Chapter II: The Fourth Member

Five years and nearly three months have passed since the Titan invasion that took the lives of many, including Jack and Rapunzel's little sisters. Jack and his friends wanted to protect the people inside the walls. Him, Hiccup, Rapunzel.. Even Edward joined them. His reasons were unknown at the most, but he was right into it. They could all agree on one thing, though; none of them wanted to see another broken family.

Jack, now being eighteen and Rapunzel whose Birthday is soon coming up, became very close to Hiccup, the brown-haired boy they met five years ago. Edward, though, has had a harder time opening up to him, but cares for him nonetheless.

The three young adults all decided on joining the Training Corps together. Rapunzel and Jack agreed on sticking together from now on after the incident that took place five years ago. At first, Hiccup wanted nothing to do with fighting and thought his impressive crafting abilities would be more suited for making equipment for all the Military fighters, but Jack, ever so forcefully, persuade Hiccup into joining with them. They all have trained equally hard over the past few years to make it into the top 10 rank together. After a lot of hard work, they're finally nearly there.

Edward is now part of the Military Corps. Kristoff put in a good word about how well Edward managed to gather many civilians and bring them to safety. After a few years of tough training in the Training Corps, he finally made it to the place he is in today so he can continue to keep as many civilians safe as possible. He now likes to go by the nickname "Bunny", not telling anyone the reason other than "I feel it suits me better".

It was another day in the Training Corps where everyone was out and about to start training. They all lined up in an orderly fashion standing still in salute as the Instructor walked by examining them. Jack, Rapunzel, and Hiccup were in the clear as the Instructor walked by them. A few rows down from Jack, there was a younger boy with bright red curly hair. He was fidgeting around as if he were hiding something in his pockets. Bluntly enough, he was, and there was evidence all over his face, enough to prove any man guilty. Jack could tell the kid was hiding food just by looking at him.

As the Instructor made his way to the redheaded boy, he stood in front of him with a dark glare. The boy was in saluting position, staring past the Instructor. "Sir?" he questioned as the Instructor continued to stand there.

"What are you hiding?" blatantly asked the Instructor.

The boy quickly replied, unaware of the crumbs all over his face. "Nothin', Sir."

The Instructor grew impatient and grabbed the kid by the collar of his shirt. "Then what's this all over your face?!" He shouted, holding the kid a few inches from the ground.

The kids face grew a shade of red as he looked to the side a bit. He decided to lick around his lips, taking in the rest of the crumbs. "Ah, I'm a messy eater. Guess I didn't notice!"

"You're trying to tell me you have crumbs all over your face from the last time you ate?" The Instructor tightened his grip on the cloth of his collar. "The last time your group had a meal was last night, don't try to lie to me!".

The kids face grew a little sweaty as he tried to pull off a smile to get away with everything. The Instructor, angered and annoyed, threw the kid to ground causing him to land roughly on his back. Jack barely noticed from his peripheral vision a girl with bright curly red hair look down and shake her head in disbelief.

The Instructor reached into the kids pockets and pulled out pieces of crumbled bread, then forming his hand into a fist as crumbs from the bread fell to the ground, onto the boys clothes. "So what is this?!"

"Ye' don't understand! I was starvin'! I didn't get any food last night, right?! Naebody would give me any food 'cause they thought I already went up fer' some, but that was me' brother! We're trip-..twins, yer' see! They gave me' brother food but not me, 'cause they thought they already fed me. I had no choice. I was starvin'!" Shouted the boy for the whole group the hear.

"I don't want to hear it!" the Instructor yelled. Their bickering continued for a while after until the instructor finally decided on a punishment for the kid. "After today's training, you're going to run laps until you collapse. And durin' all this, you get to keep running as you watch everyone else eat dinner."

"Harsh." Rapunzel whispered enough for only Jack and Hiccup to hear. Jack nudged her a little as a warning for her to be quiet. He wouldn't want her to get in trouble, too, especially not while the Instructor was all fired up like this.

"He's scarier than the Titans." Hiccup remarked quietly to the two. Jack, annoyed, glared at Hiccup to shut up. Slightly intimidated, Hiccup shut his mouth and continued waiting for orders from the Instructor.

Finally, after all the arguing that felt like forever to Jack, they were allowed to begin the days training.

Their training was pretty simple to understand; They were to fight against another member of the trainee squads and not hold anything back. Of course, they were requested to go against someone they did not know well.

It took no time for people to decide on a partner. Rapunzel and Hiccup were out of sight for Jack, so he was only focused on who he was going against. This course of training would last for a couple of hours, enough time for people to switch partners every now and then.

Jack groaned when his stomach was punched at whilst attempting to dodge. Tired and sore, he got a grip of his balance and got back up to continue fighting. Without a seconds hesitation he ducked before almost getting socked in the face. He grabbed hold of the opponents arm while he had the leading chance and took the male opponent down. Jack, getting cocky over his small victory, let out a chuckle under his breath.

"Yeah, yeah, you got me. But if you think you're so good, go give that girl over there a try." the opponent pointed over to a girl with messy, curly red hair who seemed to be on her own avoiding the fights. Jack, puzzled, decided to approach her.

