DISCLAIMER; I don't own 'Tangled' characters or stories, nor do I own the 'Ghost Rider' mythos. They belong to Disney and Marvel respectively.

So it begins!

Chapter 01; Return to Corona


"This is the story of how I died..." the voice of a familiar rogue narrates morbidly before lightening the mood. "...and went to Heaven! Hahaha!"

Then he gets relatively serious.

"OK, so the kingdom of Corona, to be exact, but hey, let's not get hung up on semantics."

Then, he gets back on topic with his narration, "Once upon a time, a single drop of sunlight fell from Heaven..."

Realizing this has been done before, the decides to take a different approach.

"You know what? I'm just gonna give the rapid-fire shorthand, here. The sundrop created a golden flower with healing powers. Creepy, old Mother Gothel sang a song to said flower to regain her youth. Yada, yada. The queen got sick, the flower healed the queen, the queen gave birth to Rapunzel who was born with the flower's healing powers and everything was all flying lanterns and cheering subjects."

"Until Gothel stole the princess and kept her locked in a tower for 18 long years."

"Then, the princess was rescued by a dashing, steely-eyed, suave, smoldering, devilishly charming rogue and his newly found, leather clad, strong-willed, bounty hunting partner."

"You do know we weren't partners to start off, right?" The voice of a familiar biker makes himself known.

"Ouch." The rogue responds in a mildly offended tone.

"I'm sure Jonah means that in the best way possible, Eugene." The voice of the biker's beloved makes her presence known.

Then, Eugene gets back to narrating without realizing that he's getting off topic again. "Now, some people might've called the rogue a thief, but I always preferred the term, "misunderstood good guy"."

"Here we go." Jonah rolls his eyes.

"You see, it wasn't always easy for young Eugene, raised as an orphan on the rough streets-"

"Hey, Eugene, focus." The princess speaks up, getting Eugene back to the matter at hand.

"Huh? Oh, right. Sorry." Eugene apologizes realizing that he's, once again, getting off topic.

"So, the beautiful young maiden, that's you, the handsome rogue, that's me, and the lone Rider, that's Jonah, made a deal."

"The three of us followed some lanterns, fought some demons on the way there, Jonah and I saved you from Gothel, you saved me from death and, along the way, you've also saved Jonah from himself."

"I'll give my rapid-fire shorthand of that last part." Jonah declares. "When I was 16, I made a deal with the Devil to save my mom from life-threatening cancer, it didn't go my way. I became a vengeful entity known as Ghost Rider, have been seeking vengeance against evil forces ever since, distancing myself from Helena Williams, the woman I love, to protect her from the life I lead."

"Then, you got, arguably, the world's most overly-dramatic haircut." Eugene steps back in.

"And then, I was reunited with my long-lost family." Rapunzel steps in.

"After that, after 4 lonely years, I reunited myself with Helena." Jonah continues. "I told her what became of me, about my adventure in Corona, and..."

"And we confessed our love to each other." Helena finishes.

"But that's when our new story began." Rapunzel steps back in. "3 months had passed[1]. I was loving life inside of Corona, and my coronation of officially becoming princess had finally come."

"We all had a few surprises that day, didn't we, darling[2]?" Eugene points out.

"Maybe a little more than a few." Jonah mutters.

Then, the amphibious sound of laughter is heard.

"Laugh it up, frog." Eugene dares the chameleon, Pascal.

"Now, I know what you guys are thinking." Jonah acknowledges. "Yes, Rapunzel and Eugene did get married."

"And yes, Jonah and I are living our happily ever after, too." Helena adds, getting a small chuckle out of her man.

"Make no mistake, though, getting to our respective wedding days and our happily ever afters would be the biggest adventure we have ever faced." Rapunzel points out.

"Oh, that's good." Eugene compliments.


12:42 am. Austin, Texas

Billy Russoti[3], a.k.a. Jigsaw(formally known as 'Billy the Beaut' until an unfortunate encounter with the Punisher left his face scarred beyond repair), is relaxing in his office, his desk covered with dozens of bags of heroin on top, enjoying the blissful silence and smoking a cigar. He's just sitting lazily in his chair thinking he's untouchable.

