A/N: Did I mention I am so grateful to all of you who read this? Thank you all for the reviews!

Guest, thank you for suggesting I keep this all as one story. I think I will to make things less complicated. The new show is so cute!

Silvina from BA omg! Thank you so much! That's so funny you were both review 100 and now 200!

And a big thanks to SharKohen, Lunasnoir, and Eziza!

Onward~

35. Gold, and blood, and flame

Flynn sat in the bleak darkness of his cell lying on a damp straw cot. He was sentenced to hang tomorrow, and he was certain Le Roux would not put it off.

He knew he was going to lose his life, and yet, all he could think of was hers.

Flynn could be described as optimistic and occasionally wickedly lucky, however, even he was not immune to fate's cruelty. Yet, it pained him more than any unfairness he suffered in his life, to have Rapunzel taken from him.

And, even worse was wondering if she were alive. If she needed help. If she thought of him…

Flynn turned in the cot, unable to find a single thing to think of that did not cause him grief.

Suddenly, he realized he would have to face death alone, when, for a moment, he thought she might have been at his side. All though, dying an elderly man beside his wife in bed never did appeal to Flynn. Nor did small cottages. Or, princesses with large green eyes.

But those things could not sound more appealing compared to his present situation.

And, just when he was reminiscing on the night before, a figure ran to the bars of his cell.

"Flynn!" hissed the woman in a whisper.

He sat up and looked to see Jenny, grasping closely to the bars.

He narrowed his brow in confusion.

"Brunette-y?"

"Jenny," she reminded him before moving onto more important matters. "I'm so sorry. Everything that's happened… it's so unfair."

He looked indifferently back to her.

"How did you get in here? Past Le Roux's buffoons?"

"Well, they are only men. I might have offered them something. As I do."

He smirked, though it seemed to pain him. He laid his head back on the cot.

"You're a smart lass. Nice girl. Would you… would you tell my wife something, if you ever see her?"

"Of… course," she began apprehensively. "But, I'm sure you can tell her yourself! When we get you out, and find her."

Flynn laughed, "And how do you see that happening? How much did that bastard raise my bail? No… he just wants to see me hang."

"But Milly was talking to Master Le Roux, and she can be very persuasive when she-"

Flynn raised his hand to her, silencing her.

She frowned to him.

"Don't involve yourself," he said, looking back to her with the same sad smile. "I don't want tears on your pretty face when it all happens."

His words felt so final to her, she hung her head in sorrow.

It was then that he looked to her a bit curiously.

"You don't happen to know if anyone cleaned our room? I might have left something behind… something important."

Her eyes grew, but she kept her head down, in an effort to not raise his suspicion.

"N-no, I mean, I cleaned it myself," she answered. "There was just some old book, dried plants and things…" she added with a shrug, "Why? What was it you're looking for?"

He shook his head, "I suppose it doesn't matter much now."

She frowned at his dire tone and cleared her throat before asking her next question.

"What… what did you want me to tell her?"

Flynn smiled at the thought of Rapunzel being found safe.

"When you find her, tell her… I love her. And that I'm sorry."

He suddenly creased his brow, examining her in her flustered state.

"Why was it you came here, Jenny?"

The handmaid paused, grasping for words that sounded authentic.

"I couldn't bear the thought of you alone in here."

Flynn let out an exasperated breath.

"it's easier to bear than the thought of her out there."

Rapunzel stared blankly to a fire that the Stabbington brothers sat beside as she sat alone in the wagon. The night's cold had surrounded her with its bitter reminder that winter was looming near. She imagined how miserable she would be traipsing through the snow with nothing to live for except a fleeting hope that death would reunite her with…

She bit her lip fiercely, not wanting to cry in fear of drawing attention to herself.

However, there was one person who had kept an eye on her since their unwelcome reunion.

