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"Raps, you have to trust me!" Cassandra yells, desperation so clear in her voice that Rapunzel's hands start trembling.
She knows, she knows that Cassandra thinks she's making a bad choice. She knows Cassandra is angry already about their fight, and sad too, but- but everything is happening so quickly, and their friends are in danger, Eugene is in danger, and Rapunzel can't- She can't-
"Rapunzel!" Cassandra calls again, at the same time that a scream is ripped from Eugene's throat as the vines tighten around him. Rapunzel's eyes are prickling, but it's not the time, so she tightens her jaw, ready to start the incantation, until- "Raps, you don't know what the incantation will do! The spear can destroy the vines, please listen to me!"
Eugene's eyes are closed with the pain, Rapunzel can't meet them. Her mind is muddled, and she's trying to make a choice, remembering how badly she messed up before, and how much she could lose right now- but Cassandra's right. The incantation nearly killed them all earlier, and she could- what if she hurt Eugene while trying to free him? What would happen to him, to her friends, if the incantation didn't stop at the tree, but affected them too?
She took decisions she regretted before. She… She's not sure there's a right choice here, and all she wants is for everyone to be alright.
"Raps-"
"Okay!" She yells, rushing back towards Cassandra with her heart beating loudly in her ears.
Rapunzel grabs the spear and cuts swiftly through the vines holding Cassandra without even thinking about it, her mind too busy worrying about the what ifs, what if she was making the wrong decision, what if it wasn't quick enough, what if Eugene- She barely notices it when Cassandra tears the weapon from her, running to the closest part of the tree and plunging it into the roots holding up Hector - but the inhuman screech he lets out as the vines start dying shakes her to her core.
She raises her head to see Hector's face deformed with anger and pain she's not sure are his, eyes overtaken by the magic possessing him. Cassandra grunts, takes the spear out only to stab the roots again, and the tree shudders and twists on itself, forcing them to take a step back as the still alive vines swing wildly towards them. It seems more active now than ever, fighting the effect of the spear slowly spreading through it - slowly, too slowly, and her friends are still up there, still in pain, and-
"Cass!"
"I know!" she answers, already trying to go to the spear again, so she can stab another part of the vines. It is effective, like Cassandra said it would be, but its range is not wide enough, and each seconds their friends spend in the clutches of the tree, are seconds they don't have.
The incantation would have destroyed everything at once, a vicious voice whispers in Rapunzel's mind. It's too late now, it says, and she tries to ignore it, immobilising vines with her hair to clear a path for Cassandra.
"NO," Hector screams again, the words not his own. "THOSE WHO ENTERS THE TREE OF ZHAN TIRI SHALL BE DESTROYED," he repeats. His voice is chilling, devoid of anything human.
Just as he says that, Cassandra manages to burn the vines holding onto Lance, and he falls heavily, pain etched on his face. Rapunzel runs to him right as Hookfoot falls next to him, and there is hope, for one second, that their plan is finally working. But when she looks up, Eugene is still held tightly by the tree, and it seems to be diverting more of its root into keeping him there.
"Eugene!" she cries out, feeling completely useless from down here. He's hurting, and he could- she should have protected him, she should have saved him already, why-
"The tree knows it's losing," Adira announces, suddenly at her side. She's looking at Hector, worry and fear clearer than any emotion she has expressed before. "It knows it couldn’t hold everyone, not at the rate the spear is hurting it, but as long as the heart isn't directly harmed, it'll be able to keep them in its grasp-"
"Where's the heart," Rapunzel bits out, not in the mood for exposition.
There's something she can't quite explain in Adira's eyes, and then she says the heart is down where Hector fell, and Rapunzel's blood turns to ice. Cassandra will never manage to kill it if they don't go there, but how can they- the vines will stop them way before they can get to it, how-
Rapunzel somehow finds her voice to tell Lance and Hookfoot to get out of there with the horses - she feels like she can't breathe right, and that they'll hear it, but they still listen to her and flee. That's all that matters. She's trembling as a vine hits Cassandra in the chest, making her fly back and crash with the spear still clutched in her hand.
"Cass you need to go!" Rapunzel yells, eyes focused on Eugene, and how pale he seems even from down there. He hasn't even called her name once, and she knows- she knows it's bad because of it. He always tries to check up on her, no matter how much his own life is threatened.
"What- no Raps, this is working!"
"It's not! This is taking too long, and Eugene-"
"Raps, think about it! There's only- The roots around Hector are already starting to die, give me more time, I can get Eugene out of here," Cassandra pleads, raising herself up again shakily as Rapunzel walks towards the tree.
"It's not going to be enough Cass," she exclaims, frustrated, turning her face towards her friend for a second, "we-"
"Raps watch out!"
