Flynn ran as fast as he could through the halls of Versailles. He had to find Marie, save her from the Master, and get back to Rapunzel. There was no way he was letting her fight a group of guards all by herself. She was tough but she had a bullet wound in her shoulder and was getting weaker by the second.

He had to push her from his mind though. If he didn't save Marie, the world could change in drastic ways.

He just had to figure out where the Master would perform the operation for Marie's heart. The ballroom? The tea room? The one of many thousands of bedrooms? There were over two thousand rooms in the Palace of Versailles. This wasn't gonna be easy.

When he whirled a corner, he smacked into someone else. The other person yelped as they fell back as Flynn stumbled and righted himself.

"What the…" He trailed off when he saw who it was he had run into. He groaned. "Pierre. What are you doing here?"

Pierre was on his butt, staring up at Flynn in shock. Honestly, Flynn found it a little funny. "I wanted to help Rapunzel," Pierre said.

"You were supposed to be leaving the palace with the rest of the group." Flynn paused when he heard a giggle. "No way." He looked further down the hall and saw…

Juliette waving at him and fanning her fan erratically in front of her face. Next to her was Amélie, doing the same damn thing. And behind them stood Claude and Antonine.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I wanted to leave," Amélie explained, "but this one" – she nodded at Juliette – "wanted to see you again."

Claude raised his hand. "I was all onboard for leaving."

Flynn hurried over to them, Pierre traveling behind. "Then why didn't you?" He held up his hands. "You know what? Never mind. I just realized that I do not care. I have to save the queen. I don't have time for any of you."

He started to run past them when Pierre asked, "What about the queen?"

"She's in danger!" Flynn shouted back, picking up his pace. "Either join me and help or get out of the palace."

He was really hoping they wouldn't join him but when he heard the clatter of footsteps behind him, Flynn knew he wouldn't be so lucky.

"What do we have to do?" Antonine asked.

"We need to save her from a psycho automaton."

Pierre frowned. "Auto…what?"

Flynn sighed. This was going to be a long day. "It doesn't matter. Just follow my lead." He could have been long gone by now with his diamond but nope. He had to be here with a bunch of idiots, searching for Marie Antoinette before she got her heart cut out of her by a crazy alien.

The further Flynn got into the palace, the more he smelled smoke. "No one put the fire out?"

Juliette shrugged. "No one knew how." She yelped when she tripped on her dress. Her fan went scattering across the floor. Flynn picked it up and tossed it at her. It smacked her in the face. "You could be more gentle," she grumbled.

Flynn ignored her. He was trying to figure out where the Master would take Marie. He planned on killing her down in the basement but his plans changed. Where would he take her now?

Flynn stopped running. "What's the most famous room in the Palace of Versailles?"

They looked at him.

"What?" Claude asked.

"The most famous room!"

"Uh, that would probably be the hall of mirrors," Pierre said. "It's where the king would host-,"

Flynn was already running. "Thanks, Pierre. I knew you were good for something." The group followed him as he made his way to the hall of mirrors.

He could hear sounds the closer he got. Mechanical sounds. He skidded to a stop and looked around the corner. The hall of mirrors. It was as beautiful as it sounded. Huge chandeliers hung in rows on the ceiling while mirrors stood along one wall, reflecting light from the windows across from them. It was a place fit for royalty.

And smack-dab in the center of the hall was the Master. He was surrounded by guards. There was a table right next to him and on that table was Marie, looking unconscious. It didn't look like she had her heart cut out yet so there was still a chance.

Flynn glanced back at his group. Man, this would have been so much easier if Rapunzel was with him. Instead, he'd have to settle for these buffoons. "Ok," he whispered. "Here's the plan."

"Why are you whispering?" Juliette asked. Flynn clamped his hand over her mouth. She stumbled back, looked outraged.

"Shut up," he hissed. "We have to be quiet."

Juliette tried speaking around his hand but it was only a mumble. She smacked his hand with her fan. He let her go. "How dare you-,"

He put his hand on her mouth again. "Be quiet. There is an alien race just down that hall, hell-bent on killing your queen. Now, we need to save her." He hated to say this next part. "And I can't do it all on my own. I need your help. Can you fight?" he asked the men.