Will casually walked beside her, leaning against the wagon. She didn't bother looking to him, as she was unable to muster the energy to turn her head. Yet, she could feel him starring and sensed he wanted to speak with her, though as to just why, she was clueless.

"I could get them to untie your hands," he said in a low voice.

She kept looking forward causing him to glower to her.

"Really Rapunzel, I know you're angry but we could help one another-"

"Why?" she suddenly asked, unable to understand his maddening logic. "Just so you can stab me in the back again?"

"I didn't want this," he said, almost making her laugh.

"There are many names I can call you, Will. None of which will change what's happened."

She glared to him and he practically felt a chill.

"Or, what will happen," she added darkly.

"You can't be so spiteful that you'll damn your own chances just to injure mine?!"

"Watch me… you fucking bastard!" she cried, her voice breaking as she did.

He looked practically shocked by her language, but he quickly gathered himself.

"You're a smart girl, but you're making a stupid mistake."

He walked off and she looked back to the fire. She noticed then that the brothers seemed to be glancing over their shoulder to her. She wrapped her small coat around her shoulders, feeling exposed to their leers.

She glanced back to Will as he walked away.

"You killed him, didn't you?" she asked causing him to look back. "You murdered him with my poison!"

Her voice shook with anger and grief causing him to stop in his tracks. His heart felt a great heaviness as he glanced back to her.

"If Flynn is dead it is his own doing!" declared Will, her face contorting in confusion at his words. He went on, suffering in his own miss-guilt. "There's no helping men who can't help themselves! I told you, there is no honor among thieves."

"Flynn?" she asked, laughing humorlessly at his miserableness.

He looked to her strangely and she sneered to him.

"Flynn is alive."

"Then who…?"

She narrowed her brow.

"How do you not know the identity of the man you yourself killed?"

"Rapunzel," he began, walking closer to her and lowering his voice to a whisper. "They made me! I put the poison in a glass and didn't wait around to see who would-"

He looked away, realizing who must have taken the poison. She frowned coldly to him, unable to muster an ounce of remorse.

"Could you find it in your heart to understand?" he asked. "They were going to kill me!"

"And what are they going to do now, Will? How much longer until they get sick of you? How many more stops before they realize you have no proof of who you claim I am?"

Will diverted his gaze from hers, realizing he had no answer. She went on.

"You've killed more people than Vlad. You've doomed us all."

"Not Flynn! Flynn is still out there, and he could be coming for us!"

"I hope he does," she retorted, "because I can't wait to command him where to point his pistol first."

"HEY!" cried one of the Stabbington brothers. "Will! Git over here! Fetch us more bloody firewood!"

Will tripped away from Rapunzel's side. Unnerved by her menacing threat, he quickly answered the brother's call.

Flynn's eyes shot open after a sleepless night. He was jolted out of his cot by the sound of his jail cell creaking open.

He looked to see Le Roux standing beside one of the men who had dragged him from Milly's Lady House.

"Come along now, Ryder," said Le Roux, with a sickening smirk. "Time for your little appointment."

The man at his side lunged for Flynn, pushing him against the wall and roughly clasping his hands in iron handcuffs.

Flynn found himself drained of all energy and had no choice but to bow to the will of the men. Even if he did find the strength to put up a fight, he would have been easily overcome.

He was walked out where he was met with cries of a near crowd. He looked up, blinded by the sun, and was pulled toward a wide tree that twisted toward the sky with bare branches.

He felt his heart drop at the sight of a noose being thrown over one of the tree's deformed arms.

"Old Ironbark," said Le Roux's voice at Flynn's side. "Good strong tree. I swear, she's always glad to see a new victim."

Flynn glared to the proud man.

"I never slept with your wife, Le Roux. I know you don't believe me, or her, but goddamnit, don't let your corrupt idea of honor blind your judgment of me."

"Ryder. I am doing the world a great service! How long do you think you could outrun the law?" he asked as the crowd began to gather to the tree. Each shouting curses at Flynn as a priest and executioner arrived to the scene.

