Flynn watched through the monitor as the angry mind-controlled people outside tried getting into Rapunzel's tower. It hurt seeing his old friend, Lance, with the rest of them. He hadn't seen Lance in months but they shared a lot of good memories together.
"How does the Gronen know about your tower?" he asked, pushing thoughts of Lance away.
Rapunzel was helping Varian stand up. "The Time Traveler's Society is well known on other planets. The agency has stopped many different alien species from hurting other people. If you know how to look for a time machine, they're easy to find after a while."
"So, our Gronen knows about you, or who you work for anyway, which means they'll be on their guard. How are we ever going to find them?"
Varian gave Rapunzel a nod of thanks. "I'm sorry. I don't understand anything you two are talking about."
"Ok, listen here, buddy." Flynn grabbed Varian's shoulders, making him look at him. "Alien species named Gronen. Mind control bugs that turn humans into angry zombies. This is Rapunzel's time machine. The Gronen knows about it. Got it?"
Varian blinked. "Uh…"
Flynn patted Varian's arms. "Great." He snapped his fingers. "Oh and one more thing. An angry mob is outside trying to hurt us. So, we have to get past them to find this Gronen who could be anywhere in New York and stop them before they hurt any more people. Got it?"
Varian shook his head. "Not really."
"Perfect. Just follow along."
They walked over to the door in the floor. Rapunzel was right next to him. She hadn't answered his question about whether she'd remain here in the present day with him if he gave up his device to Varian. He really wanted to know her answer but knew that there were more important things to think about right now.
He felt something tugging at his wrist. Flynn looked down and saw Varian trying to take the watch off him.
Flynn wrenched his arm away. "Hey now. I never agreed to give this back to you."
Varian huffed. "That's mine."
"And we have a mind-controlling alien to deal with right now," he retorted. "Be a good boy and go first." He nodded at the door.
"Uh… I think not," Varian squeaked.
Rapunzel shook her head. "Boys." She opened the door and walked down the stairs. Flynn nudged Varian maybe a little too hard after her before going down the stairs himself.
Once they reached the door leading to the outside, Rapunzel turned to them. "Ok. These people outside are unpredictable. We have to find another safe place to go where the Gronen won't know where I am."
"What if all of New York is like those people?" Varian asked.
Rapunzel shrugged. "Then we deal with that when we have to." She gripped the door handle. "Ready?"
Flynn rubbed his hands together. "Blondie, I was born ready."
Varian rolled his eyes at this as Rapunzel opened the door. Flynn braced himself for the onslaught of people but no one came. They were all on the front side of the tower.
The three of them snuck out, walking slowly and quietly to avoid the angry mob. The people didn't even notice them.
That is until they were down the street and Flynn decided to talk. "That was a close one."
Rapunzel shushed him but it was too late. The angry mob heard and started running right towards them.
"Run!" she shouted.
"Not again," Flynn muttered.
He picked up his pace as he sprinted down the trail, Rapunzel at his side. Varian was lagging behind.
"Keep up!" Flynn shouted at him.
"Kind words tend to give me better motivation, Flynn," Varian shouted back.
Flynn groaned and ran back to Varian and grabbed his arm, pulling him along. Rapunzel was running confidently ahead. He was always impressed with her ability to be so calm under such crazy scenarios. He guessed it had something to do with her strange upbringing.
His mind wander back to their unfinished conversation and he had to force himself to forget about it. Now wasn't the time to worry about that.
"They're catching up to us," Varian panted.
Rapunzel skidded to a stop. "We have to stop them from following us." She looked around and nodded in one direction. "Follow me."
They ran faster until they reached the outskirts of the park where oncoming traffic was aplenty.
"If we can get past this intersection," Rapunzel said, pointing across the street, "we'll be able to get away from them."
"But we can't run across without getting hit," Varian said. Cars were whizzing by at a fast speed.
"Have you never lived life dangerously?" Rapunzel winked at Flynn. "Come on, Eugene. Let's show him how we do it."
"Do what?" he asked.
Her smile dimmed. "Right. This is the first time for you. Well then, follow my lead." She squeezed his hand and it made his skin feel like it was on fire. "Trust me."
"I do," he said seriously, surprising himself.
Her smile returned before she ran straight out into oncoming traffic. Flynn's heart almost stopped. Could Rapunzel die here instead? He still didn't quite know how time travel worked when you were in an across-time relationship with someone.