Then, he hears gunfire followed by screaming from outside of his office and gets nervous.

Thinking quick, Jigsaw grabs his earpiece, puts it on and asks his men rather loudly through his coms, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE?!"

Instead of a response, Russoti still only hears gunfire and screaming. Then, entirely against his expectations, he hears an unnatural roar that sounds like a nasty combination of eerie echoes, animalistic growling and agonized screaming.

This completely unnerves Russoti as he arms himself with his Thompson submachine gun and going around his desk.

Jigsaw stands in front of his desk with his tommy gun aimed at the door, the disfigured crime lord, now sweating in dread, could only listen in fear to the sound of gunfire, screaming, blows landed and unnatural roaring go on for about 30 seconds, which felt like an eternity to Russoti. After that, there was only silence.

Then, suddenly, one of Jigsaw's henchmen was sent crashing through the door, just missing the crime boss by half an inch as he barely dodge the goon by collapsing to the floor. He turns to see the goon unconscious and covered in the drugs like flour. The next thing he notices is bills of his drug money gently floating downward like snowflakes on a gentle winter's day. As soon as Russoti gets to his feet, he sees Ghost Rider standing in his doorway. Not moving, just standing.

Then, the Rider steps toward Jigsaw before the crime boss opens fire on the leather clad demonic entity, which doesn't affect him in the slightest.

After Russoti runs out of bullets, Ghost Rider grabs the front of the gangster's white suit jacket and lifts him up from the ground like he was a big pillow.

"LET ME GO!" Russoti cries, trying to bargain with the dangerous looking, flaming-skull headed biker. "PLEASE, DON'T HURT ME! I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT! JUST LET ME GO!"

Ghost Rider says absolutely nothing, just staring at the crime lord as the man whimpers and quivers with fear.


8:02 pm. The next evening.

Jonah Payne is on a nice, quiet dinner date with the woman he loves, Helena Williams. They're having Italian with water(Jonah's the one who's driving) out on the patio with barely even a breeze of wind. Jonah's wearing a dark red button-up long-sleeved shirt, fresh blue jeans, pointed shoes that shine like mirrors. He's just shaved, trimmed his beard and combed his hair back(even plucked his nose hairs out) an hour before picking his girlfriend up. Helena's wearing a near form-fitting, short-sleeved shoulder revealing black shirt that reaches down to the belt line of her form-fitting blue jeans(lighter shade of blue than Jonah's jeans), and black, open-toed high heels. Her red-orange hair is tied back into a ponytail and she's wearing sexy pink shade of lipstick.

"Not that I'm complaining, babe, but I have to ask; how were you able to pull off this reservation?" Helena asks out of curiosity about how her boyfriend was able to get a reservation for them at a restaurant as fancy as the one they're dining in right now. Not that it's crazy expensive, but it is fancier than Olive Garden.

"My boss back at the shop was feeling overly generous and decided to give me an early bonus for the work I've put into a client's truck." Jonah answers with a small smile. "I wanted to treat you to a nice night out. And don't worry, I'm not being too frivolous with the money, in case you're wondering."

Helena giggles a bit before telling her boyfriend, "I'm not worried. I'm just a little surprised that you were able to make a reservation for this place. You know you didn't have to do this, right?"

Jonah sighs understandingly, "I know. But, like I said, I want to. For you, Helena. I love you."

"Aw, Jonah. That's so sweet." Helena says, completely touched by the gesture as she smiles a sweet, loving smile before returning, "And I love you, too."

They just stare lovingly into each other's eyes for a moment or two before one of the restaurant's TVs catches the their attention in the middle of a newscast.

[In breaking news; last night, crime lord, Billy Russoti, a.k.a. Jigsaw, along with his associates have been arrested last night.]

This catches almost everyone else's attention.

[Russoti, who has been tried for multiple counts of drug dealing, human trafficking and, most of all, multiple counts of both murder and homicide, was found in his summer home with multiple bags of heroin in his office. The police are not being forthcoming with how Russoti and his men apprehended, but several witnesses described the Good Samaritan as wearing a leather jacket and had a flaming skull and left the scene on a motorcycle with flaming wheels. This would, of course, indicate that the Good Samaritan was none other than the Ghost Rider.]

