Rapunzel sniffed as one of the last flowers in her hair was removed.
"There, it never happened." Gothel said. She then patted Rapunzel's shoulder reassuringly and left. Kairi grasped the small flower in her hand, blankly recalling so many wonderful moments between her, Sora, and Riku. Especially Sora. There just wasn't something right about what had happened...
"I can't believe Eugene did that..." Rapunzel flopped back onto her bed.
"But... what if he didn't...?" Kairi asked softly. Rapunzel only held up a small flag from the festival, sighing.
Kairi looked around at all the paintings in the room "You're a really great artist..."
"Thanks..."
Riku, Roxas, and Eugene were thinking hard on how to escape. Sora was just blankly following along, too caught in shock's grasp to do anything else.
Riku was glancing around, looking for something-
Is that a unicorn? He paused at a small alcove that held a small ceramic unicorn figurine. He titled his head, confused. At least until he was pushed forward. He glared, but gave no other response.
"Hey, Sora." he whispered. The brunette in front of him hardly stirred "Don't worry, we're gonna get out of this, and you and Kairi will be together again." at the mention of Kairi, Sora flinched a little.
Rapunzel sighed and looked at her small flag again. Then she looked at her ceiling. She blinked, holding the flag against the pastel-colored canvas. She sat up, something triggering in her head.
"Rapunzel? What's up?" Kairi asked. Rapunzel didn't reply, seeing the very same sun symbol all over her room, scattered about in her drawings. Her eyes widened, and she gasped
"I'm the lost princess...!"
Suddenly the door in front of the group slammed shut. The guard banged on the door "Open up!"
A rather drunk-looking old man opened a small slot "What's the password?"
"OPEN UP!"
The guard holding Riku was dragged away.
"Nope!"
Two more guards gone.
"Open this door right now!"
The rest went bye-bye too.
"Not even close!"
That's when the guard realized he was the only one left, and turned around just in time to have Eugene and Roxas punch him out.
Roxas shook his hand telling the old man "You were kinda unexpected, but very much appreciated by a no- ordinary guy."
"Well you know I work out... hic..." the man began rambling as if Roxas was a nice looking young woman. Roxas made a disgusted and disturbed face, then summoned his Keyblade to undo everyone's chains. "Excuse me I need to go throw up." Roxas began walking away but Riku held him back "Hold on, we've gotta find Kairi. Eugene, any leads?"
Eugene was clutching his head, racking his thoughts. "I don't know, if the Stabbington brothers have Rapunzel and Kairi, they could be halfway across the kingdom by now-"
Roxas threw up outside the window. "Oh, you were serious Roxas?" Riku said, sounding apologetic. Roxas coughed a little and glared back at him
"Gee, you think getting hit on by a guy who's at least 30 years older than you wouldn't make you throw up."
"What, Rapunzel?" Kairi asked.
"T-there was this princess who went missing 18 years ago- o-on my birthday- and I think- no I know that's who I am!" Rapunzel spurted. Kairi recalled the mosaic: now that she thought about it, the resemblance was uncanny. "I think you're right, but Gothel-"
"Isn't my mother." Rapunzel said firmly. "She kidnapped me! She... She kidnapped me for her own gain!" She stormed out of her room "I'm the lost princess! Aren't I?"
Gothel froze "What was that? Y-you know I don't like muttering-"
"She's the lost princess! Did she mutter, Gothel?" Kairi said, joining her side.
Gothel frowned, "Oh, so I'm a bad guy now..."
"Yes! Yes you are!" Rapunzel yelled, storming past her "All my life you've told me that people would use me for my powers and-and you've been using me all along!"
Gothel caught up with her reaching her hand out to Rapunzel's hair "Now now, everything is as it should be-"
Rapunzel grabbed it "NO! You were wrong about the world, you were wrong about EVERYTHING, and I am NEVER letting you use my hair again!"
Gothel stumbled, breaking the only mirror in the tower. She stared at Rapunzel and Kairi in disbelief, then scowled
"So I'm the bad guy? Okay, I'm the bad guy..."
"Where could she be?" Eugene asked.
"The Stabbington brothers-" Roxas suggested.
"No. No she's not with them... Someone else..." Sora held a hand to his head. "Someone older-"
"Gothel! Of course!" Eugene slapped his forehead. He then dashed down the hall yelling "Follow me!"
After a good several hours of trekking through the forest, everyone halted to catch their breath at the base of a tower.
"RAPUNZEL!" No response. "RAPUNZEL!" A stream of long golden hair shot out of the tower window, and Eugene sighed in relief. He started climbing while Sora watched.
"You gonna go see if Kairi's-?"
"I know she's there, but I doubt Rapunzel can carry two people at once." Sora said while he leaned back on his heels, looking worried and anxious. "I'll start climbing when he's nearly done. Riku, you and Roxas hang back, I'm willing to bet Rapunzel will be wiped out after I get up there." Sora noted Eugene was nearly up, and started climbing "If anything happens, I'll call you guys, okay?"
They nodded.