But Rapunzel didn't get hit. Nope. She jumped onto the first car she came close to and ran right over the hood. "Eugene, come on!"
He jerked into action. Every time Rapunzel dodged out of a car's way, or ran over one, or hell, even jumped over one, he did the same. This forced the cars to stop moving, allowing space for Varian to get through. People honked and shouted but he ignored them. There were a few times Flynn thought he was seeing his last moments on this earth but then he'd manage to maneuver around the cars and he'd relax again.
Finally, they reached the other side. The cars started picking up again, which effectively stopped the horde from following them. People walking by shook their heads at them.
Rapunzel sat down for a second to catch her breath. Flynn joined her. She smiled over at him and it almost made his heart stop for an entirely different reason. She was so beautiful. So full of… life. Could he really stop her from going to the Palace of Versailles and dying there?
He just got her in his life. He didn't want to lose her again.
"Rapunzel," he started to say.
"Yeah?" she asked in her soft voice.
God, he could kiss her. They almost kissed back in Versailles. He forgot about it after she died but in this moment, that memory came back.
He leaned in closer to her and her breath hitched.
Then Varian plopped between them and completely ruined the moment. "Guys, that was crazy! I've never done anything like that before!"
Flynn pulled back first, leaving Rapunzel to stare at him with an expression that was both amused and somewhat sad.
He put his mind back into the moment. "Hey, you weren't the one who stopped all those cars. Blondie and I did the heavy lifting."
Varian shrugged. "So?"
Rapunzel stood up. "Come on. We have to keep moving. We have to find a way to find this Gronen."
They ended up in a coffee shop a few blocks away. All the people around them were normal, sane, and not mind-controlled.
"Where do we start looking?" Flynn asked.
Rapunzel sipped on her hot chocolate. "Mmm. I can't remember the last time I've had one of these." She smiled more to herself as she blew on it.
Flynn snapped his fingers. "Blondie, focus."
"Right." She was sitting across from him and Varian was seated next to him which made Flynn a little bitter. He'd much prefer to have Rapunzel's body pressed against his than freaking Varian's. It also didn't help that Varian kept reaching over to grab the watch from his wrist and he had to keep jerking away. It was tiring.
"If I had something of the Gronen's," Rapunzel said, "then I could maybe track them. Find out exactly where they are. But I don't have that."
"What about the wires?" Flynn asked.
"Not good enough. I need something that the Gronen has touched personally. Gronens don't actually make the metallic bugs we've encountered. Think of them like their pets that they can use to mind-control others."
Flynn snorted. "That's messed up."
"Yeah, so I need something the Gronen touched to find them. We know they're here in New York. But beyond that…" She shrugged.
He wanted to ask her how she tracked the Scattal back in Versailles but he couldn't reveal that to her. It was still her future even though it was his past now.
Flynn rubbed a hand down his face. "So, we're screwed."
"It will take some miracle."
"…another cyber-attack," a woman's voice sounded in the room. Flynn looked over at the TV on the opposite wall that was showing the news report. A news reporter was talking about the internet attacks and hacking done to the White House and now people in New York were experiencing more and more cyber-attacks on their computers.
The TV went black. Then words began appearing on the screen. Everyone in the café turned to look, murmuring amongst each other.
The blackness went away and a woman appeared on screen. A woman that seemed vaguely familiar to him. A woman with blue-tipped hair.
Flynn sat up straighter. He recognized this woman. He met her in Times Square when he first came back to New York after Versailles. She was trying to force him to take the CD she was selling but when he tried giving it back to her, she disappeared.
"Citizens of Earth," the woman said. "If you comply to my demands, I wont hurt any more of you. If you try to disobey me, I will turn each and every one of you into one of my own personalized pets to do my bidding. I will be back with my demands shortly." The TV shut off. It didn't just go black. The TV completely turned off on its own.
"So…" Varian said. "I think we might know who our Gronen is."
"I know that woman," Flynn said.
Rapunzel whipped around in her seat to face him. "You do?"
"Yeah, her name is…" Shit. What was it? Think, think, think… He snapped his fingers. "Connie. I met her in Times Square. She gave me a CD." He paused. "Wait. She gave me a CD."
Rapunzel gasped. "Please tell me you still have it?"
He nodded slowly. "I do."
"Then let's go get that CD," Rapunzel announced.
"You know, I thought it was so weird that she was handing out CDs," Flynn said as they headed towards his apartment. "I mean, who sells CDs anymore, you know?"
