Tangled After The Series - There's No Such Thing As 'The End'

Chapter 22: Which one of us is in pain?

Warnings: mentions of blood, pain, injury, violence, near death experience

It was plain for anyone to see that the Coronans were winning their separate battles. Lance heaved open the bolts on Rapunzel and Eugene's wagon and Arianna darted in.

"Go now Lance, save Cassandra," the Queen said and went to untie her daughter's binds but Rapunzel shook her head and nodded at Eugene, him first. When Eugene had been cut free he ripped off his gag, kissed his wife on the cheek and shoved the bag that Varian had handed him at Lance's chest. Then ran to Quirin who had started fighting against Andrew.

He doesn't even know what that beast did to his son, Eugene thought, Well no one gets away with doing that to Team Awesome.

As soon as Rapunzel could move her arms she threw then around her mother, "I'm staying right here with you," Arianna consoled and kept one eye out upon the battle.

Lance tugged at the latches on Cassandra's wagon door but these ones were more stiff. Meanwhile, Cassandra sat beside Varian. "It'll be over in a few minutes," she said. Varian said nothing only gave a fragile smile before trying and failing to swallow back another scream of agony. The sound made Cassandra's heart shatter as easily as a mirror. His blood stained the frayed edges of the hole in his shirt. The door creaked open at last and Cassandra ran to it. She opened the bag in Lance's hands with Varian's spheres inside. "Take these," she pointed at the alchemy balls, "Trap them all." Lance saluted and dashed off.

Adira appeared to Cassandra's left, "What's our job not-so-short-hair?"

Cassandra scanned the room and spotted her target. "We are taking care of Lady Caine." And that they did, with a few of Adira's agile moves and Cassandra's sharp swordsmanship, the red head fell, and Lance launched two spheres at her to pin her two the ground. Lady Caine had put up a fight, once disarmed she used a tall candlestick like a spear – similar to Cassandra when she fought Lady Caine at Rapunzel's Princess Coronation. She had pushed Cassandra to the wall and dug the candlestick into her side, but Cassandra had kicked her away, "Only the alchemist gets away with trapping me," she told Lady Caine. Varian heard her and he laughed shortly and quietly. The two of them had the image of the automaton robot in their minds.

Wolf Catalina had easily managed to snap Clementine's wand and stapled her to the ground with her claws. Kiera whistled like a bird and Lance ran to the next with a sphere in hand. Hector and his creatures had swiftly felled Axel and the Brotherhood man held up his hand in Lance's direction. Lance fired two spheres at Hector who caught them and landed direct hits on the horse. King Edmund and King Fredrick had pushed the Stabbington Brothers and Anthony towards Pete, Stan and the Old Captain and while the guards were fighting them, the monarchs released Maximus then used the net to trap the three thieves, Lance made his way over and they too were bonded to the ground with a sphere.

Quirin and Eugene were still battling Andrew. Cassandra turned to her Dad, "Get the guards to come in here now and tell them to bring the others with them." He nodded and left.

Cassandra stalked towards Andrew, resembling a predator marking its prey. He was concentrating on Eugene and Quirin in front of him and not paying attention to Cassandra coming up behind him. She disarmed him from behind and took his moment of shock to kick his feet out from underneath him. Cassandra wrenched his hands behind his back and stood on them then grabbed his man bun and yanked his head up. She held her sword an inch from his throat.

"Cass, what are you doing?" Eugene exclaimed,

"Don't worry Fitzherbert, there's just something I have to take care of," she twisted Andrew's neck slightly to the left so that he had a perfect view of the wagon that Varian was still inside, "I'm fulling an important promise I made to your new nemesis." Before anyone other than Varian could register what was happening, Cassandra cut her sword through Andrew's hair and let his face fall to the floor. "Ew," she muttered and threw his man bun away. She had kept one sphere for herself and used it to glue Andrew to the floor.