AN: Another not-so-fun chapter to write, but it is a very important one. I hope it...somehow adds something to the movie, but of course I don't expect it to be better than the movie. I just hope it's at last a little good...

In this scene, I relied a lot on the screencaps again, though some of them (like Eugene writing on the floor in pain) broke my heart and almost made me cry. Other helpful things were some sad songs that I listened to, like My Immortal and Just a Dream (Carrie Underwood). :( I'm sad now. Going to go cry for Eugene now...

Over the Weather: Another mention :) Thanks!

Crystal-ice-fire: Thank you :)

Hawkeyesong: Thank you! that part wasn't easy to write, and I'm pleased that you liked it.

KayDee: Of coure he did :) haha. I hope you like this chapter too.

Delilahgirl: I hope it's as intense as you hoped...I don't know if i made it sad enough again, but I hope it's good. As for crying...like I said, I almost cried again when I looked at the screencaps. There are some real heartbreakers in there. :( Thank you.

Paocg: Thank you! :) I'm glad that he sounds like himself, and the way I write him lines up with the moview. YAY. I'm also glad that loose ends are tied up for you.

I 3 you reviewers! Your encouragement is amazing!

FL6

Disclaimer: I do not own Tangled.

Chapter 14- Eugene vs. the Dagger

"Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends."

-John 15:13

As we neared the tower, I tried to come up with some kind of plan, but all I could think of was rescuing Rapunzel. that was the only thing that mattered: saving her at whatever cost. When Maximus reached the tower, I jumped off him, even before he had fully stopped. I looked up at the tower. Was she here? Well, there was only one way to find out. "Rapunzel!" I called. It came to my mind that I didn't have the arrows that had helped me climb it the previous time. "Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Silence. I wondered briefly why she didn't answer, but she had to be here. Didn't she? Where else would she have gone? I started to try climbing up the tower with my own bare hands, desperate to reach her. As I did, I heard something creak, and then her hair came tumbling down. I grasped hold of it, and climbed up it. Actually, climbing up hair sounds awfully strange, doesn't it? But it was basically like climbing up a rope, and I had always been good at that. So it didn't take me to long to reach the top.

"Rapunzel," I said with relief when I had entered the tower. "I thought I'd never see you again." Then I caught a glimpse of Rapunzel. My eyes widened, and my worst fears about her had come true: She had a gag across her mouth, her hands chained behind her. I stared at her for a second, completely horrified. She seemed to be trying desperately to say something through the cloth, but I had no idea what that would be. I started toward her, to help her, but before I could, something cold and sharp pierced my side. Stabbing pain spread through my body, and I slumped to the floor, clutching the wound. I heard Rapunzel cry out, but I couldn't say anything to her.

"Now look what you've done, Rapunzel," said a woman. I could only assume it was Rapunzel's mother, though I found that very hard to believe. No mother would chain up their daughter to a wall, no mother would let her daughter almost fall into the hands of two criminals. And no mother would stab someone, especially someone whom she knew was important to her daughter (no, I'm not actually trying to be pompous here. I was important to Rapunzel, just like she was important to me). Besides that, there was no way that it was somehow Rapunzel's fault that she had stabbed me. My first interaction with Gothel (that was her name and I'm going to call her that because calling her Rapunzel's "mother" is too tedious), and I already hated how she treated Rapunzel. The idea of this being Rapunzel's fault! Condescending witch! "Oh, don't worry, dear. Our secret will die with him."

Her use of the word die was not lost on me, and I was smart enough to know that this kind of wound could be fatal. I could already feel the blood begin to flow out of me, and if I lost too much, I'd probably die. Have….to….stop….the….bleeding, I thought. Vaguely I remembered something about pressure stopping bleeding. So I continued to clutch my side, and shut my eyes as if I could somehow block out the piercing pain as I could block out my sight. Everything in me hurt so badly that I started to clench my teeth. I let a groan escape. "Ahh…."

While I writhed on the floor in complete agony, I heard Gothel speak again. "And as for us," she continued. "We are going where no one will ever find you again." At the edge of my consciousness, I could hear scuffling and I assumed-with the small part of my brain that wasn't screaming out in pain- that Rapunzel was fighting Gothel. Her struggle with Gothel was no surprise to me, considering that she had managed to knock me out and tie me up with her hair. She was a very strong girl. "Rapunzel, really! Enough already," she ordered. "Stop-Fighting-Me!"