They all nodded.

"Really fight?" Flynn asked.

Pierre nodded confidently while the other two men hesitated and shrugged their shoulders. Great. It was the best he had.

He let Juliette go and looked at the two women. "You two help by staying out of the way. Us men will go save the queen."

They nodded and huddled together, which Flynn thought was impressive given how large their dresses were.

Flynn gave the men a quick rundown of who the Scattal where. "Ok. Got it?"

"So… they're made of metal?" Claude asked.

"But they can bleed?" Antoine asked.

"And they can die?" Pierre asked.

Flynn sighed. "Yes, yes, and yes. Now, enough questions. Save the queen. That's what's important. You all have swords, yes?"

All of them shook their heads.

Flynn rubbed a hand down his face. "Ok. Then just use whatever you can as a weapon. Got it now?"

They all nodded.

"Let's go." Flynn ran into the hall before he lost his nerve.

The Master, who was raising a knife above Marie, stopped and whirled around as Flynn reached the first row of guards. He started slicing through them like ribbon.

"What is this?" the Master exclaimed. "Deal with them!"

Pierre ran up next to Flynn and grabbed a guard around the waist and shoved him towards a window. With a kick to the guard's stomach, Pierre knocked the guard through the glass. Since they were on the first floor, the guard didn't have far to go. He popped back up. Pierre shouted and grabbed a short piece of glass, shoving it in the guard's face. That time, the guard fell down and didn't get back up.

On the other side of Flynn, Claude was facing off with a guard and was losing poorly until Antonine showed up, grabbed a free-standing mirror and pushed it on the guard, crushing the guard underneath it.

"Nice," Flynn commented as he battled his own automaton. This one was proving hard to beat. Every time he tried to strike, the guard would block it. The guard raised its gun-hand and pointed it at Flynn. "Shit, shit, shit." Flynn skidded across the ground and grabbed part of the broken mirror and tossed it at the guard's hand, right as the guard fired his gun.

The bullet was intercepted by the mirror, which shattered on impact. The guard's hand was taken off in the process.

"That was…" Pierre said, shaking his head. "You are a master at your craft, Lord Rider."

Flynn puffed up his chest. "I know. You don't have to tell me." He paused. "Of course, if you want to compliment me, I'm all ears."

Right then, another guard came running at Flynn but Claude grabbed a candelabra off a shelf and bashed it into the automaton's head. The guard staggered and fell back, crashing to the ground.

"Not bad," Flynn complimented Claude. The Frenchman lifted his chin in pride.

Flynn dove back into the fight, not as worried now that the other men had shown they could handle themselves. While Claude was bashing automatons with his candelabra, and Pierre was stabbing automatons with glass shards and Antoine was… well, he was trying to throw the guards into mirrors and not really doing a great job at it but whatever, Flynn focused on paving a way through the guards to the Master. Fortunately, in the commotion, the Master was shouting out orders instead of carving Marie's heart out.

Flynn was getting close to the Master when a particularly large guard knocked his sword out of his hand. The guard grabbed the sword and bent it in half, rendering it useless, and tossed it to the side.

That wasn't good.

The guard grabbed Flynn and threw him before the feet of the Master. The leader of the automatons glared down at him.

"Not so cocky now, are you?" he asked Flynn in his strange half-human/half-robot voice. "You will watch me as I kill your precious queen." The Master raised his knife…

…and Flynn spoke. "She's not my queen."

The Master froze. "What?"

"I said, she's not my queen." He nodded at the prone body of Marie Antoinette. "I'm not French. And I'm not from this time. I'm a time-traveler." The Master's eye twitched. Flynn crossed his arms, trying to look cool, even though he was still on his knees. "Didn't see that coming, did you? The art of surprise was always my forte. You should really see your face. You look ridiculous. That powdered wig does you no favors."

"Why are you talking?" the Master asked. He looked at the nearest guard. "Why is he talking?"

Flynn shrugged. "It's what I'm good at. That and stealing things."

The Master chuckled. "You think you're so clever. Well, watch me as I kill your queen-," he stopped. "Whatever she is to you." He raised his knife…

…and once again, Flynn spoke. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The Master sighed, dropping his arms. "Why not?"