"An alien, who doesn't quite know human customs, would," Rapunzel replies.
"So aliens look just like us?" Varian asked, practically bouncing on his feet.
"Some do," Rapunzel explained. "Some look nothing like us. In the case of the Gronens, they don't look that different from humans. Once I get this CD, I'll be able to track Connie and find out where she's been staying."
"And then what?"
"Then, we try to reason with her." Rapunzel sighed. "I'm not sure why she's doing this to begin with but we'll find out."
"And if we can't reason with her?" Flynn asked.
"We come to that when we have to."
They made it to Flynn's apartment without any problems, except for the fact that Flynn couldn't remember where he put the CD. "I thought I just put it on my desk," he said, pushing things out of the way. "It's not here."
"Ok," Rapunzel said, placing a hand on his arm. He leaned into her without even thinking. "We'll find it. It couldn't have gotten far."
A thump came from the bathroom. Flynn slowly turned towards it. "I'm not so sure we're alone in here."
The bathroom door creaked open like something out of a horror movie and a man stepped into the room. A man Flynn knew really well.
His old buddy Lance.
Since Lance was so tall and broad-shouldered, he took up pretty much the entire room. He was still covered in the black wires but he wasn't acting like a deranged zombie.
"Looking for this?" he asked, lifting the CD up in his hands. Except, it wasn't Lance's deep baritone voice. It was a woman's – Connie's. She was speaking through Lance.
"How did you find us?" Rapunzel asked.
"I can see through all my minions," she said through Lance. "And once I saw your lovely gentleman friend over here" – Lance/Connie turned to Flynn and gave him a wink, which disturbed Flynn since Lance was his best friend – "I knew you'd be coming for the CD. I know you're trying to stop me and it won't work."
"Just let these people go," Rapunzel said. "Why are you doing this to them?"
"My reasons don't matter. You're not going to find me." Lance/Connie snapped the CD right in half and tossed it to the ground. "Goodbye." Lance's body shuddered and his shoulders drooped.
Once he raised his head back up, his eyes looked clearer. "Flynn?" he asked, in his normal baritone voice. "What am I doing in your apartment?" He looked around. "I swear I wasn't stealing anything. You don't really have anything I would want to steal anyway." He shrugged. "No offense."
Flynn chuckled as he hugged his best friend. "No worries. I'm just glad you're all right."
Lance finally noticed the black wires in his dark skin and yelped. "What the hell are these things?"
Flynn stepped back. "We'll help you get those out."
"We?" Lance looked over at Rapunzel and Varian. "Oh. Is that…" He squinted. "Varian? Little dweeb Varian?"
Varian sighed, a blush on his cheeks. "That's me."
"And who is the pretty lady?" Lance staggered over to Rapunzel and kissed her hand. "I'm Lance." Flynn noticed that Lance deepened his voice even more and Flynn did not like that one bit.
"Rapunzel," she said. "I'm a.-," she stopped. "A friend of Flynn's. We've never met before."
Lance frowned. "No. I'd definitely remember."
Rapunzel smiled at his words but there was still a sadness in her eyes. Flynn understood. She had never met his best friend despite how much time they've spent together in her past and his future. If this was a normal relationship, Rapunzel would have already met Lance.
But there was nothing normal about what was going on.
Flynn clapped Lance on the back, making Lance wince as a black wire dug deeper into his skin. If it got Lance to stop flirting with Rapunzel, Flynn didn't really care.
"Let's get these out of you."
An hour later, Lance was wire-free and filled in on everything that was going on. Of course, he had questions.
"So, an alien did that to me?"
"Yep," Flynn replied.
"And she's a time-traveler?" Lance pointed at Rapunzel.
Flynn crossed his arms. "Yep."
"And the reason you've been gone these past few months is because you're also a time-traveler?"
"Pretty much."
"And I was just mind-controlled?"
"Completely."
Lance scratched the back of his bald head. "I'm not sure whether to believe you guys or tell you that you really need to cut back on all the LSD."
Flynn rolled his eyes. "We're not on drugs." He paused. "Though, I could seriously go for something strong right now to make me forget having to pull wires out your ass."
"I couldn't reach!" Lance exclaimed. "And Rapunzel and Varian sure weren't going to do it. Though, if Rapunzel wanted to see my ass, I wouldn't stop her." He winked at her and Rapunzel blushed.
Flynn stood between them. "Ok, enough about asses. We still need to track down Connie and stop her from harming more people."
