The snarls and screeches of the people behind him worried Flynn as he ran threw the subway tunnel, unconscious Varian on his shoulders, and Rapunzel ahead of him.

"Hey, Blondie, not to complain but what are we going to do about the horde of zombie people?" He huffed and panted as he ran. Carrying Varian across his back was not the easiest thing to do. He really hoped that Rapunzel was impressed by his show of strength because honestly, he was kind of impressed by himself.

"They're not zombies," she said, running back to him. Together, they moved side by side down the tunnel.

"They're not?" Flynn glanced back as a man with a terrible bowl cut hairdo lunged for him, hands outstretched, lips curled back into a snarl. Flynn managed to jump out of the way. The man stumbled on the train tracks and slammed into the wall. "Because they sure seem like it. Ferocious? Check. Intent on trying to bite me? Check. Not stopping no matter what you do to them? Uh, check."

Rapunzel shook her head, a small smile on her lips. "Oh Eugene. Don't be silly. Zombies aren't real."

"Oh but alien races are?"

She shrugged. "Obviously." She ducked as someone from the mob behind them chucked a shoe at her. "These people are clearly being mind controlled or possessed or something like it. It's the bugs. I just need to know exactly what. Once we get to my time machine, we'll know."

He shifted Varian around. Seriously. Running with someone on your shoulders isn't fucking easy. "And why did we need to bring Varian with us?"

"He's your friend, Eugene. You don't leave your friends to an angry mob of people. We need to help him." She glanced back at the people following them. "We need to help everyone."

As they ran further and further into the tunnel, Flynn began to get more tired. He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. "Hey, Blondie, I don't see an end in sight. Do you know where we're going?"

"Nope. But that makes it kind of fun."

He stared at her, hoping she saw the incredulity on his face. "Fun? Blondie, this is not what I call fun."

"What do you call fun then?" She stopped running when a person behind her grabbed onto her hair. She gasped but spun around and shoved the person away.

"I don't know." He set Varian down as a woman tried swiping at him with a hairbrush. He grabbed it from her and smacked her in the face with it. She fell backwards and landed into more people, knocking them all onto the tunnel floor. "Not this! Something with sand, and margaritas, and… oh I know!" He kicked a man in the stomach who tried biting his leg. "Not having to deal with insane, psychotic people hell-bent on hurting me!"

Rapunzel laughed as she dodged a blow from a woman's purse. "See, I find everything an adventure. When you've been locked in a tower your entire life, you tend to appreciate all life has to offer."

He paused. "Wait. What is this about being locked in a tower?"

She glanced over at him, a surprise look on her face. "Oh. You don't know about that yet. I'll have to tell you. Once we get out of this." She nodded at the horde of people still coming at them.

A man barreled straight into Flynn's side, knocking him to the ground. Flynn held the man by the throat, just barely keeping the man from biting him. Rapunzel ran over and shoved the man off him. She gave Flynn her hand and helped him up.

He didn't want to let go of her hand but he had to since a woman was coming at him with long nails and Flynn really didn't want his face to be ruined.

"Let's keep going," he suggested, picking Varian back up, this time in his arms. His back was getting tired from carrying the dude.

They continued running down the subway tunnel, the angry horde hot on their heels. Flynn thought he could see light coming from the end of the tunnel.

"Uh, Blondie, is that…"

She gasped. "That's another train coming. We have to get off the tracks and up there." She pointed to a tiny ledge positioned higher on the wall.

"How the hell are we gonna make it up there?"

"Like this." She gently pushed him against the wall, stepped back, and ran right at him. Flynn was so confused until Rapunzel jumped up and used his shoulder for momentum to scale up to the ledge.

"Ok," he said, staring up at her. "I'll admit. That was incredibly impressive."

She gave him a proud, cheeky smile. "I know. Now, hand Varian over to me." Flynn lifted Varian up so Rapunzel could drag Varian onto the ledge with her. "Now your turn, Eugene."

He glanced down the tunnel towards the lights getting closer and closer. He then looked back at the hordes of people on the other side of him. They were all going to die.

But there was no way to save them.

He grabbed Rapunzel's hand and she hoisted him onto the ledge.

"What about the people?" he asked, nodding down at the horde of snarling, possessed humans.

"We can't let them die," she said. "They're just innocents. We have to stop the train."

"How the hell are we going to do that?"

"By doing this." Rapunzel ran the length of the ledge until she jumped off…

…and landed on the top of the train.

Flynn really didn't want to have to do that.

But he couldn't leave Rapunzel to do it all on her own.

So, he forced himself to run down the ledge and jump off…

…and for a moment, he felt like he was flying…

…until he belly-flopped right onto the train.