Everyone watching this gives an applause, knowing two things; 1, Russoti is going away for a very long time for his crimes. And 2, someone out there is willing to set things right.

Helena Williams turns to Jonah before smiling at him knowingly with pride in his accomplishment of bringing a crime lord to justice. However, that's not how Jonah sees it.

" 'Good Samaritan'. They're wrong about me, Helena." Jonah says, looking down on himself.

"Tell that to the families of all the people the likes of Billy Russoti have preyed on." Helena advises.

"They don't know what I am, Helena." Jonah points out before lowering his gaze to the floor in shame as he finishes. "I'm nothing but a monster."

Feeling heartbroken for her boyfriend's self resentment, Helena reaches across the table for his left hand to get his attention, which she does successfully, as she gently squeezing said hand comfortingly before telling him lovingly, "Not in my eyes."

Looking into Helena's perfect ocean blue eyes, Jonah could both see and feel the genuine love from those words. It gives him hope. Something he thought was beyond his reach. Then, smiling, he gently squeezes her hand in return.

"How am I this lucky to be with you right now?" Jonah couldn't help but ask Helena.

Given what he is, what he's done, he could be anywhere in the world. He could be in a pub somewhere trying to drink his pain away. But no, he's having a decent dinner date with this redhead angel with a birthmark that makes her unique. He feels truly lucky at this very moment.

"No, we're not lucky." Helena corrects before clarifying, "We're blessed."[4]

Lucky or blessed, Jonah couldn't help but feel extraordinarily grateful to be where he is right now.

Then, they lean forward towards each other. Their lips are about half an inch from making contact with one another when suddenly...

"AHEM!"

Their attention is shifted to a middle aged man in a business suit that screams government. A man that Jonah is familiar with.

"Coulson." Jonah greets as he and Helena sit back down.

"Hello, Jonah." Coulson greets back.

"You know him, Jonah?" Helena asks out of curiosity.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Williams." Coulson apologizes as he reaches his right hand out to her to shake, which she does, as he introduces, "Phil Coulson, agent of SHIELD."

"Nice to meet you, Agent Coulson." Helena greets warmly.

"We met about 18 months ago." Jonah answers Helena's question without giving away too much detail. Knowing SHIELD, they like to keep certain things hush-hush. Also, SHIELD Director Nick Fury has tried to recruit him once or twice. "If he's trying to recruit me again, Coulson, tell your boss that my answer is still 'no'."

"Don't worry. That's not why I'm here." Coulson says, much to the couple's confusion, before pulling out a folded piece of paper.

Jonah takes the paper before inspecting it and finds that it's kept in place by a wax seal with a familiar insignia.

"This is from Corona." Jonah points out, remembering his adventure with Rapunzel and Eugene.

"That kingdom you told me about?" Helena asks.

"It's from the king and queen." Coulson specifies.

"What's it say?" Helena asks as Jonah breaks the wax seal and begins reading out loud.

"Ser Jonah Payne,

Next weekend, my daughter, Rapunzel, is to be crowned Princess of Corona, officially. Therefore, I send you this plus one invitation to the coronation for you and someone you can bring with you, if they wish to partake. Queen Arianna and I are eternally grateful for you and Eugene Fitzherbert returning our daughter home to us 3 months ago and we sincerely hope you'll make it. I believe that it would do Rapunzel's heart good knowing that her friends are there for her during her coronation weekend.

Respectfully, King Frederick of Corona."

After reading the king's letter, Jonah briefly inspects the invitation, which is in it's fresh card stock, gold inked glory, before handing it to Helena for her to inspect it herself. It would be nice for Jonah to see his friends in Corona again, and he's sure they'd want to meet Helena in person.

"If you intend on making it to the coronation, I've got a quinjet ready to take you and Ms. Williams to Corona." The SHIELD agent informs Jonah before turning to his girlfriend. "That is, of course, if she accepts the invitation, too."

She looks at the invitation for a moment before looking back at Jonah and asking with a small smile, "How soon do we get to the quinjet?"

Jonah gives a small smirk.


The Next Day, Corona

In the forest outside the kingdom, Rapunzel and Eugene are riding on horseback, the princess riding a tan coated female horse named Fadela while Eugene rides Maximus, evading the palace guard.

