Chapter 21

She hears the faded sound of Rapunzel shouting her name, ringing in her ears. Then Cassandra collapses, and everything goes black.

"Cass!" Rapunzel crawls toward her on the floor, Cassandra having fallen unconscious onto her side just a few feet away.

A pool of blood expands beneath Gothel's dead body, next to Cassandra's fallen sword, soaked in crimson blood.

The chains that bind Rapunzel's wrists stretch just far enough from the wall for her to reach, but Cassandra doesn't move, doesn't respond, doesn't open her eyes as Rapunzel reaches for her, rolling her over onto her back.

"Cass?" Rapunzel is kneeled in front of her, sitting back on her heels. She pulls Cassandra up by the shoulders so her head is resting in Rapunzel's lap.

But Cass' eyes remain closed, her lips dry and slightly parted, her skin abnormally pale and splattered with Gothel's blood. Her nose is pink from the cold and the tears she had shed uncontrollably just a few moments earlier.

Rapunzel's heart is pounding as she desperately cradles Cass' face in her hands, fighting to remain calm. "Come on, wake up. Come on…" she mutters.

Then Cassandra's body jerks as she coughs, her head lolling to the side. In a haze, her eyes squint open.

She notices Rapunzel's blurry face hovering over her, hears her panicked voice echoing distantly in her ears, though Cassandra's mind and body are so numb that she can hardly comprehend any of it.

It isn't until then that Rapunzel peers downward, Cassandra's cloak having fallen to the side and revealing the large splotch of blood beneath it, staining her shirt a deep red. Rapunzel's stomach drops with dread at the sight of it. Gingerly, she lifts the hem of the fabric with her fingertips.

When she does, all she sees is blood. It coats Cassandra's entire stomach, sprouting from the side of her abdomen, smeared beneath her ribs and dripping down her back. The scraps of black fabric from her cloak tied around her waist, acting as a makeshift bandage is now shriveled and poorly concealing a deep purple gash beneath it. Even now, blood continues to ooze from the wound, glistening on her skin, and seeming to never stop.

Cassandra whimpers in pain, though it sounds more like a choked sob. She coughs again, the muscles of her bleeding stomach clenching as she pants for breath.

"Oh my god," Rapunzel gasps, the panic that she'd tried so hard to compress now overwhelming her entirely. "No… No, no, no, no, no!" she shouts, suddenly realizing the reality, and why Cassandra's hands had been covered in so much blood when they hadn't before.

This entire time, Cassandra had been slowly bleeding out and Rapunzel had no idea. She'd noticed Cass was acting strange ever since she first stumbled into this room. She knew something must have happened to her on that bridge to make her look so exhausted, like she couldn't breathe properly, couldn't stand without wavering, couldn't speak without panting. And now Rapunzel realizes – of course Cassandra would have failed to mention it. Of course, she would ignore something so serious, because that's what she always does.

Rapunzel's voice breaks with panic and heartbreak all at once, "Oh, you're so stupid, Cass, you're so stupid..." Because now all she's reminded of is the fact that she wasn't even there when it happened, and that terrifies her to no end. "Why did you do that? Why did you stay behind?"

Cassandra's eyes are half-open, gazing up at Rapunzel's face hovering over her. She can barely see. She can barely hear. She can't feel anything anymore. "I thought… you would get away," she pants.

A suffocating lump forms in Rapunzel's throat as she glances down at Cassandra's bleeding side once more, scrambling, "I—I don't know what to do. You have to tell me what to do! Tell me how to fix this!"

Because Cassandra has never not known what to do. She always knows the right thing to do, always knows the right thing to say, always finds a way to keep Rapunzel calm, no matter the situation.

Instead of doing any of those things, Cassandra's expression crumples as she begins to weep softly.

Her brows are creased together, tears are streaming from the corners of her eyes as she says, "I'm sorry… for everything."

And the sight of her like this only makes Rapunzel want to break down and sob too. It shatters her in an indescribable way, realizing that Cassandra has given up, when she never has before in her entire life.

