"Rapunzel? Rapunzel, let down your hair!" Eugene shouted up to Rapunzel in her tower, after a few seconds Eugene decided to just climb the tower on his own, determined to explain to Rapunzel why he abandoned her. As he took his first step up the tower though, Rapunzel's golden locks came flying down to him. He grinned and climbed up the hair as quickly as he could, hoping that Rapunzel was ready to forgive him and listen to what he had to say.

"Rapunzel, I thought I'd never see you again.." Eugene gasped as a gagged and chained up Rapunzel sat before him, yelling muffled words through her gag, before Eugene could understand what she was trying to say, he was stabbed in the stomach by Gothel who was standing behind him. Eugene fell to the ground, clutching his wound.

"Now look what you've done Rapunzel," Gothel started, shrugging, "Oh don't worry dear, our secret will die with him!" she walked over to Rapunzel and grabbed her chains, ready to drag her down to the bottom of the tower. Rapunzel fought as hard as she could to get to Eugene and save him. "And as for us, we are going where no one will ever find you again!" Gothel yanked on the chains, dragging a struggling Rapunzel. Pascal tried his best to help by yanking on Gothel's dress but was merely kicked against a wall. "Rapunzel, REALLY! Enough already, STOP FIGHTING ME!" She growled at Rapunzel who fell back, loosening her gag, allowing her to speak.

"No! I won't stop. For every minute of the rest of my life I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you!" Rapunzel panted heavily then glanced over at a dying Eugene then back at Gothel. "But... if you let me save him, I will go with you."

"N- no, No Rapunzel." A struggling Eugene gasped out to her.

"I'll never run, I'll never try to escape.. Just let me heal him and you and I will be together forever, just like you want! Everything will be the way it was," Rapunzel breathing calmed. "I promise, just like you want..." she continued, Pascal shook his head, recovering from the strike and looked over at Rapunzel, with horror in his eyes. "Just, let me, heal him!" She finished. Gothel looked down at Rapunzel in disbelief but allowed her to do so after some convincing herself, she chained up Eugene "In case you get any ideas about following us!" Gothel snarled at the dying man as she tightened his shackles. Rapunzel threw herself at Eugene.

"Eugene!" She cried, lifting his jacket to show his wound then began gathering up her hair. "I'm so sorry, everything is going to be okay, I promise you, you have to trust me."

"NO RAPUNZEL!" Eugene pushed her back, refusing to let her heal him. "I can't let you do this!"

"... and I can't let you die." Rapunzel replied, a tear in her eyes.

"But if you do this... you, will die." Eugene eked out with the little life he had left in him. "I love you Rapunzel and I can't let this happen-" Just before he could finish his eyes rolled back and his last breath warmed Rapunzel's cheek, the young blonde sobbed in horror as she watched the man she loved die right before her eyes, she hung her head and whispered back to him,

"I love you too-" It was too late, he was gone and she could no longer help him. Rapunzel lifted her head in anger and turned to face her evil 'so called' mother. "I will never forgive you for this!"

"Give me a break, Rapunzel, you knew him for 2 days. How can you possibly call that love?" Gothel sneered.

"You don't know him! and now you'll never get too! Why would you do such a thing, murdering someone just for being in love with me, why can't you just let me be happy! This can't just be about my hair there HAS to be something more to it..." Rapunzel pleaded. Gothel, who had her back turned to Rapunzel closed her eyes, seeming to drift into a world of her own, Rapunzel then continued in a snarky tone. "Or... are you just bitter? Just because no one ever loved you doesn't mean i should have to be alone forever!" This just made Gothel mad, she grabbed Rapunzel's chains and dragged her to her room violently, screaming at her. "All men are SCUM, they all only want one thing from women and it's not your personality let me assure you of that!" Gothel chained her to the bed, leaving little to no room for Rapunzel to move.

"You will NEVER speak to me like that again, understand!?" Gothel spat at Rapunzel's face, leaving her chained and storming out of the room and downstairs to her bedroom, Rapunzel heard the slamming of her surrogate mother's bedroom door then dropped to the ground next to her bed and sighed, not really thinking much about what Gothel had said to her. A tear dropped from her eye on to the ground and she whispered quietly to herself. "I'm so sorry... Eugene..."

Down in Gothel's room she dropped down on to her bed, looking down at the dagger in her hand she used to kill the young man, closing her eyes and remembering her past.

In a flashback a young Gothel, at Rapunzel's age, lay on the ground holding hands with an unidentified man, smiling at him just as Rapunzel smiled at Eugene. Her hand rested on his palm and the man's fingers laced through hers. The young couple gazed into the sky watching the stars in the night sky, telling each other stories about the stars and pointing out that some of them looked like animals and objects. The young man pointed at stars far in the distance that a teenage Gothel had to sit up to see, she squinted her eyes trying to see the object her lover was describing to her but he leaned over and kissed her neck which made her jump a little. She gazed, uncertain, into his eyes then slowly leaned in to kiss him, their lips locked and the fire behind them sparked, it was beginning to die down. The young man broke the kiss then looked over at the dying fire.