"They're gaining on us." Rapunzel warns Eugene as their respective steeds pick up the pace. Then, the princess notices more guards beyond the trees on their right.

"There's more of them." Rapunzel says out of worry.

"Good! It'll keep things interesting." Eugene says I'm his usual smug manner.

They continue to ride on the dirt road with the guards still on their tail.

"Man, these guys are persistent." Eugene says.

"So am I." Rapunzel points out. "I'll meet you at the wall."

"Sounds like a challenge." The rogue teases as his girlfriend rides up a ledge on the left side of the road.

"You think you can keep up?" The princess retaliates.

"Oh, it's not me you have to worry about." Eugene warns teasingly.

Then, the princess notices a guard getting really close with a look of determination on his face.

"They're your problem now." Eugene calls out as they split up.

Remaining on the dirt road, Eugene and Max continue to evade the pursuing guards before the former turns to see the Captain of the Guard partaking in the chase.

"Oh, great." The rogue complains. The captain is determined to apprehend Eugene as he and the guard maintain the chase.

"Ok, Max, follow my lead." Eugene instructs before returning his attention to the path in front of him and instantly noticing an obstacle in their path. "Oh! Log, log, log!"

At the second to last second, Eugene jumps over the log while Max ducks his head under it before the rogue is back on the saddle. The captain and his horse make the same stunt successfully, but the other guard's horse stops, sending said guard flying over the log and landing hard on the ground, being left behind in the process.

"Ooh! Good thing the ground broke his fall." Eugene jokes, having noticed the guard's mishap, before returning his attention to the road.


After taking a moment to notice a guard is still maintaining his pursuit of her, Rapunzel turns her gaze back to the road in front of her and finds it clutter with a fluffle of rabbits.

"Whoa! Bunny crossing!" Rapunzel calls out, thinking fast as she pulls Fadela's reins, causing the horse to rear up and avoid crushing the little wild bundles of fluff. "Careful, Fadela. Watch out, cute little bunnies!"

As soon as they're out of that fluffle, without a single hare harmed, Rapunzel proceeds to ride Fadela to their destination.

Before the guard pursuing the princess could rein his horse to a halt, Jonah's dog, Samson, pops out of bushes from the guard's right, stopping the horse right on the spot before heading in Rapunzel's direction[5]. Along the way, the rabbit fluffle scatter into the woods as the Rider's hunting dog makes his way toward the princess.

"Samson!" Rapunzel acknowledges, having noticed and recognized the Doberman right away. Pascal, having tagged along, notices the dog and squeals happily as Samson catches up to Fadela. Rapunzel knows well enough that if Samson's here, then her former bodyguard might be nearby, too.


Back on the dirt road, the captain gains on Eugene, certain that he'll finally catch the rogue.

"You're not getting away this time, Rider!" The captain promises as he reaches out to grab Eugene right out of Maximus's saddle. Suddenly, from a distance, they hear the roar of an engine from their left closing in on their location.

As the sound was getting closer and closer by the second, Eugene and Max begin to have a pretty good feeling about it.

Said feelings are confirmed when a familiar yamaha vmax motorcycle jumps from the ledge, flying right over the captain's head before landing right in front of his horse, which stops and rears up startled.

"Sorry, captain!" Jonah apologizes with a smirk over his shoulder as he continues forward right next to Eugene and Max just before Rapunzel, Fadela and Samson meet back up with them.

"Well, well, Jonah. It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Eugene greets with a mild chuckle before Rapunzel notices a second passenger behind the Rider.

"Is that who I think it is, Jonah?" Rapunzel asks knowingly with a small smirk.

"I'll make the proper Introductions when we reach our destination." Jonah informs. "Where are we heading, anyway?"

"There's a wall about a mile from the river we're closing in on." Rapunzel answers, to which Jonah responds, "Good to know." Then, they proceed to their path to mentioned wall.

"We're almost there." Rapunzel informs right before the captain pops out from the bushes catching up to them.

"Oh, come on!" Eugene complains.

"Is he always this persistent?" Helena asks her soul mate, to which Jonah responds, "Eh, pretty much."

