A/N: (also a flashback)
Chapter 4
6 months after the escape
Cassandra grunts as she strikes her wooden staff against the target.
She ignores the rainwater dripping in front of her eyes and the fact that she is completely soaked right now, and probably freezing. She hadn't realized when it begun to storm, or when it got dark.
The darkness and the pouring rain obscures her vision but does nothing to weaken her determination.
All she does is stare hard at the red-painted wood circle in front of her, propped up on a post so it reaches her eye level.
She strikes the double-ended staff against it over and over, each one with more force than the last.
It leaves a slash in the paint every time, chipping the wood gradually and causing little pieces to fly off the surface.
Her shoulders are sore, and her palms are raw from gripping the weapon so hard, and for so long too.
She's been in the training yard for hours, maybe even all day. She doesn't much remember the morning, aside from the fact she'd skipped breakfast. She hasn't had an appetite in days.
There isn't anybody else outside. No one knows she's out here. Most of the castle is probably asleep right now, well into the night.
Six months have passed since Rapunzel left. Six months Cassandra has found herself alone, with no princess to attend to. No job, nothing to do, and no one to talk to.
When Cass told Rapunzel to leave all that time ago, she didn't think about what that meant for herself. Or maybe she did, she just brushed it aside in the moment like she does with everything else.
Waking up that next morning without having to wake up Rapunzel – if Rapunzel hadn't barged into her room first - had been weird to her. Cass had realized she'd have to get used to not seeing the princess every morning, and she did, for a little while.
Now, after six months, it's unbearable.
Her entire life, even when they were children, it had always been Cassandra's job to look after Rapunzel. Not that the princess ever needed anyone to look after her.
They'd technically been forced into friendship by their parents, which had taken getting used to as well. It ended up working out in their favour, better than anyone in the castle ever imagined.
Then when Cassandra was old enough, she'd been assigned the role of Rapunzel's lady-in-waiting.
That meant she had to accompany her, dress her, attend to her every need, and basically be there for her every moment of the day and make sure that she got everything done that she was supposed to get done.
Now, without a princess to look after, Cassandra is just… nobody.
Though, a princess isn't all Rapunzel had been to her. She'd been her best friend, too. They did everything together.
They played hide and seek when they were kids, explored the castle in secret despite being specifically told by their fathers not to, played pranks on the guards, had sword fighting lessons in this very same training yard, got into so much mischief over the years that King Frederic actually threatened to separate them at one point.
He never did, thankfully. It was only a scare tactic to get them to behave, in which they never did.
Even as adults, they got into trouble. Though, the consequences are much more severe now.
Cassandra supposes that whatever this feeling is, is a consequence of their own actions – a consequence of Rapunzel running away, and Cassandra helping her do it.
Cass convinces herself that becoming a royal guard is all she has left. It has to be, because there is nothing else that she can see herself doing.
Her father expects it from her, that she knows for sure. He's been Captain of the Guard for nearly two decades now. Serving Corona has always been his purpose, and she'd convinced herself it'd been hers too.
And so, there's no other direction for her to go, except where she had always been planning to. That is to become a guard… if it is the last thing she does.
That's why in the past weeks, Cassandra has found herself spending the majority of her days in this training yard – doing target practice, climbing, running, horseback riding, lifting heavy sacks of dirt and basically exhausting herself to the point that she has lost weight.
Or maybe that's just the depression. Or perhaps a bit of both.
As Cassandra crashes her staff against the target again, it completely snaps in half, the end of it suddenly shattering at her feet and clattering loudly against the pavement.
She stares down at it blankly, laying pathetically in the puddles.
After a moment, she throws down the other broken end of it, tossing it across the yard carelessly.
Cassandra raises her fists in front of her face, taking a step closer to the target.
She closes her eyes, takes a breath, and begins pounding her fists against it instead.
The worst part of all of this – she feels guilty for lying to the king.
It had happened so long ago, but it's clear that Frederic knows Cassandra knows what happened that night.
She feels he thinks less of her now, which she doesn't blame him for. It seems everybody around here does, especially her own father.
