A/N: I do not own Frozen, Tangled or any of their contents.
Frozen Feud
One year after the events of Frozen
If Anna was good at anything, getting into trouble would be at the top of the list.
Up to that moment, though, everything was great. The royal family of Arendelle (along with Anna's boyfriend) had headed all the way to Corona, to take a little vacation from the knot of work that being the Queen, Princess, and Icemaster of Arendelle had in store. After all, such a position did have its privileges.
Upon their arrival, their cousin, Rapunzel, and her husband, Eugene, treated them with hospitality, letting them catch up on ship lag on the first night of their vacation. Fully restored the next day, they went on an adventure to Rapunzel's old tower, the one she had spent 18 of her 22 years in. Eugene and Rapunzel caught a ride on the Maximus, Cassandra tagged along on Fidela, and the Arendellers journeyed comfortably in a reindeer-drawn carriage.
Standing high above them so it always did, the old tower hadn't aged a day—mostly thanks to regular visits by the Prince, Princess, and Lady in Waiting of Corona (Rapunzel just couldn't let it go.) While Eugene kept the guests entertained, Rapunzel cooked up a quick dinner. After gobbling the food down—Rapunzel was a first-rate cook—the group went out to a nearby cliff to catch the sunset.
The view from the cliff was incredible, to say the least. Its top was perfectly level and carpeted with lush grass, giving the vacationers an excellent seat to see the fiery sun set behind Corona, the crimson colors of the sunset rolling in the waves.
Anna, enjoying the view, stepped out towards the edge of the cliff.
"Anna, careful! I don't want you falling down there," Kristoff reminded.
The orange-haired girl waved and laughed. "Ah, don't worry Kristoff, I've got good balance. I won't fall off of this—Whoa!"
Anna slipped on the edge of cliff with her arms flailing, trying to break her fall.
"Anna!" Elsa screamed. She didn't want to lose her sister again.
Thankfully, Kristoff had already predicted what would happen, and quickly scooped up the girl in his powerful arms.
Elsa exhaled a sigh of relief. Olaf cheered. "Sven-er-Kristoff to the rescue! Yay!"
"Well, uh, thanks!" Anna chirped.
Kristoff glanced lovingly down at her. "Just think next time, okay? Saves you and me a lot of trouble."
"Sure," Anna replied. Kristoff gently set her down on the grass.
"Well, how 'bout we head back for the night? Rapunzel's tower is probably comfier than this patch of grass," Eugene smoothly persuaded. "Unless you want to number the stars, of course."
"And it's safe from the jaws of predators," Cassandra added.
Anna looked up at Kristoff. They exchanged a knowing smile.
"Okay, you guys are up to something," Rapunzel giggled. "I'm guessing you guys want open air tonight, yes?"
Both Anna and Kristoff grinned. "Yes!" they shouted in unison.
Elsa shook her head. "No, no it's too dangerous! You know, there are thugs, ruffians—"
"—and me," Kristoff finished. "And Sven."
The reindeer put on his most ferocious look, which was rather intimidating, especially considering the face was attached to a five-hundred-pound beast. Getting run over by Sven would surely earn the offender a good week in bed.
"Well, I wouldn't want to pick a fight with blond boy here, or with his reindeer," Eugene remarked. "And I'm a thug, ruffian—"
"Eugene," Rapunzel chided.
"—former thug and ruffian," Eugene quickly corrected.
Olaf backed up this comment. "Nothing can go wrong, not with Kristoff and Sven here."
Cassandra grimaced. "Your call, Queen Elsa."
Elsa gave in. "Well, in that case, we'll be in the tower."
"Yell if you need anything," Rapunzel chirped, before the quartet disappeared in the direction of her tower.
Kristoff didn't remember when he had fallen asleep, but he did remember when he woke up.
Probably because it felt like someone was prodding his heart with a cold metal rod.
The moon was hanging high in the sky when Kristoff opened his eyes. Strange, he thought. Why am I waking up at this crazy time of day?