"Great." Lance clapped his knees. "Count me out. I have plans later today that I need to get ready for. Want to join me?" he asked Flynn.
"Join you on what? A robbery of the nicest houses in the city?"
Lance shushed Flynn. "They don't need to know that."
Rapunzel set her hand on Flynn's shoulder and it made him feel happy that she was touching him and not Lance. "We already know."
"Oh." Lance blinked before turning to Flynn. "Anyway. Want to join me?"
Flynn's heart thudded faster at the memory of a good robbery. Thieving was in his blood and Lance and him had done enough of them that they were pros at it.
"Come on," Lance said, nudging Flynn when he hesitated. "I know you want to. Just like old times."
He could feel Rapunzel's eyes boring holes into his face. A part of Flynn wanted to go with Lance. To go back to his old ways and forget about Rapunzel. It would all be easier if he could just forget about her. No pain that way. She wouldn't even need to stay with him in the present day if he just… moved on.
But he was in this now, whether we wanted to be or not. He had lost her once and he never wanted to lose her again.
"Sorry, Lance," he finally said. He felt Rapunzel relax next to him. "But I need to help Rapunzel. Go on without me."
"Huh." Lance shrugged. "Suit yourself. You seem different, you know."
"How?"
"I don't know. Like there's a weight to you that wasn't there before." At Lance's words, Rapunzel looked back at Flynn. He told himself not to look at her because if he did, he'd maybe break down and cry thinking about her death. "But whatever, man," Lance continued. "I'm heading out."
The apartment seemed somehow so much bigger and yet smaller the moment Lance left.
Varian walked over to the broken pieces of the CD. "Can we still use these?"
"Yeah," Rapunzel said, grabbing them from Varian. She wasn't looking at Flynn anymore – almost deliberately so - and for some reason, it hurt. "Let's go back to my tower."
The made it back to Rapunzel's tower but there was one slight problem.
"How are we going to get past all of those people?" Varian asked, pointing at the horde of mind-controlled people still milling around the base of the tower, as they hid behind a tree.
"We cause a distraction," Rapunzel said, turning to Flynn. She stared at him until Flynn understood.
"Oh, no. No, no, no. I'm not going to be the one to cause the distraction. Count me out, Blondie."
A few minutes later, he was running over to the horde of people and shouting at them to follow him. Distraction, my ass, he thought. But Rapunzel needed him to do it and so he did it.
God, how pathetic was he becoming?
The horde of people moved away from the tower and started following him down the path. He spotted Rapunzel and Varian hidden in the bushes as they waited for an opportunity to get back to the tower.
Flynn kept the horde's eyes on him as he watched Rapunzel run to the tower, Varian right behind her. "I'm right here," he said to the mind-controlled mob. "Follow me."
Rapunzel was closing in on the tower.
…then Varian tripped over a freaking branch and sprawled to the ground. That caused some of the people to glance in Rapunzel and Varian's direction. They all started running back towards them.
"Oh come on!" Flynn exclaimed, picking up his pace. He shoved a couple of the people out of the way as he raced to Rapunzel's side. "So much for a distraction."
Rapunzel and Flynn helped Varian stand back up.
"Sorry," Varian said.
"It's ok," Rapunzel said right as Flynn said, "You better be."
Rapunzel shot him a look. "Eugene, we have a horde of people heading our way. No time to blame anyone. We need to move." They raced to the tower and reached the back door right as the first row of people reached them.
A man grabbed Flynn and pushed him to the ground. Rapunzel got the door open and then turned and kicked another man in the chest, sending him stumbling back into the horde.
Varian was already running into the tower while Rapunzel helped Flynn up. They made it inside and shut the door right as the horde banged on it.
"Can they get in?" Varian asked.
"No. They can't get in. Not without my permission," Rapunzel said.
Flynn turned to Varian and shoved him back. "You could have gotten us hurt! You could have gotten Rapunzel hurt!"
Varian yelped as he stumbled back onto one of the steps. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trip."
"No? Well, I didn't see you helping us fight off the crazed people outside either."
"Eugene," Rapunzel said, placing her hand on his arm. "It's ok."
"No, it's not. Why is he here anyway? He can't fight. He trips over his own two feet!"
Varian scrambled to stand. "Need I remind you that that" – he pointed at Flynn's watch – "is my time-travel device you're wearing?"
