NOTE: The wordage by the characters is a bit different, since I was too lazy to look up how they spoke. But the end is extremely different. NO HAPPINESS! This is my first fanfic, but please R&R!

As Gothel waited by the edge, Rapunzel couldn't breathe. The cloth twisted across her lips and the chains around her wrists prevented her from springing to the window, where Gothel lurked. No, no, no! She thought frantically. There he was—calling her name. Gothel smiled in the darkness and waved the bundle of hair at Rapunzel.

"This is for disobedience, girl," she smirked, tossing it lamely out. Rapunzel cried out, but the cloth muffled any efforts, the chains rattling furiously as she strained against them. They twisted and scarred her wrists, but she couldn't let him come!

The hair was taught. Gothel pulled back into the shadows, and steadily the sound of Eugene's grunts grew louder and more determined. Rapunzel almost wished he would fall. She glanced back at her once-mother, catching her eye. Gothel smiled slowly, brandishing her knife as she crouched.

Rapunzel yelled from her bonds, struggling to run forward. Impossible!

Eugene appeared at the top, leaping over the sill. Rapunzel could have melted—he had come for her. His broad shoulders, quirky smile, that ticklish goatee—

But Gothel prepared to spring.

"Rapunzel," Eugene cried out, "I thought I'd never see you—" but he cut himself off at the sight of the struggling Rapunzel. His mouth fell open, and her desperate cries were lost on him. He started forward, intent to save her, but Rapunzel watched in horror as Gothel leaped from her hiding place, plunging the long, cruel knife into Eugene's side, piercing his lung before happily sliding it out. Eugene shouted in pain and tumbled to the ground. His head cracked against the floor and he felt his vision blur.

"No!" Rapunzel screamed, but her cries were muffled. Tears coursed down her face as her redoubled efforts to reach him were foiled by the cruel chains that imbedded bloody tracks in her skin.

Gothel only smirked at Eugene's pain. He gripped his side and mumbled Rapunzel's name, looking slowly at her struggles. He gasped for air as his vision blurred, watching in horror as Gothel gripped Rapunzel's chains and began to drag her down…somewhere…No, he thought frantically, No, she can't…go…

Rapunzel was begging something of her once mother. Eugene strained to here, and her words froze his shaking body. "No, Rapunzel, don't!" He shouted. She was…offering to exchange her freedom for his life! "You…can't do that…"

But suddenly the shackles fell from Rapunzel's limbs and Gothel fell upon him, latching him to the chair on the floor that was covered with his blood. "Just so you don't try anything," she spat. He blinked, and Rapunzel fell over him, brushing his hair aside with a shaking hand.

"Oh, Eugene…" She murmured, pulling away his hands from the wound. Her eyes widened at the spread of blood, and he gasped as another shot of pain lanced through his body.

"Rapunzel, no…" he managed desperately. He loved her innocence, her life—if she left with Gothel, she would be killed. And he powerless to stop the witch. His mind was red with fury, and now his hands weren't just quivering from pain. "You'll die—"

But Rapunzel only managed a small smile. His hopeless eyes sent a cold chill through her, and she wanted with all her soul to lean in and touch his lips, feel their touch one time before she was taken away. She wanted to stroke his cheek forever, and Eugene read it in her eyes. He grasped her hand and held it to his lips, tracing every line on her palm. "Please," Rapunzel murmured, torture straining through her voice, "just let me."

"This sickens me," Gothel suddenly hissed. Eugene watched as she abruptly appeared behind Goldie, raising the bloodied knife overhead. With a start, he realized her intentions.

"Rapunzel!" He shouted. "Run!"

Rapunzel whirled, but Gothel's arm descended, knocking her off Eugene and sending her tumbling across the room. She was thrown into the wall, pots shaking where they were hung and a few tumbling down. Eugene screamed for her as Gothel stalked towards her, struggling as Rapunzel had, but the pain in his side caused him to bend sharply, and the chains forced him back. He watched, aghast, as Gothel approached.

Rapunzel blinked blearily, eyes refocusing from the crash. She saw Gothel's outline approach, saw her heft the knife as her lips curled into a malicious grin.

"It's true that once the hair is cut," Gothel said slowly, "it loses its power. But what I've never told you that the state of the host doesn't matter so long as the hair remains intact."

"Rapunzel, run!" Eugene screamed. Rapunzel could hear his desperate struggles, but Gothel blocked him from view.