That part kills her – that her father hardly even speaks to her anymore. He tells her she pushes everyone away, but Cassandra ignores him when he says it.
Oftentimes, she thinks about Rapunzel asking her to come with them.
At the time, it sounded impossible. And she didn't regret saying no for a while. Now, Cassandra wonders whether she would truly be happy if she were out there in the world, and not in here, trying so hard to prove herself by becoming something that she's not even sure she wants to be anymore.
She just hopes that after all this, Rapunzel is happy.
Rapunzel probably doesn't even think about her, when Cass has done nothing but think about her since she left.
Everything changed after Rapunzel left.
Cassandra grunts as she continues to punch the target, her fists becoming raw and numb to the pain. Wooden splinters are piercing her skin, and blood is scraping along the surface of the target with every strike.
She begins to cry, and she doesn't know how to stop it, having never cried in years.
She never allows herself to. Her father had taught her that tears made a person weak.
But that's all she is anymore – weak.
So, she lets the tears pour after forcing herself to hold them in for so long. Her sobs turn into angry shouts as she continues to attack the weakening object in front of her with her bare hands.
Cassandra isn't sure how much time passes before she stops.
When she slowly opens her fists and looks down at her hands, her knuckles are stained red, and the dripping blood blends in with the thick raindrops that patter across her skin. They're covered in dirt and shards of wood. She'd been clenching her fists so hard that her nails had also pierced her palms.
It looks like it should be painful, but Cassandra doesn't feel a thing.
"Cassandra?"
She almost doesn't hear the voice calling out to her in the distance, her body going completely numb. She's so exhausted that she thinks she might just pass out any moment now.
"Cassandra!"
Cass falls to her knees, her shaking legs unable to hold her up anymore. Her chin lowers toward her chest, her shoulders weighing her down.
She doesn't look up when she hears footsteps running toward her, splashing through the puddles.
She feels gentle hands touching her frantically, wrapping around her shoulders.
"Oh, honey…"
She recognizes the voice next to her ear as Queen Arianna's. She sees the woman's purple dress, soaked and caked in mud, appearing in her peripheral vision, but Cass doesn't look up at her face.
Suddenly, Cassandra can't find the energy in her to cry anymore. Instead, she remains silent as Arianna pulls the girl to her feet in the midst of a rainstorm.
"Come inside," Arianna encourages, her voice quivering with worry, "You'll catch your death out here."
Arianna's motherly instincts have never spared Cassandra since she were a child - Cass having grown up without a mother. Arianna may as well have raised her, along with Rapunzel.
In this moment, Cass curses her for that, but she doesn't fight it.
Instead, she stares blankly at the ground as Arianna gingerly wraps a bandage around Cass' knuckles, holding the girl's hand in her own.
The queen sits next to her on Cassandra's bed, who sits cross-legged with a blanket wrapped tightly around her hunched over frame, like a shivering, pouty child.
The first thing Arianna had told her to do was get changed into some dry clothes, then she'd basically forced Cass to let her tend to her wounds without fussing about it. At least, that's the phrasing that Cassandra would use.
Cass didn't bother fussing anyway, even though she wants to. She'd learned years ago there would be no point in that.
So, Cass sits there in silence with a dead, slightly angry expression on her face, with only her head and her one hand poking out from underneath the blanket.
Her hair is still damp, Arianna's too. It's messier than usual, and her skin is still freezing to the touch, having been outside in the dark for so long.
Cass almost expects Arianna to lecture her for whatever it is she did wrong, like mothers usually do.
But she doesn't. Cass appreciates it.
They sit in silence instead, with nothing but the crackling sound of the fireplace on the opposite side of Cassandra's bedroom. The rain can be heard pelting against the window, the sound muffled.
"Other hand," Arianna eventually breaks the silence as she finishes wrapping the first bandage, her voice soft.
Finding this entire thing ridiculous and unnecessary, Cassandra resists an eye roll. She gives Arianna her other hand anyway, the gesture more dramatic than it needs to be.