"What'cha want?" The female remarked with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice as Jack approached her.

"You should give Jack here a try! I'm sure he won't bore ya'." Jack's opponent shouted from behind.

"Couldn't ye' get better competition, Tuffnut?" She questioned. Tuffnut grumbled under his breath, mimicking the girls words.

"Hey! I'm right here, you know. I get this feeling you think little of me." Jack spoke, "I don't like that. Why don't you try to fight against me before judging." he urged.

She looked at him with a determined glance. "Al'ight', just don't bore me."

The two got ready to fight. Tuffnut decided to back up into the distance, knowing this probably won't end well for anyone who decided to get in their way during the fight. Once they knew they were both ready, they dashed out at each other. Jack lunged at her but she swiftly kicked his leg out from beneath him in one go. "Before we really get into this, ye' gotta' take this wooden sword from Jack. We don' need that here." she remarked. Tuffnut groaned but came to take Jack's weapon. Jack didn't mind, he was interested in seeing where this could go with no weapons. Finally, they got ready for their real fight.

While attacking each other, Jack tried to land a punch to her face, but she girl ducked easily as if she knew he was going to do that, then grabbing onto his arm to flip him over and use herself to push him to the ground. Jack smashed into the ground face first. She was now sitting on his back, keeping him from getting up. She roughly twisted his arm from behind him; keeping him from being able to get up. Her hair falling in her face lightly covering one of her eyes as she smiled at her obvious victory. "I even had me' hair in me' way, but I still beat ya'."

Jack had an angered expression on his face, but didn't want the girl to know he took her words and victory to heart. "Yeah, well, the sun was in my eye." he mumbled.

The girl got up and walked in front of Jack. Before Jack could continue talking, she held her hand out. "Merida." introducing herself.

Jack got comfortable and pulled himself up onto his knee, reaching out for the girl's hand as she helped him up the rest of the way. "Jack." he did the same.

Jack could hear footsteps running up to him from behind. "Are you okay, Jack?" Rapunzel said with a snickering voice, she couldn't help but laugh a little. "I saw you were going to fight against her and wanted to watch, but by the time I could get over here she already had you beat."

"Yeah, yeah. I was just tired from all my other fights." Jack grumbled, lying to his friend. His body could still go for some more fighting.

"He told me the sun was in his eye a second ago." Merida snickered then looked over at the girl with long golden blonde hair.

Rapunzel walked past Jack and went right to Merida to greet herself. "My name's Rapunzel. I've heard about your skills. I'm actually impressed you could even take Jack down, but I'm not too surprised." Rapunzel let out a nice giggle.

"Ra..punzel? That's way too long fer' me. How 'bout I call you..Punzie?" Merida suggested.

Rapunzel smiled and nodded her head. "Sure." she looked over to Jack. "It's interesting, actually. Jack is the only one who ever called me by Punzie every now and then, but he never says it enough. I'd be glad if you called me that."

"Great! The name's Merida, by the way." Merida introduced herself to Rapunzel and shook her hand.

Hiccup came running over to the group. "Hey! Are you all deaf? Group training is over, we can all head back now."

Rapunzel smiled at Merida once more. "I'm glad we could talk a little. Hey, why don't you eat with us later? We'd be glad to have you there with us."

Merida nodded. "I'd like that. I'll meet you all there."

Rapunzel nodded then turned to Jack and Hiccup. "Let's go." She then ran off ahead of the two. "Hey, wait up!" Jack quickly followed behind her, but Hiccup stayed behind for a bit.

"Sorry if they caused you any trouble, Jack most of all. I'm Hiccup, since I hear you're going to be eating with us I might as well introduce myself."

Merida shook her head. "I probably caused thee trouble if anythin'. I'm Merida. Good to meet ya'."

Hiccup smiled. "Well, I guess we should head back. I'll show you where we all sit."

After a long day of training, all the trainees went back to go eat; all but the little redheaded boy named Hamish.

Night fell and everyone gathered into the dining hall to eat. Hiccup came in with Merida and they both joined Jack and Rapunzel at the usual table. In the beginning Merida felt a little out-of-place so she stayed quiet as she listened to the three go on about their day.

"You know, it would probably be easier to fight and get around if you cut your hair a little, Rapunzel." Jack remarked. "Besides, I think short hair would look kinda good on you, or something." Jack looked down at his food and took a bite before Rapunzel could say anything, hoping he didn't upset her.

Rapunzel took in the thought and started sliding her fingers in a small patch of hair that fell out of the braid which held the rest of her hair back during training.

In the distance there was a loud crash of glass, followed by a shout from a trainee "Yo, Flynn, what's your problem?" The male named Flynn quickly began cleaning up his mess, and his friends decided to help him out.

"Ah, hey, Punzie. If ya' want, do ya' think I could cut yer hair for ya'?" Merida asked, out of the blue. Rapunzel's answer was a small nod followed by her famous smile everyone saw her with. In excitement, Merida couldn't help but shout "Yeah!" then quickly after covered her mouth with her hands and let out a little chuckle between her fingers. The other three at the table decided to join in as they all laughed together, having a good time. The rest of dinner was very similar to this moment and they all bonded rather quickly.