It's all the warning she gets before a vine wraps itself around her waist tightly, cutting her breath short as she's yanked up without a moment to think. The move is nauseating, and the pressure around her midsection is immediately painful, but her arms are stuck and she can only try to wiggle desperately out of there, knowing it's helpless. Has it been hurting Eugene as much for that long? Her guilt is growing in her heart as she opens her eyes and sees how close he is now, his mouth pulled in a tight line as he tries to contain his grunts of pain. He's too pale, too weak for her liking. She calls for him, choked up, and nearly cries right then and there when he opens one eye to a slit, searching for her.
"S- sunshine," he whispers, so quietly she can barely hear it.
Under her, Cassandra is yelling her name, louder when the vines move her up to face Hector. But before he can speak, the entire tree screeches out of pain through him, and more vines seem to rot in front of her eyes, until there's only one holding him.
Cassandra is still trying to destroy the tree. The tree is still trying to destroy them too, and with horror, Rapunzel watches how the remaining vines drop Hector to his death without a second thought, instead wrapping themselves around Eugene, raising him up and making him yell out, pain evident in his voice. A few tears escape her eyes now, because she made the wrong choice, she failed, again, and Eugene is paying for it. Eugene is screaming, and she's screaming for him too as his skin takes a green tint that makes her want to be sick.
When his eyes open, they are wide and blank, just like Hector's were. A sob tears through her chest at the sight.
"SUNDROP," he says, his voice loud and alien. There's nothing of Eugene's usual warmth, nothing of his intonations that she listened to so much she could recognise them everywhere. The tree moves her again, closer to him this time, and despite facing him head on, the distance between them had never felt as big - because this isn’t him.
But it still is, too.
"Eugene," she cries, wishing she could try to touch him, to snap him out of this. It's all her fault.
"YOUR POWER BELONGS TO ZHAN TIRI."
More vines die as he says that, the tree slowly losing against Cassandra's relentlessness, but Rapunzel can't focus on that - not when it's Eugene's face crumpling with pain, and Eugene's voice crying out, a foreign anger in his expression. The tree shudders again, most of the remaining vines around them, while more are starting to grow back from under them. The heart of the tree is regenerating itself and its vines faster than Cassandra can kill them. The spear won't be enough, it can't be, and Eugene's empty eyes are the unmistakable proof that she made a mistake.
She keeps making mistakes.
She whimpers when the vines tighten around her waist, breathing cut off for a second. Is it going to kill her? Is it going to kill Eugene?
"Please," she whispers, more tears threatening to fall down her cheeks as she desperately hopes for Eugene to- to be himself again.
Her ears are buzzing, she's dizzy, and everything feels too loud around her. The sound of the tree, creaking and groaning as it shifts; the sound of its vines hitting the ground as they die; the sound of Cassandra, calling her name and fighting to free her, to free them, even though it feels hopeless. Rapunzel knows that one wrong move, one wrong fall, and Cassandra could die because of her. And Eugene- She can't even think about it. She can't, she- She-
The pressure on her waist grows again, and she sees stars, coughing when it feels she can't breathe right.
When she opens her eyes again, there are tears on Eugene's cheeks.
And… His eyes are not his own. His anger, his body, his voice and his words are not his own right now, because the tree is using him to hurt her, and it's working, of course it is. But these tears, falling slowly and steadily from his eyes, these tears he doesn't even acknowledge, these tears that are nearly invisible against his pale and greenish skin - these tears are his. It's Eugene, struggling against the control of the tree, not for himself but for her, because he'd rather die than hurt her, and she knows it.
Most of all, these tears are the proof that he's still fighting. And so, she will too.
"Cassandra!" she yells, tightening her fists and looking up to keep her own tears from falling again.
It's faint, but she hears an anguished Raps answering her, and the promise to get her out. Rapunzel smiles, because she knows Cassandra won't give up on them. But she won't give up on Eugene. And that means that she's gonna make another mistake, because that's her only choice now.
"Stay away from the tree, Cassandra!" she says, as loud as she can be. She can only imagine her confusion, but she hopes that she'll listen to her.
Rapunzel steals one last look at Eugene. Despite everything, under the possession and the fear and the hurt, it's still… It's him. He's crying for her, because he's scared, and she is going to save him, no matter what it costs.
"I love you," she whispers, and it might be an illusion, but it feels like his tears start to fall faster.
She takes a breath, and sings.
Wither and decay
The tree shudders, and Eugene screams. The vines ripple around her, but they can't tighten anymore, dying too fast to hold onto her.
End this destiny
Rapunzel feels cold as she's slowly lowered to the platform, the entire structure starting to crumble around her. Despite the darkness edging at the corners of her vision, she keeps her eyes on Eugene, focusing all her meagre control into not hurting him.
Break these earthly chains
She hears voices behind her - Cassandra and Adira, she guesses, but she can't decipher what they're saying. All she knows is that she's scared, terrified, and Eugene- Eugene counts on her. The roots holding him up are finally starting to die too, and for a second, she believes she can succeed. She wants to believe that this was a good choice.
And set the spirit free
The spirit free
In the end, it was the only choice she could make. But the song finishes, and she can't stop the power coursing through her veins, can't control the incantation any more than she could earlier. She holds her hair in her hands, words pouring through her mouth even though she desperately wishes she could bite them back, and she sees Eugene still unsteadily held up by the dead roots, a ray of light falling on him through the cracks in the ceiling.
