A/N:

Another chapter for your enjoyment, we're racing towards the end now! I do apologisefor my evilness in the previous chapter, but being evil is just so much fun when it comes to writing stories! (Again I promise I'm not a psychopath) Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews, they really make my day. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one. Stay Classy, Icepoppy

The sound of wheels grinding against the dry gravel made her head ache, along with the repetitive stamping of the komodo rhinos. Every time she moved the clinking of chains joined the racket, slowly driving her insane. Still, it wouldn't stop her from trying to escape, she'd never stop trying. The moment Gothel had led her towards a large wooden jail carriage she new she had messed up. Stupid, she thought, how could I have been so stupid. Of course she was lying. So damn stupid! Growling in frustration she pulled at her chains once more causing them to dig further into her wrists, but she didn't care, she just wanted to be free and to get away from Gothel. Her 'mother' was sitting at the front of the carriage with the driver, giving him directions on where to go. A pre-organised location where they would meet Pitch.

The cart lurched and skidded to a halt, sending Rapunzel flying forwards only to be yanked back painfully by her shackles. "Mother!" despite everything she couldn't help calling her that, "Mother why have we stopped. Let me out right now or so help me!" Before she could think of a threat the door was unbolted letting in a flood of sunlight. Shielding her eyes against the light she blinked, the outside world slowly coming into focus. There was Gothel, looking disinterested picking at one of her nails, and beside her stood a tall dark man, with peeling gray skin and a rotten smile. She gulped, "Pitch."

"Ah Rapunzel how nice to finally meet you. I must say I've been waiting for this moment for quite some time." He grabbed the chains and pulled them towards him, dragging along Rapunzel till she was mere inches from his face. She screwed up her nose as his putrid breath spilled across her face. "Do I disgust you? Oh dear, how disappointing." He threw her to the ground, causing a cloud of dust to billow around their feet. She just lay there for a moment unsure of what to do next, and even after a moment's thought all she could think to do was look up. What she saw made her stomach twist. They were at the foot of a tall stone tower with a window at the top, that bore such an uncanny resemblance to her old home that for a moment she thought she was back in the water tribe. Gothel grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to her feet before marching her towards the tower.

There was no entrance apart from the window at the top, just like the tower back home. However this was made from stone, probably so Rapunzel couldn't just bend her way out. Pitch stepped forwards and bent them all to the top. Gothel threw the girl inside and went to step in herself, but Pitch raised his hand. "Perhaps, if you gave me a moment alone with the girl?"

"Whatever for?"

"I doubt she will be willing to do what we want without a little persuasion first."

Gothel smirked cruelly before stepping back, allowing Pitch to bend her to the bottom of the tower before turning to face Rapunzel. She was still taking in her surroundings, the room was exactly like it had been at home and Jack's parting words rung in her head, GO BACK AND LIVE IN A PRISON WITH YOUR MOTHER. He was right, this was some sort of sick prison that mimicked her home, which in itself had always been a prison. Never allowed to leave, not even step outside, she would have been able to but she never did because mother knows best. Now she really couldn't leave, not without facing the risk of plummeting to her death. The floorboards creaked as Pitch stepped towards her and she grabbed the closest thing to her, which happened to be a frying pan. "Stay away from me Pitch. Whatever you want there is no chance that I will ever give it to you. Not ever."

"Are you sure?" He sounded amused, clearly the frying pan wasn't very threatening. "I had guessed that might be the case, but I think once we've had a chat you'll see things differently. I can be very persuasive."

"I don't care what you have to say."

"I wasn't planning on saying anything, rather, I'd like to show you. I've been working on this new potion, induces the most horrible hallucinations. Hallucinations of what we fear most. All my test subjects so far have ended up killing themselves. Now, you could do as I ask, or..." He waved the small vile at her. She spat at his feet. His expression changed to a wicked grin, "I was hoping you would say that." Before she could even yelp rocks had appeared from the walls, forcing her back and pinning her in place. She struggled as Pitch approached her, glaring at him as he raised the vile to her lips. She refused to open her mouth, but he simply pinched her nose shut, forcing her to open her mouth or suffocate. When she gave in he poured the sour liquid down her throat and stepped back, ready to watch the show.

A numbness overcame her as the liquid settled in her stomach. She could see Pitch waiting for something to happen, but her vision was going blurry around the edges, a sort of white fog was descending on everything. Once the fog had completely surrounded her, she found she was free to move, the shackles from before seeming to have vanished into the nothingness. Similarly, Pitch had disappeared, leaving her alone in the middle of a vast expanse of nothing. Standing there she waited, wondering what her worst fear was. Ruffians? No, the ruffians she had met were kind and funny. Pitch? No, not Pitch, he was cruel and evil but he was weak and easy to see through, even if he thought he hid his emotions well. Then what was it? For the life of her she couldn't think what would come to face her, and for a while nothing did.