His hand wandered for a while, trying to find Anna's comforting embrace.
Grass.
Kristoff tried the other direction.
Fur.
Wait, where's Anna?
That instantly got him wide awake. His girlfriend was nowhere to be found. "Oh, where did she wander off to now?" Kristoff grumbled. Sven instantly woke up, feeling Kristoff's sentiment. Kristoff truly loved Anna for her sweet heart, always pouring love at anyone and everyone she encountered. But that came with an attribute best described as being very prone to rash decisions.
Translation: she ran into trouble every day, all day.
"Anna!" Kristoff shouted. "Where are you?"
One Hour Earlier
Anna woke to the sound of rustling grass.
She instantly sat up, wide awake. Her cute Kristy was snoring as heavily as a tranquilized elephant. Sven—do reindeer snore? The slow, even breathing comforted her for a moment, but then the grass rustled again. She spun at the noise, backing up towards her boyfriend. She was about to wake Kristoff when the entity appeared.
A bunny.
Anna laughed to herself. "Silly, scared of something like this." She bent down. "Hey, cute little guy! What are you doing outside your rabbit hole tonight?"
The bunny stared up at her blankly. Its eyes were a dirty shade of gray.
The grass rustled again. Another bunny appeared. And another.
All three looked at her with their gray eyes. Then each of them began digging a hole, mirroring each other's motions—left front leg, right front leg. Anna watched in fascination as the three bunnies mimicked each others' movements, digging three completely identical holes.
"How did you guys...do you each others' read minds?" Anna inquired, completely ignorant of the fact that the bunnies couldn't talk.
"It's easy."
Anna jumped at the voice. Surely she hadn't expected the bunnies to make a reply. She quickly looked around the plateau. Nobody was nearby. Kristoff was snoring an earthquake. Sven—do reindeer drool?
Anna bent down and whispered to the bunnies in awe. "You... you talk?"
"Of course I talk." A tall man, his black cloak billowing around his body and wearing a hood appeared. Anna's heart skipped a beat.
Anna took a step back. A stranger. Kristoff's Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers? remark floated up in the back of her mind. Anna started edging towards Kristoff, about to shake him awake.
The man threw off his hood, revealing a friendly, toothy grin. The only strange part was his eyes, which were reflections of the bunnies' eyes—completely blank. A dull shade of gray, as if his eyes were stormclouds.
"Oh, don't be alarmed! My name is CO. People often call me Co Co, so you can call me that too." The man strolled over, offering his hand. Anna reluctantly accepted it. "Co Co, huh?" Sounds like a dog's name, she thought. "I'm Anna."
Co Co smiled. "Beautiful name, Anna." He gestured towards the three bunnies. "You were wondering how they all do the same thing, no?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I was," Anna replied, starting to warm up to the stranger. "So, how do they do it? Or, how do you do it?"
Co Co grinned. "Trust is the most important thing." He held out his hand to one of the bunnies, which immediately bounded into his palm. Co Co then scratched the little animal, a gentle smile slowly working through his face.
"Trust?" Anna asked, completely absorbed by the cute furry fellow in his hands. "And how fast do you get their trust?"
"A few minutes, at most," Co Co responded. "It's easy, really."
Anna looked at him with surprise. "Are you kidding? You can turn these bunnies into your best friends in a few minutes? That's crazy!"
The orange-haired girl blushed as soon as she realized that she had (once again) spoken a little to fast. "I mean, that's... awesome! Like, I couldn't do that. I had a little puppy when I was a little girl, one that Daddy and Mommy gave me to keep me company when my sister was—" She trailed off, noticing that she had stumbled onto a touchy subject.
After a short yet awkward silence, Co Co helpfully reminded her where she had left off. "Um, your puppy?"
She managed a smile and twiddled her hair. "Oh, yeah, anyways, it didn't work out really well. I couldn't get the cute little fellow to like me!"