He doesn't seem conscious.
His skin is pale, grey, but it lost its green tint somewhere along the way. Heart in her throat, Rapunzel can't even be sure that he's breathing.
Cassandra tries to reason with her, tells her to stop, but her body isn't listening to her mind, and so she says the words again. A sick feeling creeps up in her throat, and she feels chilled to her bones. Eugene is here, so close yet so far, and she- she needs to check up on him, she needs to make sure that he- he-
With a last shudder, the tree finally gives. The roots decompose before her very eyes and-
Eugene falls.
He doesn't even scream, but she does, falling on her knees near the edge of the platform because a hand stops her from going further. She didn't notice the power leaving her in a rush - didn't recognise her sudden weakness as anything other than the horror of seeing Eugene disappear abruptly, and knowing that it's her fault.
"EUGENE!" she screams again, fighting against the person trying to pull her back.
"Raps we need to go now!"
"No," she yells, or she sobs, she isn't sure. "I can't- Eugene--!"
I killed him. I killed him, I killed him, her mind repeats like a mantra, torturing her with the thought when she's too weak to do anything about being carried away. The pain in her head is burning white, and she can't understand anything beyond the pressure behind her eyes and the stuttering breaths in her chest.
Cassandra lets her down at the same time everything left standing finally falls apart. Rapunzel feels like she's falling apart too.
"Raps, I-" Cass starts, but Rapunzel never hears the rest.
She takes her hair, throws it to the nearest thing that looks like it could hold her weight, and jumps down between the debris of the tree. She miscalculates slightly, and falls from higher than she expected, but the pain in her knees doesn't even make her slow down for a second. She's dizzy, looking everywhere to with increasing despair, until-
A hand.
It feels like time is moving choppily, because she doesn't remember running to him, but suddenly she's here, discarding the piece of wood covering him.
Eugene is here, lying on his back. His skin is chalky, his eyes are closed and- Rapunzel bends over, and hears a small, wheezing expiration coming from him.
He's... He's alive.
Her lips tremble, and so does she, her relief so powerful it makes her sway in place. Tears spring in her eyes again, but she has no strength to hold them back anymore, and so she rests her forehead on his, and cries. He's alive. He breathes - weakly, slowly, but he does. Her heart is beating so fast that her chest hurts, and Rapunzel touches his face with a trembling hand, feeling the familiarity of his skin against hers.
He's alive. Despite her mistakes, Eugene is alive, and she cannot contain her sobs any longer.
"I'm sorry," she says, voice faltering, "I'm so- so sorry, I- Eugene-"
He doesn't answer, and she doesn't finish her sentences. Nothing feels like enough. He's hurt, and it's her fault, she knows it, but she can't heal him, she can't…
"Sundrop," a soft voice says, and she lifts her head slowly to meet the concerned gaze of Adira. Behind her, she sees Hector, lying down with his animals surrounding him. "He's alive," Adira answers before she can even ask the question. "Beat up, but he'll survive. Is Fishskin-"
"Alive," Rapunzel exhales, looking back down at him. His chest moving up and down slowly is the only thing that makes it clear he really is alive, and selfishly, Rapunzel wishes for his eyelids to flutter, and him to wake up, and reassure her.
"Good, it's good," Adira says quietly, putting a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder. "I… Let me help you get him out of here," she offers, and Rapunzel nods. What else can she do?
They both know that his chest, and his ribs in particular, took the brunt of the tree's squeezing. They try to be careful with it, and after some thinking, Rapunzel ends up sitting in her hair like a swing, cradling Eugene's body against her, while Adira, Cass and Lance slowly brings them up.
Eugene doesn't even stir.
Rapunzel feels too drained to protest when Adira seems ready to leave again, going back down for Hector probably. Any other circumstances, and she'd ask for answers, but right now… Right now, she simply wants for everything to be okay again. It's terrible, but she misses the simplicity of her tower, back when no choices were her own, and she never could hurt people she cared about simply by making a mistake.
"I know this path has not been kind to you," Adira says, her back to them, "but you must keep going, Sundrop. All our destinies lie within you."
She knows that. But when Rapunzel looks at Eugene's face, when she sees how much her destiny has put him in danger already, she wonders if it is really worth it.
To keep him safe, she would sacrifice everything.
But it's too late now. Eugene is hurt. And they've already come so far, already given so much to make her reach her goal. Adira disappears, and Rapunzel looks out to the horizon covered in black rocks, one hand resting on Eugene's chest.
"There is no turning back," she whispers, nearly an apology.
She can't erase what happened. She can't heal the hurts, can't go back in time, can't restore anymore. But she can move forward. And it might be harder, it might be more dangerous, but healing lies in the past just as much as it exists in the future. She wants to believe this. So she leans down again, kisses Eugene's forehead softly, and announces, voice trembling:
"I am going to the Dark Kingdom."
She hopes he can forgive her.