Chapter Text
“VARIAN!”
The shrill sound of Eugene’s panicked voice was followed by a terrified scream. The scream was enough to break Rapunzel out of the incantation’s hold, the bright golden glow fading from her eyes and returning to their soft green. She was just in time to see the teenager, one of her closest friends, lose hold of the edge of the tower, soaring backwards through the air. Their eyes locked, a childlike terror tainting his inquisitive blue, and then he was gone, over the edge, plummeting from their great height.
“VARIAN!” The princess cried, falling from where she’d been floating. Her eyes lingered where her friend had been just a moment too long, for the other girl hadn’t been distracted. Cassandra hadn’t even noticed the disappearance of the alchemist. Her eyes still glowed with a blue fury, possessed by the magic coursing through her veins, and Rapunzel’s horrified silence was enough for her to gain the upper hand. Black rocks surged forward, and the princess didn’t react, didn’t even budge, and then a sharp slicing sound was followed by tense silence. Rapunzel lurched forward, head drooping, but she didn’t fall to the floor. Her body was suspended in a standing position by the rocks skewered through it.
In a bright flash, the moonstone disappeared from Cassandra’s chest and she collapsed, blue hair fading back to black. For a moment she was confused, unaware of where she was, and her hand flew to the hole in her chest. It ached. But then she heard a noise of agony, and her head snapped up. Rapunzel. Rapunzel was right there, mere feet away from her, one arm still outstretched in the direction of the ledge. The arm was held there by a thin rock pierced right through it. There were at least six throughout her body, with blood pooling at her bare feet.
Cassandra screamed.
Heart pounding, Cass sat up on her cot, one hand clenched over the hole in her chest. Her breaths rattled in her lungs, barely strong enough to keep the oxygen flowing through her veins. Good. She wished it wasn’t. She wished her heart would just give out, like it almost had several times already. She’d been checked by the physician upon their return, and it had been discovered that her dependence on the moonstone had crippled her. She would have been dead if she’d had it much longer.
She wished she was.
The memories were seared into her mind’s eye, eager to appear every time she closed her eyes. Rapunzel’s dying figure, held up by the very rocks that she’d been in control of. The way the light left her eyes just after Cass got to her, only looking at her for a moment before they went blank. And the horrible despair she’d felt when they’d descended the tower and found Varian’s body out on one of the extended rocks, mangled and broken. The way his twinkling, baby blue eyes just stared at the sky, blood pooling under his head and around his extremities that faced all the wrong directions.
She pulled at her hair, staring at the thin blanket spread over her lap. She’d already tried staring at the stone walls, but they left too much up to the imagination. They were too similar to the black nothingness behind her eyelids, allowing her mind to paint her a picture. The faint details in the brown fabric gave her something to focus on, something to pick apart.
Brown. Rapunzel’s hair used to be brown.
“Cass?”
“Go away,” she rasped, legs tucking into her chest. She knew that voice. It was the voice that came every morning, noon, and night. It was the one that assured her everything would be alright, when it wouldn’t. It was the person that should hate her the most, but instead still treated her like an old friend.
“Cass,” Eugene tried again, gloved hands gripping the bars. He was dressed in his brand new Captain’s uniform, a beautifully ornate golden sun emblazoned on the red shirt. At one point in her life, she’d longed to wear that very same uniform. Now she wasn’t even worthy of looking at it. “They’ve come to a decision.”
“If it’s not to kill me, I don’t want to hear it.” Her eyes betrayed her and she looked up, only to see the tired devastation on his face. He was trying so hard. But she couldn’t bring herself to appreciate it. He should hate her.
“Community service,” he said quietly, just loud enough for her to hear. “You’re not to leave the grounds of the castle without a guard or two to escort you. You’re not allowed to leave the kingdom for the foreseeable future, and you’ve been stripped of your duty as a handmaiden. I’ve spoken to the king- your community service will be helping the guard-“
“Stop it,” she interrupted, one hand squeezing the stiff surface of her cot. “Just… just stop it. Stop helping me.”
“Cass.” She could hear the exasperation, the desperation in his voice. It only frustrated her more.
“They’re dead, Eugene,” she snapped, uncurling so she could glare at him. He flinched. “Varian and Rapunzel are dead. Your little brother, the love of your life. I killed them. They are dead because of ME.” Eugene’s sad brown eyes bore into her, the heavy bruises underneath just making her feel even worse.
“They’re dead because of Zhan Tiri,” he corrected, voice breaking when the d word left his mouth. “It manipulated you, and used you. You would never-“
“I DID!” She flew to her feet, swaying enough that she had to rest a hand against the wall, and Eugene looked like it was taking all his self restraint not to unlock the cell and help her. “I’M the one who kidnapped Varian! I’m the one who drugged him, and beat him, and told him he was a fool! I’m the one who stuck him in a cage that wasn’t enough to withstand the collision of the magic, and I’m the one who ran Rapunzel through with those rocks! Those were all MY decisions, Eugene! Stop pretending they’re not!”
“I saw the look on your face when the Moonstone released you,” he argued, brow furrowing with frustration. “I saw the anger clear from your eyes the second it was gone. And I saw your reaction when you- when you saw her. When you saw him. Those… you can’t fake that.”