Cass winces when Arianna begins dabbing a wet cloth against her bleeding knuckles. Her touch is nothing but gentle, but the alcohol still stings. When Arianna pulls the cloth away, it's painted red.
"Are you gonna tell me what you were doing out there by yourself?" Arianna asks.
With most of the blood gone now, Cass notices the dark bruises around her own knuckles, unfazed by the sight of them.
Cass shifts awkwardly, pulling the blanket tighter around her neck. "Training."
Arianna merely raises an eyebrow at that, her gaze still focused on what she's doing. "You've been training a lot lately."
"I'm fine," Cass retorts, more defensively than she needs to, predicting what Arianna was probably going to say.
"I didn't say you weren't." Arianna begins to wrap Cassandra's hand, like she has done it a million times.
"All I'm saying is… I think that target got what it deserved," continues Arianna with a knowing smirk.
The queen had hoped for some sort of reaction at that, but Cassandra only continues to stare aimlessly downward like she isn't even hearing what she's being told.
She almost tells Cassandra she is going to seriously hurt herself one day, though it seems the girl has already done that. It wouldn't be the first time, though the queen believes this is the worst incident so far.
As Arianna observes her expression, she notices the way Cassandra's eyes look so tired – the same familiar eyes that had somehow held so much life when she was a child.
It seems like only yesterday. Though, Arianna has watched Cassandra slowly break for far longer than she'd like to admit.
"Oh, sweetheart…" Arianna murmurs. She smiles fondly, her heart sighing as she says, "I miss her too."
There, a flicker of life flashes across Cassandra's face, like those words had awakened something inside of her.
For a moment, she forgets how to breathe, solely because somebody has been able to see right through her so easily, despite doing everything in her power to not ever let that happen.
Cass wants to deny it, wants to insist that missing Rapunzel isn't the reason behind any of this. She wants to say that she doesn't miss anybody, because she doesn't need anybody to make her feel like she needs to hurt over them.
But that would be a lie, and Cass learned long ago that she can never lie to Arianna.
And being here right now, after the queen had just found her in the most vulnerable state she has allowed herself to fall into for a long time, she realizes there would be no point in trying to fight anything anymore.
Which is why Cass is actually letting Arianna tend to her right now, and not shoving her away or getting up and leaving.
A suffocating lump forms in Cass' throat and her nose begins to tingle. She scrunches up her face, hoping and failing to will it away.
Instead of saying anything, she lets her head heavily fall onto Arianna's shoulder next to her.
Maybe it's because Arianna practically raised her, or the secrecy of being the only two people who know what happened the night Rapunzel went missing, but there's a shared understanding for Cass' despair over Rapunzel.
The princess' disappearance had taken a toll on both of them, and so, Cass doesn't need to explain what it feels like, because Arianna knows all too well the bleakness that has loomed in the castle ever since Rapunzel left.
But it isn't just that. It's Cassandra's father too, and the suffering she has put herself through all to become a guard.
Arianna knows of it all. She sees it clearly in the young girl's broken eyes.
Cass' voice cracks as she admits through welling tears, just above a whisper, "I don't know what to do."
Not just about Rapunzel, but about everything. Because if she isn't keeping herself busy with training, she is laying in bed losing herself in her own thoughts that only seem to drown her the more she is alone. And she's always alone.
Arianna wraps her arms around the young girl, the side of her face falling onto the top of Cassandra's head.
"She hasn't forgotten about you, you know. I have faith that she'll come home one day, when the time is right," Arianna murmurs, rocking her like a child. "But right now you need to focus on yourself. You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do."
Cass doesn't know what she wants anymore. She wants to do so much, yet nothing at all. She wants to scream and cry and run, yet hide away and disappear to the world, and let everything fall apart because sometimes it makes her feel good to have pain.
Cassandra never knew what it felt like to be so lost.
She doesn't say that though. She only stares blankly ahead in the arms of the only woman she could ever call mother, listening to her voice and feeling numb.
2 years after the escape
"Listen up!"
Cassandra snaps to attention at the sound of the Captain of the Guard's booming voice within the training yard.