Rapunzel must have lost her gag somehow because she began to talk back to Gothel. "No," she said loudly. "I won't stop. For every minute of the rest of my life, I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you!" She paused for a moment. "But if you let me save him, I will go with you."

I hadn't even thought about the possibility of her using her hair again to heal me. But I couldn't let her sacrifice her freedom for my life by doing so. I had already seen enough of this Gothel woman to know that she didn't love Rapunzel and would keep her imprisoned again with no contact with the world. It sounded atrocious to me-I had seen her joy when she left her tower, and I had seen the way she interacted with people and how much she cared about them- and how much they liked her in return. I couldn't let her return to that life, I couldn't. Not for my sake. "No," I groaned in protest. "No, Rapunzel."

She ignored me completely. "I'll never run, I'll never try to escape," she said. "Just let me heal him and you and I will be together. Forever! Just the way you want. Everything will be the way it was!" She took a deep breath. "I…promise."

My heart sank when I heard her say that: because if there was one thing I knew about Rapunzel it was that she never broke a promise. Ever. And she wouldn't break this one, even if it would ruin her life and break her heart. And break mine too.

"Just like you want," Rapunzel said softly. "Just let me heal him."

After Rapunzel said that, Gothel relented, took the chains off Rapunzel….and put one on me instead. "Just in case you get any ideas about following us," she snarled at me. The whole chain thing was actually quite smart of her because of course I would follow them to the ends of the earth to save Rapunzel.

By that time, blood had soaked through my shirt to my vest and the pain was excruciating. In fact it was so bad that I could barely even breathe. You don't think I'm exaggerating, do you? Because being stabbed hurts more than anything you could possibly imagine. It was all I could do not to scream bloody murder, but I wasn't the screaming type. So I let out many moans and groans instead. Then Rapunzel rushed over to me and immediately stroked my face with her hands, as if she could somehow soothe my pain. Although that was pretty much impossible, it just shows again how incredibly compassionate she is. "Eu, Eugene!" she said.

Another surge of pain coursed through my body. "Ahhh…."

Instantly Rapunzel's gaze shifted to my wound-and my hand covering it. Gently she moved my hand and inhaled sharply. She was no dummy, and clearly she knew how bad it was. She pulled her hand back. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she said. "Everything's going to be fine though."

You know, I love Rapunzel, but seriously. Everything would be fine? Really? I found that hard-no, I found that impossible- to believe, even in my weakened state. How could any of this possibly be described as fine? Would her life be fine if she lived imprisoned again with that woman for the rest of her life? Would my own life be fine if I lived the rest of it without her? Would the rest of my life be fine if I lived every day with the knowledge that she was trapped once more, and this time because of me? No, everything wouldn't be fine. Don't get me wrong, I knew she would be able to heal me (and on that count things could be described as fine). Of course I did. That's just what I was afraid of-if she healed me, she'd doom herself. And I couldn't let her do it. As she tried to put her hair on me, I shoved her hand away. "No, Rapunzel."

"I promise," she said. "You just have to trust me."

I did trust her implicitly, but I still wasn't going to let her heal me. I shoved her hand away again. "No."

"Come on," she said soothingly and calmly. "Just breathe."

I didn't tell her that breathing was pretty much impossible or that each time I did try to breathe normally it hurt even more. And her calmness did nothing to ease the agony that I was feeling- both physically and emotionally. I had to stop her from destroying her life. I had to. "I can't let you do this."

Sorrow filled her large green eyes. "And I can't let you die."

The way she said it broke my heart. I knew she cared about me too much to let me die without doing anything about it. And she was giving up a life of freedom for me. If I hadn't loved her enough already, I loved her even more for doing this. Still, I didn't want her to do it."But if you do this…."

She put one hand comfortingly on the side of my face. "Shh…"

"…Then you will die," I finished, trying to tell her that a life with Gothel would pretty much be a living death for her.

I could tell from her eyes that she understood. "Hey," she said softly. "It's gonna be all right."

I smiled weakly at her, though it was an almost…false smile, because she was totally wrong. Again. Everything wasn't going to be all right; it couldn't be- not when we wouldn't be together, not when she would live imprisoned again with Gothel. By one of my hands, I felt something….almost sharp….was that, was that glass? Hmm. Glass is sharp, glass can cut. Suddenly I heard Rapunzel say in my head, "But once it's cut, it turns brown and loses its power." It was obvious to me that Gothel mostly wanted Rapunzel for her hair, and in that split second, I made my decision. I curled my fingers around the glass. I looked at her, and she was closing her eyes, preparing to sing the incantation. "Rapunzel, wait."