"Because if you do, you might cause cataclysmic issues in the future. All I'm saying."

"And how do you know that?"

Flynn paused. "Uh…I just do. Does it matter?"

The Master huffed as he raised his arms again. "You're just a fool who talks too much."

Behind Flynn, he heard the sound of female voices. Turning around, he saw Juliette and Amélie running down the wall, shouting something.

It took him a second to realize what they were saying.

"The fire!" Juliette screamed. "It's getting closer!"

Smoke began to creep down the hallway with ominous intent.

Juliette screamed again as she tripped over her dress and landed flat on her face. The fan in her hands went skidding across the ground. It landed near Flynn's knees.

The Master rolled his eyes. "Let's get this over with." He started to bring the knife down.

Good thing Flynn was also a master at using his hands.

He grabbed Juliette's fan, stood up, and used it to smack the knife out of the Master's hands. The knife went flying across the floor.

The Master whirled on Flynn and raised his hand. Untwisting it, he took his hand off to reveal another gun.

"You're going to pay for that," the Master said.

"Nope. I think you are." Flynn then shoved the fan straight into the Master's mouth, causing the alien to choke and stumble backward. Flynn hurried towards the knife.

The Master wrenched the fan out of his mouth and dove for the knife, right as Flynn wrapped his hands around it. With a grunt, Flynn jammed the knife upwards, hoping it would do some damage.

The Master froze before looking down. The knife was jammed into his upper left chest.

"Huh," Flynn said, standing up. "Isn't that where your heart is?"

The Master looked completely shocked that his plan didn't come to fruition. He then fell backwards, landed on the ground, and stopped moving. As one, the other automatons jerked and fell down, dying because their master died.

It was over.

Flynn ran over to Marie and tapped her cheek. The queen slowly began to wake up. "Marie? Marie?"

She opened her eyes and smiled when she saw him. "Lord Rider."

"You're ok now." He helped her sit up. "But you all need to get out now. The palace is on fire."

Footsteps bounded down the hall. Flynn turned and got a shock of a lifetime. King Louis was on a horse and bounding down the hallway.

"My wife! I've come to save you."

"Already did it, buddy," Flynn said.

Louis ignored him as he jumped off his horse and rushed to Marie's side, pulling her into a hug.

"That's cute," Flynn said. "But you all really need to leave the palace." He pointed at the growing smoke coming down the hall. "I don't think you want to become barbeque."

Louis helped Marie onto his horse before getting behind her. Marie gave Flynn a thankful nod before they bounded off.

"What about us?" Amélie asked, using her fan to disperse the smoke.

"Uh, I'd get out as well," he said it like it was obvious (because it was). He started running down the hallway towards the smoke. It was the way to the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Juliette called out. "I was hoping you could protect me, Lord Rider."

"Nope!" he shouted back.

He had another woman to save.


Rapunzel had been wondering for a while if this was the place where she was going to die.

For starters, she always wanted to go to the Palace of Versailles. Given her luck, she knew danger would be waiting for her.

And two, she knew things had been going backwards for her and Eugene.

She remembered meeting him that day, months ago, when he looked at her like he knew her. Really knew her. He looked at her like he loved her.

And every time they ran into each other after that, she knew him more and more and it seemed that he knew her less and less. Rapunzel knew that there would come a day that he wouldn't recognize her at all.

She just hadn't been expecting it to be today of all days.

It broke her heart straight in two when she saw the man she loved and he saw a stranger.

And what was life without love in it?

Rapunzel had been locked up by a crazy woman for most of her life. She freed herself two years ago on her eighteenth birthday. Soon after, she found her calling when she was brought into The Time-Traveler's Society. They trained her, gave her a home, gave her friends.

But never love.

Not until she met Eugene.

Rapunzel knew that when the day came he didn't recognize her, she'd either continue on her path without him for the rest of her life, which was already an unbearable thought…

Or she'd die.

And judging how bad her prospects were, fighting off a group of highly-trained automatons, she figured this was probably the day she was going to die.

Her shoulder was throbbing as she blocked and parried every blow the automatons tried to give to her. She was already woozy from blood loss. She didn't think she had much more left in her.

She was outnumbered. There were ten of them and one of her.

