Chapter Text
“How hard it must be to know that your only weapon can be your weakness, huh, Raps?” – said Cassandra with a devious smile, holding Rapunzel’s hair with her hands. “I have many ways to defeat you, even my hands, while you..”
Varian didn’t let her finish as he threw at Cassandra a blue ball containing a freezing substance. It landed right under her feet and when it exploded, she could not remain standing, the ground became slippery because of the ice, so she fell, desperately trying to hold herself. As Varian was planning, Cassandra was not able to hold her ex friend’s golden hair anymore, Rapunzel was free. She instantly picked up her hair and left it behind herself.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that hair is my only weapon. What about this frying pan?” – Rapunzel raised her eyebrow, and looked at her beloved pan with a beautiful golden drawing on its front side. She has always been very proud of this item. But unfortunately, she was still as clumsy as she was 3 years ago, and while trying to swirl it, the pan hit her temple. Again. Another reason for Cassandra to laugh at her, not as friends do though, but as enemies or just people with a complicated relationship.
“Hah, you can’t even have it for a few minutes without hurting yourself, don’t try to convince me that you are handy with it.” She stood up, arrogantly lifting her chin. “Even if you had you hands growing from the right place, you would not have enough will to fight me for real, would you?”
Rapunzel frowned at such rude words from a person who was supposed to be her best friend, but replied:
“Why can’t you understand it, Cass? I don’t want to fight you because you’re my friend and I don’t know why you don’t feel the same way..”
Cassandra’s eyes squinted and anger flashed in them. “Ex friend. Don’t you dare call me ‘Cass’.” She said that with such a threatening intonation, with her voice lowering in the end, that Raps couldn’t help but feel a shiver running through her entire body. Cassandra positioned her hands, ready to attack with the rocks.
Rapunzel still could not recover from the shock caused by Cass’ words, she just stood there frozen, unable to think about how to protect herself.
The time was lost. Cassandra’s rocks attacked Varian and Eugene. Eugene was dodging from each singled rock, whereas Varian was both avoiding them and using alchemy to make them less dangerous to him. Cass’ plan had worked perfectly. While the guys were busy, no one could help Rapunzel, and her recovery from the shock was too slow. The glowing rock rapidly grew from the ground and hit Rapunzel with such force that she screamed and fell. Cassandra smiled with satisfaction.
“SUNSHINE! NO!”
Eugene’s face expressed fear and even though the rocks continued
attacking, he rushed towards the injured, but Cass blocked the way.
“What’s wrong, don’t you like my company? Do not worry, I’ll end your
suffering and you won’t be obliged to deal with me anymore, Eugene.”
With these words Cassandra pulled her sword and pointed it at him. Her opponent drew his sword in reply and gave her a crazy look. Their fight began. Naturally, Cass wasn’t able to control the rocks and fight with Eugene at the same time, so Varian didn’t have to deal with the danger now. So, he ran to his injured friend.
“Rapunzel!” – nervously said the alchemist, but no reply followed. Girl’s eyes were closed and she didn’t seem to move. “Hey, Rapunzel, look at me!” He took her face into his hands covering her whole cheeks. He was thinking hard on how to bring her to consciousness. Suddenly, he remembered. “I have an ammonia solution! Right, good that I have a new bottle.” He started searching in his backpack for the needed item. When at last he found it, he brought it to her nose, muttering to himself: “Okay, so take it, open the cap..” His actions followed his words. “The pressure equalizes and does its job…ammonia can’t be held inside anymore, no need for it to react with water…so it escapes..” It started to smell not in a very pleasant way. “Aaand this ‘super amazing’ smell will wake up our princess!” As he said, it did.
“Varian? What...is that smell, god..” – weakly asked Rapunzel.
“Pheh, ammonia never lets down!” – said Varian with a smirk, while hugging his sisterly friend. “I was so worried, how do you feel?”
“Oh…not well enough…But I…I need to stop…Cass..”
“You should not. Actually, we will need to talk about that later..” – said Varian with reproach, slightly frowning. “Me and Eugene, we will handle her this time. At least we will be more confident about fighting her.” With these words, he left to help Eugene.
Rapunzel stayed there, alone with her thoughts. Varian’s words struck her. She remembered how just before she passed out Cassandra said something similar. What did she say...eh… ‘…you would not have enough will to fight me for real, would you?’. True. She would not. She understood that Varian and Cassandra are right. Perhaps, something Varian wants to tell her is connected to this. But she was too weak to continue thinking it all through.
As Varian reached the ones fighting, Cassandra knocked Eugene down with a rock.
“Hey, is that too difficult for you to win without your precious rocks?! At least try to play fair!” – indignantly exclaimed Eugene, though looking more like an resentful child than like an angry man.
“Then I won’t be the one who plays fair too!” – said Varian, taking out his alchemical vials. Cassandra looked at the alchemist, annoyed:
“I’m tired of you all, when will it end?”
“Right now.” – he replied and attacked. Despite him not having much experience in fighting, he was learning fast and had quite a strategic type of thinking, so his moves were smart enough. He wasn’t just throwing the balls chaotically, hoping that one of them will probably do its work properly. He chose the most profitable, in his opinion, angles, which could get the ball directly to his opponent. And to say honestly, that was quite successful. Cass realized that it was too difficult to handle his attacks only with sword, so she had to shield herself from the compounds with the rocks. Varian knew that his supplies were not endless, so he needed to use them thriftly. Suddenly, Cassandra rushed forwards, right to Varian and wanted to push him, but he instinctively extended his hands forward, so his and her hands clasped together. Varian became frightened, because Cassandra was pushing hard, trying to knock him down. But what scared him most was her look. A look of an angry, almost crazy person, ready to do anything in the name of her destiny, which she fought was hers. It was hard to stand still, Cassandra had been training since her childhood, preparing to be a warrior, and Varian wasn’t a person interested in fighting, he was a man of science.
However, he had enough strength to hold her grip. Their hands were a bit trembling from the effort, which both Varian and Cassandra were putting. All of a sudden, Varian noticed how the moonstone in the Cass’s chest began to glow with a bright blue light. She also saw that and became even more surprised than Varian, cause she realized that she wasn’t the one who the moonstone was responding to.
“What the heck is that?! What did you do?!” – furiously shouted Cassandra.
Varian was switching his gaze between his enemy and the moonstone, being confused and horrified. “What do you mean? How on earth could this be connected to me?”
Cass squinted, looking at him with suspicion. Strange…indeed nothing had indicated his connection to the moonstone before, she thought. But this feeling…I can’t be wrong about this feeling of being distant from the power I possess, as if something took an air of belonging from me. Or someone…
Eugene interrupted her thoughts, swinging a sword at her. She dodged, still looking confused. Varian backed away in shock, he also felt something strange while being near the moonstone.
I’ve never felt anything like that - thoughts flashed in his head. Like a bond…as if it is something my body is familiar with.. Oh, that’s nonsense, Varian, just listen to yourself! He decided to leave these thoughts for now.
Cassandra looked at the ground and created a rock, growing out of it. She made sure that her powers didn’t go away. Then she looked at the team and backed away, leaving fast by constructing the rocks, lifting her upper and upper… A rocky pathway. She couldn’t stop thinking about what has happened but she decided not to worry much about it and wait for what will happen in the future.
Varian looked at her disappearing, his look was strict and concerned.