Lives intertwined by one

The Race for Rapunzel begins

Sorry for being gone for so long. I was working on my other stories. Let's finish this before I give some of you suspense related heart attacks.

Recap:

Flynn gets stabbed. Stabbington's kidnap Rapunzel. Max and Pascal find Flynn and help him. Unable to make it to the palace, the three heroes find a small village. Greeted rudely by a local town's person, Flynn is rescued by a beautiful woman named Morgana. As she agrees to help Flynn, she reveals that she used to live in the palace. Meanwhile, Rapunzel learns that the Stabbington's only steal to help someone they care for. But she didn't wait around to find out whom. Desperately, she tries to escape the Stabbington's, only to wind up back at her old home/prison. The tower she and Gothel lived at. Setting up traps, she fought back the Stabbington's, trapping them in the tower. She lit trailing candle wax, igniting the tower and the Stabbington's with it. Was that truly the end of Clyde and Cleaver Stabbington? Who did they want to help? And what is this woman's connection to the castle? FIND OUT NOW!

The moon had completely filled the sky. The stars were twinkling, the creatures were singing to the night's songs, and people were starting to retire to bed. Morgana, however, was still up tending to Flynn.

Max, Pascal, and Flynn's mouths and eyes were gaped in awe. The woman sitting before them, stitching up Flynn's leg, was the same woman who created the elixir that saved the Queens life. And in doing so, allowing Rapunzel to be born. But now the only question that remained was why did she leave? "I'm sure you're wondering how or why it is that I left?" Morgana asked as if she read Flynn's thoughts. "I bet you're also wondering how it is a palace physician could wind up in such peasant like surroundings?"

"Not exactly…" Flynn trailed off. Embarrassed by the fact that she was right. "But since you brought it up, how did you end up here?"

Morgana cut the string, finishing the one side of the stitching's. She moved for the other side. "It's a tale that goes back many years." She began softly, "Back to my childhood."

Flashback

My mother abandoned me when I was born, so it was always just me and my father. Since it was just the two of us and because he knew he wouldn't be around forever, father got me my own grinder and bowl for my birthday and started to teach me his physicians' trade. He told me that I should learn from him and what I see in books. But he also said, "A true physician makes remedies his/her own, and write down the results. That's the only way to truly make progress." I took his advice. Time and time again, I mixed random ingredients. After testing on animals, my results were deadly. Pellets that exploded once chewed, creams that burns skin right off the bone, liquid that devoured your insides, and bandages that cause allergic reactions. At first I became crestfallen. I asked my father what it was that I was doing wrong. And he said, "You have to see what's compatible and what isn't. Things that aren't compatible can make amazing remedies if combined with ingredients that will make them compatible." I took his advice and studied up.

Flashback end

"You're really amazing." Flynn marveled. "I've wanted to learn remedies, but I don't have the patience or attention span." Pascal and Max nodded in agreement. "Well thanks for the moral support." He snorted sarcastically.

"Thank you for your words, Eugene." Morgana smiled. "Shall I continue?" She asked as she finished her last stitch.

"Please do."

"Okay.

Flashback

By the time I was ten, I had created a remedy for soothing itchy chicken pox and sun burns. I even made an edible cream for when your mouth is burning from spicy foods. I could make just about anything my heart desired. Except a way to save my father. He was stricken with an illness that had no cure. An illness that deteriorates the body more and more every year. It could only be treated to expand your life span. But the illness would come back and get worse. Five years later, when I came back from getting more supplies, I found my father dead. His whole body – head, toes, arms – was all covered in this pukey highlight yellow and purple bruising. The doctor told me he died peacefully in his sleep. He left his final words on a piece of paper. It said, "I couldn't be any more proud of you than I am now Morgana. You were the best assistant/daughter I could have had. Don't see my death as a hindrance. Use it as a drive to continue doing what you love most – Helping those in need."