"Don't do that," Rapunzel begs, fighting to remain strong, "Don't act like this is the end. Don't say goodbye yet." But the tears are pouring from her eyes faster than she can stop them. Her hand remains on the side of Cassandra's face, wet with her tears. "You're gonna be okay. Ev—Everything's thing's gonna be fine." A part of her tries to convince only herself. Despite her own words, Rapunzel's voice is broken.

Cassandra is the strongest person Rapunzel has ever met. Of all people, Rapunzel never thought that she could be defeated. Because if one of them was going to die out here, Rapunzel knew it wouldn't be Cassandra. It wouldn't be her.

"Promise me you'll be brave," Cassandra croaks weakly.

"Stop…" Rapunzel whispers.

"Take Max… Go to Fairview… You'll be safe there."

"No, not without you," Rapunzel shakes her head, refusing to accept any of this, "We… We were supposed to stay together always. You go wherever I go—that's what you said, right?"

The thought of leaving this house without Cassandra scares her more than anything, because Rapunzel wouldn't be alive if it weren't for her. She'd never have even made it out of Corona without her. Now, if Rapunzel ever even finds a way out of these chains, she'll starve or freeze or become lost before she ever makes it anywhere again.

"Please d-don't leave me here alone," Rapunzel sobs, "You promised you wouldn't leave."

Then Cassandra uses her last spark of strength to slowly raise her arm to Rapunzel's face. "Rapunzel…" Her fingers are curled and numb, briefly brushing against Rapunzel's hair. She touches the princess' freckled cheek, wet with tears. Rather than sharp and panting breaths, Cassandra's chest is now slowly rising and falling. Her gaze begins to drift away as she weakly murmurs in a hazy state, "I have always loved you."

Then Rapunzel falls apart completely.

Her face slowly crumples. A hysterical, uncontrollable sob escapes Rapunzel's lips. She desperately clutches onto Cassandra's blood-stained hand, holding it up by her own cheek, begging her to never let go.

She squeezes her eyes shut, dipping her head down near Cassandra's face. Her throat is burning. Her chest feels so tight she can hardly breathe. There's an aching hole in her stomach and it feels like she's spiraling down into it, slowly drowning and unable to resurface. She's crying so hard she can't even speak anymore, can hardly see through the blur of her own tears.

When she raises her head again, Cassandra's eyes have already fallen closed.

"Cassandra?" Rapunzel sniffles.

But Cass doesn't respond anymore. Her fingers have gone limp within Rapunzel's hand. Her chest is no longer moving. No breath escapes her parted lips. And like her worst nightmare coming true, Rapunzel realizes that she is gone.

"No… Please come back. I can't—I can't do this without you." She places her other palm on Cassandra's cheek. And just like the night they had argued about leaving the cabin, Rapunzel admits what Cassandra had told her all along, "I need you."

She leans forward until her forehead is pressed against Cassandra's in her lap, their faces mere inches apart. Rapunzel doesn't know how long she stays there for - weeping softly, with none of this feeling like it's real.

All those times they had looked at each other a little too long, accidentally brushed shoulders, shared a bed… Rapunzel didn't want to say she had felt something that she couldn't explain. It's why Rapunzel had kissed her at the tavern, all that time ago. It's why she didn't want to sleep without her since then – why she couldn't sleep if Cassandra wasn't next to her, because being without Cassandra is like a nightmare she can't wake up from.

And now, all she thinks about anymore is loving Cassandra, and Cassandra loving her, only to never even get a chance to say it back.

Rapunzel sniffles, the tears on her freckled cheeks beginning to dry. She leans downward, her eyelids slowly falling closed. Softly, she presses her lips against Cassandra's own.

Unlike the first time, everything about it feels cold. Empty. Dark. Rapunzel wishes they could go back to that moment, when their first kiss had felt like butterflies, and Cassandra had stumbled out of the room in a flustered state, and the feeling of it had lingered on both of their minds well into the next morning.

Rapunzel wishes it would feel that way again. She wishes she could wake up, and realize this was all a bad dream. She wishes they were in the castle again. She wishes none of this had to happen.

After a few moments, she pulls away from Cassandra's lips.

The room is drowning in silence. A shiver trails up her spine. Her head aches, eyes exhausted from crying.

Then Rapunzel notices something in her peripheral vision. For a moment, she thinks she's become so dazed that her eyes may be deceiving her. But as she blinks into focus, she sees a faint golden light, glowing from the wound in Cassandra's side.