A light suddenly went on in Anna's mind. "Could you show me?"
Co Co grinned warmly—although his eyes, strangely enough, didn't join the party. "Follow me, I'll show you." He whistled, and all three bunnies turned around, and hopped in step with one another towards Co Co. Eager as she was, Anna followed Co Co down the hill, her mind completely occupied with the fascination these cute animals brought.
Plus, she thought. I'm a big girl now! I don't need Kristoff to be holding my hand everywhere I go, now do I?
After a short stroll, Anna found herself looking at a cozy little cottage tucked into a grove of trees. In the other direction, she could just make out a faint lantern on Rapunzel's tower glowing.
Not far from the tower—could be a new sightseeing spot for tomorrow, she thought. Just wait until Kristoff sees this!
Anna followed the man. Before long, she found herself surrounded by bunnies, all of them doing the same exact thing, at the same exact time. Hundreds of them.
To say "awesome" was an understatement: it was sensory overload.
"How do you do this?" She asked Co Co. "You say it's easy. I don't see how training a couple hundred bunnies to do the same exact thing at the same exact time can be anything close to easy."
The man grinned. "Thank you for your appreciation," he replied. "Now, then, if I am going to let you see how I do this, tell me." He sat down on a rocker chair on his front porch, studying Anna (smiling awkwardly at him) for a short time. Strangely enough, he wasn't looking at her face, but instead at her sternum. The gray eyes seemed to search within her.
"Okay, Anna," Co Co began. "You really want to know? Well, I said trust was the most important thing. Try your hand with this fellow."
Co Co held out a bunny in his hand, a white-furred rabbit. Like all the others, it also had gray eyes. Anna gingerly hoisted the fellow into her arms, and started to speak gently and stroke it.
No luck. The hare bounded away from her grasp. Co Co laughed gently. "Well, that was pretty good. Now, try picking him up like this—" Co Co gave her a demonstration. "Here."
Anna, not the one to give up, hoisted the bunny again. She tried again. No luck.
She tried again. Again, the fellow bounded away. Co Co, trying to be helpful, gave her some pointers, then watched the cycle repeat itself with.. . Anna didn't know, was that a sympathetic smile? Those eyes were really messing up Anna's ability to read his expressions.
The Princess took a deep breath. "Okay, bunny. Here we go!"
Determined to make the furry animal like her, she did everything Co Co did. She picked it up just like how he did it, petted it just like how he did it, and mirrored everything that he did.
And the bunny stayed. Anna was about to jump through the roof in excitement—when she noticed that there was no roof to jump through.
"Wow, Co Co, it worked!" Anna exclaimed, completely psyched that it worked. "That was really cool!"
Co Co warmly congratulated her. "Nice job! Well, my method works. Just give it some time, practice, and trust."
Anna nodded, setting down the bunny. "Phew! I'm exhausted. That bunny was a big fellow! Co Co, do you have some milk on hand?"
The tall, pale man shook his head in apology. "Sorry, I don't have anything except water. I take all my water from that stream over there. If you want some water, that's the only source."
Co Co pointed one bony finger at the murky trace of a river that wove through his front yard. The water looked horrible—Anna's immediate take on it was that it was unfit for drinking.
"Are you sure this is okay?" Anna wondered, feeling a little strange about drinking mud.
Co Co shrugged. "Well, that's the only water on the property. Trust me, it isn't anything nasty."
Anna gulped. Her gut was screaming Don't do it! You'll get a stomachache! while her mind was shouting back It's fine! If there were problems the guy would have died of thirst a long time ago, right? Plus, if anything goes wrong, you can just shout for help!
Anna peered over her shoulder. Rapunzel's tower was still in sight, even though the night seemed to have grown darker, the stars and the moon a little dimmer than before.
She knelt down, cupped up some of the liquid in her hand, and studied it.
Strangely, it was not brown, like the color of mud, but gray, like Co Co's eyes.