The knife descended before she could respond to her once mother's words. It slashed across her stomach, and Rapunzel's scream tore into Eugene's heart as if Gothel had pierced him a thousand times more. He saw her collapse to the floor, blood soaking her blue dress as her hands trembled on the floor. He thrashed in his bonds, tears flowing freely. This wasn't the ending! He thought wildly. Gothel turned to him, and murder flared in his brain.

Darkness was falling on him, but he couldn't allow Rapunzel to follow him!

"You have a choice, girl," Gothel barked. "Either save your lover boy, or preserve your life. I can keep you alive forever, whereas his death will occur no matter the time. You only have enough time to sing your lark song once—either way does not matter to me."

Rapunzel's head lifted—she saw Eugene, staring in horror at her bloodied form, blindly shaking his head in fear. All worries of himself had disappeared, but still, through his overpowering fear for her, she could see the growing pain, his fight against death—

She limply pulled herself across the floor, a trail of blood following her tracks. Eugene felt like murdering himself. "No, Ra-Rapunzel," he managed, "Save…your…self…"

But she cried out as she pulled herself next to him, her bloodied hands shaking as they rose and settled on his chest, pushing him back into a sitting position. He gripped her shoulders and pulled her to him. "Rapunzel," he gasped, "Please…"

But she could feel his strength failing. He was only barely holding on. She barely managed to pull a lock of her hair up, touching it to his side where Gothel had pierced him. He didn't notice yet, and as Rapunzel coughed blood onto him, she realized it didn't matter any more.

"I…love you," she managed.

"Rapunzel—"

But she began to sing through his anxious cries.

"Fl-Flower, gleam and glow…let your…power shine…"

Eugene whipped his gaze down to where her hair glowed, watched in terror as he saw it on his wound, glowing brighter by the second. He tried to pull it off, but Rapunzel held firm, gazing into his eyes with ageless sorrow filling her own.

"Let the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine," She moaned. Strength was surging through her, but only, she knew, for this last song. She put every ounce of her remaining strength into the song, forcing steady words, knowing that when it was over, so was she.

"Heal what has been hurt, change the fate's design, save what has been lost—"

"Rapunzel, please!" Eugene cried. Power from her beautiful hair surged in him, and he gripped her to yank her off before she could—

"—bring back what once w-was mine."

Eugene gasped as coolness spread through his fatal wound, sealing all deadly cracks and stretching his skin across the chasm like thin rubber. It wound together, and as the glow faded Rapunzel collapsed in his arms.

He lifted her madly. "Rapunzel!" He shouted. Her eyes wavered open, and she smiled once, lips forming words.

I love you.

"I love you, Rapunzel." Eugene felt tears drip down as Rapunzel's breath fell away, disappearing into the darkness. Her beautiful eyes closed, her head nodding against his chest. He gripped her to him, tortured thoughts running through his mind.

"How could you?" he murmured into her hair. "God, you were too perfect." Why would she? He felt cold, lost, and her limp body was a weight forever on him, a weight that could kill him. It was as if he was tortured to the point of death at the sight of her limp form, but his torturer had kept him alive to endure the pain forever. He tried to will life into her, tried to feel a pulse that would never return—

Gothel sighed. "Oh, such sorrow. She chose so unfortunately." She grabbed rapunzel's arms and ripped her from the thief's hands. He cried out and reached for her, but Gothel only smiled yet again at the sight of the helpless man. "Oh, yes, she is quite dead, but she is of use to me. Unlike for you," she sighed. She stroked Rapunzel's bent head, curling her finger around the long golden locks.

"Don't you touch her!" Eugene roared. He tried to leap to his feet, but Gothel had done well in her shackling. He watched as Gothel rolled her eyes and gathered up Rapunzel's hair. She couldn't escape—Rapunzel was murdered—she was taking her away from him—

"And this, Flynn Ryder," Gothel sneered as she carried Rapunzel and her hair down the stairs, "is why you should have remained away from the tower. Because of you she is dead."

Eugene couldn't help but feel, with a stab of horror, that she was right. As the last traces of Rapunzel slipped down out of sight, and Eugene was left alone in the room, Eugene shouted in agony for Rapunzel, crying hoarsely for his beloved, knowing that she could not longer hear—that he, Eugene, had lost her forever. She was gone, and now, trapped to starve in her tower, he eagerly awaited the death that would end all his pain.

"Rapunzel," he moaned, bending his head as sobs wracked his body, "Rapunzel, I will come to you."