"Looks like the fire is going out, I guess we better get home soon." He said. Gothel turned around and smiled, raising an eyebrow at the small flames then turned back to the man, she didn't want this moment to end so she distracted him.

"Hey look! Those stars look like a horse!" She pointed to the sky facing away from the fire. The man looked up curiously and she took the opportunity whilst he was distracted to snap her fingers, causing the fire to rise.

"I don't see it." He queried.

"Maybe it's just my imagination then." Gothel spoke softly, smiling sweetly at him. He turned to look at her then realised that the fire was large again.

"Oh hey the fire rose, how did that happen?"

"No idea, maybe the wind encouraged it?" She spoke dumbly, hoping he would fall for it. She hadn't told this man yet that she was a witch and she didn't intend to as she wanted him to love her for her and not for her powers. The man shrugged it off then gazed back into her eyes, her face was illuminated by the soft flames behind them. The man smiled then leaned back in to kiss her again but this time before their lips could meet a voice came from behind her.

"Letitia! What are you doing!?" Gothel swung round to see her mother standing behind her.

"Mother I-"

"Who is this man!?" The mother interrupted. "And what are you doing?"

"I- he-.." Gothel stuttered, "His name is Elijah, Mother, He is just a friend we were just looking at the stars together."

"That's not what it looked like, don't lie to me Letitia, I can tell when you lie to me!" The older woman grabbed Gothel by the wrist and dragged her away from the man. "Get home now, I don't want you seeing that man again!"

"But mother-"

"NO BUTS! GET HOME NOW" Gothel's mother angrily yelled in her face, similar to how Gothel did to Rapunzel in present day. Gothel stepped down a little scared.

"Yes, mother." She submitted and headed home, turning around to mouth 'goodbye' to Elijah. He did the same and they parted ways. Once they got home Gothel un-clipped her cape and hung it by the door, she sadly walked towards her bedroom expecting to get sent to bed without dinner but instead she felt a striking pain hit her in the back, she screamed out and fell the floor then turned to see her mother behind her with a belt in hand, tears fell from her eyes uncontrollably. "What did I do to deserve that?" She sobbed but her mother felt anything but sympathy, in fact she got even angrier.

"How DARE you address me like that, I am your mother and you'll show me some respect!" She doubled the belt and raised it, Gothel flinched, burying her face in her sleeve. "Look at you, you're pathetic! Get up and get to bed, I don't want to see your filthy face for the rest of the night!" Gothel took this opportunity to spring to her feet and despite the throbbing pain in her back she ran to her room, closing the door and throwing herself into bed. She lay on her stomach as it was too painful to lay her back then coughed and spluttered harshly into her pillow, the only thing she was thankful for was that her mother had waited until they were home to strike her and not in front of Elijah, she wasn't sure she could face him had that happened. She'd been struck by her mother before but never this badly. In the other room she could hear faint mumbling between her parents but couldn't make out what they were saying through her loud, convulsive gasps but she could tell they were arguing, something she was accustomed to hearing. Slowly she cried herself to sleep.

During the night, around 3am, Gothel was awoken by taps to her bedroom window, she tilted her head and stared suspiciously at the window wondering if it was her imagination but this was debunked when she heard another small knock. She shot up in bed, hissing harshly having forgotten about the pain in her back. She dragged herself out of bed and carefully approached the window, drawing the curtains enough just to see a face at the other side of her window, this face was that of Elijah's. Her eyes widened and she quickly glanced around before opening the window.

"Elijah, what are you doing here?" She whispered.

"I had to see if you were okay?" He asked, concerned.

"I-" Gothel stopped, she decided not to tell him about being belted as she felt this would make her look weak and pathetic so she shook her head and continued "I'm fine, you have to leave. If my mother sees you she'll be furious."

"Fine but i need to give you something first." He leaned into the window.

"What is I-" Gothel started but was interrupted by his lips crashing on to hers. The teen closed her eyes, kissing him back.

"Much better." Elijah smiled, Gothel smiled back. "So when will I see you again?"

"I don't think any time soon, I'm pretty sure I'm grounded for the rest of my life." Gothel chuckled softly. "But I promise as soon as I get out of here, I'll come find you." She squeezed his hand.

"You're worth the wait." Elijah squeezed hers back then released his grip of her hand, "I'll see you soon." and with that he sneaked off into the darkness and Gothel closed her window quietly, as to not wake her parents and returned to bed. Gothel wrapped her arms around her pillow and snuggled into it, imagining it was her secret lover before drifting back off to sleep.

Snapping back into reality Gothel stared into her reflection in the blade and saw not herself but her mother's face staring back at her, she dropped it on the floor then turned her attention to the sound of her surrogate daughters chains clanging upstairs and her loud sobs then looked back down the blade and clenched her teeth. "What have I done!? I've become my mother!" and as if she had morphed back into her teenage self she broke down into tears.