Chapter Text
A cold breeze blew across her face startling Rapunzel awake.
Had Eugene left the left the balcony doors open?
She pulled herself from Eugene's embrace and walked to the french doors.
"Oh, Eugene," she whispered.
She turned around suddenly jumpy at the darkness. Was their room always this dark? The usually brightly painted walls now seemed ominous. Her pretty murals of fields and festivals, the boat ride she ad Eugene shared were hard to make out, and it made her feel more scared.
She sprinted back the safety of the bed, but was pulled down by an unseen force. The body climbed on top of her back and clasped their hand over her mouth muffling her screams.
Eugene only shifted slightly in bed, always a heavy sleeper.
Rapunzel struggled under the weight of her kidnapper, but they were clearly much stronger. She chomped down on the hand covering her mouth causing them to cry out.
"EUGENE," cried Rapunzel.
Eugene bolted up at the panicked cry. She could see his silhouette frantically moving about.
"Dispose of him," came the male voice of the kidnapper on top of Rapunzel.
Another figure moved from the shadows and knocked him over. Rapunzel could hear scuffling and a loud, swift crack, followed by a last moan. The other kidnapped walked back towards her moving into the pale moonlight coming in from the balcony window. Rapunzel could finally make out his red hair and eye patch. The Stabbingtons.
She gasped right before a blow to the back of head knocked her out.
Flynn fluttered his eyes open. Sunlight was just starting to creep into the room he awoke into. his head hurt and felt like he was moving in slow motion.
"Rapunzel," he moaned remembering her cries of terror.
"It's ok, son, we're looking for her," The King said. Flynn turned to look at him.
"Well where do you think they'd take her?"
Flynn was panicking, he was hurting in more ways than one. His princess was gone, and the back of his head was still screaming in pain from where one of the brother's, he could never remember who was who, punched him so hard it knocked him out. He had failed miserably and he could see it in his in-laws eyes. The sad look that they held for 18 years prior to finding Rapunzel was back, and this time no one had really any clues as to where the brothers would take her.
The guards had looked everywhere and had seen no sign of her, not even in her old tower. Flynn feared he'd never find her.
"She could be anywhere," the queen sobbed.
In fact Rapunzel wasn't anywhere. She was in the middle of nowhere. A snow palace built of ice hidden on a mountainside, and guarded by a hideous monster. The brothers had took turns carrying her all of the way to the harbor, and then smuggling a boat. They kept her tied up on the boat since she attacked them and tried to swim to shore.
Once they made it across the strait they trekked through a quiet village at night and climbed a snowy mountain all day.
Rapunzel's new room was, thankfully, equipped with a balcony where she currently stood looking out on the unfamiliar land sadly. She missed her home, her bed, her love. She was worried Eugene was injured badly. The blow to his head was so loud it hurt her head just thinking about it.
She truly wished she had her long hair back. She could just climb out. Now she was just damsel in distress-again.
The door opened just then revealing one of the Stabbington brothers behind its solid oak. Rapunzel gave him a fierce glare of which was ignored by him. He was here to do a job, his favorite job; revenge.
"Come on, Princess," he said with bane.
"No. You tell me why I'm here."
"You're about to find out."
With much struggle, which involved much biting, he picked her up over his shoulder and brought her to a new room down the stairs from her tower to a floor several stories below.
"Watch this one; she bites."
He placed her in an old chair which creaked with her weight. He held her there and his brother tied her in tightly. She winced with the ropes biting her wrists and ankles.
They dragged a sheet covered lump before her. Rapunzel's heart pounded in her ears. Whatever was under that sheet wasn't going to be good, she already knew.
"We don't need much from you. Just a tear drop in her-"
With a flourish they pulled off the sheet and reveal a pile if dust and bones in a red cloak.
"Mother," she whispered. The sheet shock left her confused.
"Why would you drag me here to see her?"
"Your tears give life."
"How would you know?"
"Why I know I look different, love, but it's me, your mommy, possessed as hunky thieves."
Rapunzel gasped in disbelief. Mother Gothel walking the Earth. She felt trapped, and it caused her to panic.
"Just cry for me daughter."
"I'm not your daughter, and I won't be a captive anymore!"
"Oh I see. The wanted thief has given you the world. Well, let me take it back."
One of the Stabbington brothers pulled out a sharp looking knife.
"I believe pain creates more tears than grief anyways,"Mother Gothel as the Stabbington brother said, "Let's make you weep."