It shimmers brighter, the rays of light expanding from her skin like a small burst of sun. After a few moments, it begins to dim, more and more until it is gone completely.

After the light disappears, rather than a pool of blood coating Cassandra's stomach, her skin is instead clear, pale, and pristine – as if nothing had ever been there in the first place.

Rapunzel's mind is a haze though she scrambles to figure out what she just witnessed, or whether she'd imagined any of it at all. Frantically, she peers back up to Cassandra's face.

Then Cassandra takes a breath, and she flickers open her eyes.

She squints through the disorientation, her blurry vision focusing on Rapunzel's face hovering over her. "Raps?" she croaks groggily.

Rapunzel gasps, a beaming smile appearing on her face. Immediately, she throws herself on top of Cassandra, tightly wrapping her arms around her neck as she exclaims, "Cass! You're alive!"

"Ow—Okay… okay," Cassandra groans, taken aback as she suddenly finds herself pinned down on the ground, staring up at the ceiling, with Rapunzel's hair tickling her chin.

"Sorry! Sorry," Rapunzel jumps away apologetically, scrambling to sit back on her heels.

As Rapunzel crawls off of her, Cassandra props herself up on her elbows, granted with a chance to breathe. She expects to feel pain as she moves, though nothing comes. Rather than a constant throbbing in her side, she instead feels nothing. In fact, she feels completely normal.

Cassandra peers down at herself in confusion. She holds a hand to her abdomen, noticing it to now be completely healed and clear of blood. "What… What happened?"

As Rapunzel asks herself the very same question, her gaze scans the ground in thought. But she tells herself she hadn't done anything. All she did was… kiss Cassandra.

One moment Cass had been gone, and the next she wasn't.

"I… I think I healed you." Rapunzel can hardly believe her own words, realizing how ridiculous it all sounds. But she remembers what Gothel had told her.

Rapunzel had thought she was nothing more than a crazy old woman, making up lies for her own personal gain. She'd said that Rapunzel once had the ability to heal people. Rapunzel wasn't sure she believed any of it. But now… It's the only explanation as to what just happened.

"She wasn't lying," Rapunzel realizes, speaking more to herself than anybody.

Still feeling a little dizzy, Cassandra raises a hand to her head as she slowly pushes herself to a sitting position, letting the blood rush down her body once again. "What are you talking about? How did you heal me?"

But Rapunzel is so giddy that Cassandra is back that she doesn't even care how it had happened, all she knows is that she's never been happier in her entire life, and she finds herself babbling faster than she realizes, "It's kind of a long story. I'll explain everything later, I'm just so happy you're okay! I thought you were gone forever and I was gonna have to find a way to break free on my own and even if I did manage to do that I thought I was gonna have to leave you here and go all the way to Fairview by myself and I—"

Cassandra grabs Rapunzel's face in her hands, pulls her forward and smashes their lips together, silencing Rapunzel entirely.

Taken aback, Rapunzel freezes up against her, her eyes instinctively falling closed. After a moment, her shoulders relax, and a soft breath escapes her as she melts into the feeling of Cassandra's lips against her own.

When Cass slowly pulls away again, both flickering open their eyes, Rapunzel gives her the most confused, awestruck look as they stay that way - with Cassandra's palms still cupping her jaw, their faces hovering inches apart.

Whatever Rapunzel had been saying just a few seconds ago has completely vanished from her mind, because all she can do anymore is stare dumbfounded into Cassandra's eyes, as if she can't believe Cassandra just did that.

"Sorry," murmurs Cass, suddenly self conscious. At the same time, she isn't sorry at all.

"No. Don't be," Rapunzel shakes her head, her voice soft. Then she thinks about the last thing Cassandra had told her earlier, right before she had drifted away, and Rapunzel had thought she'd been gone. "You love me?"

Immediately, Cassandra lowers her hands from Rapunzel's face, leans away, and nervously runs a hand through the back of her hair. "Uh… Did—Did I say that?" she scoffs, avoiding Rapunzel's gaze, "I don't know why I—"

"I love you too."

