Dear kind reviewers (Romance and Musical, forgetmenotjimmy, the139Blossom, An Unknown Foreign Beauty, InkSpellWeaver, NikkyPickles, Spring-Heel-Jacqueline, Soccermustang),

You must be thinking that I'm making this up as I go along and one day I'll just give up because I lack reviews. Don't fret. Because I've got this thing plotted out to the last detail and I've got about 20 more chapters to give a 'Tangled' sequel justice. The climax will be the one that will make you sleepless for days, the one that will break all ratings. It'll be like M++++... . So, why am I telling you stuff that you don't need to know? Because I'm begging you to stick with me. So, in between the times when my bosses are shouting at me, they will see me smiling like a fool, not knowing that I'm way out of the damn place I call work.

Chapter 12

Eugene came to his senses just to find that his face was covered with a black sack, his hands tied behind his back and his legs tied together at the ankles. When he thought of rolling himself off the open carriage, he found that his whole body had been tied to the carriage. His captors had taken all the necessary precautions to make him one with the carriage. He cleared his mind of his current predicament and tried thinking good thoughts. Unfortunately, he had very few memories that he would love to go back to. His childhood? Sorry, he had no childhood. His teen hood? Man, what a downer. His adulthood, full of bad choices when he thought that the worst was over. And now, after the kind love and acceptance he had been given? Still no use. He knew he had unfinished business with people who had unfinished of businesses, and he had to finish what he started. He tried thinking about the sublimely made Princess Rapunzel. He remembered her sweet spring air smell and he sighed deeply. He could picture her small but shapely sweetness pushing behind her tight dress and that should be driving him mad. But he was sad instead.

What if they were never meant to be together? What if all these trials are just to show that he must be separated far away from the woman who possesses his heart? He didn't want to think about those seeking, eager small red lips not cleaving over his from time to time. The future, even fantastically speaking seemed so fraught with uncertainty. Eugene decided that he is not going to think about neither the past nor the future. So, what else did he have in his memory other than his sordid past and anticipation of the future?

Well, he had The Tales of Flynnegan Rider, and that cheered him enough in order for him not to give up hope. What would Flynn Rider do when he is being completely tied to a moving carriage driven by his nemesis? Putting himself in Flynnegan's shoes, he arranged his thoughts. He will wait until the first opportunity for escape shows itself. And believe me, he said, as long as he is alive, opportunity will show itself. And if he's extra lucky, even in death, though very unlikely, opportunity could show itself. That's the best thing about hope. One never knows when one's luck going to run out. Hmm, he wondered, why on earth did the writer never gave Flynn Rider the gift of immortality? The series would go on and on forever. Someone else could have written the story for her after Miss Marlowe-Shakespeare's time ended. But then, where's the fun in following the adventures of an immortal? The very thing that makes life precious is death itself.

Eugene realised that he had been thinking too far and hard when the carriage finally stopped and he was rolled off the carriage and ended up on the ground like a sack of potato. It was clear that his captors did not care about his well-being at all. They didn't care if he is broken and cut, as long as he is breathing. He knows that his existence had been reduced to being a bait to get something they wanted. He was then rolled up in a blanket and then pulled into an interior of a building. They finally stopped pulling him and propped him on a wall before the peeled away the blanket covering his whole body. They put his wrists in shackles before they untied him, his legs as well. Finally, when the process of binding him to his new prison ended, the sack covering his face was taken off.

"Where am I?" He asked the two familiar men, the gardeners slash sorcerers.

"You're in the lair," answered the old sorcerer, his face more gaunt than the last time he saw him. The old man's time was running out, thus, explaining his desperation in getting over whatever he is doing.

"That's very useful information. What are you going to do with me?"

"You will lure Rapunzel to this place and we shall see how it goes from there."

"She's not coming," Eugene snorted.

"She is coming."

"You don't know that."

"Seeing the way you two are bound to each other, I know she will be following all leads to follow you."

Eugene snorted again. He was very confident that the old man's assumption is based on coincidence and unfounded prediction. Even he himself did not know where he is. How could Rapunzel know? And the guards or the king? Surely the sorcerer would have protection against these people so they won't be barging in the lair.

"What are you going to do?"

