Hey guys! Sorry about the wait, I wanted these chapters I put out to be really good. :) But thank you all so much for the reviews and stuff! It means a lot to me that you guys enjoy my work thank you so much! Also follow me on Tumblr I'll be posting little teasers of new chapters before they come out, the link will be posted in my description. :) Enjoy! *throws and runs*

Jack stood at the open windowsill, staring out at the woods intently. "How long do you think she's been gone?" He asked.

"I don't know." Rapunzel called from inside. She walked toward him wearing a coat and carrying a frying pan. Jack raised an eyebrow. "What?" She asked, looking at him and smirking. "I need something don't I?" Jack shrugged and laughed.

"He whatever makes you feel better Punz. Are you ready?" He asked, hovering outside the window. "We need to leave now, who knows when Gothel will be back."

"I'm ready." Rapunzel said, walking over to the window. Jack held out his hand and Rapunzel took it, standing on the edge of the windowsill. Rapunzel stared down at the grass, suddenly feeling anxious. She had dreamed about leaving the tower for ages, but now…

Jack squeezed her hand. "Hey, are you okay?"

Rapunzel smiled up at him. "Yes, yes I'm fine, I just wish I was leaving in…happier conditions." She said, giving the tower one last glance. This was where she had spent all her time, where her mother had raised her, where she had painted every surface, read every book. And now, it was time to leave it all behind.

"Rapunzel…" Jack said again, calling her back. "Do you want me to carry you?" She nodded and he scooped her up. She piled her hair up in her arms, letting the rest loose. Rapunzel gasped as Jack sent goosebumps rising up her arms as he pulled her tighter and launched himself off the windowsill. The wind whipped around Rapunzel's face as they flew down. Jack circled around down the tower and Rapunzel squealed as the wind tickled her bare toes. They were down the tower in moments. Jack set her down and before Rapunzel could tell him she wanted to fly again, she felt grass between her toes. She gasped and knelt to run her fingers through it.

"Jack its soft!" She said, running to where the leaves had fallen off some of the trees and picked them up, crackling them between her fingers. Jack watched and laughed as she ran from one thing to the next, picking it up, touching it, describing it to him even though he had touched these things a million times. He thought about what it must be like for her, feeling the world around her for the first time. It was like a blind person seeing things or a deaf person hearing. It was a whole knew environment, and its wonders were endless.

"Punz I hate to ruin the moment, but we really should go, if Pitch and Gothel come back we'll have a lot bigger problems on our hands." Jack said, gesturing toward the cave entrance at the opposite end of the clearing. Rapunzel looked at him with the biggest grin she had ever had.

"Right, sure, of course." She said, skipping a little his direction. He laughed.

"Someones happy."

She couldn't keep her eyes on him for more than two seconds, there was too much to take in. "Sorry." she said.

"Don't be, lets just get out of the clearing and head for town, we'll figure out what to do when we get there." Jack said, walking towards the tunnel. Rapunzel ran ahead a few steps, looking at different leaves on the ground, stepping in patches of snow as she went. When they crossed the clearing, Rapunzel saw the cave tunnel was covered with willow tree-like vines that hung over the entrance.

"Jack what do these feel like?" She asked, running ahead. Jack opened his mouth to answer when suddenly he was blown back hard, thrown against the steadily freezing ground. He heard Rapunzel shriek and Pitch laugh. He tried to get up. When he stood, he saw Pitch was reaching for Rapunzel. She held her frying pan in both hands. Jack tried to reach for his staff, but wasn't quick enough. Pitch lunged for Rapunzel, she swung and Jack winced as he saw the edge of the pan collide with Pitch's lower jaw and heard the crack. Pitch howled and brought a hand to his face, wiping off some of the blood, a dark red that stood out against his grey skin. He glared at Rapunzel and spat out blood off to the side and growled at her.

"Good shot sweetheart, but I don't think it'll be happening again." He said. Jack yelled as he advanced on Rapunzel and shot arcs of blue from his staff. Pitch dodged and teleported farther away.

"Oh Jack, so slow." He said. Jack growled and flew around Pitch in circles, dodging his black sands while Pitch dodged the shots from his staff. "I have to say I'm a bit disappointed." Rapunzel snuck up behind Pitch and tried for another swing. Pitch grabbed the frying pan mid-swing and wrenched it out of her hands and tossed it.

"Get away from her!" Jack yelled and dove for Pitch. He teleported across the clearing, appearing again with a laugh.

"You know Jack, one of the best things about having more power on your side is that most of the dirty work does itself." He said, and with that a legion of Nightmares poured into the clearing. The sky went darker and he felt Rapunzel clutch his forearm behind him. "Did you know, little princess," Pitch said, stroking a Nightmare, "these beasts can smell fear? No matter how small it is." He looked up and locked eyes with Rapunzel. Jack felt her hand tighten. "Are you scared, little princess?" Pitch asked. "You should be."