Then, the 3 riders see the river and develop looks of determination and get ready to jump as they get closer.

As soon as they reach the river, Rapunzel and Eugene, on horseback, jump over the river, which is about 5-6 yards wide, while Jonah uses a boulder as a ramp and they land on the other side simultaneously - Eugene and Max landing on a broken down tree that's half submerged into the river - while the captain makes his attempt, only to fall into the water just 2-3 feet away from the ground he intended to reach.

While the others continue to the wall, Eugene and Maximus stay behind long enough for the captain and his horse to climb out of the river.

"Looking good, Cap!" Eugene jokingly compliments before proceeding to make for the wall.

After riding from the river, Rapunzel, Jonah and Helena, along with their animal companions, have reached the wall. It's made with rows of brick, has copies of the Coronan emblem in the middle a couple yards away from each other and is about 3-4 times the princess's height, which is 5'1.

As soon as everyone dismounts, Jonah bows respectfully to Rapunzel as he states in deference, "It's good to see you again, Princess-"

Jonah is interrupted by Rapunzel suddenly squeezing him into a tight bear hug, much to his surprise.

"I've missed you so much, Jonah." Rapunzel says before letting her former bodyguard go from her hug.

"I've missed you, too, sunshine." Jonah chuckles.

"Ahem! Helena, I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Princess Rapunzel of Corona." Jonah introduces his girlfriend to his friend before he does the other way around. "Rapunzel, this is my girlfriend, Helena Williams."

As Rapunzel gasps out of joy in knowing that Jonah is with his true love, Helena blushes Jonah announcing her as his girlfriend before she curtsies, "Princess Rapunzel, I'm honored to officially meet you-"

Helena, too, is interrupted by Rapunzel's sudden bear hug, making the red head lose a little breath for about five seconds before being let go.

"I'm so glad to meet you for the first time, Helena." Rapunzel says as she holds both of Helena's hands into her own with genuine affection toward the red head, while Jonah smiles at how much the princess loves his girlfriend.

Then, Samson walks toward Rapunzel before she kneels down to his level and starts petting the dog as he sits down.

"I've missed you, too, Samson." Rapunzel coos, causing the hunting dog's tail nub to wag in the process. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? That's right! You are! Yes, you are!"

"Come on, you two!" Rapunzel says as she gets up from the ground and makes her way to the wall with the intention of climbing it with Fadela's assistance. "You have got to check out the view on the other side."

Following the princess's advice, Jonah grabs his girlfriend by her waist, brings her close enough to himself for her to wrap an arm around his shoulders before he launches one of his claw chains upward over the wall. As soon as the claws have a good grip, they start climbing the wall. Samson, with his supernatural agility, just jumps onto the top.

As soon as the princess and her friends are on the top, they're greeted with a breathtaking view of a river, trees in a variety of natural colors, and big and small hills. All highlighted with a sunrise that's barely touching the horizon.

"Guys, just look at this view." Rapunzel says, taking in the astonishing view.

"It's so beautiful." Helena compliments while holding on closely to her boyfriend with his right arm around her back. It's clearly a sight you'd never want to stop seeing.

"Hahaa!" Eugene shouts from a distance behind the others before he and Max run out of the trees, while the former stands on the saddle. Then, the palace guard horse stops to a halt to amplify the rogue's jump, resulting in him sticking the landing as he lands between his royal girlfriend and their friends. Then, much to Jonah's annoyance, he starts boasting, "Ok, ok, now I know what you're thinking. Now, it may have seemed like you won, but you gotta take into account that my hair is actually longer than yours, now. So, we-"

"Helena, Eugene." Jonah starts introducing, interrupting and ending Eugene's self ego feeding quickly. "Eugene, Helena."

"So, you're the Helena Williams that stole our Jonah's heart years ago." Eugene says understandingly with a smirk and an eyebrow raised as he shakes hands with Helena.

"And you're the Eugene Fitzherbert that assumed the identity of a fictional character from a children's book as a thief." Helena responds, which causes Eugene to develop an offended expression as turns to Jonah before he tells the biker, "No one was supposed to know about that."

"Whoops!" Jonah says sarcastically with a playful shrug.

