The sound of screaming faded to leave only the struggling whirr of the pump and a dry slurping noise as it tried to suck up every last drop of oil that remained in the vat. Rapunzel darted forward to shut the pump off, leaving Flynn's elbow alone and chilled despite the heat of the room. The pump wheezed to a halt, but Rapunzel was already yanking on the lever to re-close the flu, throwing her weight against it to force it shut despite the layer of oil congealing against the inside of the pipe.

Flynn could only stare dumbly. How had one little girl taken out an entire army of assassin robots single-handedly? It didn't make sense. Rapunzel was weird.

She launched herself at him again, causing him to stumble backwards. "We did it! See? I knew it'd work." She wrapped her arms around his neck and bounced up and down excitedly on the balls of her feet, squealing. The jumping made it difficult to embrace her. Not that he was really trying. More like he was just trying not to fall over.

"How..."

"I mean, I wasn't positive it would work," she nattered, the speed of her rambling increasing until it became almost a ranting mutter. "But I was pretty sure. And it did! It worked! Can you believe it?"

"No, not really." His voice came out a bit too strained for his liking.

She pulled back from him and grinned, uncaring or oblivious to the disbelief that was forming a headache just behind his eyes.

"Come on! Let's go look."

And before he could protest, before her words could really sink in, she had grabbed his hand to drag him up the stairs.

She came to a halt at the very top of the spiraling staircase, so close to the dome of the roof that he had to duck or hit his head. She let go of his hand to jimmy another lever, this one smaller, more ornate, with several metal rods that moved and ticked in tandem as she worked to lever back and forth a few times, easing it into a gentle movement and working out any rusted kinks before she began to spin it and the closest panel of the dome began to ease outward.

"Whoa, whoa!" She stopped, but turned on him with a glare and a quiet order to "shhhh!"

He dropped his voice so she'd stop glaring at him. "What if there are more out there?"

She rolled her eyes. "There aren't any more."

"How do you know?"

She thought for a moment and clearly came up with nothing, but rather than admit her uncertainty, she set her face into a look of determination and glared at him some more. "Because there can't be," she said confidently, then turned back to the lever-turned-crank.

"Yeah right, Blondie." He made a grab to stop the lever from turning. And ended up in a scuffle with her.

He didn't really care if he were attacked by a swarm of pissed off chameleons. True, he could think of better ways to go, but he still didn't really care. But he'd be damned if he let Rapunzel throw away her life on a single act of stupidity.

She made an offended, exasperated noise, and struggled against him, gripping the lever and squirming in an attempt the throw him off. For a second they growled at each other as he tried to maneuver his body in front of her and she tried to push him away with her hip and her slim shoulder. With a well placed elbow to his stomach and a foot hooked behind his ankle, he tripped backwards with a gasp, landing on his ass on the floor.

"Don't," he warned, reaching out to her with one hand while the other grabbed at his side. She'd hit right where he'd injured himself in the crash and despite how well it had healed, pain still ripped through his spine, spots still danced in front of his eyes.

She made a face - a kind of fake surprise that didn't cover her smugness. He could almost hear her singsong as she adjusted her grip on the crank, "Uh oh! I'm doing something awful and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Rapunzel-"

She turned the crank a quarter turn with an exaggerated gasp. "Look at that! I'm being terrible and you can't possibly stop me in time, but you should totally try again so I can elbow you some more and gloat about it."

"Seriously, that's not-"

With another half turn, the panel clicked open with a soft burst of cool, night air. Flynn bit down his protests, hoping that if there were more chameleons, his silence could keep Rapunzel unnoticed and safe.

She continued to crank, building up an easy cycle that spun faster and faster as the panel slid out and up, until the new window opened completely.

Then she stood straight and turned to face him, crossing her arms over her chest, popping out a hip, and giving him a look that was too smug to be allowed.

Flynn narrowed his eyes at her and pushed himself to his feet with a groan. She only looked more pleased with herself as they stood chest to chest and he glared down at her.

"You think you're clever."

"I am clever!"

There wasn't any arguing with that, so he just rolled his eyes and huffed as she poked him in the ribs and giggled slightly.

She ducked and crawled forward through the open panel, which now served as an awning over her head. Wriggling on her belly, she made her way onto a ledge that circled the tower. It was too narrow to stand, but she could lie there and view the valley bellow, her feet, and a long trail of hair still inside the tower.

"You coming?" She whispered, looking over her shoulder at him as if crawling into tight spaces was fun and something he should want to do all the time. She probably did it pretty often. She probably considered it an adventure, and maybe for her it was. Sitting on the roof was as close to going outside as she would dare.