The Nightmares lunged for Jack and Rapunzel all at once. Jack swung his staff in a circle and took out some of the Nightmares, but another wave followed. Rapunzel swung her pan left and right, compensating for whatever Jack missed, and the two held their own relatively well. Jack never stopped the frost from his staff. Rapunzel, on the ground below him, swung at a Nightmare that got particularly close and was covered in Black Sands when it dissipated. She fell to the ground, choking, gasping for air. Jack looked down to see her and his heart immediately leapt up into his throat. Pitch grinned to himself. He aimed a spear of black sands at Jack and threw.

Rapunzel was laying on her back choking when she saw Jack above her. She saw the spear hit him with a soft thud and saw him go still. She tried to scream but her throat burned and not a sound came out. The Nightmares all stood still, as if sensing their master had accomplished his goal. Jack caught her wide-eyed horrified gaze and held it until his own eyes rolled back into his head and he fell hard on the ground next to her. Rapunzel tried to crawl her way over to him but she seemed paralyzed. Her limbs would not do what she told them to. Her entire body refused. She stared at Jack's lifeless body and watched as Pitch approached him. Pitch gave Jack's body a violent kick, then stared at him. "Lets see you come back from that Frost." He said, then he looked at her. Rapunzel felt fear clutch her heart at his gaze. He looked like a madman with death in his eyes.
"Glad you got to see the show." He said, walking toward her he bent down and looked at her more closely. He picked up a strand of her hair and rubbed it between his fingers. His sand rubbing off on it and turning the strand dark. "Strange." He said. "Even you can be corrupted." He dropped her hair and looked into her eyes. "Now, sleep!" He said, flicking his hands at her, and she instantly lost consciousness.

***************

When Rapunzel came to, she was immediately terrified of her current position. She was strapped to the back of a Nightmare, her hands bound around its neck and her ankles tied together with a rope under the horses belly. She assumed they were in the air as she felt all sixty feet of her hair streaming out behind her. She felt the horse coming to a stop and feigned sleep again. She didn't hear Pitch dismount his Nightmare, but his cold presence said as much. She slowed her breathing. The horse stirred at her escalated heart rate. She could not let herself be scared if she was to still make Pitch think she was asleep. She felt the rope around her ankles disappear, and she was lifted so her arms went around the horses head so she wouldn't be untied. She almost scowled. She cold do nothing while her hands were bound. All she could do then was run, and that didn't seem like a good idea, given the fact she had no idea where she was.

Pitch did not attempt to carry her with any sort of kindness. He simply threw her sideways on her stomach over the horse again. Then he rebound her ankles. She felt the cold leave her immediate surroundings, the horse lurched after Pitch and followed him. Rapunzel opened her eyes and turned her head, trying to blow the hair out of her eyes. They were clearly no where she had ever been to or heard of. There was a giant hole in the side of a rocky cliff, although the only reason she cold see it was because they were headed down into it. The rest of what she see was all rock. There was the sound of an ocean? A lake maybe? She couldn't tell. Then again, it didn't really matter to her anyway. The had never been out enough to know. How she wished she would have taken Jack's offer to explore sooner!

"Have you got her?!" Came a shrill voice from inside the cave. Rapunzel immediately dropped her head again and closed her eyes. She would know Gothel's voice anywhere.

"Yes, yes I have your little princess." Pitch said in an annoyed tone. "And it was quite fun too." He said, changing his voice a little. Rapunzel's heart squeezed at the thought of the harm he did to Jack. The horse stirred. "And… It looks like she's awake." Pitch said. She heard him walk across the cave floor and grab the hair closest to her head and pull her off the horse. She yelped as he dropped her on the ground. When she used her forearm to brace herself up, she saw Gothel.
Gothel had not used her hair in three days.
And it showed.
Rapunzel's mouth dropped open as she saw her once-mother. Her dark Obsidian curls were white as snow with grey streaks. Her eyes bulged out of her head and her skin stretched taunt over her bones. Her face was like looking at a skull. The wrinkles on her skin were unbelievable. Her red dress clung to her frame and hung off her like a sheet. Her fingers looked like you could snap one off.

"Terrible old hag isn't she?" Pitch said. Gothel's head whipped around and she shot him an awful glare. Pitch just snorted and picked up Rapunzel by the ropes on her wrists. He dragged her back into the cave and she dug her heels into the ground and fought him every step of the way. "Oh stop it!" He shouted, slamming her into the ground when they were a ways into the cave. Rapunzel fell, not expecting him to drop her, she slammed her head into the cave floor.

"You killed Jack." She said plainly and a bit dizzy. Pitch laughed.

