Hello there guys! This is a short 2 chapters fanfiction, an alternative ending to Tangled.
!Spoilers! You need to have seen the movie.
I hope you will like it. Reviews are welcome :D
A special thank you to cashewkitty, my beta-reader.
1. Eugene
"Just let me heal him."
Her words resound in my head as she comes closer to me, leans upon me and lifts my head up. I wish I could shout at her to run away and leave me here, but I don't have enough strength. And anyway, she seems so determined that I doubt she would listen. She puts her long hair on my body, wipes away her wet cheeks, and then for a moment she remains silent, she doesn't move, so I open my eyelids slightly to see her. She has her eyes closed, she concentrates. She's going to sing. She's going to heal me. And then…
She's giving herself up to save me. She's choosing to live the rest of her life as a slave of that horrible witch, to save mine. I can't believe it. I can't manage to understand. She likes her new-found freedom so much, she'll never bear staying locked up one more day. She'll die of insanity, if she doesn't commit suicide before that. She has to run away, all this has to stop, she has to…
Her hair. All of this for her hair. She has to cut her hair, to remove any power from herself. Then she won't be useful to Gothel anymore, and the old woman will let her go.
No. She certainly won't. She'll kill her. I have to protect her. But I can't right now, I'm too weak. Unless…
"Flower gleam and glow…"
Rapunzel starts singing. I force myself to open my eyes. I have to find a way to make her understand what I plan to do. It could work. It has to work. I'm sure it's possible.
"Let your power shine…"
I'm trying to meet her gaze but my sight is blurred and my eyelids are closing themselves. I don't want to talk, I can't control my voice and I would need to speak up to make myself heard and it would be too much of a risk since the witch is looking at us suspiciously and Rapunzel doesn't have much time left.
"Make the clock reverse…"
So I say nothing. I just discreetly let my hand slip to a piece of the broken mirror. The biggest one I can reach. The sharpest. I press my finger against its edge. The pain is here, I can sense the blade getting through my skin.
"Bring back what once was mine…"
I have to be quick and precise. The volume of hair to be cut doesn't help. One single remaining lock could make everything fail. I should be able to catch all of her hair in my hand. I only hope the mirror is sharp enough to allow me to be quick. But if Rapunzel has healed me in the meantime, I will normally have enough energy.
"Heal what has been hurt…"
The entirety of her hair is glowing now. A weird sensation runs through my abdomen, and I can't feel the bottom part of my body anymore. I concentrate on my arms, on my hold on the piece of mirror, on the most efficient movement. I have to stretch the hair as much as possible. Rapunzel has to follow me and stop her head from leaning backwards.
"Change the Fates' design…."
I manage to keep my eyes open. I give a quick look at Gothel and start when I see that she's come closer. She's gazing at Rapunzel like a hunter gazes at their prey, ready to grab her as soon as she's done singing. It makes it even more complicated for me. I close my eyes again, hoping that Gothel hasn't noticed anything, and try to look weaker than I really am.
"Save what has been lost…"
Rapunzel keeps singing. She has her eyes closed in concentration and doesn't seem to know that Gothel has gotten closer.
"Bring back what once was mine…"
I can feel something moving at my right side, I half-open my eyelids and turn my head, and notice that Gothel is almost directly above me. She has her arm up above her head, brandishing an object I can't see but I immediately guess is supposed to knock me out. I abruptly sit back up, while Rapunzel is pronouncing the last words of her song. She opens her eyes and seems panicked as soon as she realizes what's going on.
"DON'T MOVE!" I shout as I wrap my arms around her.
She remains motionless but I don't know if it's because she listened to me or because she's petrified. At the same time, Gothel violently brings down her arm, but misses my head by a few inches, since she wasn't expecting me to sit up so quickly. While she realizes what has happened, I grab Rapunzel's hair, pull it and pray for her neck to stay hard, and firmly bring back up the piece of broken mirror.
It goes easier than I expected; I can feel the tension leaving the hair I'm holding in my hand as the blades goes up. Rapunzel isn't breathing anymore, I think she knows what I'm doing. For a second I consider the fact that she has lived her whole life with her hair and that I'm violently taking it from her, but really, it's for the better and I have no regrets.
When the piece of mirror goes through the whole hair, and the long locks turning to brown fall on the floor, I see that there are still some blonde locks of hair on her head. I'm about to grab them when I realize, too late, that Gothel is still here, and doesn't appreciate at all what I'm doing.
A moment later, something hits my neck, an intense pain runs along my back, and everything goes dark.
