Legend

Jack stared with wide, curious eyes; could it be? Was it even possible? No, he said to himself—no. The only people within this island kingdom were those who had been here from the start. Never, not once, had a mainlander made it through the armada just outside the boundaries.

Yet here she was – so young and so bright and so wet. Sopping wet, really, and as if that in and of itself wouldn't have made her stand out, then there was her outfit, and her hair, and her eyes…

Her dark brown hair cut short was not only unconventional for his city, but the color was so odd – there was no green, no blue, no white; just… just brown. And her eyes, a sparkling green, weren't at all like the pale blues, violets, and reds that were so common among his people. And her outfit – some variant of a warrior, he thought, from what he'd learned of the mainlanders' culture from his tutors. She wore iron that covered her entire chest and shoulders, and though her legs were covered by a skirt, he couldn't be certain that she wasn't protected there as well.

She needed to leave. Before the guards took notice of her.

He cleared his throat as he approached her, but when she spun to meet his eyes, she pounced on the opportunity to speak before he could open his mouth. "Your highness!" she gasped, and curtseyed, her head held low. "How long I've waited to meet you!"

And it was at this point that Jack found himself speechless. He glanced about, saw that there were still (thank the heavens) no guards in sight, and then he turned back to her.

"…What?"

The word left his mouth rather ungracefully, and his father would be ashamed of him; he'd been taught better than that. But Jack was suddenly oh so curious – he'd been told that mainlanders had no knowledge of their culture, so how—?

"…Oh. Um." The young lady frowned and crossed her arms. "Are you not the prince of this beautiful city? I suppose I could be wrong, but, I was so sure…"

"No, no." Jack cleared his throat. "You're speaking to him. What, ah – how can I help you, mainlander?"

She must have thought he was some sort of dork, for not being able to keep his sentence flowing as he should. If she did, she made no indication of it; instead, she kept her head bowed and nodded.

"I want to live here," she said, and her eyes were sparkling again with a level of excitement that was foreign to Jack. "I – oh, please, you must let me! I won't dare take a step off of this island again, so long as you grant me just this! I don't care how I'm treated, or if I'm looked at funny, or anything! This place is just so wonderful…"

Jack highly doubted his father would respond well to this. However, there was something about her that intrigued him. He didn't know why she wanted to live in his city, the to-be his kingdom, when the mainland continents seemed so much more full of live and adventure. There was nothing to look forward to when one knew all the citizens by name; there was no chance for surprises.

So, Jack decided, he would let her. He would have to keep her presence hidden from his father, of course, but it would be worth it, if he got to know her just a bit better than he did.

"Very well," he said, and a grin took her face with such sudden ferocity that it startled him. "You can call me Jack, young miss. And may I have your name?"

"Rapunzel," she replied, her feet skipped as if she had the urge to dance, but she stayed in one place.

"Rapunzel, then." Jack laughed and gestured to the city around them. "Welcome to Atlantis."

It was a week later when his father became aware of the mainlander's presence in his city. Jack had provided a room for her at the castle, giving her a cloak to always wear with the hood up to mask her hair and clothes that his mother had worn before she'd died. As he'd predicted, they were a close match, though Rapunzel had complained often enough that the bust of the dresses were much too loose.

When Jack was summoned to his father's throne, he was unsurprised at his father's anger. He'd neglected his duties more than usual – skipped sessions with tutors, ignored the hours he was meant to be available for public audiences, avoided maids who intended to take new measurements for the outfit that was to be for his coronation. His father had every right to be angry.

What his father did not, however, have the right to be, was suspicious.

"Are you a traitor, Jack?" he asked, his soft but cold and dark voice piercing the room. His father sat on his throne and did not look at him, but all the guards did.

"No!" Jack snapped, anger seeping through his bones. "What gives you that idea?! Just because she's a mainlander—"

"The mainlanders have always had malevolent intentions for us," his father interrupted, and his inattention made Jack's blood boil. "I will allow her to stay for now, but do not become close to her. One mistake, my boy, one slip-up, and I will order her execution. Understand?"