"Maybe I have sweetheart. But I don't think that would be fun enough yet." He picked her up again and she fought again. With bound hands and ankles it was hard, but she had no intention of making it easy for him to take her. Pitch put up with her for a while, then he grunted and swung her forward. She took the opportunity and twisted herself in the air and collided her feet with his chest. Pitch's eyes went wide and he dropped her. Rapunzel landed hard on her back, but tried to sit up and undo the bonds of her feet with her hands. Pitch was not down for long, and when he came back up, Rapunzel realized that this may have not been the best way for an escape attempt. She tried to scoot backwards but it wasn't much. Pitch came towards her with malice in his eyes and slapped her, hard, across the face. Rapunzel gasped and Pitch grabbed her wrists again, dragging her the rest of the way, all the way, to the back of the cave. Once there, he turned down into a little room that was cleverly concealed between the rocks. There was no light inside the room, save for the light that shined in through the rooms door by the torches that had lit their way down. Pitch dropped her in the corner, banging her head against the floor. Taking advantage of her dizzy state, he grabbed chains that were attached to the wall and promptly replaced the ropes with metal.

"Now don't try anything sweetheart, it wouldn't be wise." He said in a flat even tone. Rapunzel shrank back. When Pitch talked like that, it scared her even more than when he was yelling.

When he left, Rapunzel slumped against the stone wall. Her entire body ached and throbbed from the horse ride and being dropped, dragged an hit. She wondered where Jack was. Pitch had said he wanted to have more fun yet, so that had to mean he was still alive! If she could get out of this, maybe she could find him, let him know she was alright. Maybe they could run away, hide. Rapunzel stiffened as she heard someone shuffle outside her cell.

"Rapunzel?"

Gothel. Rapunzel said nothing.

"Rapunzel dear I just want to talk." Gothel's voice had taken on a new look just like her age had. Her voice still held the same sing-songish quality it had when she talked to her. But there was an underlying cackle to her voice that betrayed extensive age. "You know I love you dear, I was just so worried!" Gothel said, still standing where Rapunzel couldn't see her. Rapunzel's heart strings were being tugged. Despite all the Gothel had revealed herself to be in the past few days, she was still the only mother figure Rapunzel had ever had. and it still mattered. You couldn't just erase seventeen years of childhood. Gothel actually had been nicer when she was little. It was only in the past few years she had gotten nasty. Rapunzel supposed now it was because a child didn't as as many deep, prying questions as she had started to do as she got older.

"I'll bet you were, mother." Rapunzel said, not bothering to keep the malice and betrayal out of her voice. "Worried about my hair were you?"

Gothel was silent. "No dear of course not, I was worried about you!" She said, her voice so obviously not genuine it was funny. Rapunzel snorted.

"Just be quiet Gothel." Rapunzel said bitterly, spitting the words. She knew this wasn't like her, but she was done. "You aren't going to get me to let you use my hair willingly anymore. I'm done. You and your new best friend killed Jack, and I - I can't forgive you for that." Gothel was silent again for a long time. So long that Rapunzel thought she had left.

She was wrong. Gothel started cackling in her old, cracked, horrible voice. "We'll see, pet, we'll see." And the shuffle of feet proved she had left. Rapunzel shivered and her heart raced. Gothel sounded ominous, and there had to be something larger at play. Rapunzel then laid down on the floor and did what she had been waiting to do for three days since this all started.
She laid down and cried.

Jack's eyes fluttered open later that night. As his eyes opened, he gasped in air immediately and tried to catch his breath. He looked down where Pitch's spear had pierced him. His shirt was torn, but the spar was gone. He lifted up his shirt and saw a black somewhat star shaped dot in the middle of his chest. He touched it, and felt only smooth skin. The sands seemed to have only been meant to stun him. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember ever feeling any real pain when it hit. He felt the thud, saw the spear coming through his chest, but it was like he couldn't move, and he passed out before he had really been able to register anything. "Strange…" He said to himself. Rapunzel. His eyes widened and he stood up in seconds. He spun around, growing panicked. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Rapunzel…" He repeated to himself over and over and over as he spun in circles. He looked up at her tower, something told him she was not there this time. Pitch had taken her. He knew it. Jack felt anger growing inside his chest, building until he thought he would burst.

He had failed. He had failed to protect her again. Again. This was the second time he had failed to protect her. And just when he had begun to hope…
No.
No he couldn't go there. He would go and find Pitch, and he would get her back. That was his promise to himself. Jack looked down at his hands and clenched them into fists. "You hear that Pitch Black!?" Jack whipped his head back and shouted to the sky. He came back down and kneeled on the ground, staring at the frost emanating from his hands, colder and faster that it ever had before. Jack whispered, "I'll get her back, even if it kills me."

He gripped his staff hard, and spring bolted off the grass into the raging storm of a night sky he had just created.

Dun Dun DAAAAAAAAAAA! Dramatic finish! Let me know what you guys think and if you enjoyed it! Remember to follow me on Tumblr for teasers of the next chapters! :3