Cassandra blinks in confusion. Reluctantly, she lifts her gaze again, only to notice the knowing smirk plastered on Rapunzel's face, and the warm, admiring look brimming in her eyes. It makes Cassandra's heart leap into her throat as she asks, "You do?"

Rapunzel giggles at that reaction, nodding her head frantically, "Yes." She's never loved anybody more in her entire life. Her smile is uncontrollably beaming. Her heart is bubbling with warmth. Her eyes are tearful as she raises her hands to Cassandra's face, lowering her voice breathily, "Yes… I do."

Then she wraps her arms around Cassandra's neck, pulling her into a tight and sudden embrace.

Cassandra latches onto her just as desperately, wrapping her arms around Rapunzel's back as if she has waited for this very moment for a lifetime. She squeezes her eyes shut, her nose buried in the crook of Rapunzel's neck. She breathes in the feeling of Rapunzel finally fallen into her arms after so long of wanting nothing more, and swears to never let go.

Cassandra doesn't look back as she leaves her childhood home behind for good, along with all of its memories.

In fact, she doesn't say anything about it as her and Rapunzel ride back into the woods with Maximus shortly after she finds the keys to Rapunzel's chains.

Rapunzel doesn't mention it either, though its clear neither of them ever want to step foot in that place again. Maybe speaking about it would be just as difficult. So, they return the way they came, treading through the snowy forest on Maximus' back beneath a pale and sunny sky, clear of falling snow.

Cassandra holds the reigns at the front of his saddle. Rapunzel is perched on the back of it, her arms wrapped around Cassandra's waist as Max walks through the snow at a steady pace.

"They didn't… hurt you. Did they?" Cassandra finds herself asking, hesitantly.

Rapunzel shakes her head, "No. I'm okay."

Rapunzel explains everything – from the minute they were separated on the bridge, until the very moment Cassandra had woken up entirely healed.

Cass doesn't know what to make of it, and neither does Rapunzel. They're both still processing everything that happened long after it's over, though the reality of what they both witnessed back there – with Cassandra essentially returning to life – somehow seems to make sense with everything Gothel had said. It only makes Rapunzel even more curious about the one thing that's been on both of their minds this entire time.

After a while of walking, she notices Cassandra's silence, and the fact that she hasn't mentioned a thing about Gothel being her biological mother.

Rapunzel didn't think it had been true at first. She'd thought Gothel was only saying it as some twisted tactic to get Cass to trust her. But the way that Cassandra reacted to it… Rapunzel has never seen her sob like that, not since she was a child. She's never seen Cass so broken, so defeated, so consumed and hypnotized by somebody like that before, as if she had lost complete control of herself, merely by the words that Gothel was saying.

But the longer it went on, the more Rapunzel began to believe it too. Now, the more she thinks about it, everything about it makes complete sense to her.

"Are you okay?" Rapunzel finally asks, breaking a long silence. She can't see Cassandra's face from behind her on the horse, but Rapunzel notices a shift within her, just from being asked that question.

A direness settles between them, the cold air turning colder.

"I just killed my own mother," Cassandra realizes, her voice emotionless. The memories of it are clear in the front of her mind as she stares absently down at the snow, their bodies rocking along with Maximus' movement beneath them. "I didn't even know her name."

Saying it out loud still doesn't make it feel real to her.

She thinks about everything Gothel had told her – specifically that Cassandra would never be so heartless as to kill her own mother. Maybe she is heartless. Maybe what she did back there makes her a bad person. Maybe she doesn't much care what kind of person it makes her. Maybe she cares too much.

Cassandra has killed so many people she'd lost count. If she's honest, she never thought much about it. But this time had been different. This time she hadn't done it out of self defense. She hadn't done it in a fight. She hadn't done it because it was her job as a knight, and because killing people is just a part of what knights do.

She'd done it for her own satisfaction. To know that the woman who caused so much pain and suffering to so many people had finally gotten what she deserved. To know that Cassandra could hurt the woman who abandoned her in the same way that Gothel hurt her, for all twenty-two years of her life.

Gothel made Cassandra the way that she is – broken, numb. In a way, she ruined her. And now, Cassandra can never go back to the child she once was. Maybe what she did doesn't even make up for that. Maybe all it did was make her a cold-hearted killer.