"The details are very complicated. I won't be entertaining any more of your questions."

"Fine!" Eugene said and started observing the two in action.

The younger man, the sorcerer's assistant, Angus, carried the chest he saw in the royal garden into the lair. The sorcerer opened it and took out a familiar black mantle, being very careful not to drop something contained within the mantle. A wisp of something escaped the folds of the mantle. Gothel's dust! Eugene gasped. As the wisp of dust was still hanging in mid air, the sorcerer uttered an incantation.

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes;

Time to put fate into reverse,

You are a wraith though not at first,

Vengeance exacted will end your curse.

The thin wisp of dust began to take shape and Eugene simmered and boiled at the abominable sight – the wrinkled and hollowed visage of the woman Gothel was hovering in the air.

"If it's vengeance that you want, just take me. What can you get by hurting Rapunzel?" Eugene yelled to the sorcerer, Faustilius.

"You? What are you but only a thief? Who got rescued by the girl's tears? A middling nuisance at most. But definitely useful," Faustilius sneered making Eugene very upset.

"Oh, don't play that put-me-down card! That is so below the belt!" Eugene yelled. Behind his back, his hands were twisting, testing the bonds of the metal shackles. They were strong. He needed a key, or something like a key.

"Hey, the incantation says that vengeance is the thing. So, your woman Gothel is probably very pissed at me, for cutting Rapunzel's hair. So it is really me that you want. Not her. And for your information - Rapunzel. Lost. Her. Hair. Got that?"

"Oh, don't worry, if we found out that her blood is useless, we'll start cutting you."

"That is so unfair," Eugene gushed out.

"Now, we'll wait."

xox

"We're here," Miss Wilhelmina said when they approached a cavern-like structure in a forest clearing.

"How do you know?"

"Look, Your Highness, you asked for my help, and this is the help I'm giving you," Wilhelmina said, desperation in her voice.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, we're going in together," Wilhelmina assured her and held Rapunzel's hand in hers.

"I'm scared," Rapunzel confessed.

"Me too," Wilhelimina said, "but I will not be able to live in peace until I see this one through."

"Why are you being so kind?"

"Oh, this is killing me. Please, promise me to keep this for me, the secret I harboured for so long."

"Is Eugene Fitzherbert your son?"

Wilhelmina broke into a sob. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably.

"How did you know?"

"You followed me here. You, who has no connection to this whole mess."

"I've made mistakes that regret will never undo. I must be there for him now that I've finally been reunited with him."

"And you are beautiful, just like him."

That sentence drove Wilhelmina into another sobbing fit. But after a few minutes, Wilhelmina was able to gain her composure.

"Let's go in."

The two women walked toward the cavern and stepped into its mouth. As they were walking, Wilhelmina stopped in mid-stride. She could not walk any further, as if there was an invisible wall in front of her. The same did not happen to Rapunzel. Rapunzel stepped back and asked Wilhelmina who looked as if the world had ended.

"What is wrong?"

"They put a spell on this place!" Wilhelmina whispered, and she started pounding on the invisible wall. There was no sound, but Wilhelmina was hitting something solid with her fist.

"But I can go in. Why can't you go in?" Rapunzel asked.

"I never thought the decision I made will come this – I, "Wilhelmina could not continue.

"You are a wizard!" Rapunzel gasped. She remembered the line in the journal – 'Wizards become healers, advisers of kings, master agriculturists, teachers of good knowledge and trades, scribes of history, poets and writers who heal the human soul infested with maladies'. But the fact didn't cheer Rapunzel because being a wizard in Corona's world is more of a curse than a gift. Because Wilhelmina was a wizard, she could not enter the lair of another wizard who had taken the necessary precaution.

"You must go on without me, Your Highness," Wilhelmina pleaded.

"Don't worry. I will get Eugene out of this place." Rapunzel assured her.

"Wait," Wilhelmina said and took something out from her satchel. It was a small key.

"You must give this to Eugene. No matter what."

"The spell won't detect this?"

"It's not magical. It's just a key for shackles of standard-manufacture in this kingdom. Before writing, I did my research whole-heartedly."

"I will. Thank you,"Rapunzel said, and braved herself to venture into the cavern-like structure.