Flynn grumbled under his breath as he placed his hand over the watch. "Semantics, ok?"
Rapunzel walked past them up the stairs. With a shake of his head, Varian followed. After nursing his wounded pride, Flynn followed too.
When he entered the main part of the tower, he saw Rapunzel already at her desk, plugging the CD parts into a compartment. He didn't want to deal with Varian at the moment, who was leaning over Rapunzel's shoulder, so Flynn decided to look around more at Rapunzel's tower. He didn't get the chance to before.
She had a bookcase in one corner of the room that was filled to the brim with books. Everything from fiction novels, to plays, to poems. Books on botany, and chemistry, and astronomy. Things about the human body, about animal bodies, about alien bodies. Medical books. History books about the many wars that haven taken place in human history. And a lot more.
His eyes landed on a Shakespeare play. He picked it up, noting how old and yellow it was. By old, he meant old. As in the paper was almost crumbling under his hands. It was Romeo and Juliet. The star-crossed lovers. Fated to never be together. Flynn quickly put it back.
"Whatcha doing?" Rapunzel asked, startling the hell out of him.
"Jeez, Blondie. You need to wear a bell."
She leaned over his shoulder. "Ah. Romeo and Juliet." She grabbed it off the shelf. "One of my favorites." There was a knowing look she gave him that he didn't understand.
"It almost looks like an original," he said.
"That's because it is."
He coughed. "Uh, what?"
"I'd tell you how I got it but then I'd have to kill you." She handled it with so much gentleness and care.
Flynn was desperately curious but he was afraid to even ask. Whenever Rapunzel didn't give him a clear answer, he wondered if it had to do with him. So, he changed the subject. "You have a lot of books here."
"Yeah." Her eyes darkened. "I was only allowed the same three books growing up. Another way for Gothel to control me. The less I knew, the more ignorant I was. Now, I can't get enough when it comes to reading. The desire to learn more and more. It's a part of me now." She smiled. "I never took you for one who liked to read much. Well, other than The Tales of Flynnigan Rider."
He froze. "You know about that?"
She didn't look at him as she answered. "You told me."
"I don't remember doing that." The second those words left his mouth, he wanted to take them back. Of course, he wouldn't remember. It was in his future.
But for Rapunzel, it was her past. And he could tell by the way her eyes tightened that she didn't like being reminded of the direction of their relationship.
"I found Connie's location," she said, putting Romeo and Juliet away.
"Yeah. Ok." He cleared his throat. "We should go find her then."
"We should."
They walked over to Varian, who was eyeing them curiously. "Why do you two look like you just saw a ghost?"
When Flynn glanced at Rapunzel, he could tell she seemed paler than usual. He wondered what his face looked like. Normally handsome, of course, but with everything going on between him and Rapunzel, he couldn't help but wonder how much stress was showing in his eyes.
"I'm fine," Rapunzel said.
"Me too," Flynn mumbled.
Varian shook his head. "This is going to be interesting."
Turned out, Connie was staying in a swanky brownstone in the Upper East Side. They stopped outside the house.
Flynn whistled when he saw it. "I would have killed to live in a place like this when I was a kid."
Varian craned his neck up. "My parents couldn't even afford something like this and we were always well off."
Rapunzel stayed quiet. Flynn could only guess why – she grew up in an isolated tower after having been kidnapped by a crazy lady.
"Connie is in there," Rapunzel said after a moment. "Let's go."
"Do we just knock?" Varian asked.
"No, we kick the door down," Flynn responded.
Varian gasped. "We can't do that."
"I was kidding, kid." He knocked on the door. "Hello? Is anybody home?" When no one answered, Flynn shrugged. "I guess we do need to kick the door down."
He did just that. And he was quite impressed with himself for it.
They stepped into the quiet, dark house.
"Hello?" Flynn said in a song-song way. "Any aliens present?"
A thud came from the living room. The three of them shared a look before walking into the room…
…where they saw Lance in the process of stealing a fancy-looking vase from the fireplace mantel.
"Shit, shit, shit," he muttered, trying to stuff the vase into a large knapsack. When he looked up and saw Flynn, he smiled wide. "Flynn! You decided to join me after all."
"I'm not joining you, Lance," Flynn said. "This is where Connie is staying."
"Connie the alien?"
"Yes."
Lance scratched his head. "Well, damn." The he shrugged. "Oh, well. Alien or no alien, she still has stuff I want." He grabbed another vase from the mantel.