Oh, Jack understood: he understood the prejudices that both his father and the Atlantians had grown up with; he understood that it was not good, not for his image or his father's, for him to be associating with a mainlander; he understood that by "become close," his father meant "consider her for a bride," because the Atlantians would not accept the rule of a foreigner; and he understood that, even after Jack was to take the throne on his eighteenth birthday, his father would always be in control, keeping the strings attached so that Jack would forever be his puppet.

With a curt nod, Jack turned and fled the throne room, withholding any and all comments he would love to spit out at his father. He'd just made Jack look like a fool in front of all of those guards – and rumors would spread within the hour, of that, Jack was sure.

Rapunzel was waiting for him outside the door to his private chambers. Jack blinked, confused, and she laughed and held up a basket.

"It's a wonderful day for a picnic, don't you think?"

Jack hadn't been sure what to think, exactly, other than the whole of the situation was incredibly humorous, and he couldn't hold back the guffaw in his gut.

This woman, queen? She was so light-hearted, so amiable and so innocent, that Jack wouldn't think of it even in his wildest dreams. No, he would need someone much sturdier and of much sterner stuff to rule alongside him.

"A picnic it is."

Two weeks later, Jack found his opinion had changed. He wasn't sure how or when—only that it had. Rapunzel was no longer just a friend-turned foreigner; she was something more.

In fact, he didn't even notice the change until she brought it up.

"Jack, is the king – I mean, is your father, um… hurting you?"

"No." He wasn't lying, either; the king had never done anything to him that he hadn't done with the greater good in mind. "Why do you ask?"

"Ah, well…" Rapunzel frowned and toyed with a strand of her hair – a habit Jack had only ever seen take shape in long-haired girls. "I – um – I went by your room last night, and, I-I heard… noises."

Jack shrugged. "Yeah. He was just venting. Something went badly at the council meeting today, and one of the advisors—"

"Just venting?!" Rapunzel's jaw dropped. "Jack, that's abuse, no matter how you word it! He – he was beating you!"

"Better me than any of his advisors." To Jack, it was so simple; why wasn't it so simple to her? "It's fine, Rapunzel, you just don't understand—"

"It is not fine!" she snapped, startling him. "Jack, I know what it's like! I know what it feels like for someone you love and trust to just use you like that! Don't tell me that I don't understand! Come on, Jack, you don't have to take it!"

"Yes, I do." He sighed and his lungs, his eyes, his heart burned. Finally, someone knew. "He's the king. If I say anything, he'll denounce me a traitor, and he already has plenty of evidence that he can use for that."

"What… 'evidence?'"

He shook his head; she didn't need to know. "Doesn't matter. There's nothing I can do – not until my coronation in a few months, at least."

She looked at him with such emotion, such empathy, that the tears bristling the corners of his eyes finally began to take his cheeks, burning them as well.

What sort of a woman was she going to become, Jack wondered, when she already was so perfect?

A week later, she kissed him. Jack supposed she hadn't meant to, but she did all the same.

It had happened in the heat of the moment. They'd been walking through the natural garden of the park near the castle – Jack once again skipping his Atlantian History session, not that she would ever know – and they were talking quietly, conversing of the unique butterflies and botany that Atlantis housed, and then her hand had slipped into his.

At that moment, Jack couldn't have cared less about the butterflies or the flowers. All that mattered was her and him, and the we and the us they wordlessly became.

Her green eyes, shining like the emerald sun, melted into his pale blue, and without a thought as to the consequences, she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him in close to her, and their lips met.

Jack was only too happy to return the gesture – and for that single, pure, unadulterated, uninterrupted moment, the two of them were encased in all the bliss two lovers could ever share.

For only a moment, yet it would feel like a lifetime.

"You know what this means."

Jack laughed and shook his head, a certain bounce in his step as he came to a rest beside his father's throne. "What what means?" he asked, looking up to the king without fear.

That was a mistake. His father scowled and slammed his fists into the arms of the throne; Jack flinched. "I told you," his father growled, "what would happen if you got too close to her."