He squeezed in next to her, finding it too difficult to move on hands and knees and switching to crawling with his forearms and hips. Into how many small, dark places was she going to lead him? She was lucky he wasn't claustrophobic or he would have lost it by now.

Luckily the space opened out once he got outside. The ledge stretched out to either side, and the awning didn't reach to obscure the stars overhead. The black of night felt open and vast in the fresh air as opposed to the constricting dark inside the tower. He brushed against Rapunzel, against her arm, against her skirt puffed out with petticoats. But just barely, her skin like the warmth from a candle you could only feel when your hand was too close, when you were actively looking for it.

The valley dropped out below them at a sudden, sickening angle. Suddenly he was glad for the confined space as it was the only thing holding off vertigo.

And spread before them was the army, filling the valley nearly to bursting, a hundred fires between five hundred tents, the soldiers scurrying in a way that spoke of both chaos and order. A hasty road had been constructed, trampling down the grass and a steady stream of carts and horses and automobiles rolled in and out of the camp. They could make out the larger tents, those of high ranking officers. They could spot the weapon stores that were being stockpiled, a team of workers unloading a new shipment even as they watched. They could see the beginnings of siege towers on the far side of the valley, and he could imagine he heard the sounds of hammering as they grew taller.

"Wow," Rapunzel breathed. "Look at it all. Have you ever seen so many people in one place?"

Of course he had, so he didn't answer. And honestly, it would be better for them if there were fewer people for her gawking enjoyment.

Pascal popped up on her shoulder, surveyed the area, then clicked at her, offering up a lens from her goggles. Hesitantly, she took it, frowning at how it was no longer attached to her head, then holding it up to one eye to get a closer look at the goings on, her other eye squeezing shut, causing her nose to wrinkle.

The chameleon didn't seem to notice her sadness, and looked especially pleased with itself for being helpful before it turned the the valley below and started filming everything.

"Oh look. They brought explosives," Flynn mused.

"Really?" Her gaze swerved to the right, then followed his finger as he pointed out the barrels stacked in the back of a truck just coming into the valley. "Wow! Like with fire, right? I've never seen a big one before. Just little sparks or puffs of steam. How big an explosion could those make? What kind of explosives are they? How far away will people see the smoke?"

He hissed at her to bring her enthusiasm back to a level where they wouldn't get noticed and then shot, and she ducked her head with a soft apology. Now that he was thinking about it, it was probably best that they stayed pressed to the ledge. Hidden as they were, they might go unnoticed if she started squealing again or if Pascal decided to take pictures.

"I don't know what kind they are," he whispered. "But if I were in charge of ordering powder kegs, I'd get enough to level your tower."

"Really? That much?" She sounded more awed and excited than terrified.

"Yeah, Blondie. That much."

"Wow."

He stared at her as she watched for a moment more then moved on to something else a little to the left and deeper into the valley.

"Having the tower blow to bits around us is a bad thing, you know."

She hummed, still focused on whatever novelty she had found.

"We're probably going to die in – about – oh – twelve hours. Pascal will get squished by a brick and the rubble will never come out of your hair. Assuming the siege towers don't get us killed first, of course."

"What's a siege tower?"

"Those things." He pointed and again she followed. "They're like big stairs that they build tall enough to reach one of your windows, then they use a battering ram or light them on fire to get in."

"Oh! That's inventive." She lowered her magnifying lens for a moment to consult with Pascal. "Why didn't we think of that? Like a folding staircase. Maybe on extending hinges where the steps could fold out like an accordion? It could raise up the side of the tower so no one can get in and then we can lower it for mother. That would be much easier."

"You're not taking this very seriously."

"Hmm. You're right. That would be too heavy. We should make the stairs steam powered, Pascal."

"Gah! Rapunzel!"

She laughed again. "Okay. Okay. So the siege towers are bad. And the explosives are bad after that."

"Right."

"Anything else?"

"Blondie, it's all bad."

"I know! They're messing up the valley. Mother won't like that at all. Look! They're even leaving trash in the grass!"

"Shhhh."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

Flynn narrowed his eyes, watching the patrols, noting how the exposed sides of the tower were lit up with flood lights and how there was a ten yard gap of bare ground surrounding the tower's base where they would be sitting ducks if they managed by some miracle to reach the ground unseen. But at the moment, it looked like escape was their only option.

Rapunzel's face set in determination, and she handed her magnifying lens back to Pascal before scooting backwards back into the tower.

"Where are you going?"

"I've got an idea."

"What, another one?"

She grinned.

"You gonna tell me what it is?"

She thought for a second. "Hmm. Nope."

"Do you need help?"

She gave him a pitying look. "How about you stay here and keep Pascal company."

His eyebrows furrowed. He wasn't that useless.

His face made her grin again, then she disappeared into the dark.