Sooner or later, one of them would get tired of fighting her and just shoot her. She just hoped Flynn could stop them in time before that happened.

She kicked a guard that was coming at her but wasn't able to stop the guard behind her from grabbing her and pinning her arms to her sides. She thrashed and struggled but it was no use. The guards laughed at her, as if her pain was funny. That was the thing Rapunzel learned in her training – most alien races were nothing like humans. Many of them lacked empathy. But that still didn't mean they deserved to die.

Normally, Rapunzel would have tried everything to spare the lives of the people she came into contact with but with the Scattal, they were too brutal, to mean, too ruthless to be left alive on Earth. Humans didn't deserve their cruelty.

She cried out as a guard in front of her poked his finger into her bullet wound. Sweat was dripping down her face. Her normally perfectly kept hair was in disarray.

Smoke began to make its way down into the basement. Rapunzel coughed. A few of the other guards looked uncomfortable by it. Just like humans, fire hurt them. But instead of burning, they melted.

"Finish her off and let's get out of here," one guard said, already moving towards the stairs. "The Master is probably almost done with his mission by now and we can return home."

The guard holding her let her go. She dropped to her knees. Another guard lifted his leg and landed a solid kick to her stomach. She groaned as she curled into a ball.

"Just kill her and get it over with," the main guard said.

The one who kicked her smirked and raised his gun-hand, pointing it right at her head. She closed her eyes and thought of Eugene's face. He'd be with her even as she died.

…but the shot never came.

She heard the guards grunt in unison and the thud of bodies on the ground shook her. She opened her eyes. They were all on the floor of the basement. Not moving. Dead.

Flynn did it. He killed the Master.

Rapunzel gasped and pushed herself to standing before doubling over with a ragged cough. The smoke in here was getting intense. It was beginning to block her view of the stairs.

She heard footsteps running down the stairs and braced herself for anything.

When she saw it was Eugene, she almost collapsed right there.

"Eugene!" she called out.

"Rapunzel!" He smiled as he ran towards her.

Then the gunshot went off.

And pain ricocheted through her chest.

She glanced down and saw a bullet hole in the middle of her chest as blood began to seep from the wound. With another look at Eugene, who was running faster to reach her, she slumped to the ground.


Flynn watched in horror as one of the guards lifted its gun-hand and fired a bullet straight into Rapunzel's chest. The guard then rolled on his back, dying with all the rest of its companions.

Flynn reached Rapunzel right as she fell for the ground. He caught her and gently lowered her down. "Rapunzel? Rapunzel?"

She blinked up at him before a small smile formed on her lips. "Hey, Eugene."

"We need to get you out of here." He glanced down at his time-traveling watch but it only worked for one person. Two people couldn't use it to travel. "Hey. You said you had a time machine. Where is it? We can get you there and get you to a doctor in our time. You'll be ok." He tried picking her up but she cried out. He set her back down. "Rapunzel."

"Eugene, stop." She placed her hand over his erratically beating heart. "Just stop." She wheezed as her breathing became more labored. "You're… not… going to make it… to my time machine… in time. It's not possible."

"No. There has to be something we can do. We can't just give up."

She smiled again. "Now that… sounds more like the Flynn Rider… I know." A coughing spasm went through her. He held her more tightly. The room was slowly filling up with smoke. It was becoming hard for even Flynn to breathe.

"Rapunzel." He brushed her hair away from her face. "I can't just leave you here to die. There has to be something…"

"There's not." She coughed. "I knew this day was coming. I knew there would come… a day where I wouldn't see you again. I just wasn't sure if… if it would be because… we parted ways… or if I died. Now I know for sure."

"What are you talking about? Let me get you out of here." He held her closer.

"No." She shuddered. More blood seeped from her wound. "If it meant I'd have to spend… the rest of my life without you… I'd rather be dead."

He frowned. "Don't say that."

"But it's true. It's my time, Eugene. We always knew we were… running out of time."

"But I didn't know." he said, his voice haggard.

"Now you do," she said simply. "You'll see in time. You can't save me. So… don't even think about going back in time… to do that."

"How can I not?"

"Because… I don't want you to. It would cause chaos to the future."

"You're always saying that. How can you know?"