Then, in the distance, a figure appeared. As it drew closer she could make out a few more details. A staff, yellow trousers, a mess of white hair... "Jack?" But that made no sense, she wasn't afraid of Jack, not at all. He was only a few meters away now, and she smiled and walked towards him. To her surprise he walked straight past her without even giving her a glance. "Jack?" she followed him, grabbing his arm and turning him to face her. His expression was harsh.

"What do you want?"

"Jack I'm sorry about before-"

"How do you know my name, who the hell are you anyway?"

"What?"

He pulled his arm away from her, but she grabbed him again. He struggled against her, "Get off me!"

"Jack it's me, it's Rapunzel. Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Me."

"No, now get off of me. Just get off-" he threw her off, "-thank you. Now, get lost." Once more he began to stride away from her, using his staff to propel himself forwards. As he moved her token swung around the crook of the staff, threatening to fall off.

Struck with a sudden idea, she called out to him. "Jack! Jack, look at your staff."

He turned his head slightly to look at it, just as the pendant whirled round, almost hitting him in the face. He grabbed it and looked at it for a second. Holding her breath she prayed that he would remember. For a moment it seemed like he would not, but then ever so slowly, he turned around to face her. When he looked up, recognition was on his face, along with relief at the sight of her. "Rapunzel!" He called out happily, waving to her. She was about to run to him when a dark figure appeared behind him. She screamed just as his face went blank, mouth silently working and eyes widening. The figure disappeared, leaving behind a dark dagger in his back. He fell to his knees as she ran to him, catching him just before his head hit the floor. Cradling him in her arms she tried desperately to keep him awake. He was staring at her with eyes full of fear, his breaths were coming in short ragged gasps, and a trickle of blood had appeared at the corner of his mouth. "No, no, no, no. Jack look at me. Stay awake Jack, I'm going to heal you, everything will be fine." She reached around only to find that she no longer had her water pouch. Instead she grabbed his and pulled it open, only to discover that it was empty. "No-" she shook it, "No, this isn't fair, no that's not possible." She cupped Jack's face with her hands, desperate to ease his pain but not knowing how.

"I don't want to die Rapunzel," he was shaking, "Rapunzel please, I'm scared. Why won't you help me?" He coughed and another spurt of blood appeared at his lips.

She sobbed, "I can't... I-" before she could finish he went limp in her arms, his eyes lost their frosty sparkle and his breathing came to an abrupt halt. She shook him, "Jack? C'mon Jack, no, no, no this isn't happening, this can't be happening!" She stood up and backed away from him, trying to wipe the blood off of her hands. As she moved backwards her foot bumped into something soft on the ground, and she turned to see Merida lying motionless on the floor, with the dark arrow still that Pitch had shot in her side. Rapunzel gasped and turned away, only to see Hiccup in a crumbled heap, battered and bruised and motionless. She tried to scramble away only to trip over Flynn's body, still sprawled as it had been on the road side. She cried out and stood up. Looking around for an escape route all she could see were rows of dead bodies. There was Astrid, and Fishlegs was next to her. Aster and North were off to the right. As far as she could see the bodies of people she loved littered the floor, and right in the middle was Jack.

Unable to contain it any longer she let out a primal scream, falling to her knees, and pushing her fists in to her eyes, trying to block out the sight of everyone she had failed to save. When she finally had the courage to open them once more, she found she was back in the tower, Pitch sitting across from her looking mildly impressed. "Finally you're awake. Astonishing, I thought you would have cracked much sooner, you lasted far longer than any of my test subjects. Tell me, how did you do it?"

"How did I do what?" Her voice was quiet and strained from her screaming.

He rolled his eyes as though it were obvious, "How did you resist it so long?"

"I guess I kept finding ways around the problems, but when I couldn't..." her voice died away as the sight of Jack lying on the ground filled her vision once more. She shook her head and it dispersed, leaving her alone with Pitch.

He nodded thoughtfully before getting back to business. "So, now that you've had a taste of what will happen if you refuse, how would you like to meet out demands?"

"What are your demands?"

"Do you care? Don't you just want to make sure you never experience that again?"

"Not until I find out what you want me to do."

"Clever girl. Nothing bad I assure you. I want you to heal me, you see I'm rather unfortunately ill, and I doubt I have much time left, as you can see, I'm decaying as we speak. From what I hear you are a very talented healer, a talent such as yours could easily heal my sickness."

"How can you be so sure?"

"You've managed to keep that creature Gothel young for all this time, most healers don't have that ability. If you can manage that, you can certainly purge me of this."

She studied his expression for a moment before looking to the window. "I want to talk to my mother before I make my decision."

"You're not exactly in the position to make demands Rapunzel."

"Neither are you, what can you do to me that you haven't already done? I can deal with that, but you can't last much longer unless I cooperate, and the only way I will is if I speak to my mother first."