"Trust me, Anna," Co Co said. Anna caught a slight difference in his expression, but she couldn't quite decide how it had changed.
Co Co said it was alright, she thought.
She quickly sucked up the liquid into her mouth and swallowed as fast as she could.
Gulp.
Suddenly, her chest felt very, very cold. The last time she had felt something like this was...
..was when her sister accidentally froze her heart.
Anna stared up at Co Co, her eyes hollering What did you do to me?!
Co Co didn't have a smile on his face. It was a smirk.
"Embrace the darkness, child."
Everything went black.
"Anna!"
Kristoff didn't know how many times he had yelled her name. It didn't matter. He was going to go and find her, and get her back to safety. End of story.
Sven made noises that sounded like a crossover between a yelp and a really loud belch. Although Kristoff couldn't understand him when he talked like that, he hoped that it was reindeer for "Anna!"
If only she had woken me up before she left!
Kristoff sighed. Life was full of if-onlys. Well, just like Queen Elsa had said, the past is in the past. Kristoff's take on her advice was doing what was right/important in the time that had been given to him.
"Kristoff?" A girl's voice.
"Anna!" Kristoff called out.
Rapunzel and Eugene appeared, Elsa, Cassandra, and Olaf hot on their heels.
Kristoff's joy instantly deflated by a wide margin.
Eugene was dangling a lantern from his right hand while his left covered his yawning mouth. Rapunzel was wide awake, clutching a frying pan. (Seriously, what's with frying pans in Corona?) Elsa was wide awake, her face set, looking regal and intimidating. Cassandra was glancing around, her hands ready to bust out her two-handed longsword at a moment's notice. Olaf was giggling, completely oblivious to what was going on.
"We heard someone yelling," Rapunzel explained. Then she peeked around. "Where's Anna?"
"That was my question," Kristoff murmured.
Rapunzel's green eyes opened up wide in horror. "She wasn't with us back in the tower. Where is she?"
"I knew it," Cassandra muttered. "Outside the walls, it isn't safe outside at night."
Eugene stiffed a yawn. "Dunno. How about we look for her in the morning? Maybe she's on a little stroll in the night, and she might come back—"
"No way!" Rapunzel protested, even before anyone else could utter a single word in reply. "She's my baby cousin. We're finding her NOW!"
It turned out Rapunzel was the authority in these parts. The short-haired brunette led the way and gave the orders, Eugene attenuated to a boy saying "yes ma'am." Cassandra held up the rear of the party. Elsa and Olaf tagged along wordlessly, the normally optimistic snowman now much more serious.
"Look," Kristoff pointed at the soil. "Footprints."
Being an Icemaster, Kristoff was almost a walking wildlife and wilderness survival encyclopedia, tested and hardened in his experience with nature in its coldest and most merciless form. He had hunted a deer, survived blizzard conditions, defeated a malicious fox, and even tracked down a baby reindeer (Sven) before. Finding his clumsy girlfriend's spore wasn't the hardest thing he'd done.
Rapunzel was delighted. "Okay, Kristoff. You lead the way. I'll follow you. Eugene, you... Eugene!"
Eugene Fitzherbert's eyes were drooping, as was the arm that was holding up the lantern. "Sorry, Brownie," he remarked groggily. "Hmm. Brownies are good. Anyways, maybe if I had a good night's sleep..."
"Eugene, please," Rapunzel begged, doing her big-green-puppy-eyes thing. Eugene instantly snapped out of it. Even Kristoff melted when he caught a glimpse of her face.
"Alright, let's go." Eugene picked up the pace with renewed strength, as did Kristoff. Rapunzel's presence seemed to radiate the place with warmth. The brunette's history of being a drop of the sun had apparently lived longer than her magical hair, which had (unfortunately) been cut a few years prior. (Of course, it had returned, but then it went away, and that's a completely different story). The cold, howling wind seemed to die down as the group continued tracking down Kristoff's wayward girlfriend.