"How did you get in here?" Rapunzel asked.
"The back door was open. I let myself in."
"Damn," Flynn muttered. "I should have checked there first."
Rapunzel slanted her eyes at him. "You're telling me that you didn't want to kick the door in?"
"Maybe you're right." He paused. "Just maybe."
"So," Rapunzel said, looking at Lance, "no one is here?"
"The place is empty," he said, grabbing a diamond-studded lamp and stuffing it into his bag.
An icy chill spread over Flynn's neck.
"So, you came," a woman said behind them. Flynn turned around and saw Connie, looking like a normal human woman. But the darkness in her eyes spoke of another matter. "I was wondering when you would. Now that you're here, I can finally kill you and finish my plans of world domination."
Everyone was quiet.
Until Flynn spoke. "Uh, yeah, no. I'm not in the mood to die today."
Connie slanted her eyes at Flynn. "You think you're so clever. But, also like you, I'm not in the mood."
Everyone went quiet again.
Until Lance spoke. "For…?"
Connie huffed. "For what?"
"You said you're not in the mood… but for what?"
"I'm not in the mood to deal with imbeciles," she seethed. "So, you're all going to die." With a snap of her fingers, every single door down the hallway opened up and a horde of mind-controlled people came running right for them.
"I thought you said this place was empty!" Flynn shouted at Lance.
"I might not have actually checked every room," he admitted.
"Oh for the love of-," Flynn began to mutter right when a crazed woman lunged at his face and he shoved her away.
Rapunzel ran out of the room but Flynn didn't have time to see what she was up to because even more crazed people were coming his way. A woman smacked him upside the head with her purse. "Oh," he muttered. He grabbed the purse from the woman and hit her over the head with it. "Ah-ha! See how that feels. You should see your face right now."
The woman frowned before lunging at him.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel shouted, running back into the room. "Grab this." She tossed him a frying pan.
"Thanks, Blondie." He smacked a man in the face with it, who then went sprawling on the floor. Lance was letting out some very un-manly screams as he fought off people. Varian was cowering in a corner.
Rapunzel ran over to Flynn and stood behind him. Back-to-back, they fought off the horde of people. While Flynn dodged, Rapunzel attacked. While she ducked, he hit. The ease they had defending each other was something that both surprised Flynn and didn't surprise him at all. Things were still new with Rapunzel and yet, he kept finding himself falling into a routine with her that felt like he had spent the past one-hundred years with her.
They kept fighting off the people until all of them were passed out on the floor.
Lance bent over, panting hard. "I haven't worked out in a while."
Flynn smiled triumphantly as he turned towards Connie. "You lose, Gronen. We just defeated your mind-controlled horde."
Connie's face twisted into something ugly. "You can't defeat me." She started to run to the front door but Rapunzel and Flynn grabbed her and dragged her back into the living room.
"Lance," Rapunzel said. "Go find us some duct tape or rope."
Lance sauntered off into the kitchen.
Rapunzel and Flynn held Connie still against the couch. Varian approached, a curiosity in his eyes.
"So, you're an alien," he said.
"To us," Connie said, "you humans are the aliens." She spit on Varian's face. He jerked back.
"Rude," he muttered, walking away.
Lance came back into the room, duct tape in hand. "Here you go," he said with a flourish as he handed it over to Rapunzel. Flynn rolled his eyes.
They tied Connie up.
"There," Flynn said, standing back to view his handiwork. "Now, you're going to talk to us."
"What's your plan?" Rapunzel asked.
"World domination," Connie replied.
Rapunzel grabbed the frying pan off the floor and pointed it at Connie's face. "Don't make me use this. I will if I have to."
Connie sighed and dropped her head. "Fine. I'm dying. Is that what you want to hear?"
"You're dying?" Rapunzel asked, sounding worried.
Flynn snorted. "Don't believe her, Blondie. She's probably just saying that to gain sympathy."
"I'm not," Connie said. "As a Gronen, I need other people's energy sources to sustain my life. That's why I was mind-controlling humans. A good way to keep me alive… for the time being. I also gain power from electronics, so I find hacking a good way to sustain my life force."
"…Ok?" Flynn said.
"I wanted to take over the world so I'd have an endless power source to live off of. Happy now? You know my master plan."
Rapunzel lowered the frying pan. "If that's all you need, then I can find you a planet with an energy source that can sustain you. You don't need humans to do it."
Connie's eyes lit up. "You'd do that for me?"
