Chapter Text
"Why is she looking at me like I'm a monster?"
Cassandra was still shaken, and that was the first thought to cross her mind.
In this huge, dark, and icy room, untouched by daylight, the only splash of color stood on the other side of the vast black bridge that separated her from the rest of the world.
Her lilac-and-mauve dress and long golden hair reminded Cassandra, more than ever, of Corona. Of the sun. Of home.
Those piercing green eyes, green like the forest she remembered from long walks under a summer sun, could sweep away the darkness.
Even here, in the heart of a kingdom forged from cold black stone and everything the night seemed to embody.
And yet now, when Rapunzel looked at the small blue stone embedded in Cassandra's chest, there was nothing in her eyes but shock and terror.
She had been so surprised when it happened. Cassandra could still hear Rapunzel's outraged cry—"CASSANDRA? What are you doing?"—as Cassandra's metal-gloved hand had closed around the stone.
Did Rapunzel really not see it coming?
No. Of course she hadn't.
Cassandra had made sure of that.
Rapunzel had trusted her silence to mean Cassandra wouldn't interfere.
Cassandra had counted on it.
Cassandra - "I'm fulfilling my duty."
Eugene, at least, had reacted quickly, grabbing the arm of the shocked princess whose long blond hair had suddenly remembered the law of gravity, falling back like a rope whose anchor point had been cut.
He dragged her to a safe distance as light pulsed violently through Cassandra’s armored hand, its impact echoing from stone to stone.
Cassandra - "Did you really think I would let you take it, Rapunzel?"
Huddled together, Eugene and Rapunzel stared at her as if, with a gesture, she had torn off her own face to reveal that of a monster straight out of the abyss.
Am I so frightening?
Under normal circumstances, Cassandra might have enjoyed leaving Fitzherbert speechless.
That is, if his eyes hadn't widened even further when she took a step forward and dozens of small black spikes erupted around her.
The black stones moved in brutal, merciless harmony with every gesture, every thought.
The raw power of those black stones accompanied her, and controlling them was like trying to stop goosebumps from rising on her skin.
Except that instead of hairs prickling along her skin, millions of sharp black spikes were ready to rise around her.
Was that what terrified them so much?
Or had the Moonstone, with its waves of furious power that had surged through her until she lost all sense of her surroundings, reshaped her into something monstrous?
Cautiously, Cassandra raised her right arm to examine her new appearance.
She looked different, no doubt, covered in thin, deep-black armor, which followed every curve of her body and every movement she made without hindering her.
There was no pain in her right hand when she flexed her fingers beneath the unearthly blue armor. A pleasant surprise. Here, it was as though the armor had melted into her, like a new protective skin.
A strong skin. Strong. Tough. Cassandra could feel it.
She liked that.
Rapunzel - "Cass... Why?"
Why?
The answer should have been obvious. But Cassandra's shaken mind was still struggling to clear.
Cold waves still washed across her mind as she struggled to remember who she was, how she had gotten here, or simply that there was a world outside this place of darkness.
It was as if something inside her was one with this place.
But as she watched the princess slowly rise to face her, standing before the large egg-shaped doors marked with three black lines, the symbol of the dark kingdom, the memory of the answer came crashing back into her mind.
From Cassandra’s angle, the three black marks carved into the great doors seemed to hover just above Rapunzel’s head. As if the merciless claws of some great predator had struck at her and barely missed.
It was only a matter of perspective, of course. But the image was enough for one thought to cut through the fog in Cassandra's mind:
She had made the right decision in not letting Rapunzel lay a hand on that stone.
Cassandra, surely, could tame this sensation coursing through her. She could get used to it.
But this power was the opposite of everything Rapunzel was. She was made for light. For joy. For life.
Not for that dark, icy force buried in the depths.
The collision between those two extremes could only end one way: with Rapunzel destroyed.
And now Rapunzel faced her with a mixture of apprehension and resolve.
The kind of expression she wore when preparing for confrontation.
Be my guest, then.
Cassandra - “Why? Go on, Princess. Take a guess.”
The look Rapunzel gave her stung where her armor could not protect her.
Rapunzel - "I... I don't get it"
She seemed more shocked and lost now than actually scared. Eugene, too, was getting up to stand beside her. Wary.
Always ready to protect her. So how could he not understand what...
Oh. Right.
