- Battle At The Tower

"Rapunzel! Rapunzel, let down your hair!" Called Eugene.

Mother had just finished gagging Rapunzel who was just coming around after having been knocked out with the frying pan. Gothel paused, looking from the girl she called daughter to the window.

Rapunzel had a look of hope in her unfocused eyes. Eugene had come back. He could save her from Mother, the person who had stolen her from her real parents, who kept her here in the tower, who never wanted her to leave the tower, who had lied to her, who had said she loved her most, but didn't.

Mother considered for a moment, biting her lip, a pensive look on her face, then threw the hair out of the window and pulling out her knife faded into the shadows near the window.

Rapunzel had to find a way to warn him, she looked around for a way to get the gag off, but then she started sliding across the cool tile floor as Eugene's weight started to pull on her hair and her. She began to panic, she hadn't braced herself, there was no way for her to hold her hair. It hurt terribly when Mother stepped on her hair by accident, Mother was very careful not to step on the hair. Her eye's went wide toward Mother as they understood what was going to happen, Mother gasped.

Rapunzel tried to get on her knees, at least, but the dress got in the way. She lost her balance as she came to the end of the chain and her arms spun her around, Eugene's weight pulling her head forward. Her arms were pulled tight behind her as the chain anchored her to the pillar under the stairs, her shoulders strained as the weight of Eugene was on them.

Rapunzel's upper body was lifted off of the floor. Her own weight was now on her shoulders too since she hadn't even gotten to her knees, she was stretched out between the window and the pillar. The hair bent Rapunzel's head down, grinding her chin into her chest, as she took the full weight of Eugene on her neck and shoulders.

Eugene was climbing her hair to try and save her, but he was killing her!

Rapunzel was screaming her last breath into her gag as it felt like she was being ripped apart. She couldn't breathe from the tension on her neck and shoulders. She could feel the muscles and tendons in her neck and shoulders straining beyond the limit, tears shot from her eyes as the bones began to separate and the muscles to stretch and rip. Her bare feet slamming against the hard tile floor; the only thing she could do against the pain as she felt and heard popping sounds coming from within her own body.

"Please somebody, help me!" Rapunzel screamed in her own head, as black splotches appeared in her vision.

Then the pain began to ease, she could breathe again. "Mother's here, I have you." Mother was next to her, pulling on her hair and chain, supporting the weight. Mother did care.

"I thought I'd never see you again," said Eugene, as he climbed in the window.

Mother's hand dipped and the knife was at Rapunzel's throat. "No, you can't take my Flower away from me!" Gothel yelled.

Eugene didn't leave his crouch, but he opened his hands and made calming gestures, "It okay. I don't want your flower, I just want Rapunzel."

"She is my flower and neither of you can take it from me! It's mine and I have to protect it!"

"I'm sure you can find a way to protect it, if you tell me more about it." Eugene tried to sound calm, boring almost, taking a slow step closer, but the glass from the broken mirror crunched under his boot.

"Stay back!" Gothel yelled, dragging Rapunzel a step back, but the knife slid a little and a rivulet of blood began to run down Rapunzel's throat and between her breasts.

Eugene's eyes widened, and his arms go out, but he resisted the urge to dive for the knife.

"Stop! Please, stop! I can't hurt her, but I can't let you take her! I'll die without her! Please, stop!" Eugene stopped, he was beginning to realize that things were extremely dangerous. Gothel was screeching at the top of her lungs, sounding so scared, tears in her eyes and she was clutching Rapunzel close to her.

"Okay, okay. I'm staying." Eugene sat on the floor. "You want to protect Rapunzel. I want to protect Rapunzel. We agree on that, right?"

After a few moments, Gothel nodded, slowly.

"Rapunzel is special, and needs to be kept safe. I want her safe. You want her safe too, don't you?"

"You'd take her from me!" yelled Gothel.

"Where would I take her? I'm the most wanted man in the kingdom," said Eugene reasonably, trying to calm the situation.

Gothel's laugh was teetering on the edge of hysteria, "Oh, you're one to talk, they have your face plastered on most trees around here. Even more then me now. Which took some doing. I'm sure you've seen all the wanted posters."

Eugene was trying to figure out who she is. The only person with more wanted posters then him was the Kidnapper of the Lost Princess, but she was a old woman. Rapunzel's mother wasn't all that old. But Rapunzel's hair could heal, could it heal even old age? If she was the Kidnapper then that would mean that Blondie would be the Lost Princess, who had blonde hair, green eyes and just had her eighteenth birthday yesterday, just like...

Eugene's eye's go wide as he puts the pieces together.

"The posters don't do you justice," he acknowledged with a flourished bow as he was sitting on the floor.

"They only saw me as an old woman and it was dark. They never seem to get your nose right." Gothel commented slyly, waving the knife toward his nose.

Flynn rolled his eyes, "No kidding, you should have seen the one in the Snuggly Duckling. I looked like Pinocchio."

Gothel actually laughed out loud.

Rapunzel's head was swimming, nothing made sense anymore. What was Pinocchio? She hurt so much, it made her head swim, but she couldn't sing with the gag over her mouth. Moving any part of her upper body shot bolts of pain into her brain. Tears were running down her face from the pain, she could barely see.

Rapunzel was so scared and confused and she wasn't sure if she should fight or not, or even who to fight.

Mother had loved her, but had lied, Mother had saved her and now was hurting her, but holding her.

She had trusted Eugene, but he had left, trading her to those thugs and their sack. He came back, but he had almost killed her.

She thought she had been a girl with a special gift and now she was a princess. Her world was upside down and spinning like a top, there was no one to trust not even herself, because she didn't even know who she was anymore.

"You don't want to see Rapunzel hurt. Neither do I. But you're hurting her. You're cutting her throat. She's bleeding." He gestured to Rapunzel.

Gothel's eyes nearly bug out her of head as she sees the blood running down the front of her Flower. "What?! Flower gleam and glow..." The hair glows and heals Rapunzel. Eugene just sits and waits, with Rapunzel healed she should feel better, maybe even find a way to help.

Gothel noticed the bloody knife in her hand, the gag and chains on the girl she had tried to raise as her own. With a look of terrible pain on her face, she shook her head as she dropped the knife.

Gothel took the gag off of Rapunzel and said, "I'm sorry. I was trying to keep you safe. Well, the flower; your hair." Touching the hair gently.

"I guess I just can't do anything right. I lost everything else, I might as well lose this too. I'm sorry, Jon, I tried," she finished quietly to herself. Gothel pulled out the key from her bodice and unlocked the chains from around the wrists of the Lost Princess.

Rapunzel was so deeply confused. So much had happened in the past few minutes she wasn't sure what to do, but to go along. Mother had kidnapped her, but was letting her go. It actually felt like Mother loved her.

"So now what?" asked Eugene.

"Let me guess, the guards are after you and will be here soon." The Kidnapper of the Lost Princess asked the Thief of the Crown of the Lost Princess.

"Most likely."

"Let's go down and meet them."