Rapunzel chuckles slightly before returning her attention to the land on the outside of the wall.

"Wow! Have any of you guys ever seen anything so beautiful?" Rapunzel asks in astonishment about the sight before them.

"Yes. Yes, I have." Eugene responds gently as he takes the princess's hand.

"Aawww!" Helena coos as Jonah chuckles softly at the other couple's wholehearted romance before said couple lean towards each other to share in a kiss.

"The game's over, everyone!" The captain informs from the ground, interrupting the kiss. "The Welcoming Ceremony is about to begin."

"Well, I think we showed those guards who's boss." Eugene jokes, getting a chuckle from the others before Jonah suggests, "Now, sunshine, what do you say we all go and make you an official princess."

"Oh, is that today?" Rapunzel asks jokingly.

"Haha! Very funny." Eugene says sarcastically. "Now, come on. We all better get back to the castle."

As Eugene starts climbing down, an idea pops into his head. "Ooh, maybe I can squeeze in a royal massage... before my daily trim, of course."

"Of course." Jonah responds while rolling his eyes, not surprised by how Eugene is taking to his new life in the castle.

Before Jonah and Helena begin climbing down, they both notice Rapunzel just staring at the outside horizon with sadness.

"You Ok, Rapunzel?" Jonah asks his friend with both concern and understanding, which Helena shares.

"Hmm?" Rapunzel hums, not catching what her former bodyguard said for a moment before responding with reassurance, "Oh, yeah, I'm fine, Jonah. Just fine."

"Come on! We can't be late for the ceremony." Rapunzel points out, changing the subject, as she steps off the wall before landing perfectly onto Fadela's saddle. Then, the Rider grabs his girlfriend by her waist again follow suit and he lands perfectly onto the ground like a cat from a tree before they mount onto his motorcycle.

"I'll race you guys back to the castle!" Rapunzel declares teasingly as Fadela goes in full gallop before Eugene follows on Maximus.

Revving his motorcycle, Jonah can't help but chuckle to the challenge before accepting as Helena wraps her arms around him as he tells her, "Hang on tight!"

Then, he goes full throttle and rides after his friends at full speed, leaving the captain to sigh as he rubs his eyes, "I'm getting too old for this."


The Rider's Tangled Return

by JLArmstone1092


AUTHOR'S NOTES

1 - I know that in the movie took place 6 months after the events of the 1st movie, but unless that part of Europe is on the equater, or weather doesn't affect Corona like it does the rest of the world, the math just doesn't work. Not to me, anyway. So, for the purpose of this fanfic, I decided to reduce the time by 50%.

2 - I know that in the movie and the 3rd season of "Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure", "sunshine" was Eugene's endearing nickname for Rapunzel. And, as I typed in "The Rider's Tangled Journey", I realized that I didn't do the proper research into the Tangled mythos. So, awkward as it may seem to you, for the sake of this story and the series, "sunshine" will be Jonah's sibling nickname for the princess. Eugene can just stick to "darling" or "blondie". The latter is for when Rapunzel gets her magic hair back.

3 - I know that Jigsaw's real name in the Marvel comics is Billy Russo, not Russoti. But I changed the name because the 1st time I became aware of the character is from watching "Punisher; War Zone". While I do admit that the movie doesn't do it's source material the justice it deserves, I can't really imagine adding him to the story without using the name.

4 - That lovely little quote is from 2004's "The Punisher." The one with Thomas Jane as Frank Castle. SPOILER ALERT; his wife, Maria, tells him that before she and the rest of the family were taken from Frank. I found that line really moving, and I thought I'd put it in.

5 - What? OK, I know that's not what happened in the movie, but come on, did you really expect me to just let that guard crash into that fluffle of cute little bunnies? I'm an amateur fanfic writer, not a monster.

I apologize if this story is starting off making you feel like it's missing something. I know I feel like it's missing something, but if there is something I need to fix up or add to the chapter, I'll be sure to do it. Also, I was originally going to add Cassandra to this chapter, but then I decided to postpone her appearance to the next chapter. So don't worry, I'll get her into the next one. I promise.

I hope you like what I've made so, and be sure to tell me how you feel about it in the comments.

10-18-22