He hadn't been there when Adira implied what could happen to Rapunzel if she got her hands on the Moonstone.
That's why he was so defensive.
Cassandra - "Of course you don't get it. That's what happens when you don't listen."
Cassandra had taken a few steps forward. Again, jagged stone spikes rose with every step she took.
Rapunzel - "Cass..."
Rapunzel stepped forward. She reached a hand toward her. Her feet carried her once more onto the bridge suspended over the void, separating the heart of this dark kingdom from the rest of the world.
Rapunzel - "What are you talking about? What do you know that I don't?"
Cassandra - "That you don't?!"
Cassandra let out a cold, unamused laugh.
A surge of cold energy ran through her body.
Cassandra - "You heard exactly what I heard. You heard what Adira said this thing could do to you, and you were still going to touch it."
The Moonstone crackled. Cassandra felt her chest burning with anger.
Anger at the fear in Rapunzel's eyes. Anger at herself for knowing exactly how to make sure Rapunzel never saw this coming.
And anger that every other path Cassandra could imagine had played out before:
Cassandra warning Rapunzel.
Adira pointing forward.
Rapunzel choosing forward.
Cassandra pushing.
Rapunzel's voice hardening.
Enough, Cassandra.
...Yes, Your Highness.
Cassandra - "You knew what I promised your father. This entire trip, I’ve had to beg you to listen to me when it comes to your own safety."
Cassandra had learned from that mistake. This time, she had kept her mouth shut.
Adira already wanted Rapunzel to leave Cassandra behind. Cassandra hadn't given Rapunzel another reason to agree with her.
Her voice sharpened.
Cassandra - "No more."
If the only way she could protect her was against her will, she would. Even if all she would have left to protect was a princess, and no longer a friend.
But maybe... Maybe Rapunzel would listen, this time. Let Cassandra finish before deciding what happened next.
Her expression softened as she looked at the princess.
The trip had been difficult. Rapunzel had admitted it herself. She had even thanked her, just before Cassandra took the stone herself.
That had nearly broken Cassandra's resolve. Not her resolve to take the Moonstone, but to deceive Rapunzel in order to do it.
And the day had been particularly hard on her. Not long ago, she had thought she was going to lose Eugene, and everything had escalated so quickly...
Don’t worry. Those words were about to cross Cassandra's lips as she softened at the sight of the lost princess.
But before she had time to say them, the large double doors swung open.
Lance - "So what did we... miss?"
Lance. And Adira, of course. Immediately, Cassandra felt her tension rise another notch. And with it, the electric crackling of the stone at her chest.
And Rapunzel was still moving closer.
Too close. With the anger boiling inside her... She still didn't know enough about how the Moonstone would react.
Rapunzel - "Cassandra, please... Let's... talk about this..."
Cassandra - "Stay back!"
A simple thought had been enough.
A simple desire. She wanted Rapunzel to stay back.
The thought had barely crossed her mind before that desire materialized into sharp, tapered rocks jutting up between her and the princess.
Cassandra barely realized what was happening in time to stop the spikes before they reached Rapunzel.
And obviously, her warning had not discouraged the stubborn princess in the slightest.
If anything, she seemed even more determined to run toward certain danger.
Rapunzel - "Cassandra, you've got to give me the Moonstone. It's too dangerous!"
Too.
Dangerous.
Cassandra could have laughed.
Rapunzel coming to her and telling her something was too dangerous, and that she should let her handle it?
This...this was too much.
Cassandra had thought Rapunzel had finally started to take her seriously, but...
No. She could see the same thing happening all over again.
Rapunzel had indeed been listening to her. Until Adira arrived.
As usual. That could have summed up their entire trip.
Adira had handed Rapunzel exactly what she always reached for when stopping became unbearable: a reason to keep moving. Even at the cost of her own life.
And now, Rapunzel was moving toward her again.
Rapunzel - "The whole world is at st—"
Cassandra - "I said stay back!"
This time, Cassandra failed to hold back the rocks. They were much larger. Much faster.
There was more than the simple desire to keep Rapunzel back.
There was every warning Cassandra had watched her brush past. Every danger Rapunzel had chosen to enter because she believed choosing it made the risk hers to take.
Except it had never been hers alone. Cassandra had always followed.
And every other time, there had been something left to save afterward.
The rocks hit Rapunzel full force before Cassandra could stop them.