"Oof," he said. "That's gonna hurt. How come you make it look so graceful?"

"We need to get into the operator room to stop the train." She pointed to a trap door on top of it. "We need to get this open and drop inside. We don't have much time left."

"Thankfully, I know how to pick a lock." Flynn grabbed his apartment keys from his pocket and started untwisting the bolts on the trap door.

"Hurry," Rapunzel said.

"I'd like to see you try, Miss Bossy."

"Sorry."

He got the last screw out of the trap door and opened it with a flourish. "Ta-da!"

"No time to celebrate," she said, jumping through and landing inside the operating room. The subway operator screamed.

Flynn frowned. "A little praise is always appreciated." He jumped down too and once again, the operator screamed once she saw him. She looked to be middle age with graying hair.

"Stop this train," Rapunzel said. "People are on the tracks!"

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Lady," Flynn said, grabbing the operator's arms. "We're sure."

The operator pushed a button and pulled a lever and the subway began to slow down. It finally stopped right as it reached the first row of the angry mob, just barely grazing them.

"What's wrong with those people?" the operator asked.

"Just stay inside," Rapunzel said. "Contact whoever you need to, to let them know there's a problem. Oh, and be wary of any bugs." She turned to Flynn. "Lift me back up. We need to get Varian and get out of here."

"Isn't is safer to stay here?" he asked.

"Eugene."

He sighed. "Ok, ok." He lifted her back out of the train and she helped lift him back onto the top. The operator just stared at them in shock the entire time.

Rapunzel jumped from the train to the ledge, landing with perfect grace. Flynn followed suit and landed with… a small amount of grace. But hey, it was better than before and he'd take the win.

They rushed back down to Varian and Flynn scooped the little dude back into his arms. "We really should have asked that operator where the nearest train station is."

Turned out, it was just a few minutes away.

They made there way onto the train platform. Flynn dropped Varian to the ground and laid down, catching his breath. Fortunately, no one else around them seemed possessed or out of control. The only thing weird was the weird looks other people were giving them.

"We really need to hurry to my time machine," Rapunzel said, nudging Flynn with her foot.

He groaned but sat up. "Fine. But you have to carry Varian this time."


He still ended up carrying Varian.

All the way through the subway station, through the countless streets they had to take to get to Central Park and finally Central Park itself.

When they reached the south entrance to the park, a police officer walked over to them.

"What's his deal?" the officer asked, nodding at the unconscious Varian on Flynn's shoulders.

"Too much to drink," Flynn responded.

The officer grunted. "It's the middle of the day."

Rapunzel glanced back and came over, pulling her compact mirror out of her pocket. "Here, officer. We're on official city business." She showed him her mirror. The officer looked confused for a second as he looked into it before his features smoothed out.

"Right. Madam Vice President."

Rapunzel frowned as she looked into her mirror. "That's what you see me as? Ok. Then yes. I'm on official business, so leave us be." She grabbed Flynn's arm and hurried away.

"But don't you need a team of guards around you?" the officer called out.

Rapunzel ignored him as they entered Central Park.

"Madam Vice President." Flynn snorted. "Your mirror is a strange thing, let me tell you."

"Hey, it's convenient," she said, putting it back in her pocket. "It pretty much lets me get in anywhere I want."

He whistled. "That is convenient."

They walked around people – all of whom were fortunately not possessed by creepy metallic bugs – until they reached a more secluded area of the park that was pretty much just trees around them and a single path leading in either direction.

"So, where is this time machine of yours?" Flynn shifted Varian around on his shoulders. "Because, Blondie, let me tell you, I am tired of Varian. I already didn't like the little guy and I'm even more annoyed with him now."

"It's just right here." She pulled her mirror back out and pressed her thumb to it. A wind picked up around them. Flynn glanced around and when he looked back, he saw something that wasn't there before.

A tall, 40-foot tower stood before him. It was covered in moss from the bottom to the top where a structure resided with windows all along the side walls. The roof of the tower was pointed and purple. It had a distinctively Tudor style to it. Flynn was just amazed he even knew what a 'Tudor style' was.

It looked more like something out of a fairytale than real life.

"That's your time machine?" he asked, not masking the dubiousness in his voice.

"Yep." Rapunzel waked confidently towards the base of it.

"Uh. How do we get in?"

"We climb."

He snorted. When she looked back at him, he realized she wasn't joking. "Are… are you serious? I mean, I can do it, Blondie, but I am not about to carry Varian on my back as I climb a damn tower."

A large smile broke out across her face. "I'm just joking. There's an opening around back." She lead him behind the tower to where a hidden door was. It blended right on in with the white brick.