"What about my reward?" Flynn asked desperately. "I'm wanted dead or alive!"

Le Roux frowned, "There's not enough money to save you. Besides, your latest wanted bill disagrees. As of 1849, there is no recompense for your life. You're as worthless as the dirt you stand on."

Flynn narrowed his brow to him as the man went on.

"All though, that girl of yours… what did you say her name was? Rapunzel? I might be obligated to put some prize on her head. Though, I don't see much of a point in it. I'm sure she'll be shot dead where she stands for her crimes!"

Flynn's eyes grew in horror as he was pulled away from Le Roux.

"Damn you to hell, you blaggard!" barked Flynn in a serious tone that usually evaded him.

"Keep a spot for me!" he yelled back. "How about that, you bastard?!"

Within the next moments, a noose was placed over his head by a man wearing a black sack to conceal his face. A priest stood before Flynn flipping through a small book. The men and women of the village rallied around him. Each clambering to get a good view of the hangman.

Flynn's eye fell on a certain gypsy woman that had pushed to the front. She smiled calmly to him, making him feel uneasy.

"Into our town the Hangman came," she mumbled to herself, still staring to him, "smelling of gold, and blood, and flame. He placed our bricks with a different air, and damned the girl with the golden hair."

Le Roux absent mindedly pushed the woman aside, taking a place in front of the crowd. He crossed his arms, and grinned to the sight before him.

"This has been a long time coming," he said to one of his men beside him. "I can't tell you how long I've waited…"

Flynn glanced to the masked man beside him.

"Hey," he whispered, only to have the executioner ignore him. "Oi!" he repeated, more loudly, getting the man to look his way. "How do you plan to hang me as I stand on the ground? What sort of hanging is this?!"

"Oh no, son," began the priest, a pleasant looking old man. Flynn frowned to the man. He had such a chipper demeanor, one would think he was about to bless a newly wedded couple.

"The noose will be raised higher until your feet only just barley touch the ground," the priest explained. "Once you get tired of balancing on your toes, you'll fall over and choke yourself!"

"Thank you," Flynn said flatly, meaning to curse the man with a different two-word statement. Though, he figured if he were about to die, he probably should not tell a holy man something so vile.

And then, before he had a moment to think, the noose tightened around his neck, pulling his back straight.

The priest began to read him his last rites in a slow torturous voice. Flynn wanted to tell the man to shut the bloody hell up, though he quickly figured that would be damnable as well.

"Higher!" whooped voices from the crowd.

"Have fun riding the devil's knob, Ryder!" called a voice as the noose began to choke Flynn, slightly raising his boots off the ground.

He closed his eyes tightly, feeling his heart beat wildly against the rough rope.

"GAH!" he cried, "Don't.. I get… some last… words?!" he asked, over the provocation of the mob.

The priest nor the executioner answered him, so he took matters into his own hands.

"Rapunzel!" he exclaimed in a hoarse voice as his heals lifted from the dirt. "I've l-loved you… since… gahh… since I first saw," he gasped as the rope cut into his neck, "you!" he cried. And, with the soles his feet lifting off the ground, he used his last full breath. "And I'll… always-ays love y-you, until I see you ag-gain! Blondie. You –w-were… mine."

The priest finished his lengthily speech and looked to Flynn as he struggled to stay on his toes.

"Any last words?" he asked, obliviously.

Flynn glared down his nose to the man.

"Fuck off!"

The priest gasped to him, before snapping shut his book.

"May God have mercy on your retched soul!" he scoffed before walking away.

Meanwhile, Jenny pushed through the back of the crowd. She craned her neck to see over the throng, though she could only just make out the taught noose that twisted with Flynn on the end.

She began to cry out and was the only person in the mass to protest. To her despair, her shouts went unheard as she frantically tried to shove through.

Flynn closed his eyes again. He tried to imagine he was somewhere else as the noose yanked him higher. And then, as the last thought of hope left him, he found himself standing back on Amberwick soil, on his wedding day.