She placed her hand on his cheek. "I just do. And besides." She coughed again. It was sounding worse than before. "Didn't you have a private island to retire to? Go do that. It sounds nice." She paused. "Just don't steal anymore." Her eyes began to flutter shut. He shook her and she looked back at him.

"You don't get to die. We saved Marie Antoinette. We did that. I never thought I'd care about anything beyond myself but… you've made me care, Rapunzel. You don't get to just die after we did that."

"It's my time," she said softly.

"No."

"Yes. Eugene, stop arguing with me about this." She took in a shuddering breath. "It's getting hard… to breathe."

"Rapunzel, don't."

"Just hold me."

That broke him. He didn't realize he was crying until a tear dropped onto her head. "You can't die. I just met you. You said we spent a lifetime together. How can we if you're dead?"

"Time travel," she whispered. "It's a fickle thing."

He chuckled but there was no humor to it. "Blondie, come on. Don't die."

"Eugene, I need you to know that I love you."

"Didn't I say before to not call me Eugene?" He tried for lightheartedness but he failed at it.

She smiled. "You did. But… I don't care. You're Eugene Fitzherbert. And I love you. And… I will die… knowing we had some crazy adventures… together. And that makes me… happy." Her cough was ragged and when she smiled, her teeth were stained slightly with blood. "You… made me happy."

Her eyes shut and her breathing stopped.

Flynn realized a beat too late that she was dead.

He lowered her onto the ground and began chest compression but he knew it was useless. She was shot in the chest. There really was no coming back from that – not without doctors anyway.

But still, he tried. He tried until his hands and arms tired. He tried until his tears dried up. He kept trying.

Until the smoke became too much and he knew he had to get out of here unless he wanted to die with her. But he wasn't going to leave her body to burn in the basement of Versailles. Rapunzel deserved more than that.

He carried her body upstairs and out of the palace. The smoke was becoming unbearable. Some of the walls were on fire.

When he made it outside, he sucked in a large breathe. Fresh air. Rapunzel would never smell fresh air again. The sun was out now. Darkness was long gone.

The entire front courtyard was filled with people watching the Palace of Versailles burn. He walked right past them all. No one paid him any attention. He saw Juliette and Pierre and the rest of them, all huddled together. It wasn't fair that someone like Rapunzel died while those vapid people got to survive. Flynn was angry. He was pissed.

Juliette looked over at him and came running towards him. She managed to not trip on her dress. "Oh, Lord Rider. You made it. Thank goodness." Her eyes traveled down to Rapunzel in his arms. "Oh. She didn't make it. Well, she was just a peasant after all."

Flynn was going to punch Juliette. He didn't care if she was a woman.

But punching Juliette meant letting Rapunzel go and he wasn't ready to do that.

"You're a horrible person," he said to her before walking away. She gasped. The last thing Flynn heard was Juliette angrily muttering to her friends. He kept walking.

And he kept walking until he found a private area of the gardens where he could bury Rapunzel.

He hadn't know her long. Only for a day, really.

But she changed him in that time. He was never going to be the same again.

He set her down and sat beside her for a long while. Glancing back at the Palace, he saw smoke rising out of it. The Hope Diamond was still in there. It would probably be destroyed in the fire.

And Flynn didn't care.

After a while, he got up and found a shovel near one end of the garden. He went back to Rapunzel and started digging. It took him a few hours. Long enough that the people of Versailles got the palace under control and started heading back inside.

Once he dug her grave, he lowered her into it. There was no way for him to take her back to her time – not with his watch. It really was frustrating how it only allowed for one person to travel with it.

And besides, Rapunzel loved Versailles. It was one of her favorite places. She told him so when they first met.

God, how had that been only hours ago? It felt like he knew her for a lifetime.

It seemed fitting that she should be buried at a place she loved.

It tore his heart every time he had to toss dirt onto her. She was so still in the ground. Pale. A ghost now. He didn't even know if she had a family. Friends. Who would remember her?

He knew he would.

Once he finished burying her, he sat back down, all his energy spent.

Something made him look up towards the palace again and for just a moment he thought he saw…

Well, it almost looked like himself.

But that was crazy. His grief was making him see things.

Shaking his head, he looked back down at his lap.

What was he to do now?

There was really only one place.