Dinner for all the trainees finally ended and they all went back to their assigned rooms. Merida on the other hand decided to sneak into the kitchen once the dining room was empty and Rapunzel kept watch. While in the kitchen, Merida grabbed a sharp knife that could be used to cut hair and then quickly met up with Rapunzel.

"This should work just fine." Merida let Rapunzel get a glimpse of the knife then wrapped it in a piece of cloth and hid it under her shirt. "Let's go back to my room and we can cut yer hair."

"First we need to go back to my room. I need to get something." Rapunzel replied. Merida didn't want to make Rapunzel feel questioned so she just agreed and they went over to Rapunzel's room.

"Jack, Hiccup, and the others seem to be getting ready to sleep, so I'll just quickly go in there. I'll be right out." said Rapunzel before she went in the room to then come out not even a minute after. Her and Merida finally went over to Merida's room quietly.

"Some of the boys seem to be sleepin' already, but don't worry about bein' quiet. They can sleep through anything." said Merida while she turned a light on beside her bed. "By the way..er, I don't mean to dig into yer business or anything, but, what did you need to get from your room so bad?"

"Oh, well.." Rapunzel hesitated, but then pulled her sleeve up a little and a small green chameleon peeked out. "Uh, I found him before we came here five years ago, we got a little attached.. I don't feel comfortable leaving him in the room with some of the people in there. I named him Pascal. You see, he saved my life when-"

Merida cut Rapunzel off since she knew it's not easy for anyone to talk about what happened five years ago. "I get it. So he's kinda like a pet yer somethin', that's cool." she smiled.

Rapunzel understood and smiled back. Finally, she sat in front of Merida on the bed and rest her hands in her lap. "Have you ever done this before?" she questioned, a little uneasy about getting her hair cut.

"Can't say I have, to be honest. But it can't be all that difficult, right?" Merida reached under her shirt and pulled out the knife, unwrapping it from the cloth.

"I'm putting my trust in you. Just..not /too/ short, okay? Maybe something Jack would like." Rapunzel mumbled.

"Yer not just doing this for him, are you?" Merida scolded.

"No, not at all. Honestly, I've wanted to get it cut. It always manages to get in my way during training, and it's hard to take care of. I can't imagine failing on a mission or even dying because of something like my hair getting in the way. I've just been hesitant. I've never really done anything with my hair before." Rapunzel replied in a strong tone.

"Well, don't worry too much about it. If ya' really don't like it, ye' can always grow it back." Merida grabbed some of Rapunzel's hair and took out her comb to brush it before figuring out where to cut.

"You're right." Rapunzel took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm ready. Just cut it."

Merida held up the knife and began cutting off some of Rapunzel's long hair. Long pieces of golden blonde hair slowly fell to the ground. After nearly half an hour, Merida was finally finished and ready to show Rapunzel her new hair.

"Well, wat'cha think?" Merida asked, holding up a small glass mirror in front of Rapunzel.

Rapunzel looked at her new hair, shocked, she didn't say anything for a moment. Her hair was now to her shoulders, but fell a little longer in the front. It framed well along her face. She scuffed her fingers through her hair gently, feeling how much lighter and how easy it was to glide her fingers through. After getting a good look and feel of her new hair, she finally decided how she felt about it. "I love it! Thank you, Merida. It's just what I expected."

"Ya' sure? It's a bit longer in the front, maybe I should trim it a bit more there."

Rapunzel shook her head "No, it's perfect. I love it just like this." Rapunzel looked at it in the mirror a little longer before giving it back to Merida. "How about you, Pascal, what do you think?"

Pascal looked up at Rapunzel and nodded his head, his whole body following along with him, followed by a little squeak coming from his mouth.

"I'm glad you like it, too. I can't wait for the others to see." Rapunzel stood up. "Thank you again, Merida. Let's talk again tomorrow. Pascal and I should head back now before someone notices I've been gone."

Merida smiled. "Lookin' forward to it. See ya' then."

Rapunzel quickly but quietly ran out of the room, right as she was about to run out the door she gently bumped into another trainee. "Ah, sorry! Please don't tell anyone I was here!" then continued to run back to her room after that. The trainee she bumped into stiffly walking into the room looking as if he just lost at a game against some friends.

"Flynn? What's got ye' so down?" Merida questioned as the male walked over to his bed and laid down, staring up at nothing.

"Don't even speak." Flynn replied then turned over to his side, sliding his legs up to his chest before hugging them.

"Freak." Merida mumbled then cleaned up the mess that was left behind and finally laid down to get a nice rest. Tomorrow should be a fun day, after all. It's the day the top 10 ranked trainees get to move on to their new roles in the military. And it's also Rapunzel's Birthday.

Chapter 2. END.

New characters introduced in this chapter originally from:

Merida- Brave, Hamish- Brave, Tuffnut- How to Train Your Dragon, Flynn- Tangled.