girl weren’t the only reasons you took the moonstone, were they?”
“No. No, they weren’t.”
It’s unbearable, looking into those big, green eyes full of compassion, trying to find out what it is that bothers Cassandra and how to fix it.
“Rapunzel,” she chokes out. “I’m so…sorry. I never should have blamed you for Gothel’s death. I never should have blamed you for being taken by her, you were a baby and she wasn’t a good mother, how can you just stand here and—“
“It means a lot to me,” she interrupts, “to hear you say that. It hurt, when you blamed me for those things.”
They are silent for three breaths.
“…Do you want to know the other reasons for the moonstone?”
Rapunzel looks at her, long and hard, with the scrutiny of a queen. “I think I already do know them.”
“Everything got so messed up. I never meant to… I mean, I was so angry. At you. At the world. The unfairness of it all. You made me feel so…”
“Inferior?”
“Yes,” she breathes. “Exactly. But I realize now that it was so stupid to hold that against you. It’s not your fault that you were born into a higher class than I was. You could’ve been less condescending about it, though. When you pulled rank to win an argument, you weren’t my best friend, you were the future queen and I was just your servant.”
“You’ve never been just my servant to me, Cass…andra.”
“You can call me Cass,” she says. “I never felt like you…considered me, at all.”
Rapunzel looks at her, frowning. “Cass, I lived in a tower for eighteen years. My only company was the woman who kidnapped me and a chameleon who couldn’t talk back. I don’t know how to be a good friend. But neither do you.”
“I know, I blamed you for—“
“No,” she says. “I’m talking about before you took the moonstone. If…if it’s okay?” Cassandra nods. “Well, I just felt like… sometimes, you tried to force me to do what you said and got angry and kind of aggressive when I didn’t. You made me doubt my choices, and I know they’re not always good ones, but… You made me feel like I was supposed to trust you and only you, when there were other people who also had my best interests at heart.”
Cassandra keeps her face neutral. “I see.”
“Are you mad?”
“Are you?” she counters.
“We’re both not…the best for each other,” Rapunzel says hesitatingly. “Are we.”
Cassandra snorts without any humor.
“I’m going to be better,” she says. “I’ve hurt you. I’m sorry. But I know sorry doesn’t fix everything.”
“I’m sorry, too. Can we move on?”
“Yes.” She smiles, then, really smiles. “Yes, we can.”
“Good. Let’s talk about what we’ll do with the moonstone.”
“I can’t just hand it over,” she says. “That girl might have been bluffing, but if she wasn’t, if someone else with even bigger a grudge than mine takes it, who knows what will happen.”
“But you can’t keep it,” Rapunzel says incredulously. “You’ll have to live with the destructive powers of the moonstone forever.”
“I could go into exile,” she muses out loud.
“No! You don’t deserve that.”
“It wouldn’t have to be exile,” she continues her train of thought. “Just… I’d like to get away from Corona. Keeping the stone away from whoever the girl is manipulating is a good bonus, wouldn’t you say? It's not all bad. Now that I can control it, I mean.”
“You’d really do that?”
“Think about it, Raps.” The nickname comes out easily and makes Rapunzel smile. “If I give up the moonstone, the black rocks will destroy this kingdom again until you join with it.”
“So then I join with it,” she says, defiant. “It was what I was planning to do in the Dark Kingdom until you interfered.”
“Yeah, and Adira and everyone else implied heavily that it would kill you. This way, we don’t have to take the risk.”
“…Doesn’t it hurt? The moonstone is supposed to be…bad.”
“Actually, it’s not. I think you of all people know that it’s not the power itself that’s bad, but the person who wields it. A sword’s just a sword until it’s used it to assasinate someone. Someone else might use a sword to defend herself or others.”
“That’s well put.” Rapunzel smiles. “But we do it right. No prison break. Your new life shouldn’t be started as a fugitive.”
It is easier said than done. To say that King Frederic is reluctant to let the daughter of the woman who kidnapped his daughter go with the moonstone, is an understatement. It takes a week of pleading from his daughter and urging from his wife, and even then, it is hardly a perfect situation.
But Cassandra is no longer a fugutive, she is free to start over somewhere away from Corona, and that is what matters. She sets out to see the world.
The further away she gets from Corona, the less wary stares she is met with. In one kingdom, a little girl is awed at her blue hair. None of these people know what it means, what power she wields, and it feels good.
Cassandra is in a forest, practising the sword with her bad hand, when she sees a familiar figure.
“Owl!” she exclaims, grinning. “It’s good to see you. What’s that you got there?”
There’s a parchment in Owl’s beak:
Missive from Princess Rapunzel of Corona, requesting the return of Cassandra for a matter of great importance.
It’s not Rapunzel’s handwriting or tone of voice, so it must have been done by a scribe. Official.