They continued down the dirt road Anna had taken. From Kristoff's judgment, the tracks were very fresh, only an hour old. It wound along a dark, clouded stream. No grass grew anywhere near the murky water, and black mist hung in the air just a few feet above the barren land.
Cassandra knelt down and let the water run through her gloved fingers. "This water doesn't seem right."
"I agree," Kristoff said. No water—especially moving water—would look like this if it was okay to drink. Drinking this would probably treat the person—or animal, for that matter—to a couple days of indigestion. "Don't drink any of that stuff."
The depressing road led on. A howling, freezing wind picked up, biting through the group's garments. Kristoff grunted, steeled his nerves, and stole a glance at Elsa. She didn't react at all to this type of stimulus.
Lucky, Kristoff complained.
As soon as he walked into the cottage, Kristoff's brain was overloaded trying process what he was seeing.
He had seen them in the yard, maybe hundreds of them. His brain was about to explode right then and there. Even stranger: all of them were doing the same exact thing. Creepy.
But that wasn't creepy compared to the cottage. Inside, assorted rabbit merchandise—rugs, stuffed heads, carvings, and pictures all but covered the interior. Even the candles were fashioned in the image of rabbits. As soon as they walked in, it seemed like there were ten thousand rabbits watching them with their inanimate eyes.
Okay, now his brain was going to explode.
"Uh, hello?" Rapunzel called.
"Yes?"
Everyone jumped. The sound came from behind them, which was impossible, since there was nobody following them. Eugene, master at thievery—no, stealth—had seen to that.
Unless...
"May I help you?"
The group spun around, and found themselves looking at a tall man with an amiable smile sprawled across his face. The strange part were his eyes—Kristoff noticed that they were dull and gray, colorless.
Cassandra whipped out her sword. "Who are you?"
"I think I should have said that, no?" The man retorted.
Olaf waddled over, completely disarming the ticking bomb that was Cassandra. "Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!"
The man looked down in disbelief and amazement at the animated lump of snow. "Fascinating. How—"
Elsa cleared her throat. "We're looking for Anna. Have you seen her?"
The man raised an eyebrow. "Anna? As a matter of fact, yes, I have," he replied. His mouth curled into a smile, but Kristoff could see that his eyes did not. "Follow me, I'll lead you to her."
Kristoff wasn't liking the guy. But he followed him anyways. He led them to his backyard, towards a barn. He threw back the lock, opened the door, and there she was!
"Anna!" Kristoff called.
Anna stopped brushing the horse standing next to her and looked in the direction of Kristoff. "Oh, it's you. Hi Kristoff."
The quintet, minus the man they had just met about ten seconds ago, strolled into the barn. Kristoff got a closer look at his girlfriend, who had already gone back to industriously brushing the horse.
Her eyes were dull and gray, just like the rabbits in the yard.
And the man.
"What did you do to her? Tell me!" Kristoff shouted at the man. Sven thundered something quite rude in reindeer.
The man smiled dryly. "All I did was ask for her trust. She gave it to me," he replied, a crooked grin spread wide across his skinny face.
"Well," Cassandra sneered. "You better get Anna back to normal, fast."
The man shrugged. "She is normal!"
Cassandra almost took the man's head off, but Rapunzel stopped her. "Hang on a moment, okay? Maybe we're going to need his help."
This is wrong, Kristoff thought. How come her eyes are gray now?
Right. Magic.
Kristoff was pretty sure that Grandpabbie, or maybe the Ice Queen, would have no problem defeating this puny magic. "Elsa, can you make her eyes blue again?" Kristoff asked.
"What? I can't! I—I don't know how," Elsa complained. "Anna, what happened to you?"
Anna looked up with her clouded eyes. "Oh, it's you. Elsa."
"What. Have. You. Done. To her?" Elsa demanded, her voice steely calm.
"She gave me her trust. And now, she's mine. I control her."