This bar, back in New York City, where he was from. He spent countless hours there, even when he was too young to drink. He was always good at creating fake IDs.

A good fresh beer sounded like what he needed right now. Drown his sorrows and get so fucking drunk, missing Rapunzel wouldn't hurt so much.

And the alcohol back in the 1700s was shit anyway. Modern day alcohol had all the kick to it.

So, he set his watch for the year 2023, New York City, clicked the button, and vanished. If anyone was watching him, they would have seen a man sitting beside a grave one second and gone the next.


Flynn ended up in New York in a matter of seconds. Even though the time travel was fast, it always left him feeling a little woozy for a few minutes.

He glanced around and realized that he was in Times Square. Great. Just what he needed. To be surrounded by a bunch of tourists.

When he turned around, he bumped into a woman selling CDs. Who sells CDs anymore? he thought.

"Here," the woman said, stuffing her CD in his hand.

"I don't want it." He tried handing it back but the woman shook her blue-tipped hair.

"Sorry. No refunds." She held out her hand. "That will be twenty-five dollars."

He huffed. "I'm not paying twenty-five dollars for your CD, lady. I don't even want it."

A person in a huge wolf costume walked by. "Connie doesn't give up," the wolf said in a deep voice. "Might as well take the CD, dude."

Flynn shook his head. Only in Times Square…

But when Flynn turned back to tell Connie off, he saw that she was gone. Weird. He glanced down at the CD. The cover was all black with one single word on it: Revenge.

Flynn considered tossing it on the ground but he stopped himself. He was curious now. Maybe Connie's CD could help him drown out his sorrows through music. He figured it couldn't hurt.

When he looked up, he saw the wolf staring at him. "What?" he snapped.

The wolf held out his paw. "You want a picture? That will be twenty bucks."

Flynn scoffed and walked away. He needed to get out of Times Square fast and get to his favorite bar in the city he left when he was old enough to leave.


The bar in question was called Duke's and had the best cheap beer in the entire city. You want to get trashed and feel like trash? Then Duke's was where it was at.

The bell above the door chimed as Flynn walked inside. He nodded at the bartender and ordered a beer while taking a seat. The stool was tilting to one side. That's why he liked the place. It was cheap, not many people came here, and it was cheap.

He didn't like wasting his hard-earned money he got from thieving on alcohol. No, that was all going to his private island.

He stared down at the bar as he drunk his beer. A private island seemed almost pointless now. Thieving seemed pointless now.

He had experienced something profound with Rapunzel but she wasn't here anymore. How did a girl he barely knew for a day make him feel like this? It just didn't make sense. And yet it did.

Rapunzel told him that he couldn't go back in time to save her. He was tempted to anyway but it seemed wrong to dishonor her memory by doing something she didn't want him doing.

Fuck. He scrubbed a hand over his face. Time travel was supposed to be fun and easy. A way for him to get money on the cheap.

He never imagined something like this would happen.

Flynn lifted his head up and glanced at the man down at the end of the bar. He was a heavyset man with a baseball cap and he was giving Flynn a weird look. Flynn frowned but before he snapped the man's head off, he looked down at what he was wearing.

That's right. He was still in his 1770's clothes. Long frilly jacket and white stockings with buckle shoes. New York saw some weird shit and this wasn't even the closest to being the most weird but in a bar like Duke's where baseball caps were almost a given, he sure stood out.

"What?" he asked. "You never seen a man in white stockings before?"

The man grunted and looked away.

When Flynn turned back in his seat, his eyes landed on the TV. A news reporter was talking about a series of computer hacks in places like the Pentagon and The White House. Huh. That didn't sound good.

Not that Flynn cared. Because he didn't. Rapunzel wasn't going to make him care about things beyond himself. He was going to go back to stealing stuff and that was that.

He considered getting wasted but his beer just wasn't doing it for him so he decided to leave. He hadn't been to his apartment in a long time. Might as well see how much dust it had been collecting since he left.

Flynn stepped out of Duke's and bumped into a woman.

"Sorry," she said, her voice remarkably familiar. Sweet with a hint of a lisp to it.

Flynn jerked back and looked at the woman.

He was staring into the face of Rapunzel.

She was alive.


Until next Saturday!