After he died, I took over his work. For years I practiced and drilled into my work – Hardly ever leaving the house, getting four jobs so that I was able to pay for my food and supplies. Once I turned 20 I opened a shop in the Golden Kingdom. It was a bit of touch and go at first, but eventually people started to come. I eventually had to start advertising my work and putting up displays. For kids I made remedial candies. The elderly, I made soft dissolvable tablets. Everyone else I would have them schedule appointments and gave them grown adult checkups. I had assistants, part-time workers – my clinic was the most popular of all the others in the kingdom. So popular, the king came to me. He had heard about my work and asked if I could help his wife. She was about to give birth and she had fallen ill. I told him that I would try my best.

When I saw the Queen, my stomach did an absolute 360. Many physicians had come and they all failed. What made me think that I could do any better than my seniors? But I remembered how my father said to keep going and that's what I did. I examined the queen thoroughly. Luckily the illness wasn't the one that had taken my father. So she was curable. I looked up her symptoms in my books and discovered the cure – The Golden flower. I told the troops where it could be found. While they were gone, I began preparing the medicine. Later that night, they arrived with the flower. I mixed it into the medicine, fed it to the queen, and she was cured.

After Rapunzel was born and she was kidnapped, the kingdom fell into chaos for at least two years. And for those two years, myself and other physicians who had come to work at the palace, had to work overtime day in and day out. Our soldiers went sent from the high hills of Spring Valley, to the frigid canyons of our enemy Frost Kingdom. Any and every thief, burglar, mercenary, etc. was caught and either asked for their aide or detained on the charge of kidnapping. The king and queen were frantic. Anyone who said that they didn't know anything was hanged right on the spot. If it weren't for the Queen, the kingdom would have fallen into civil war with the Frost Kingdom.

Flashback end

Pascal and Flynn looked up to Max, wanting him to confirm her story. Max's eyes were dark and sad. He nodded shamefully to their questioning faces. Flynn couldn't believe it. Adaro actually plunged that far into darkness? And at the expense of his subjects? Was that the same Adaro he was going to call Father-in-Law? "Keep going." He urged. "How did this lead up to you leaving the castle?"

"Funny you should ask." She laughed dryly. "Because…it was because of the two that I chose to save that I got banished."

Flashback

Two boys at the age of ten, who were known for being thieves and bullies, were brought into the palace one afternoon. They were seen with a piece of cloth that had belonged to the kidnapped baby Rapunzel. They ran and ran as fast as their legs would carry them. They even fought against the guards. And when they were presented to the King and Queen, they were an absolute mess. One of the boys had completely lost his eye. The other was just badly scarred. The King demanded that they told him where they got the cloth. They kept saying that they found it in the middle of the woods. It was just lying there. Adaro kept telling them that it belonged to their daughter who never let go of it. Adaro demanded once again that they tell him where they got it. Once again they said, "In the middle of the woods!" The king didn't believe them. He sentenced them to remain in the dungeons until dawn. Until that time, no one was to associate with them. They weren't even allowed to be fed.

As a Physician, I couldn't allow that. I gathered some food, my best medicine, and I went to the dungeons. As expected, the guards were asleep. I managed to get the keys off their belts and entered the cell. At first the boys were suspicious of me. They believed I had come there to hurt them. I should them the food and medicine. I had even brought a medicine dipped eye patch for the boy missing an eye. They allowed me to do my work. Upon patching the boys up, I learned that one of them had a vocal problem. I examined his throat and saw many scar and tears. I was surprised he could still breathe properly. When he did speak it was raspy, slow, and lagged. Forming full sentences would damage his throat more severely. I gave him something to help with the burning he felt from the scars, but unfortunately his throat was beyond healing. So I did the best I could. The other boy told me it was from local bullies shoving sharp objects down and out of his throat.

Flashback end

"The king caught you helping them, didn't he?" Flynn assumed.

"Actually the guards woke up and told Adaro." She corrected. "I told Adaro that it was my duty as a physician to aide all those in need. And they were just two boys."

"But he didn't care." Flynn assumed again. "Morgana nodded solemnly. "And you stood up for your job?" he asked hopefully.

"And in doing so I, along with the boys, was banished from the palace and the kingdom. The king tarnished my name. Calling me an aider to the greater evil."