Elsa looked like she was ready to unleash a lecture regarding the 101 ways Ice can be Very Bad for Your Health, but Rapunzel stopped her. "Wait, what's your name again?" she asked, looking like she was ready to swing her frying pan.
The man at the slender girl that had asked the question. He didn't seem frightened at all about the band of people around him that were ready to smash him into pulp. "The people around here call me Co Co."
Co Co, Kristoff thought. Sounds like a dog's name. He grunted. Which is what he is. A vicious, underhand, scheming animal.
"Co Co," Cassandra narrowed her eyes. "I've heard that name before..."
"Alright, 'Co Co', tell me now, how do I get her out of it?" Kristoff asked.
The man refocused his murky eyes on Kristoff. "Can you?"
Translation: You can't.
Think, Kristoff! How do you get Anna back to normal?
Kristoff started at the man's stormy eyes.
Co Co.
She's mine.
I control her.
Control.
A light blinked on in Kristoff's mind.
"Why are you such a control freak?" Kristoff asked Co Co.
The man smiled. "I am not a control freak. I am control."
"Great," Kristoff grumbled. "A psychopath."
"I'm not a psychopath," Co Co argued, clearly offended. "I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research."
Kristoff raised one eyebrow. Eugene muttered a debonair "case closed."
"How do you do it? Why do you do it?" Elsa demanded.
"I see what they want, and give it to them," he replied, grinning with an evil glint in his dark pupils. "To do what they want, they are willing to give up everything else. In essence, their need controls them.
"And me, you ask? I am CO"—he pronounced it like see-oh—"I hate disorder. I hate it when people are different." He said "different" like was the worst transgression you could ever commit.
"So, in exchange for their trust, I give them everything—well, save one—and now look! They're so orderly. I love having all of them for myself!" The man laughed wickedly.
Rapunzel stopped Cassandra from beating the man up for probably the eleventh time.
"Look, Cass," the princess started. "This isn't your everyday outlaw. There's magic involved this time, and only through magic can we get rid of it."
Cassandra gritted her teeth. "You're right," she said at last, sheathing her sword.
"Never mind him." Kristoff walked towards Anna, who was speaking softly to the horse as she gently stroked its coat with a brush. He fought the urge to physically remove her from the spot. It would have done more harm than good.
"Alright, Anna. Let's go," Kristoff said.
"You? Oh. Never mind," Anna replied.
"Oh yeah?" Kristoff was getting angry. "You're just going to throw away our relationship, your Arendelle, everyone else you cared for, just to brush this horse?"
"Yes." The reply was short, as if shot from a bow. Kristoff's heart ached.
"Let me try," Elsa whispered, skirting past Kristoff. "Anna, look at me."
Anna continued to brush the horse, but diverted her gaze at her sister. "Yeah?"
"We're leaving. Let's go home, okay?" Elsa pleaded, putting her emotion behind her voice.
"Nah," Anna shot back. Olaf started to melt, ever so slightly.
Elsa tried again. "Anna, look at me. Remember who I am? Remember your 19th birthday party? When I got sick and you took care of me?"
"Sure," Anna replied, without pausing to look at her sister. "I said that was my best birthday gift ever, taking care of you."
"Then come home with me, and you can continue to take care of me," Elsa requested, her voice soft and gentle.
"Nah," Anna replied. "This is better than taking care of you."
Kristoff could almost hear Elsa's heart shatter. Olaf was really melting, visibly transforming into a puddle. The lively snowman was now watching himself collapse in horror.
Now, the Queen was angry. "Snap out of it, Anna! Come with me this instant!"
No reaction from Anna's end of the line.
This wasn't working. Kristoff peered over his shoulder at Rapunzel and Eugene. Their eyes, fixed on Co Co, were burning with fury. Cassandra glowered at the man, and this time Kristoff was pretty sure there wouldn't be a twelfth episode of Rapunzel Stops Cassandra From Smashing Co Co's Head In. Eugene looked like he was going to trade the lantern for a pitchfork anytime soon. Rapunzel looked like she was ready to invent the game of golf with her frying pan.