Jack's eyes widened, his body tensed, and all bliss evaporated. "What? How-how did you—"

"There were plenty of witnesses to your little… public display." His father sneered, and the color drained from Jack's face. "You knew this would come."

"No—" Jack stared at his father, and he was scared – scared of the man who ruled his life, controlled every aspect of how he made himself and expressed himself. The fear spread through his body like gooseflesh.

"Guards, bring the prince's companion." King Pitch grinned a wicked grin, his canines flashing in the brilliant light. "Prepare the executioner's—"

"No."

The word came out with more confidence; it was firm, unyielding, ready to do battle. The king froze, and very, very slowly – with all the viscosity of peanut butter – he returned his gaze to his son.

"What did you just say?" he hissed through grit teeth.

Jack stood taller now – his broad shoulders did not hunch over, his arms stayed relaxed at his side, and he met his father's black-as-coal eyes.

"No," he repeated once more. "If you want to kill her, you'll have to kill me first."

Pitch stared at Jack, and the expression on his face gave Jack the impression that his father was contemplating. Calculating.

"You're serious."

"I am."

"Very well." Pitch chuckled and shook his head. "There are other methods for keeping the bloodline clean, my boy; this is just the tip of the iceberg."

"Oh, is it?" Jack scowled. "Well, I suppose I'll have to be ready for the rest of it."

When Jack turned to leave, his father called out to him once more. "Don't you want to know what I've planned?"

"No," he replied, scowling. "I'm not going to give in. Just know that you have one hell of a battle in front of you."

As Jack left the room, leaving Pitch to his thoughts, the King of Atlantis came to one final conclusion:

With a mainlander as its queen, his city could not be redeemed.

An hour later, as Jack sat with Rapunzel, both of them wielding swords and pacing the room in an effort to calm their rapid, fluctuating heartbeats, Jack heard the sounds of screams outside.

When he turned to the window, he saw a wall of water beginning to build around the city. What was going on? How was the ocean growing larger and larger? Or—

No. The ocean wasn't growing in height. Atlantis was falling.

This was it, then. His father had decided that the city was worthless without a pure bloodline. He'd decided that he'd rather commit genocide than allow one foreigner to become royalty.

"What—" Rapunzel swallowed, and Jack could hear the panic in her voice. "What's going on?"

"We're going to die," Jack replied, and he couldn't move his eyes as he witnessed the water begin to crash against the ground. With the window closed, and with their added height, they would be safe for just a minute longer.

Only a minute. He had to make it count.

He spun to Rapunzel, wrapped his arms around her waist, and brought her in for a passionate sharing of oxygen. Although she was confused and panicking and afraid of the death that awaited her, she allowed him to – allowed the two of them to join one last time.

"The royal line has this thing we guard," he said hurriedly, the space between the two of them refusing to enlarge or shorten. "It keeps Atlantis afloat—I mean, this island we're on, we made it. It's not natural. So something has to keep it from sinking. And Pitch – my father – he just destroyed it."

Rapunzel nodded. "I-I think I understand," she said, and her voice sounded dry – but now it was calm. "So, this… this is the end."

"Our apocalypse," Jack confirmed. "And you came here just in time to participate."

Rapunzel laughed, tears forming in her eyes as the window creaked. The pressure was building, and water was already beginning to leak in through the door. The minute was coming to an end.

"I love you," Jack said, and the window burst, dousing them in water.

"I love you, too," Rapunzel cried back, and she wrapped her hands around his neck; their bodies together floated to the top of the room as it filled with water, and when it became such that they were about to be completely submerged, they inhaled a deep breath and kissed again.

The oxygen they were desperate to share allowed them to live only a moment longer.

So fell the ancient city of Atlantis.

Elsa's Notes: I'm still iffy with the ending adfresdfgdfh but! I simply won't have the time to play with it today, so here you go. The "legend" of how Atlantis fell. Yay? Sorry for the... extremely sudden angst at the end there. I hope you all enjoyed nonetheless?

Also, terribly sorry for disappointing you. Crystal made it sound like some huge epic, but it's really not. So, uh. Yeah. I tried.

Please review!