"I love you, Raps." Cassandra told her best friend while giving her a smile warmer than any she'd ever shown to anyone.

"I love you, too – Cassandra." Raps replied. The two girls gave each other one final hug.

And with that, Cass exited Rapunzel's room. Perhaps this would be the last time they'd ever see one another, perhaps not.

She silently walked through the halls of the castle she had once tried to destroy, keeping her head low to avoid drawing attention.

Most of the workers were outside, anyway, participating in the celebration of Zhan Tiri's final defeat.

She was certain that if she let her, Rapunzel might convince her to join them – 'Couldn't have done it without you', she would say. But it was probably not a good idea considering she was trying to kill most of these people just hours ago.

Regardless, Cassandra couldn't resist throwing some furtive glances at the party's direction. She recognized some familiar faces there – there was Feldspar the cobbler, old lady Crowley, and… Stalyan? Really? Okay, then…

Cassandra did her best to remain unnoticed while on her way to the stables, though there were still some occasions where old friends would recognize her and draw her attention.

Just then, she heard the cacophonic sound of an explosion coming from nearby. Even though she was in a bit of a hurry, she felt compelled to investigate – after all, what if this was the work of some enemy of Corona, taking advantage of the chaos following the battle to strike while the kingdom was at its weakest?

But as she arrived at the source of the sound, she realized she needn't have worried. Varian was there, coughing profusely and trying to wipe soot off his face, along with a rather bored-looking Lance. It seems the explosion had been caused by yet another of his inventions.

"Maybe this 'air comissioner' idea just isn't going to work out."

"First of all – it's an air conditioner, thank you. And second of all, I just have to iron out all the kinds and then it'll be just fine! You'll see!"

"But do you really think the average coronan household could even afford this huge thing?"

Lance and Varian glanced upward at the gigantic generator hooked up to the tiny air conditioner that had just blown up.

"I think most people in Corona have other things to worry about than whether their house is too hot or too cold", Cassandra interjected.

"Oh, hi Cass! Wow, you look, uh… very good. In green. You look good in green." Varian stammered.

"Thanks!"

"So", Lance began to say "what does it feel like, now that you're a part of both the 'used to be evil' AND 'used to be dead' clubs?

"Better than staying in the 'is evil' and 'is dead' clubs", Cassandra quipped back.

"I bet Zhan Tiri is probably thinking the same thing right now, hah hah!"

"So you're really going to leave?" Varian asked Cass with a sorrowful expression.

"Yeah… nothing left for me to do here. It's not like any coronans would be willing to let the woman who wrecked their castle keep working there, much less work in the royal guard.

"Well… we'll miss you!"

"You're probably the only ones who will. Aside from Raps and Eugene, of course."

"Not true!" Lance stated. "There's someone who lives here who will definitely miss you, way more than any of us, even. You should probably pay them a visit."

"But who would – oh." Cassandra paused as the realization came to her.

"Anyway, we should probably drag the hulking carcass of this…" Lance paused. "Air conditioner, back to Varian's workshop so we can try again. So I guess we'll see you around, Cass!" Lance and Varian waved her goodbye.

Considering Lance's words, Cass decided to take a small detour to pay a visit to that very important person he'd alluded to.

Navigating through the crowded streets, she came across a door with a name she knew very well, ever since she was left behind by her own mother and he chose to take her under his wing.

She knocked on the door twice. "I hope he's actually in here…"

A haggard-looking man with brown hair opened the door. "Cassandra?" He asked with a surprised glance.

"Dad!" The two of them immediately gave each other a hug.

"Daughter… I'm sorry. I should have been there, during the battle. Maybe I could have prevented you from losing your life… but I was too much of a coward to face you then…"

"No, dad. I'm the one who should apologize. Not just to you, but to everyone else, too."

"So why don't you?"

"Because… I guess I'm afraid, too."

"Cassandra. We may not be able to change the past, but we can still change the present. We can change who we are, how we treat people. And you've already taken your first step to doing that. I am confident that you can walk that road to its end."

"…Right. Thanks for the advice, dad."

"You sure you'll be okay out there?"

"Hey, you didn't raise your daughter to be a weakling, did you?"

"Hah! Of course not!" The (now former) Captain replied, giving Cassandra one last bear hug. "Farewell, my daughter. I wish you good luck with whatever endeavors you choose to pursue in the future."

"Thank you, dad." Cassandra said, closing the door to their house again.

Staring into the city once again, Cassandra wondered how exactly she was going to go about making reparations to all of these people.

But there were a lot of houses and buildings still in need of repair all around her, most of which were broken because of her actions, directly or indirectly. So that gave her plenty of ideas.

She walked up to Attila, who was trying to fix the front of his bakery, and asked him if he needed help. If Attila felt wary at her presence, he didn't show it.

After the bakery was properly fixed, she moved on to helping Feldspar fix his collection of shoes, then to helping Monty repair his shop as well, and so on, until the kingdom looked to be in good shape again.

She was hardly the only one who lent a hand with repairing Corona, and it in no way made up for destroying all of those things and trying to drive everyone out in the first place. But at least Cassandra was happy that she left Corona on a somewhat less sour note than she would've otherwise.

She made her way to the stables and found Fidella, her trusty horse. "Ready to explore some faraway lands with me, girl?"

Fidella gave her a happy whinny in response. Cassandra hopped on top of her saddle, and they galloped out of the kingdom.

Finding herself in the middle of a forested hill, Cassandra took a moment to absorb all the sights and sounds. Back when they were traveling in pursuit of the Dark Kingdom, she'd never really done this. She was mostly in a hurry to get Rapunzel back to Corona as soon as possible, where she'd be safe. At least that was her justification at the time.

The actual reason was just that Cassandra didn't want to put her destiny on hold for someone else's, back when she thought her 'destiny' was becoming captain of the royal guard like her father.

Turns out her destiny is whatever she wanted it to be. Millions of possibilities, calling to her, from beyond Corona.

She just had to go and find them.

So Cassandra pulled on Fidella's reins and headed off to wherever the winds might take her.