It might have only been in his mind, but somehow, he felt the warmth of the sun and looked around to see the green of late summer. Even if it had been a miserable rainy day, it was not so in is memory. To him, the sun shone brightly as Rapunzel removed her cloak, suddenly standing there, looking more beautiful than any maid he had seen.

Rapunzel walked nearer to him, with a reassuring smile that put his racing heart at ease.

Then, as his breath became shallower, he apologized to her, again, in his mind.

"I have to go," he told her, as earnest as if she truly were there. "I don't want to. But I don't think I'll make it out of this one."

And, as Flynn wondered what would be less painless; giving out on his own or balancing until he collapsed, he heard a distinct voice call out.

"STOHP!"

Flynn opened one eye, squinting out to the crowd to see a man barreling through. He pushed people aside with his hand raised above his head, clutching a paper.

Le Roux frowned, turning to whomever dared protest the hanging. His eyes widened to see a large, crazed looking, highlander.

"Scotty?!" cried Le Roux, causing all eyes to turn to the odd traveler.

Flynn would have laughed if he was not concentrating so hard on staying upright.

"I well offair compensation fur t'e life o' t'is man!" he declared in his gruff voice.

"Oh, Angus, my old friend," began Le Roux with a friendly smile, walking to the side of the man. "Will you deprave me of the joy I will feel to see this criminal hang?!"

Rapunzel's father looked to Flynn. It pained him to see the young man struggling for his life and sickened him further to see Le Roux's smiling face.

"Shut ep, you bloody backstabbing snake," Scotty muttered. "I've traveled nigh and high for t'is man an' you well naught deprave may of saving 'es life!"

Le Roux felt agitated then, and his eyes narrowed to the pompous brothel owner.

"Don' worry," Scotty added, glancing back to Flynn, "I may jest return 'im when I've had me own retribution."

"How much compensation are you talking, you mad old highlander?" Le Roux asked.

"Four times t'is!" he proclaimed raising the wanted bill and getting a gasp from the crowd.

"All that for such a worthless man? I don't believe you," Le Roux scoffed and nodded to the hangman who raised the noose higher.

Flynn resorted to balancing the very tips if his boots, shuffling back and forth as he audibly choked on the rope. Scotty grimaced at the sound.

"God damn you ta hell!" he said, turning away from Le Roux.

Le Roux smirked in what seemed to be a pleasant victory.

But then, Scotty stopped, and turned back to the governor.

"A four-year contract!" he proclaimed getting an interested glance from Le Roux. "You'll make a quarter ef ev'ry payment I receive for t'e Snuggly Duckling!"

Le Roux smirked for a moment before regaining his stiff upper lip. He attempted to hide his excitement at the business venture and took one last long, bitter, look to Flynn as he writhed against the noose.

"Deal," he agreed nonchalantly, much to the crowd's dismay.

In the next moment, the executioner released his grip on the noose and it quickly unwrapped from the tree branch. The rope fell around Flynn's boots and he dropped to his knees, taking heaving, ragged, breaths.

He clutched his raw neck in agony before noticing Scotty's boots standing before him. Flynn gazed up, more fearful than he had been looking upon the noose.

"Where es she!?" he yelled, grabbing him by the collar. "What 'ave y'done?"

Flynn grimaced to Scotty as he pulled him to feet.

"You shouldn't have saved me," he said sadly. "It won't bring her back."

"Es she alive?!" he cried.

Flynn frowned deeply, trying his best to stave off his emotions. All though, his eyes betrayed him. Scotty knew all at once the severity of the situation and his face fell in sorrow. He let go of Flynn and he staggered to gain his footing.

"I don't know," Flynn answered to his back. "She ran off yesterday morning and I haven't seen her since."

"What do ya' mean?"

"I mean she's gone! She could have been taken or, hell, maybe she just ran away!"