The speed with which the Moonstone reacted to her every thought, every intention, was terrifying. There was no barrier left between thought and action.
Cassandra felt her blood freeze as she heard a scream. She watched Rapunzel fly backward before crashing hard onto the bridge.
Rapunzel's hair had flared into its golden shield to protect her, but it only showed how violent the blow had been.
Eugene - "Cassandra!"
Cassandra barely heard Eugene's indignant cry as he rushed to gather Rapunzel into his arms.
The blow could have sent Rapunzel over the edge, had she been any less lucky.
Electric arcs still raced through Cassandra's frozen chest.
She could have killed Rapunzel.
And it could happen again. It could be much worse next time. She had—
—No time to think. Adira had already leapt forward, drawing her sword.
She cut her way toward Cassandra, slicing through the black rocks.
Cassandra barely heard Rapunzel scream as the princess tried to hold the warrior back.
Too busy keeping her eyes on the angle of the sword as the warrior leapt at her.
She knew that angle. She had seen enough lethal strikes to recognize one.
Protect yourself.
An intention. A desire. A simple thought.
Cassandra crossed her arms before her on instinct.
But the Moonstone's reflexes, bound to her own, were faster.
Before she had even finished the motion, two black rocks had sprung up in a cross before her.
They couldn’t stop the warrior’s sword, which sliced through them as easily as paper. But they forced her to alter the angle of her strike.
She struck Cassandra not with the edge, but with the flat of the blade, which slammed into her raised arms.
The blow drove her backward across the smooth ground, sending her sliding until her back slammed into a jagged wall of black stone, with the tall woman looming overhead.
Adira - "Release the Moonstone, Short Hair! You don't know what you're dealing with."
Her voice rang out with infuriating confidence as she called Cassandra by that ridiculous nickname.
Cassandra hated her. Completely.
Push back. Hit back.
Cassandra - "Neither do you!"
It was like a thunderclap in her chest.
A burst of blinding blue light.
Then a blast erupted from her chest and struck the white-haired woman, sending her flying across the room and slamming her back-first into the rocks.
This time, Cassandra felt not the slightest remorse. If anything, the strength was exhilarating.
Finally, she could push back against Adira.
The force of the blast had knocked the warrior's sword from her grip. It embedded itself in the bridge not far from Cassandra, and her eyes fixed on it for a second.
That sword was the only weapon capable of breaking the black rocks.
Probably the only weapon capable of breaking her new armor.
With her heart pounding, Cassandra stepped forward. To take hold of the long black sword.
At her touch, blue filigree flared across the obsidian blade.
A shiver ran through her from her chest to her fingertips. Its pommel resonated with the stone at her chest.
Instinctively, she brought it behind her back. She felt a scabbard form naturally around it. Her armor spread around it, perfectly enclosing the blade.
It had finally found its true place.
Like the rest of the black rocks, this blade belonged to the Moonstone.
To her.
But Cassandra's gaze was already on Rapunzel, who still hadn't gotten back up and remained in Eugene's arms.
All of them—Rapunzel, Eugene, Maximus, Pascal—were still staring at her like...
... Like someone who had just sent several people flying through the air and into rocks.
She had to get away.
She didn't care what she had done to Adira. But she did care what she had done—or might still do—to the rest of them.
Until she could control the Moonstone, she was a danger to everyone here.
With no one left blocking her path, Cassandra ran.
She ran as fast as she could across the bridge toward the exit.
But Eugene didn't see it that way. Seeing her make a run for it, he set Rapunzel down and rose to block her path.
Eugene - "Oh no, you don't!"
Idiot.
Rapunzel tried to hold him back. Cassandra's heart tightened at the sound of her voice.
The tone Rapunzel used when she saw a friend in danger.
But Cassandra was a danger.
And if she let her emotions get the better of her, it would only get worse.
Before she could rein in her impulse to get Eugene out of the way, the flat of a rock struck him hard, sending him flying toward the back of the room as well.
As Cassandra ran, black rocks continued to spike up from the ground in her wake.
Rapunzel - "Cassandra! Wait!"
Her heart pounded as a fresh surge of panic sent her running even faster out of this cursed room.
Letting them take that stone back would doom them.
Staying close to them would only hurt them.
It didn't matter if they didn't understand.
Even if protecting them meant leaving them.
She couldn't let them catch up to her.