Kristoff diverted his gaze onto Co Co, and locked his eyes into his cold stare.
So, I give them everything—well, save one—and now look!
Hmm, Kristoff thought. Save one.
I love having all of them for myself !
Co Co gave Anna the thing she loved to do the most—caring for others. Which is why Elsa's attempt at reminder her of it had failed. Co Co had tons of hate—he said it himself—which Kristoff and Elsa had just fed Anna a heap of. No wonder she wouldn't budge. But there was one thing Co Co couldn't give her.
Love.
"I love you, baby!" Kristoff crooned. "I love you! Please, come back to me! Come back to me!" His heart seemed to drip blood as he sang the song.
Elsa's eyes grew wide as she realized what her sister needed. She joined in with Kristoff. Come back to me.
Come back to me.
The Queen dropped down to her knees, her arms out, beckoning her sister to come into her embrace.
Eugene and Rapunzel, realizing what they were up to, quickly harmonized with Arendelle's Queen and Icemaster.
Come back to me.
Come back to me.
Anna's eyes, dull and unfocused, suddenly cleared, as if a strong gale blew the clouds from her irises. Her vibrant blue eyes gleamed once more.
She dropped the brush. "Kristoff! Elsa! Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, throwing herself into Elsa's embrace. Kristoff hustled over and gathered up the two sisters in his powerful hands.
"I thought I could handle it alone! I thought that he could be trusted! I was wrong. I've been so stupid. Forgive me," Anna sobbed. "Oh, Elsa, I'm so sorry! Kristoff, I'm sorry!" She broke down into tears. Elsa, relieved that she had her sister back, cried tears of joy. Olaf, now back in one (solid) piece, bounded over and joined the group hug.
"It's okay, Anna," Elsa soothed. "Life is an adventure, full of lessons to be learned. What's important is to live and learn."
Anna nodded, burying her head into Elsa's shoulder.
Eugene wrapped his arm around his wife, who snuggled into his embrace. Cassandra lowered her sword and smiled. The Coronans watched the heart-warming scene from a distance. The darkness seeped out of Anna.
Co Co screamed, completely ruining the moment. "No! I will not have you do this! Dominion, attack!"
Every single one of the gray eyes instantly turned red.
If you could drown in a sea of bunnies, this was as close as it got.
The red-eyed fur-bound flood attacked, snapping at them with their teeth. Nobody wanted to experience what it would be like to get bitten by an overzealous animal.
As rabbits poured in from the barn gate by the hundred, Rapunzel was clobbering away, smashing the bunnies aside. Eugene had already swapped his lantern for a pitchfork. Cassandra was already slicing away. Kristoff picked up an old shovel and Anna found a rusted spatula (Really? Your barn doubles as a kitchen, Co Co?) and they started beating off the bunny flood. Elsa unleashed her turbulent emotions in one powerful blast, instantly freezing hundreds of bunnies solid. But even that wasn't enough to contain the relentless assault.
"Not your everyday brawl," Cassandra complained. "I've never trained against a blob of vicious animals before!"
"There are too many of them!" Eugene yelled over the combined squeal of a million rabbits.
"You have a better plan?" Kristoff called back as he backhanded three red-eyed bunnies into the barn wall.
"Elsa!" Anna yelled as she pummeled a hare with her cooking utensil. "Can you summon Marshmallow?"
Elsa tried concentrating. "Too—too far away!"
The band of people—plus a few animals and a snowman—slowly backed up into a corner of the barn, thousands of rabbits surrounding them on all flanks. Sven trampled several with his front hooves. Olaf was yelling "Bad bunny!" as he slapped them aside. Pascal was...unseen, silently advising Rapunzel on the fine art of clobbering rabid animals.
A dark ooze poured out from Co Co, strangling the atmosphere with darkness, robbing them of light. The combined efforts of one frying pan, a pitchfork, a longsword, a shovel, icy blasts, a couple hooves, a pair of twigs, and a spatula was keeping the marauding bunnies at bay, but they would tire, and they would be overrun.