"If it meant saving people, then yes," Rapunzel replied. "You can come with us and we'll find you a place you can go where you don't have to hurt anyone else."
"I'm ok with that," Connie said.
"Ok then. Let's go."
Flynn stopped Rapunzel. "Wait." He walked Rapunzel over to the far wall, out of earshot of Connie. "Blondie, you don't think this is too easy do you? One minute, Connie is intent on hurting people to get what she wants and the next she's just agreeing to your plan?"
"I know it sounds suscept, but Eugene, sometimes you have to believe the good in people. If I can get Connie somewhere else where she can't hurt anyone, then I'll do it."
"Even if she's playing you?"
"She might be. Or she might really be dying and realizes that this is her best shot, so she's taking it. Only one way to find out."
"No. There is another way," he said.
"What?"
He lowered his voice. "We could kill her."
Rapunzel flinched. "We can't kill someone who's tied up. It's not fair."
"Then let's untie her."
"Eugene," she said in a stern voice. "You know that's not what I meant. We have to give Connie a chance. If we never give anyone a chance, then what does that say about us?"
He sighed and ran a hand over his face. "You make a good point. I just don't trust her. What do we have to do to get her to another planet where she can't hurt anyone?"
"We have to take her to my time machine. It's the only way."
Flynn glanced over at Connie, who was watching them with a smirk on her face. Oh yeah. He definitely didn't trust her. But killing her was out of the equation.
"Fine," he said. "Let's do it."
They kept Connie's hands tied as they all walked around her, heading back to Rapunzel's time machine.
It was clear Lance was still just as confused but he was a part of it now. Varian gave Connie a wide berth.
"So, I'm curious," Flynn asked, tightening his hold on Connie's arms. "Why sell CDs in Times Square? I don't get that."
"The CDs were a way for me to get into more computers and hack them."
"Yeah, but why CDs? Why not just some virus?"
Connie scowled. "Because I wasn't aware of how humans don't use CDs anymore."
Flynn dropped his head back and laughed. "So, humans foiled your plan? All because you didn't brother doing research about what's popular right now? That's rich."
Connie slanted her eyes at him. "Just be happy your time-traveler friend is trying to help me otherwise…" She trailed off, leaving the implication clear.
"What? I become one of your undead horde? No thanks."
"Maybe let's call it quits on the talking for now," Rapunzel said.
They made it back to Rapunzel's tower with no problems. Flynn wondered if Connie was keeping her minions away.
They tied Connie to a chair and Rapunzel put in the coordinates for a planet called Pozolla.
Lance looked around Rapunzel's tower in awe. "This is a time machine?"
Flynn clapped Lance on the back. "I said the same thing, buddy."
Rapunzel was about to pull the lever to take them to Pozolla when she jerked back. She turned to Flynn and what he saw made his blood turn cold.
A tiny, metallic bug was on her hand.
Flynn ran to her but it was too late. A dark smile came over Rapunzel's face.
"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Rapunzel asked in Connie's voice.
Rapunzel plugged in new coordinates and pulled the lever.
"No!" Flynn shouted, grabbing Rapunzel around the waist and pulling her away from the desk. But the damage had been done.
The time machine took off towards the new coordinates. The tower rumbled before it landed so hard that Flynn stumbled back.
He knew they were someone else now.
He ran over to the window and looked out. The entire place was a waste land. Nothing but sand for miles. They definitely weren't in New York City anymore.
Flynn walked back to Rapunzel and pulled the black wire out of her hand but it didn't matter. Connie's mind-control had taken place.
"Stop this," Flynn growled, going over to Connie.
She shrugged. "Can't do that. I'll let your pretty friend go, once you take me back to New York. Otherwise, you're all stuck here."
Flynn went back to Rapunzel and shook her. "Rapunzel, snap out of this. Plug in the original coordinates. Let's get rid of Connie once and for all."
But when Rapunzel spoke, it was still Connie's voice. "No can do. The girl is mine now."
"Fine." Flynn shrugged. "Then I'll just Connie."
Connie laughed behind him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Flynn turned to her. "Why not?"
"Because if I die, then all the people who are still under my mind-control die as well. So, you might as well do as I ask or your friend won't make it."
Flynn's heart constricted. Could Rapunzel die her instead of in Versailles? Was he destined to lose her again and again?
He had to figure out what to do and fast before he lost Rapunzel for good.
Hope you're enjoying the story! See you next Saturday!