She is wary, but Rapunzel knows that Cass needed to get away. If she needs her to come back, things must be serious. Her mind wanders to the ghost girl, but that’s impossible; the moonstone is right here, with her. It has to be something else.
Cassandra makes the trip back, her mind reeling with possibilities, but what she finds when she arrives is nothing like what she had expected.
She’s greeted by her father, who excitedly takes her by the hand and leads her through the castle.
“Dad,” she tries to get a word in. “What is this about? Why couldn’t write Rapunzel write me the letter herself?”
“Because this is official Corona business,” a booming voice answers. King Frederic. Belatedly, she notices they’ve arrived in the throne room. Fear hits her next: that the king has changed his mind about letting her go free.
Before she can voice these fears, Rapunzel enters the room. “Cass!” she greets, grinning, and it’s easy to grin back. Being away from Rapunzel and Corona really did her some good.
“Why am I here?” she asks. “I doubt it’s because of my pleasant company.”
Eugene, standing next to Rapunzel, smiles wryly. “Oh, no, it certainly isn’t that.”
“It’s not to grace me with yours, either,” she counters, but before they can get fully into it, the queen clears her throat.
“Rapunzel,” says Arianna, her eyes kind. “Why don’t you tell Cassandra why you asked her to return?”
She perks up. “Right! Cass, remember that conversation we had about the moonstone?”
“It rings a vague bell,” she says, amused at her enthusiasm.
“Well, turns out, there is a way I can join with it! Your timing is actually perfect. The solar eclipse is tomorrow.”
“Eclipse?” she repeats, brows furrowed. “Raps, correct me if I’m wrong, but an eclipse does not sound like something that is good for someone who embodies the sun."
Rapunzel shakes her head. “We found out that the eclipse will make the sundrop become solid like the moonstone. If I part with it, and you part with the moonstone, we can join them without any harm being done!”
“You understand, Cassandra, that this is not optional,” says King Frederic.
A twinge of resentment passes through her, but the king’s orders don’t matter, because Cassandra doesn’t want to keep the moonstone anyway. It’s the last thing tethering her to everything that brought her down, it’s connected to the ghost girl who manipulated her, and she doesn’t want it.
“I’m surprised, Your Majesty,” she says, because she gives as good as she gets, “that you’ll even risk the safety of your daughter like this. You’ve locked her in a tower to do so, after all. Do you know that this is completely, one hundred percent safe? Is getting rid of my powers really worth it to you?”
The king bristles. Not even the queen’s comforting hand makes the narrowing of his eyes disappear. “Remember your place,” he grits out. “You have only been given this chance because I allowed it, for my daughter, for my most trusted captain.”
“No,” she says. “I have been given this chance because I wanted it to be so. I could use the moonstone to destroy this kingdom and instead, I’m allowing you take it away from me. Remember your place.” She smiles. “Your Majesty.”
“Okay.” Rapunzel laughs nervously, her smile much too bright. “Let’s all just move on! Cass, we can catch up somewhere else, Dad, I’m sure you’re busy. Okay, let’s go, bye!”
She grabs Cassandra’s arm, who lets herself be led away from the throne room, Eugene following them.
“Well,” he says when they’re far enough away. “Wasn’t that all just sweet. Threatening the reigning monarch was a little much, don’t you think?”
“What should I have done instead?” she asks sweetly. “Looked in a mirror and combed my hair while ignoring the king’s comment?”
“One out of three! Your time away has improved your intelligence, maybe next time you’ll get the other two as well.”
“Guys,” Rapunzel interrupts because she knows them well enough to know that they can go at this for hours. “Let’s just go to my room and then Cass can tell us all about her adventures!”
Cassandra smiles while they walk to her room, thinking about how good it felt to tell the king off.
The moon and the sun unite.
The ghost girl hadn’t been lying when she said she was convincing someone else to take the moonstone; thankfully, they had been prepared for that, and thanks to Varian, he was stopped from taking another step by the power of alchemy.
Cassandra is free. From Corona, from Rapunzel, from the moonstone.
“I’ll miss you,” Rapunzel, hair brown and freshly cut, says. “Again.”
“I can’t promise I’ll visit often, but… We can write letters, every once in a while.”
She brightens. “Yes. Yes, that sounds perfect.”
They hug.
“Try not to threaten any monarchs from new kingdoms into executing you,” says Eugene.
“Try not to let your ego grow anymore; it’s already at full capacity,” says Cassandra.
They hug.
“I love you,” her father tells her, "so much. And I’m so proud.”
“I love you, too.”
They hug.
Cassandra sets off on her horse with a smile on her face and moves forward.
A year after she leaves Cassandra gets a letter, inviting her to a royal wedding. She usually gives Corona a wide berth, but for this, she’ll make an exception.