"Fine" he spat, walking to the window and bending Gothel up towards them. The woman stepped through the window as Pitch left, passing her a small bottle as they crossed paths. Once he was gone Gothel turned to Rapunzel.

"What do you want?"

"Why? What did I ever do to you?"

"Don't be so dramatic Rapunzel."

"JUST TELL ME THE TRUTH! For once, just, tell me the truth."

"Fine. You want the truth, you aren't my daughter, the only reason I kept you for all these years is because you could keep me young, but I don't need you for that anymore, because I have this." She waggled a little potion in front of her face.

"What's that?"

"This will keep me young forever, much more effective than your powers. I made a deal with Pitch, he can have you, I get the potion."

"I see. So, if you're not my mother, then who is?"

Gothel rolled her eyes and sighed, "You always were infuriatingly inquisitive. I stole you. Is that what you wanted to hear? I stole you from your parents when you were a baby."

"What? Why me?"

"Oh don't flatter yourself, I stole children of as many powerful water benders I could find, until I found a child with healing powers. You were just lucky that you showed your abilities when I took you, otherwise you would have ended up like the rest."

"What- what happened to the rest?"

"I left them to die. Clearly I wasn't thorough enough, as one of them has a nasty habit of getting in the way of things."

Rapunzel thought for a moment before it hit her, "Jack? You took Jack away from his family and just left him to die?"

"Yes, yes, get over it Rapunzel, you're never going to see him again anyway, not after the way you treated him."

Rapunzel narrowed her eyes, anger building up inside her, but before she could explode she had one more pressing question she needed answered. "Where did you take me from?"

"Why does that matter?"

"I want to know."

"For goodness sake Rapunzel it doesn't matter," the girl fixed the woman with a determined gaze and Gothel gave in, "Fine. I took you from the Northern Water tribe." When Rapunzel stared at her expectantly she groaned and carried on. "To be more specific, I stole you from the chief and his wife, the chief was an extraordinary healer, saved his wife's life when she was sick with you. I guessed you'd inherit his skills, and you did, so I took you."

Rapunzel stared at her as she processed the information. Her whole life had been a lie, and now she knew where she came from and still she couldn't get there because of Gothel. Gothel was behind all this, all of her problems were because of her. Were she not still bound to the wall she would have attacked her. The woman laughed as Rapunzel struggled, uncorking the bottle and taking a swig. For a moment nothing happened, but then her hands began to wither. Her hair was turning white and her skin wrinkling. Gothel screamed in horror and scrambled over to Rapunzel, pulling at the rocks that held her to the wall. They tumbled away freeing Rapunzel. She shoved her rapidly aging mother away from her in disgust. Gothel tripped on a chair and went tumbling towards the window. Before Rapunzel could move to save her, the woman had fallen out of the window, tearing towards the ground at an alarming rate. Rapunzel watched as she fell, horrified and amazed to see that the woman turned to dust before she had even hit the ground.

Looking at the foot of the tower she saw Pitch smirk at the spot where her mother's cloak had fallen before turning his gaze to Rapunzel. She backed away from the window as he made his way up the tower. Looking around she spotted the frying pan lying on the ground, and scooped it up before finding a place to hide. She heard Pitch climb through the window and begin searching for her. She counted his steps as he drew closer to her hiding spot behind one of the support beams. Three, two... one! On the final count she swung the pan out, hitting Pitch square across the face, leaving him crumpled on the floor. She poked him the pan, and when she was confident he was unconscious, she shoved him in the nearest cupboard, placing a chair in front of the door to keep it shut. Still clinging firmly to the frying pan she walked towards the window. It was a long drop, and she imagined she would die if she fell. Still, she thought, better than staying here.

Before she could change her mind she was climbing out of the window and up towards the roof. Once she had reached the very top she clung to the ornament on the point of the roof. How was she going to escape? She couldn't jump obviously, there were no trees to climb down, and the sides of the tower were smooth and would be treacherous to try and scale – she had almost fallen in the short climb to the roof. As panic began to set in, the sound of cascading water came to her attention. Turning around she saw a narrow waterfall drumming down into the clearing. It was quite far away, and it took all of her concentration to command the water. Adjusting her position on the tiles she artfully pulled the water closer and closer, urging it to move just a little bit faster. Finally the stream reached her, and taking a steadying breath she stepped onto the water. She managed to convince it to take her weight, and proceeded to bend herself gently to the bottom of the tower. Purely out of spite she then sent a large orb of water to the top where the window was, freezing it in a shell around the room where Pitch was currently trapped.

She smoothed out her skirt and adjusted her braid, hands running down her hair until they came to rest on Jack's armband. She looked at it fondly, eager to find him and make amends. Looking about she spotted the exit to the clearing and ran towards it. She wasn't sure how she was going to find them again, she only knew that she had to.