Whether Cassandra is as satisfied with herself as she thought she would be, she doesn't know. Somehow, she still feels just as empty as she did before.

"I'm sorry," comforts Rapunzel, unsure what else to say. "You did the right thing. She wasn't a good person. She wanted to hurt you… And me."

"I know," sighs Cassandra, "I just wish it didn't have to be her."

But Cassandra didn't just kill Gothel for herself. She did it for Rapunzel. She did it for Arianna and Frederic. She did it for Corona, and all the innocent lives that were lost that night. Because someone as heartless as that doesn't deserve to live. Now, that woman can never hurt anyone ever again.

Rapunzel peers up at Cassandra sitting in front of her, only able to see a fraction of her face. "What made you do it? I mean… Why didn't you listen to her?"

Cassandra thinks about that, unsure how to answer it herself.

"I wanted to," she admits. "My whole life, I dreamed about being with her again. Then she said she would kill you if I didn't... And I realized I was just another part in her game."

It wasn't until Gothel had threatened her that Cassandra realized it was never about love. It was never about the guilt that Cassandra thought her mother may have felt for leaving her, and it wasn't about Gothel wanting to be with her daughter again, to rekindle what they had lost. It was about something else entirely – a mere plan to control Cassandra, to control Rapunzel, and achieve what Gothel wanted as a result, for her own personal gain.

"It was either her or you. And when it came down to it… I chose you," reflects Cassandra. "I'll always choose you."

Despite everything, Rapunzel's lips tug into a sad smile at that.

She'd been so afraid that Cassandra wouldn't realize the truth, that Gothel would succeed in tricking her, and Rapunzel would be a prisoner forever. Knowing that it never had to come to that leaves Rapunzel's heart bursting with both pride and sheer love for the girl she can call her own.

Rapunzel wraps her arms tighter around Cassandra's waist, embracing her from behind. She rests her chin on Cass' shoulder, grinning contentedly.

They travel on horseback for a few days after that, following a winding path through the snowy mountains. As the sun sets, at the end of the long road before them, they notice the rooftops of Fairview Village, far off in the distance and nestled among the cliffs beneath them.

A blanket of snow and a forest of pine trees cover the tall peaks and jagged ridges of the cliffsides. Within it all is a cluster of small houses, with gabled rooftops, masonry walls, and plumes of smoke emitting from their chimneys. Specks of warm yellow light are glowing through the windows from inside, illuminating the small community within the otherwise empty and dire mountains. Behind it all is a pale pink and yellow sky, the vibrant orange sun beginning to set beneath the horizon.

The entire village is well hidden, likely to go unseen by anyone passing by. Knowing there are no other signs of life around here for miles, the smoke and the lights in the distance bring a sense of comfort to both Rapunzel and Cassandra that neither of them can describe.

After so many months of living in solitude, with nobody or nothing else around them, it had begun to feel like they were the only two people left on earth. Now, neither of them can believe that they're finally here. This is everything they've been working towards ever since they left Corona. It's everything that they thought they might never find again.

Cassandra sits at the front of Max's saddle, with Rapunzel seated behind her. She veers Maximus to a stop at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the quaint village below.

"Well… This is it," Cassandra says as she observes it all, gripping the reigns within her gloved hands.

Rapunzel breathes in the sight of it over Cassandra's shoulder, feeling the crisp winter air blowing against her face. Rather than feeling a discomfort from the cold, her chest instead becomes warm as she sighs with a sense of surreal accomplishment, "We made it."

Cassandra peers over her shoulder at Rapunzel seated behind her, "You ready for this, princess?"

Rapunzel smiles. There's an excitement bubbling within her stomach as she wraps her arms tighter around Cassandra's waist. "As long as I'm with you, that's all that matters."

Cassandra can't help but smirk at that, a breathy chuckle escaping her lips as she assures, "That's the plan."

Though neither of them knows what exactly awaits them down there, if there's one thing Cassandra knows for certain, it's that she doesn't plan on leaving Rapunzel ever again.

So, she lightly pulls on the reigns, veering Maximus to continue down the winding path to the gates of Fairview – toward the sun, toward their new life, toward their future.

Together.

A/N: It's not over yet! There will be an epilogue soon!