She motioned him inside and he walked up a flight of stairs and through a door in the ground, and entered…

What could only be described as pure whimsy. The inside of the tower was warm and cozy. The walls were painted in every color. There was a tiny kitchenette and above it was a flight of stairs leading to what looked like a bedroom. There was a ton of things scattered all around the tower, from guitars to chess boards to sewing machines to paint kits.

And right in the middle of the room was a desk covered in buttons and levers and other things Flynn could only call 'doodads and thingies.' A computer screen took up a good chunk of the desk.

"How is this your time machine?" he asked, looking around. He dropped Varian to the floor. "What is this place?"

Rapunzel looked suddenly shy as she stayed standing back near the door in the floor. "It's where I was held captive for my entire life."

He spun around to face her. "Rapunzel…"

"No. It's ok. This woman took me captive when I was just a baby and she raised me in this." She swept her arms around the room. "Well, not this place exactly. The real tower is somewhere else. I managed to escape when I was eighteen after I figured out she wasn't my real mom. It wasn't… easy leaving. She was all I had ever known. She made me call her Mother Gothel. But she was my mom for my entire life. I left my tower and discovered the truth – that she kidnapped me. When I confronted her about it, I-," she stopped suddenly. "It doesn't matter. But I got out after that. I met The Time-Traveler's Society after that. They took me in and helped me get on my feet. When the time came for me to enter the field, they let me have a time machine of my own. I could model it after anything I wanted. So… I chose this."

"But… why?" he asked slowly. "Judging by what you just told me, don't you have bad memories of this place?"

"I do. But I also have some goods ones. I wanted to reclaim the one thing I was most afraid of. If I could travel the world and time travel in it, then I hoped I wouldn't be so scared anymore. I hoped that I could turn something tragic into something beautiful. So, I did."

"Blondie, that's…"

"What? Weird? Strange?"

"Amazing," he said.

She sucked in a breath. Her eyes stared intently into his. "So, now you know my most kept secret."

"Wouldn't I have already known when you first met me?"

"You did. And it scared me. But since you always knew, I never had to explain it to you. You just… knew. This is the first time I'm having to tell you about this."

"But if you knew I already knew, then why would you be nervous to tell me now?" He leaned against the desk, trying to look cool, even though his heart was pounding.

"Because," she said, "while I've had a version of you in my life, that doesn't mean things cant change. You could still be different. You could not… accept me in the way the Eugene I know did."

He wanted to tell her that he was the real Flynn. The real Eugene. That whatever they went through in her past, it had to be his future.

And yet, time travel didn't always make sense. There were rules and yet there were no rules. Maybe she was right. Maybe the Flynn she knew wasn't the man he really was.

There was really only one thing he could say. Only one thing he wanted to say.

"I accept you," he said.

Her eyes watered as she blinked away her tears. She walked slowly over to him and placed her hand on his cheek. He didn't pull away. "You know, maybe you are him. The man I lo-," she stopped.

He wanted to hear her say it. The man I love. And yet, the thought fucking terrified him. He didn't love her… did he? No, there was no way. He still barely knew her. But she also felt like the most real person to him that he had ever known.

Flynn didn't know what to do so… he stepped back. Rapunzel dropped her hand as she nodded, almost like she was convincing herself of something.

He cleared his throat. "So, what are we going to do about that?" He pointed down at Varian.

"Right." She turned away from him for a moment before turning back. A new determined expression was on her face. "Ok. We need to test the black wires the bugs left behind." She picked one out of Varian's arm and opened a compartment in her desk. She placed the wire on it, shut the compartment and the computer screen lit up.

Flynn watched as a series of numbers and letters flashed across the screen before the word 'Gronen' appeared.

"What the hell is…" He squinted at the screen. "Gronen?"

Rapunzel sighed. "I feared this. A Gronen is a species of alien that uses metal to mind control people. The metallic bugs. Once the black wires get into your skin, they'll mind control you. That's why the people on the subway lost it the way they did. Almost like zombies."

"So, someone is making them that way?"

"Yes. Gronens tend to work alone. I have no idea why one of them is doing this though."

Flynn held up his hand. "Hold on. If the black wires mind control people, then why am I fine? I was hit in the face with one."

"Because you pulled it out before it could be activated."

"So…" Flynn stared down at the hundreds of black wires covering Varian's body. "What are we going to do about him?"

Rapunzel sighed. "We're going to pull all of the wires out."

"And, uh, how long is that going to take?"

She reached into a desk and pulled out a pair of tweezers. "Guess we're going to see."