Now, people have asked me about my choice when I tell this story, like when I decided to cut her hair, did I know that I was going to die? And the answer is….absolutely. Yes, I knew it in the same instant as the shard of glass sliced through her hair. I knew exactly what I was doing. But somehow it didn't matter: All that mattered was that she was free. The truth was…is that I love Rapunzel more than life itself, and I would rather die than see her shackled to the horrid woman that was supposedly her mother.

Really, was there any other choice? All the choices were bad for both Rapunzel and me. If I lived, I would be away from Rapunzel, but she would live imprisoned. If I died, I would be away from Rapunzel, but at least I'd know she could live freely. The same was true for Rapunzel: She could either let me die, or go with Gothel but I'd be healed. I understood why she did what she did, but the truth was that neither Rapunzel nor I could win because we would lose each other either way. Really, the only person who would win either way was her "mother"-she would get exactly what she wanted, which was Rapunzel (though I was starting to think she just wanted Rapunzel's power, and didn't care about the girl herself).

Can't you see how I'd prefer death in this scenario? So I took the glass and cut her hair straight through with it- hoping that by doing so Gothel would let Rapunzel go. Naturally, cutting her hair took all the strength that I had left (which I have to tell you wasn't much), so my hand dropped back down to my side, and I slumped against the stairs.

Things get a little fuzzy here; at least for me, anyway. After I cut her hair, I pretty much found myself drifting off into the land of unconsciousness, and the medical reason that they would tell you is that I had lost so much blood that I went into shock. Pleasant, right? But in reality, the land of unconsciousness really wasn't that bad: it was kind of like falling, except much more pleasant. Maybe more like floating down a river or something, but nicer considering I wasn't a big fan of rivers (since I'd almost drowned. I think I might have preferred to die that way though, because even if it wouldn't be as dramatic it probably would hurt quite a bit less).

Now Rapunzel can tell this part clearly, but then she hadn't been dying. She says that after I cut her hair, she put her hand to her head, completely shocked. "Eugene…what?" It didn't take her long to figure out that since her hair's healing power was gone, I would die. She stared at the hair brokenhearted, as the brown spread through her seventy feet of hair.

As devastated as she was, she told me later that her reaction was nothing compared to her "mother's". "No! No! What have you done? What have you done?" she cried. She immediately scooped up the hair, thinking that the loss of the power wouldn't cause her to age rapidly, trip on the hair, fall out of the window, and turn into dust.

But that's what did happen to her. As for me, I was still floating and drifting down the Peaceful River. That is, until I felt somebody pulling me and heard Rapunzel's voice (though it seemed like it came from very far away). "No, no, no, no, no!" More arms pulling me back, back out of the fuzziness. "Eugene…"

I tried to open my eyes, but it was too hard. It hurt too much everywhere, and opening my eyes was like trying to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. Meaning it took too much strength, strength that I didn't have. Even my head felt heavy, though I could feel her hands cradling the back of it."No, look at me!' she said desperately. "I'm right here! "Don't go! Stay with me, Eugene!"

Her hand stroked my face, then she took one of my limp hands and placed it on her hair- as if the magic was still somehow there. I knew it wasn't though; that was the whole point of my cutting her hair. "Flower gleam and glow," she sang.

She sounded panicked now. I forced myself to open my eyes a crack, so I could try to calm her. My heart was beginning to slow, and I could tell I only had a few minutes left. What should I tell her before I went? "Rapunzel…"

"Let you power…shine…" she continued brokenly.

I tried again to get her attention. "Hey…"

"Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine," she finished in a choked voice.

I tried once more to get her attention, and brought her face toward me. "Rapunzel."

She let out a sob. "What?"

My heartbeat slowed even more, and I knew-for real-that I was dying. But I couldn't go without her knowing how I felt about her. She had to know before I died how much I loved her, and how much I had dreamed of a life with her. Instead of chasing down a silly daydream of money, I now dreamed of her- only her. And that's what I would tell her. "You were my new dream," I whispered.

Her eyes filled with tears, and it was clear that she knew (by the past tense) that I was about to leave her. "And you were mine."

I was hers- that meant that she felt the same as me. I wished for more time with her- maybe….maybe give her that kiss that I'd been dreaming about since yesterday, but my time was through. I closed my eyes and breathed out one last time.

And let myself go, willingly this time:

Because everything was fine now. Rapunzel was okay.

Rapunzel was free.