To prevent something like that from happening, Elsa yelled. An icy wall instantly grew in height and width, dividing the bunnies from them.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Well, Queenie, why don't you lead with that next time?" Eugene joked dryly, suavely stabbing his pitchfork into the dirt.
The dirt trembled. The soil erupted, spitting out a dozen bunnies.
"I think you missed one direction, Queenie!" Eugene reminded as he returned to bludgeoning red-eyed rabbits. "Down!"
The group started to defend themselves once more, just as the icy wall exploded, a torrent of dark mist breaking apart the ice. Bunnies surged over the remains of the wall, as well as burrowing under it. The aphotic mist was starting to crush them, reducing their visibility bit-by-bit, just as the bunnies increased in number, bit-by-bit.
"Hopeless" was an understatement.
Completely out of the blue, Rapunzel stopped frying-paning bunnies and began to sing.
Flower, gleam and glow!
Let your power shine!
"Brownie!" Eugene called. "Remember, you don't have your hair anymore!"
Unfazed, Rapunzel continued. Heal what has been hurt.
Change the fate's design.
"Rapunzel, are you nuts?" Cassandra demanded.
Make the clock reverse.
Bring back what once was mine.
"Not!"—whack—"Helping!"—whack—"Very!"—whack—"Much!"—whack—" 'Coz!" Anna yelled.
What once was mine.
Against everyone's expectations, Rapunzel began to glow, radiant as the sun. Her skin increased in luminescence and warmth as power poured through her. All the bunnies stopped moving, cowering against the light. The black miasma-choked atmosphere hummed with energy, as if the mist itself was howling in pain. Even her companions were blinded by her glow.
Co Co screamed in torment. No such terror out of heaven had ever burned in his face before. The beams of Rapunzel entered his head and scored it with unbearable pain, and the dreadful infection of light spread from eye to eye.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it, Rapunzel said, although it didn't quite sound like Rapunzel. It sounded like three of her, speaking at once, from everywhere.
Everything went white.
Kristoff opened his eyes.
Rapunzel's gig had ended. Her skin was back to normal.
Every bunny's eyes were clear once more, all of them beautiful hazel- or maroon-colored gems. Even the bunnies they that knocked out (or, in Elsa's case, frozen) were back to normal.
Co Co, on the other hand, began to burn as soon as Rapunzel started shining, and there was nothing left of him now. The darkness had been blown away—literally—by the solar blast she had just unleashed.
Anna was the first to recover. "Wow. Rapunzel, that was—"
"—insane!" Eugene chimed in, grabbing Rapunzel and twirling her through the air.
"—scary," Cassandra, Anna, and Elsa rectified simultaneously.
Rapunzel blushed. "I'm not scary. And I'm definitely not insane," she added, with a curious glance at her husband.
Eugene corrected himself. "Just kidding, Brownie. Amazing."
"Totally," Kristoff concurred.
"Alright," Cassandra stabbed her sword into the dirt, adjusting her gloves. "I think that's enough fun for one day, huh?"
Suddenly, all the bunnies swarmed over, hopping into their arms and cuddling up with them.
"Whoa!" the group shouted, as the bunnies buried them under a mountain of cuteness.
"Well," Eugene stated sarcastically, as he drowned under a wave of fuzzy animals. "A couple hundred thousand new pets—free of charge!"
The chorused Seriously?! was probably heard in China.
A.N.:Special thanks to SetsunaKuo.
A.N.: I've gone over this again, and rewritten some parts to make the plot work out better, and seem more natural and not so "pop-out-of-nowhere." Mainly it's the interaction between CO and Anna.
A.N.: Ive slightly revised the story again. More specifically, I've fitted in a new character, Cassandra, into the story. If you don't know who she is, catch Tangled: Before Ever After or Tangled: the Series.