“BE MAD AT ME!” She screamed, throwing herself at the bars. “Yell at me! Scream at me! Tell me I’m a monster, and just get rid of me! Please!” She sobbed, gripping the bars to keep herself upright. “Please, Eugene. Please, just let them kill me. I can’t- I can’t live in a world…”
“A world without them,” he finished for her, one hand resting over hers. She visibly flinched, bloodshot eyes flicking up to meet his. They were filling with tears. Everything she was saying, it wasn’t making him mad. It was just breaking his heart more. “Cass, I know. I know how much it hurts. Every morning, I wake up, and I- and I go to her room. I go like nothing’s happened, and I knock on the door, and then I remember. I remember that she’s not going to answer, that she’s not going to open the door and just- just be there. All she had to do was be there to brighten up a room. I find myself walking down into that chamber, and all I see is the ruined mess left behind that the kid’s never gonna clean up.” His breath hitched, and he ducked his head, wiping at his eyes with his free hand. “And you know what I found yesterday? I found Ruddiger. He was just sitting there by all those broken beakers and books, waiting. And I just- I didn’t have the heart to- to tell him that-“ He choked, pulling back from the bars to press a hand to his mouth, eyes wide and blurry.
“Eugene-“
“But you know what I don’t do?” He continued, regaining his composure. “I don’t have to go sit in your room and look at the dust that’s covering it. I don’t have to go visit Fidella, or head down to the training field and think about how we’ll never be able to sword fight, or just wrestle . I don’t have to think about living the rest of my life without you, because you’re still here. You’re still here, Cass, and that’s important. You’ve always been like a sister to me. An annoying sister that I want to punch, yeah, but you’re someone I care about. Say what you will, but I’m so, so glad I didn’t lose three of my best friends that day.”
Cass shivered, squeezing the bars tighter as she pressed her forehead against them. She could still feel the way the warmth had left Rapunzel’s face in her hold, tears mixing with the blood that dribbled down her chin from blue lips. She could never forget that. She could never forget that she did that.
“Raps,” she whispered, eyes squeezing shut as she forced herself to relive the moment again, to watch the light leave her best friend’s eyes. She didn’t even notice any movement until arms wrapped around her, free of any bars between them. Her eyes snapped open, recoiling in shock, but Eugene just held her tighter, not letting her go. The keys were still dangling from his hand, the door swung wide open.
“C’mon,” he said gently, backing the both of them away from the cot and toward the door. “Let’s get you out of this place.”
“I don’t deserve it,” she gasped, blinking the tears from her eyes. “Please, Eugene. I don’t deserve help. I- I-“
“You made a mistake,” he insisted, leading her out of the cell and closing it with his foot. “You made a lot of mistakes. And you know who else has? Literally everyone. I was a criminal for twenty years.” He kept her in the hug even as he edged them out of the dungeons, ignoring the glares of the inmates and the dank stench in the air. “And… and Varian? He made a lot of mistakes too. So did Rapunzel . But you know what? We all moved past them. That’s the key. You can’t dwell on the bad forever.”
“I betrayed my best friend,” she whimpered, weakly tugging to free herself. “The last moment we shared, we were fighting. She- she died with my face as the last thing she saw. After I did all of those horrible things. She’s gone , and I wasted the time we had together! She’d hate me!”
“You and I both know Rapunzel has a knack for forgiveness,” he said softly, shifting so that they were side by side, him supporting her on her unsteady feet with an arm under her armpits. “She never gave up on you.”
“She should have,” Cass croaked, another sob clogging her throat.
“But she didn’t. Because she’s seen you, she knows how you tick. She knows your strengths, your weaknesses. She knows your heart. You’re more than your darkest moments, Cassandra.” Cass fell silent beside him, and he would have feared she’d passed out again if she wasn’t hobbling along with him. Her misty eyes were glued to the stone floors, refusing to look at either him or the approaching exit. He took a deep, steadying breath.
Rapunzel was always better with this sort of thing.
“When Rapunzel first came to the castle, after the tower,” he began, voice wavering as he recalled those moments with his beloved. “She had a lot of doubts. Everything she’d ever known was a lie, and she didn’t think she was up to the challenges ahead. She thought she’d never get past being that girl in the tower, that it would always block her and keep her from growing and moving forward. Her mom gave her this book- her sketchbook- and it had an inscription in it. It said ‘Plus est en vous.’ It’s french. It means ‘there is more in you.’” He glanced at the girl pressed into his side, one arm on his, with the other clutched over her heart. “There’s more in you, Cass. More than just your mistakes.” He pushed the doors open, revealing the extravagant halls of the castle and the bright, warm sun bleeding through the windows.
Cass’s hand left the hole in her chest, wobbling over her mouth, and her eyes squeezed shut. Another sob wracked her body, and he guided her over to the wall, sliding down beside her as she broke down. She wailed, fingers digging into the material of his shirt for comfort, and he held onto her, trying as hard as he could to be the replacement for the one his friend was longing for. Rapunzel used to be the shoulder both of them cried on, but now…
Now they’d have to be there for each other.