"Did I ever tell you," Flynn said as he pulled a wire out of Varian's cheek, "that this is the grossest thing I've ever done?" He shuddered when the wire lit up. He tossed it into the bowel Rapunzel got out for them. Next to the bowl was a frying pan (in case of emergencies. These bad boys came in handy).

"Not the grossest," Rapunzel said.

He raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me that I go through something much grosser in the future?"

She tossed him her secretive smile. "You'll have to wait and find out."

He groaned. "You're messing with me, Blondie. You're just telling me that so I think something grosser is going to happen to me."

"We'll see."

"No, no, no. You're playing mind games with me."

She plucked a wire out of Varian's arm. "Why would I lie to you, Eugene?"

"Flynn."

"Right." She smiled as she took out another wire. "You'll just have to wait and see when the time comes."

"Seriously, Blondie. Is something really grosser gonna happen to me or are you just teasing me? Because if you want to play with the big boys, then let me say – I'm great at teasing back."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Rapunzel crossed her legs, getting comfy. Varian still had a ton of wires in him. This was going to take a while.

"Like…" He snapped his fingers. "I bet you're not prepared for the smolder."

"Not the smolder," she said in mock horror.

He pursed his lips and squinted his eyes and imagined sexy music playing in the background. "No woman can resist this."

She stared at him a moment before flicking his nose. He jerked back. "Flynn, you're not as cool as you think you are." She plucked out another wire and tossed it in the bowel.

"Huh. Must be an off day for me. That doesn't usually happen."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm telling you, Blondie. The women love the smolder."

"What women? You've never spoken about any other woman with me."

"Uh… is this a test?"

"No. I'm curious."

"Really?" He rocked back on his knees. "Ok, well… I'm currently single, so there's that. No women around."

"You never wanted any of them to stay?" she asked.

"I mean, there were tons of women. I mean, tons." He stopped when she gave him a flat look. Flynn cleared his throat. "Right. Did I say tons? I meant like one or two. You know."

"Ok," she said in a way that made it clear she didn't believe him.

He sighed as he threw a wire into the bowel. "None of that matters now. The smolder just isn't the same since…" Meeting you, he wanted to say but held back. Fortunately, Rapunzel didn't push him.

Flynn plucked a particularly large wire from Varian's cheek. The little guy's eyes fluttered open. For a second, he looked like he was back to his normal self but then the rage took over his eyes and he swiped his hand towards Flynn's face.

"No, you don't," Flynn muttered, picking up the pan near his feet and slamming it against Varian's head. Varian went out cold. "Good thinking on having this frying pan nearby."

"I knew Varian would wake up sooner or later." Rapunzel ran her hand over Varian's hair. Flynn tried not to feel jealous over seeing that. "I feel bad that we have to keep knocking him out."

"Do you really think getting out all of these wires will de-mind control him?"

"I can only hope that whoever initiated the mind control made it so that once the wires are out of you, the mind control is done. But if this Gronen is smart, they'll have made it so that once they initiated the mind control, that's it. Once you're mind controlled, there's no going back."

"Really?" he asked. "No way to bring these people back? Because I can say with confidence that I don't want freaking zombie people running around New York for the rest of my life."

"There is a way. Kill a Gronen and it ends the mind control."

He clapped his hands together. "Great. So we have a plan."

She sighed as she took out a wire from Varian's leg this time. "A plan I don't like. But if I have to stop the Gronen, then that's what I'll have to do. But if we can find the Gronen and reason with him or her to stop the mind control, then we might not need to kill anyone."

He pointed at her. "That is also a plan."

Rapunzel was silent a moment while she took more wires out of Varian. "So, have you thought more about giving Varian his device back?"

He tried not to wince. "We don't need to get into that."

"I'm curious though. It's the right thing to do. You stole it from him. He deserves to have it back." She frowned. "How did you steal it in the first place, anyway?"

"I don't exactly do backstory, Blondie." Varian's body jerked when Flynn plucked a wire from his chest. Flynn made a face. "Sorry, buddy."

"It's not exactly a personal backstory, is it? I mean, you stole Varian's time travel device. You can tell me."

He sighed. "Ok. Fine. Since you told me your backstory, I guess it's the least I can do." He cracked his knuckles. "It all started a long, long time ago-,"

"On a dark and stormy night?" she teased.

"Har-har. No." He paused. "Well, actually, it was raining that night and-," he stopped, waving his hand. "It's not important. So, Varian and I knew each other from high school. He was a freshman when I was senior. We never really interacted much."

"What were you like in school?"

"I was either planning missions to break into the school office and change my grades from Fs to As or… I was getting high."