"No." answered Scotty, furrowing his brow. "She's out thair and we still have ta find'er."

His singlemindedness installed a bit of hope in Flynn. He reminded himself that Rapunzel had survived the clutches of Captain Caldon and that she was made of stout stuff. Though, another part of him could only assume the worst. That the rumors were true and that she had run off on her own will.

"Can I get this contract in some sort of writing, old Scotty?" asked Le Roux behind the pair.

Scotty eyed him, "Take t'e shackles from t'is man t'en I'll offer ye me hand."

Le Roux scoffed, "A handshake? My, I do forget you are from the mountains."

He signaled for one of his lackeys to undo the iron from Flynn's wrists and they complied.

Flynn felt the freedom of his hands falling to his side. He examined his bruised and bloodied wrists.

Le Roux eyed Scotty wearily as he extended his hand. He reluctantly shook it, more interested in knowing he had bested the man than getting a share of his fortune.

"T'ere!" said Scotty, "Does t'at about… do et?"

Le Roux nodded with a distasteful scowl.

Scotty's face contorted into his own unfriendly sneer.

"Good. Because I canna stand anot'er wretched moment in t'is unwelcoming an' miserable place!"

With that, he grabbed Flynn and pushed him forward, into the dispersing crowd.

The pair raced toward a carriage Scotty had waiting. It was then that a woman ran toward Flynn.

"Mister Ryder!" she cried.

Flynn looked back to see Jenny trying to get to him through the crowd. He squinted to see she was wearing his satchel.

She laughed joyously before throwing her arms around him.

Scotty looked on oddly as Flynn stood in awe of the handmaid.

"What… How did you…?" he asked as she pulled away and happily put the satchel over his head.

"May you be blessed where ever the road takes you, Flynn Ryder," she said before leaning forward and placing a kiss on his cheek. "And the princess," she whispered in his ear. He looked to her, his mouth hanging open in a mixture of gratitude and confusion.

Jenny smiled to him forlornly and patted the side of his face. Scotty looked away at the sight.

"Thank you, Jenny. You don't know how you've helped us-"

"We've got to be goin'!" called Scotty. "Now!"

Flynn took her hand, wishing her every good fortune.

"Goodbye… brunette-y."

She stopped and watched as the pair walked off to the carriage. Jenny reached for where the satchel had been on her a moment ago, her smile altering as tears fell down her face.

Scotty took the driver's seat, gripping the horse's reigns as Flynn opened the door and fell inside, thankful to be out of the sight of Le Roux.

As he sat in the carriage, he realized he was not alone. He looked up to see there was a woman seated across from him.

"Hello, Flynn," said Mina casually, dressed in a red dress that matched her fiery hair.

"Red?"

Rapunzel sat across from Will in the hay filled wagon in midday. After suffering a sleepless night, her mind had pondered a few notions over and over. She had questions for Will as well as a plan that involved her gaining his trust.

"I understand, Will," she spoke up, out of nowhere.

He looked to her, his tired eyes giving away the fact that he had not slept either.

"What?" he asked, quietly as to not raise suspicion.

"You asked me to find it in my heart to understand why you've done what you've done. And I have," she said plainly.

He raised a brow, "So, you've listened to reason?"

"I'm willing to… work together," she added, very quietly. "Though, I do have a condition."

"Oh? Seems sort of foolish to have a condition for the man saving your life."

"Well I have one!" she retorted. "Just one. Tell me the truth and I'll do as you say."

"The truth?" he asked. "About what?"

"How you know who I am. Really."

He smiled, shaking his head.

"I already told you-"

"And I don't believe you."

"Then how do you expect us trust one another-"

"I expect you to tell me the truth."

He stopped his rebuttal realizing it was useless. When Rapunzel thought something, he was beginning to realize she would think no other way. And, he was beginning to see no harm in sharing the truth with her.

"I met a man in a pub… about four months ago…"