After climbing over the windowsill, Sora gasped. Eugene was on the floor cradling a wound, both Kairi and Rapunzel were tied up and gagged.
He then fell to his knees when his side burst open in pain.
"Now look what you've made me do." Gothel said coldly.
"MPHORA!"
"MPHENE!" Kairi and Rapunzel tried rushing to their side, but were held back by Gothel "Don't worry, their secret will die with them. Now we are going where no one will ever find you again Rapunzel-"
"What are you going to do to Kairi? Agh!" Sora yelled, lunging forward but falling short from his injury. I'm such an idiot... he sighed in his thoughts, recalling that he had sold every potion and ether he had so he could afford to rent out those boats. His MP was drained from using magic to speed their arrival. Well, he honestly didn't expect for there to be this magnitude of trouble.
"Well a heart of pure light has some use, doesn't it?" Gothel replied. She then started becoming furious with the two girls "Rapunzel, Stop it right now! Stop fighting!" Rapunzel finally shook off her gag
"NO! I won't stop fighting! I won't stop for every minute of my life, and I will keep trying to get away from you!" She took a deep breath
"But... Just let me heal them, and I will come with you. We will stay together forever, just like you want."
Kairi squeaked, then furiously shook her head. She summoned her Keyblade, but fumbled with it more than usual. She shook her head, not understanding why it wanted to leave-
it vanished. Both Sora and Kairi gasped at it's departure, Sora painfully aware of a similar situation in his life.
Gothel ignored Kairi and nodded. She then chained up Sora and Eugene, hissing "Just in case you get any ideas." When she left, both Rapunzel and Kairi rushed over
"Eugene! Eugene!"
"Sora, Sora the Keyblade-!"
"I know, I know Kairi." Sora closed his eyes and took a strained breath, feeling a strange appreciation in how pinpoint Gothel's stab was. "The Keyblade is fickle like that. Your heart has to remain strong to-" Sora coughed, then smiled and cupped her cheek "Ah never mind that, I can lecture you later. I'll be fine, you can still use your magic, right?"
Suddenly, Eugene cut Rapunzel's hair, causing the golden locks to turn brown like an autumn leaf.
"NO! NO!" Gothel gasped, turning older and older by the second, grabbing at Rapunzel's browning hair, trying to fight the inevitable.
Sora then started changing, somehow. "Kairi, you can unlock these, right?" He panted, starting to twitch. Kairi tried using her Keyblade again, and managed to unlock the chains before it vanished of it's own accord. Sora sat up, and gently pushed Kairi back, something feral overtaking his appearance "Stay back, all of you." he whispered before an orb of darkness overtook him.
Sora looked like a Heartless: pitch black skin, hair and clothes, bright yellow eyes. Yet there was control in this beastly form, barely. Anti-Sora leapt at Gothel, proceeding to chase her around the room and eventually cornering her at the window.
"No! No it's not ending this way-!" She gasped before Anti-Sora cruelly pushed her over the edge.
"WOAH!" a cry came from below. "Sora? Sora is everything alright?"
"Sora?" Kairi asked. The half-Heartless quickly jerked its head in her direction, then suddenly closed it's eyes and fell forward as the darkness flashed away.
"Sora we're coming up!"
Rapunzel tore her eyes away from Kairi and Sora, finding Eugene was long gone. "No..." She cradled his limp body while Kairi pulled Sora into her lap
"What was that?"
Sora opened his eyes, the barest laugh escaping his lips "Should've... should've told about... Anti..." he drifted off "You've always smelled like the sea..."
"Sora stay with me, everything will be alright okay?" She ran her hand over Sora's wound, cringing from the blood she felt. "Everything will be fine..."
"Of course... because I'm with you..." A surge of healing magic burst from Kairi's hand at the remark.
"Sora, is everything- SORA!" Riku had finally climbed the tower, and rushed over to his side. He was followed moments later by Roxas. Roxas stared in disbelief for a brief second, the joined Kairi in healing him. "What happened?"
"Gothel..." Rapunzel sobbed "S-she stabbed them both... It's too late to save Eugene..." She cried harder, "It's no fair... he was my new dream..."
and a single tear fell onto him. At first nothing happened, then a golden light filled the room. Everything was brighter, less gray. Kairi instinctively stopped healing Sora, knowing the light would do a far better job than she could.
And she was relieved when Sora sat up and held her close, better than ever.
Yay! we're done. FINALLY. gosh, I had such a block writing this because I had so many ideas on this one, measly, unimportant, climax!ARGHFHWEJFHJASGDH!
Sorry, I'm banging my head against the desk because I feel this chapter is kinda crappy. Oh well ,I did my best =/.
For those confused about Roxas's line earlier ("You were kinda unexpected, but very much appreciated by a no- ordinary guy.") I just wanted to point out Roxas's semi-confusion on his status as a real person now, not a Nobody. You'd be confused too if you spent most of your life being told you were a Nobody who couldn't feel ;).
EDIT: Banging my head some more because instead of chaining Sora and EUGENE up, I chained up Sora and RIKU. !but don't worry it's fixed now.