"So what'd you do after that?" Flynn asked eagerly.

"I took the boys in, and we formed a small family. We've been like this for the last 16 years." She moved from the bed and went to go put her supplies away. "However…things didn't stay as happy as we would have liked." She informed gravely. She pulled up the left side of her dress. What Flynn and the two animals saw locked their gazes in place. There was a highlight yellow and purple bruise going up her leg. I was stricken by this illness three years ago." She let the dress fall. "Since my father's death, a cure for this ailment has finally been created. The only problem was that the treatment is worth a king's ransom. The doctors say it's for further research developments. But we all know it's so that they can go and buy Fiji."

"THAT'S HORRIBLE!" Flynn gasped. Pascal and Max nodded firmly. "I WAS GOING TO BUY FIJI!" Max and Pascal growled dangerously in his face, demanding that he keep on track. "I mean…they should…give…you Fiji?" Pascal tail whipped his face and Max yanked on his hair with his teeth. "OW WHAT! OH!" He shouted dumbly. He saw Morgana laughing at the three boy's silliness. "Morgana…" he started again, "Where are the boys now?"

"They aren't exactly boys anymore. They're in their late 20's now. And they aren't here." She explained sorrowfully. "They wanted to find a way to help me, so they ran off. The last time I heard from them, they wrote saying that they decided to follow some guy named Flynn Rider."

GULP! Max and Pascal's eyes fell onto the sweating thief. There are only two boys that Flynn knew of. And they actually joined up with him only a couple months before he met Rapunzel. "What…uh…ahem…what were these boy's names?" he asked nervously. Raying with every fiber of his soul that their names were Bonnie and Clyde, and not…

"Clyde and Cleaver." Flynn let out a long exasperated groan. Pascal and Max fell over like logs. They couldn't believe the Karma. Or was it irony? WHO CARES! "Is something wrong?" Morgana asked. Flynn and the animals exchanged fretful glances. Should they tell her? Or should they just say thanks and go look for Rapunzel? But maybe she had information that could help him find Rapunzel. But what if she hates Rapunzel and Flynn Rider? Then she would just say screw you and throw them out on their ear. Or maybe not? It was hard to determine. Flynn, after all, wasn't exactly positively popular with people. But she didn't seem to have too much animosity about Flynn Rider. "Eugene?"

Flynn let out a sigh. Whatever kept him from going back and telling Adaro and Myra what happened, he'd do it. What's one more person added to the list of people who hate him? "Morgana…" Flynn trailed off, guilt rising within him, "We – I have something to tell you." HRRRM! Max grumbled. Pascal squeaked to the horse, wondering what was wrong. Flynn and Morgana glanced to the palace stallion. He was sniffing the air as if he had picked up a scent. He pulled his head out of the window. Sniffing the air, he paced around the house. Morgana, Flynn, and Pascal watched as he did his work. Something was in the air and it had Max on edge. He started to move down the path that led out of the village. And there he saw it. NEEEEIIIIGGGHHH! He pointed his snout and hooves towards the forest wildly. He could see something. "MAX!" Flynn grabbed a stick and hobbled outside. Pascal jumped onto his head, and Morgana trailed behind them. "What is it boy?" Pascal caught something out of the corner of his eye. A strange orange glow and what appeared to be…SMOKE? RGGGK! Pascal pulled on Flynn's face. "What!" Pascal leaped onto Max and pointed to the glow. Morgana and Flynn narrowed their eyes. Then they gasped in horror. There was a forest fire. "But that's…"

"What's wrong, Eugene?" Morgana asked fretfully.

"That direction…leads…to…" He charted his knowledge of the land out in his head. Being a thief on the run, he's grown to know the lay out of the land pretty well. If his calculations were correct, that fire was coming from, "RAPUNZEL'S OLD TOWER!" Pascal slapped his head. He couldn't believe the irony. Rapunzel spent 18 years trying to find ways to escape. And now…SHE WAS PROBABLY THERE!

"Princess Rapunzel?" Morgana gasped. "Why would she be there?"