Her hands are clasped behind her back, her chin lifted, standing alert and silent alongside the rest of the guards.
There are men lined up on either side of her, most twice her size which only gives her more reason to present herself bigger than she is.
They all wear identical red uniforms, with armor chest plates and helmets. They have scruffy faces, tired eyes and rigid bodies.
None dare to move or say a word, instead staring blankly ahead as they've all been trained to do.
Cassandra swallows down the excitement of hearing her first real mission as a royal guard, appearing entirely composed on the outside despite the anticipation.
Somehow, she'd crawled her way to the top.
Three months ago, she'd finally been given her official uniform by her father, and he'd told her to wear it proudly, and to not make him regret giving it to her.
Much to Cassandra's disappointment, she'd been stuck on patrol duty since then, not that that isn't the most exciting thing in the world.
But after today, she'll finally be able to leave the castle walls. Hopefully.
The captain slowly paces along the line of soldiers as he speaks, eyeing them intensely one by one.
"Our scouts have received word that the wanted thief Flynn Rider has recently been seen near the Western region of the kingdom of Bayangor," he announces. "The girl he was seen travelling with is presumed to be the missing princess of Corona."
Cassandra blinks, wondering if she'd heard correctly.
Her heart pounds in her chest at the mention of the two people she thought she'd never hear of again, and the last people she'd expected to hear of.
It doesn't show on her face though. She's had years of practice with that.
It isn't until now she realizes why the entire royal guard had been called to order at an ungodly hour of the morning. Not that Cassandra isn't used to it by now.
"A number of you will travel there by land and sea, and track down the fugitives in the area," continues the captain. "Find out if this girl is really the missing princess and report back to me. When you do, the king has ordered her to be returned to Corona safely and unharmed. The rest will remain here where you will continue to protect the kingdom from crime and general lawlessness."
No news has been heard of Flynn or Rapunzel in over a year. Everyone thought they'd completely disappeared off the map, or even died.
Cassandra never believed the rumors, though. And neither did Frederic. He never stopped looking for Rapunzel. So somehow, this revelation doesn't entirely surprise her.
Besides, Cass doesn't much care for the princess anyway. And definitely not her thief counterpart.
"Retrieving the princess is the king's number one priority, and therefore it is now yours."
The memory of golden hair and the familiar sound of Rapunzel's laughter is nestled in the back of Cassandra's mind, like it has been for years.
A part of her becomes excited at potentially hearing it again, but she shoves the thought away as soon as she recognizes it, hating herself for even allowing herself to think it.
That was a long time ago. Rapunzel and Cass aren't friends anymore. Besides, this is a business matter. Personal feelings don't ever get in the way of business.
The captain reaches the end of the line, stopping for a brief moment before pacing in the other direction. "Flynn Rider is to be killed on sight. If you hesitate, or withhold any information of your discoveries, you will then have to answer to me. Am I making myself clear?"
"Yes, sir," the guards answer quickly is unison.
Cassandra remains silent.
The captain stops directly in front of her, staring her down with heavy brows. "Cassandra."
Her heart stops at the sound of her name and the fact that everyone's attention had just been drawn to her in an instant.
His voice quietens, "Since you know the princess better than anyone, I am trusting you will have better luck tracking her down and convincing her to return."
Wait, her? Why is this entire mission suddenly entrusted onto her?
"Prove to me your worth, and you will remain on the guard as a permanent protector of Corona," he demands. "Do we have an agreement?"
She stares down the captain just as intensely.
He's testing her. Cassandra sees it in his face.
He isn't giving her a choice here.
Behind his piercing eyes, she sees every moment of her life - all the blood, sweat and tears that has led her up to this moment right here. She sees herself finally being seen as worth something to him, and maybe one day she could even be something of a hero to the kingdom.
She sees herself maybe being happy with herself, for once in her life – if she can do this one simple task.
Cassandra swallows her fears as she tells herself - Rapunzel and her aren't friends anymore.
She pulls her shoulders back, lifts her chin and says confidently, "I won't let you down, father."