Rapunzel chuckled, plucking out another wire from Varian's head. "So you were either a real go-getter or a complete slacker."

"A little bit of both. Look at me, Blondie. I couldn't even design my own time-travel device. I had to steal it."

"Go on." She placed her chin in her hand as she listened.

"Even though Varian and I never spoke much, I do remember him. In the cafeteria, he'd always stand on the tables and tell the entire school about one of the many things he was inventing. One of those things was a time-traveling device. Now, I thought he was insane. Everyone kind of did. So, I graduated – barely, I might add. Went on my life. Got into a crew with a friend of mine named Lance. We went around stealing shit to make ends meet. Until one day, Lance gets word about this sweet score. How this guy has a ton of inventions in his house that have to be worth a lot of money. So we scoped the place out.

"To my surprise," Flynn continued, "it was Varian's place. I was curious about these inventions. When we broke into his place, we were in the process of stealing his things when I discovered this little baby." He lifted up his wrist to show off the time-traveling watch. "I didn't know what it was. But before I could really look into it, Varian showed back up. He saw me. He… recognized me. So, I ran. When I got back to my place, I decided to look at the device I stole more closely. I just randomly pushed a button and… ended up in the year 1890. It took me a bit to believe but then I realized that the time-traveling device Varian was talking about back in high school was real. It took me a little bit but I eventually figured out how to use it and got back home. And that's when I realized the endless possibilities of it. I've been time-traveling ever since."

"With a stolen device," Rapunzel said, shaking her head. "You are something else, Eugene."

"Charming, I hope."

She slanted her eyes at him. "Among other things."

There were only a few more wires left in Varian. Thank god. Flynn was getting tired of this shit real fast.

But once Varian was free of the wires, that meant he'd ask for his device back. And Flynn had to really think if he was going to give it back or not. Which got him wondering…

"I have something to ask you, Blondie," he said.

"Yeah?"

He cleared his throat. Here goes nothing. "I was wondering if…"

"I got it!" Rapunzel announced, pulling out the last wire. "Now we can wake Varian up and see if he's still mind controlled or not."

He stopped her from touching Varian's cheek. "But before we do, there was something I wanted to ask you. You know, something completely casual that you don't have to answer but…"

"Eugene, you're not a rambler. What's up?"

"Ok." He let out a breath. "I was wondering if I give Varian his device back, would you…" He just needed to spit it out but he was never one for being vulnerable.

"Yes?"

"Would you want to stay here with me in the present? Just like this? No more time traveling for either of us."

Rapunzel's eyes widened. "Eugene, I…"

"You don't have to answer right away. I just… wanted to put that out there."

She opened her mouth to answer…

…and something hit the tower, shaking the entire room and making them both fall over.

"What was that?" Flynn asked.

Rapunzel jumped up and checked one of the many monitors on her desk. "The tower was hit."

He joined her, feeling some odd relief that she didn't answer his question. "By what?"

"By that." She pointed to a monitor that showed the surrounding area outside the tower.

And what Flynn saw made him groan.

A horde of possessed people were pushing against the tower, trying to… what? Knock it over.

But at the front of the group was someone he recognized. A large black guy with a goatee. His former best friend and thieving partner – Lance. He was covered in black wires just like everyone else.

"That's Lance," Flynn muttered, pointing at him through the monitor. "Great. I don't really want to pull any more wires out of anybody, thank you very much."

"They're attacking the tower which means the Gronen wants them to attack my tower. Whoever the Gronen is, they know about it, which means we don't have the element of surprise."

Varian groaned behind them. They spun around and watched Varian warily as he sat up. He blinked his eyes and…

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?" he asked.

Rapunzel let out a happy cheer and clapped her hands. "Yes! You're no longer mind controlled."

Varian frowned. "I'm no longer…what?"

"That's great, Blondie," Flynn said, "but what are we going to do about all these people outside?"

"We're going to find the Gronen and convince them to let these people go and go back to their own planet."

Flynn held up his hands. "I never agreed to help, you know. I just want to get back to living my life."

Rapunzel grabbed his arms. "Eugene, this is your life now. And you're helping me. Besides, I think deep down, you want to. I think your whole 'I-don't-care-about-anyone-but-myself' routine is just an act. You care. Stop pretending you don't." She took in a deep breath. "Now, let's go find our alien friend."

Flynn couldn't disagree with her and he kind of hated that but he also kind of loved that.

Now, he had to find an alien he didn't really want to find, deal with crazy mind-controlled people all over New York, and deal with his complicated feelings for Rapunzel.

Was this really his life now?

Looking at Rapunzel, he knew it was.


Until next Saturday!