"It's a long story," Flynn explained exasperatedly, "One that involves your Stabbington brothers kidnapping her to get back at me." Morgana shook her head. Not understanding what he meant. "My name is Flynn Rider!" He admitted to her proudly. "And the Stabbington's have kidnapped the girl I love." Morgana gaped in awe. She couldn't believe that he was Flynn Rider. They described Flynn Rider as horrible. But he…"And right now, I need to go rescue my fiancé." Max and Pascal bobbed their heads firmly, saying that's right! Max knelt all the way down. Flynn got on so that he could push off with his good leg.

Morgana didn't want to believe it, but it was possible that the Stabbington's kidnapped Rapunzel for her sake. A king's ransom. She sighed in her head. Those boys were her responsibility. And it's time she made things right. As Max rose to his feet, Morgana shouted, "Wait a moment!" She ran back into her house and grabbed her basket full of herbs. She then jumped onto Max and held tightly onto Flynn. "If Rapunzel and the boys are the cause of that fire, they'll need my medical help."

"Okay." Flynn agreed. "ALRIGHT MAX! TRIPLE TIME! FOLLOW THAT SMOKE!" Max neighed aloud, letting his voice be heard throughout the village and land. Like lightning Max dashed off and for Rapunzel.

/[]\

The tower burned and crumbled little by little each minute. The smoke becoming unbearably thick. It burned their eyes, tarnished their throat, smoke flew up their nose and making their heads fill with char black smoke. The flame scorched and burned their skin. Singeing their hair and cloths, burning them away like paper in fire pit. The two Stabbington's choked and tried to claw their way out of the tower. But there was no escape. There was a god knows how many story drop out the window, and their other exit was filled to the brim with fire. There was no way out. The Stabbington's legacy was going to end and it was all because of the princess. "Man…cough, cough," Clyde heaved, leaning against the window, "We must have…really lost…our touch if…we let…a scrawny…princess do us in. Eh…Cleaver? Huh?" Cleaver wasn't in the room with him. "Cleaver?" Clyde moved from the window and fanned the smoke from his face. He tromped over small patches of fire. And down by the tower exit stood Cleaver, watching the flames as the ascended rapidly up the way. "Hey Cleave, you shouldn't be so close." He warned. "Not that it'll matter in a few seconds."

"Will…matter…" Cleaver choked. He dropped his weapons, all of his heavy gear. He did the same to Clyde. Before Clyde could ask, Cleaver grabbed his brother and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Hold…on…"

"CLEAVER! WHAT IN BLAZES ARE YOU DOING?" Clyde panicked. He watched his brothers' feet. He was getting ready to charge. "Cleaver!" Cleaver got ready. "CLEAVER NO!" Cleaver charged. He burst through one section of flames. Stampeding down the stairs, Cleaver blew past falling debris and obstacles. He got grazed and scratched on the way down. He tripped and stumbled, but still kept go. Ash flew into his torn throat. Embers burned his eyes. Splinters popping into his ears and getting stuck into his skin. But Cleaver didn't care. Taking the brunt of most of the punishment, Cleaver was going to make it out of that tower. Clyde kicked and screamed for his brother to stop, begging him not to do this. But it was too late. Cleaver had already made it to the bottom. A wall of fire stood between them and freedom. The strain his body was being put under was steadily growing. He could feel his body burning inside. Every muscle deteriorating by the minute. Cleaver adjusted Clyde, and with one strong push of his legs, he smashed through the fiery wall of tinder and wood. Cleaver and Clyde bounced along the ground and into the small pond. Clyde shook the water off his face and gazed up at the inferno. The tower seemed to burn away into the air and drift into the past. As if time had finally caught up with it. "WHOO!" Clyde laughed. He took some water in his mouth, washing it over his hair and skin. "That was certainly a rush, eh Cleaver?" He felt the adrenaline still in his body. He was ready to run a marathon. "Cleaver?" Clyde looked over to the other side of the pond. Cleaver was lying face down into the water. "CLEAVER!" Clyde trudged through the water. He moved the floating clovers over. Scooping up his brother, Clyde held Cleaver in his arms. His eye was closed. A black ring around it. His face was losing its color. "Cleaver? CLEAVER!" Clyde shook his brother. He wasn't waking up. "No! Come on Cleave! TALK TO ME BUDDY!" He pleaded.

