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Continuing the Festival of Good Will despite the bad will permeating the kingdom was a fantastic decision. Rapunzel is glad that Faith talked her dad into it. And even though it hurt, she's glad that Faith portrayed her the way that she did in that little play. It was certainly more… nuanced than the original script would have been. It humanized Cass, where she probably would have ended up looking like a monster.
While it hurt, seeing the reality of she and Cass's issues performed in front of the kingdom, it made her a little bit hopeful too. Cassandra had issues with her, but they were resolvable. If they were just able to talk somewhere free of Zhan Tiri’s influence, Rapunzel knows that she can still get through to her.
When Faith suggests that they find somewhere private to talk, Rapunzel agrees immediately. Faith seems like she might have some sort of insight into Cassandra that Rapunzel herself doesn’t. Faith portrayed that situation so realistically, it was almost like she was
there.
Rapunzel would certainly like to hear her thoughts.
Rapunzel hears footsteps behind the two of them, and turns around. She sees the short, grey form of Zhan Tiri reaching up to grab Faith’s dress. Rapunzel jerks backwards, grabbing Zhan Tiri by the hand. She holds her up in the air, the small, angry woman flailing in her grasp.
“What are you doing?” Rapunzel hisses.
“She’s Cassandra,” Zhan Tiri shouts, pointing to Faith, “she’s here to betray you!” Faith looks at Zhan Tiri with wide eyes, and she has gone so pale that she could blend in with the whitest palace walls.
“What do you mean, she’s Cassandra?” Rapunzel says.
“She has a disguise you nitwit,” Zhan Tiri says, raising her other hand to claw at the one Rapunzel’s using to hold her, “the cloak from the spire.” Oh, Rapunzel thinks, and all of their strange interactions in these past few days slot themselves into place in her brain. That’s why Faith had such strong insight into Cassandra- it’s because she is her. But Cassandra being here doesn’t necessarily herald a betrayal, especially if Zhan Tiri is trying to get her caught.
Rapunzel would wager a guess that Cass isn’t under the woman’s thumb any more. Rapunzel glances around the expanse of the yard, and spots Pete and Stan.
“Arrest this woman,” she says, making eye contact with Pete, “she is a danger to the kingdom.”
“But what she said about Cassandra,” Pete asks, running towards her.
“Was a lie,” Rapunzel says smoothly, “just worry about taking this woman to the dungeons, please.” Pete nods, and Rapunzel drops Zhan Tiri kicking and screaming into his arms. Pete grabs her around her waist. She kicks and punches at him, but Stan grabs her arms and legs so she can’t move them.
“We’ll get her to the dungeons, Princess,” Stan promises.
“I will not be caged, Rapunzel,” Zhan Tiri says darkly, “Cassandra will come around.” She smiles sweetly at Faith-Cassandra.
“Won’t you, dear?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cassandra whispers in Faith’s voice. The guards drag her away, and Rapunzel and Faith-Cassandra stand awkwardly there for a moment. Rapunzel takes her by the hand.
“Let’s go talk, like you wanted,” she says, voice rising with her nerves. Faith-Cassandra follows her to the tent, and they’re finally left alone. Cassandra’s hand feels limp in her hand, almost dead. Rapunzel leads her into the tent, and then takes her other hand. Faith-Cassandra looks down at her feet, and there’s tears brimming in her eyes.
“What did you want to tell me,” Rapunzel says, “Cass?” Faith-Cassandra dislodges one of her hands from Rapunzel’s, and goes to pull at her skirt. The disguise comes off, and Cassandra shifts back into herself. Her hair glows the same shade of blue it did the last time that Rapunzel saw it, and her eyes glow even more brightly with the tears. She takes Rapunzel’s hand again, and squeezes.
“Raps,” she whispers, not looking up from the ground, “I don’t know what to say.” Her voice catches in her throat, and a single tear rolls down her cheek.
“I just,” she says, breaking her hands free, “I found out that she was Zhan Tiri and- and she’d been manipulating me into being- being this .” She gestures towards the moonstone decorating her chest.
“I don’t know what she wants, but she’s been urging me to do this the whole time,” Cassandra says, “I didn’t mean to-” She shakes her head, and then turns around.
“I didn’t mean to be the bad guy,” she whispers. Rapunzel wants to comfort her, to tell Cass that she’s not he bad guy, that she’s never been the bad guy… but that would be an empty platitude, just meant to make her friend feel better. Cass has hurt a lot of people, and pretending that she hasn’t would be irresponsible.
Instead, Rapunzel just listens. Maybe that’s something that she should have been doing more of all along. Cassandra paces around the tent, and then finds a chair. She nearly collapses into it. She puts her elbows down on her legs, and then holds her head in her hands.
“I don’t want to be the bad guy,” she says, looking down at her legs. Rapunzel feels her heart disintegrate in her chest, like she wrapped her hair around it and cast her decay charm, “when Varian said we were the same, I didn’t really- I didn’t see it. Not until now.” She holds her head up, and then opens up her right hand into a fist. She summons a tiny cage of black rocks in the middle of the ground.
“I am the bad guy,” Cassandra whispers. Rapunzel bites her lip. She doesn’t know what to say to that to make Cassandra feel better.
“And I don’t even know how to- what to say,” Cassandra says. Her look is tortured, like she’s been blown out onto a stormy sea. There are words that Cassandra wants to say, but Rapunzel knows that she can’t manage them. She certainly can’t say them now that she’s herself, when it was so hard to say them as Faith.
“When you were pretending to be Faith,” Rapunzel says gently, “you said that it was hard to tell someone that you were wrong. That you were sorry.” Rapunzel pauses, trying to find the right words for this next question.
“Is that what you wanted to tell me?” she asks. She doesn’t think that’s the gentlest way to phrase it, but it’s certainly the best she can come up with. Cassandra makes proper eye contact with her for the first time, then.
“Yes,” she says, simply. Talking about feelings is hard for Cass, so just admitting that she wants forgiveness- that’s a lot.
“Alright,” Rapunzel, kneeling down beside Cassandra’s chair, and taking one of Cassandra’s hands, “we will figure this out.”
“I was afraid that you wouldn’t forgive me,” Cass says, voice catching in her throat. Rapunzel tilts her head up, looking into Cassandra’s wet eyes. She propels herself into Cassandra’s lap, then, wrapping the other girl in a firm hug. Cassandra’s rock-armor pokes into Rapunzel’s skin, harsh bits stabbing her. She’s still the wielder of the moonstone, but she’s Cass too. The best friend and the mortal enemy- all wrapped up into one complicated package.
Is that what it’s always going to be like, looking at Varian and Cass? Seeing someone who loves her, but who once wanted nothing more than for her demise? Rapunzel pushes away the thought, and leans into the hug instead.
Rapunzel holds Cassandra as tightly as she can, and she feels her own tears start to fall.
“I love you,” Rapunzel says, “that will never change. No matter what, Cass. I will always love you.” They have things to work through- mountains of emotions that still need exploring, but Rapunzel knows that she loves Cass enough to summit any mountain to get through to her. There is nothing on earth that could make her give up on someone she loves that much.
Cassandra starts sobbing then, holding Rapunzel closer. Her armor is still stabbing into Rapunzel, but her hands are soft and warm. Rapunzel knows that they’re going to get there.
Cass has come home, and they can work out the rest later.