Chapter 28

Jack and Merida wasted no time in pushing Rapunzel behind them.

"We've got this, Punz, you go take care of Pitch," Jack said.

Rapunzel nodded, walking along the wall of the ballroom. Her eyes searched for Pitch, and then they noticed the ballroom door was open. She wasted no time in running out the door, only sparing Jack and Merida a glance before she exited into the hallway. There was a trail of blood leading down the left side of the corridor, towards the area where the royal bedrooms were.

She began to sprint in that direction, already guessing where Pitch would be. As she ran, she kept her eyes forwards, not wanting to look at her surroundings too much. Once she reached what once was her parent's bedroom, she knew she'd been right. The doorknob was bloody, and Rapunzel hesitated before grabbing it.

She had turned the knob midway when the door from behind her, her old bedroom door, flew open and Pitch ran at her, his body slamming hers against the door hard enough to force it open.

They landed on the floor, Pitch on top of her, and Rapunzel quickly pushed him off, trying her best to ignore the pain in her chest from having the wind knocked out of her. Pitch scrambled to his feet too, looking frazzled. His eyes were no longer cold and calculating, they were wild and unfocused.

The arrow that had pierced his wrists had been snapped in half, but neither end had been pulled out.

"You truly are pretentious," Pitch spat out.

Rapunzel shook her head, "I'm not the one who goes around parading their hideous victories. You claim to be the almighty Nightmare King...but look at you now."

Pitch snarled, but Rapunzel kept going. "You're nothing...you're just a coward with a dangerous power."

Pitch screamed, grabbing a nearby chair and throwing it at Rapunzel. She ducked, and then grabbed the closest thing to her, a rounded glass bottle with black liquid inside. She threw it at Pitch's head, and the bottle smashed against the side of his face.

Pitch let out a pained scream as he continuously tried to wipe the contents and glass shards out of his eye. Rapunzel searched the room for a weapon, and was shocked to find so many. But only one caught her eye. A sword with a golden hilt and a sun encrusted just below the rain guard on the blade. It was her father's sword, she'd know it anywhere, and it rested just above the headboard of the bed.

She turned back to Pitch, to see that he had moved to stand in front of the glass balcony doors. He had stopped wiping his eye, and Rapunzel gasped when she saw blood coming out of it .

"You-" Pitch didn't finish his sentence, instead throwing a big mass of nightmare sand her way. Rapunzel stumbled back, and that's when a sudden flash of blue appeared.

Ice had intercepted the nightmare sand, and with it came Elsa strolling into the room, her arm outstretched and ready to strike again. "Get away from her."

Pitch's eyes widened in shock, but he quickly recovered, attacking with the sand again.

"Well, well. Shouldn't you be freezing people back on the battlefield?" Pitch asked in a mocking tone.

Elsa glared at him, "No, not anymore. I'm done being your slave, and if there's one place I should be, it's next to her," Elsa motioned with her head at Rapunzel, her eyes never leaving Pitch.

"Well then, that's truly a shame that I'll have to kill you too now."

They became involved in a harsh battle of the Ice Queen versus the Nightmare King. Elsa had gotten the upper hand, managing to push Pitch out onto the balcony. Rapunzel, who had taken the advantage to grab her father's sword littered in the background, waiting for a chance to strike.

And it came, when Pitch ducked on the ground in the middle of one of Elsa's attacks and threw a throwing knife made of nightmare sand at her. It plunged itself in her shoulder before dissolving, and she let out a cry of pain. Pitch blasted her with more nightmare sand, her body slamming against the marble railing. Rapunzel took the chance and while Pitch was distracted and came up behind him.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Elsa sat up, preparing to build an ice wall between her and Pitch. Pitch, holding a giant mass of nightmare sand, prepared to strike. And Rapunzel, without hesitation, drove the sword hilt-deep into his spine. He never saw it coming.

"This is payback for everything you've done to my family, my friends, and my people," she whispered into his ear, locking eyes with him as his head turned, eyes wide and expression resembling Rapunzel's very own back in the ballroom, before withdrawing her sword and stepping back.

Elsa stood up and they both watched the legenadry Nightmare King collapse on the floor, a gasp being the only sound he made before his eyes rolled back and his chest stopped moving.

Rapunzel dropped the sword, stepping around the blood that was spreading all around the floor and pulled Elsa into a tight hug. The Ice Queen returned it, and they hugged in silence as they both let the new reality sink in.

...

Gothel was a challenge, even when she was going up against three people. Hiccup had joined them after following them into the castle with Elsa behind him. He'd joined Merida and Jack in the fight against Gothel while Elsa ran off after Rapunzel.

Gothel had been tossing Jack and Hiccup around like dolls, and had made Merida exhaust her entire quiver of arrows, forcing her to use a sword, when suddenly she froze.

The three friends shared a puzzled look and watched in confusion as Gothel fell to her knees, her hands touching her abdomen as if in pain. She began coughing and gasping, and then held both of her hands in front of her. They were dissolving into dust, not sand.

Gothel shook her head violently, "No no no no no."

She gave one last hateful look at the three of them, before throwing her head back and letting out one last rueful scream just as she comepletely turned to dust.

Merida, Jack, and Hiccup looked at each other. "Does this mean...?" Merida couldn't even finish the question before they all sprinted out of the room. They followed the blood trail as well, and burst into the room where they could see Rapunzel and Elsa hugging on the balcony.

"Punz!" Merida shouted, and then stopped dead on her tracks once she reached them. Jack and Hiccup did the same, and they both stood in silence as they looked upon the body of Pitch Black.

Merida turned to Rapunzel, who had been looking at Pitch too. "Punz...ye did it."

Rapunzel didn't say anything as she pulled away from the hug, and when Merida saw the look on her face, she finally got the hint to take her out of there. She wrapped her arm around her friend, and lead her out of the room. "Come on, let's get out of here."

All five left the castle, not looking back as they walked back to join their other friends on the battlefield.