"Hrm…uh…"

"Cleaver!"

The one eyed brothers' eye sluggishly opened. His eye was stained grey. Possibly from the ash. His vision was blurred so badly, he could barely make out his brothers face. And it was slowly becoming more obscured. "Cl…yde…" He rasped silently.

"Hey bro…" Clyde's voice choked as he fought back tears. "We…we made it out. And it was all because of you." He praised, believing it would bring his brother strength. Cleaver smiled all the same. "Now just you wait," Clyde took the water in his hand and ran it over his brothers' face, "We're going to get you all cleaned up and-and then – and then we're going to find the girl and-and then she make you all better. You'll see." He tried assuring himself more than his brother. Clyde's speech was becoming more rapid by the second. He could feel his brothers breathing slowing. Desperately, he tried to put water down his throat. Cleaver swallowed, but he didn't look any better. Slowly Cleavers eye started to shut. "Come on!" Clyde urged. "We have to keep going. The girl couldn't have gotten far!"

"No…Clyde…" Cleaver coughed. He put his hand on his brothers. "We…stay…here. We…enjoy…sky."

"But we can't. We have to-"

"Look." Cleaver said, "You see." He pointed up to the moon. Clyde glanced up to it as well, wondering why his brother wanted him to look up at the moon. "As…kids…we…wished…on…moon," he told with his residual strength, "We…wish…we could…go to…moon…and live…there. Remember? Because there…no…one…could…..touch us." He dropped his hand back onto his chest. He smiled dreamily. "We…..happy…as…kids…..we…were…." Cleavers speech was lagging more and more. Clyde knew what was coming. He just couldn't accept it. His brother was slowly dying, and he wanted to enjoy the moon. "Chasing…girl…not worth it…Flynn Rider…not worth it. Let's…be…together…"

"What do you mean?" Clyde roared. "It's because of them that we're in this mess!" His voice cracked. "It's because of that damn princess that you're going to…" he trailed off, not able to bring himself to say it. "The two of us had a new dream, remember? We wanted to get rich! We wanted save Morgana!" Tears rolled down his face and onto Cleavers. "Remember Morgana? She's depending on us!"

"Morgana…" Clyde recollected. "I'm…sorry…Morgana…Clyde…" his eyelid bounced up and down, the eye itself losing its color. "I…won't…be….able…..to….." His eye closed. His head fell back. His entire body went limp. With a smile on his face, the life of Cleaver Stabbington had come to an end. Leaving only Clyde Stabbington left.

Clyde tried to deny it all he could. Tried to tell himself that it was nothing but a horrible nightmare. He tried to look around for some way to make his brother move again. Some miracle that would allow Cleaver to rejoin the living and not let his brother live alone. But it was all for naught. There was no miracle, no help, and no salvation. Clyde was now alone. He saw the tower was still burning. He carried his brother bridal style, put him at the base of the tower, and watched as the flames engulfed him. Clyde marched away, squeezing his eyes shut so he could erase everything from his mind. But he could not. His brother risked everything and for what? So that Clyde could move on with his life? How could he move on? All they had to do was screw Rider over and watch him squirm. And maybe make some cash on the side. It was supposed to be him, Cleaver and Morgana, living through life without any hardships. All they needed to do was heal Morgana and everything could go back to the way it was. But now his brother was gone. And for all he knew Morgana was probably beyond saving. So…in retrospect…Clyde had nothing left. No family, no home – nothing. All he had left was….vengeance. "Rapunzel…" He growled. "Yes…YES!" IT'S HER FAULT! He shouted in his head. Hers and Riders! They both need to pay! He may not have known where Rider was, but he knew what way Rapunzel was heading. And he was going to catch her.

To Be Continued

Next chapter coming right up guys

See you soon