From Your Tower ➛ OUAT

Chapter 24

"It won't matter, will it?" She asks, avoiding saying no to him. "I have no choice in the matter anyway."

"There is always a choice."

"No there isn't, not with Pan."

"He isn't that bad." He tries to reason. Of course he would say that, it is himself after all.

"He hasn't shown me that side yet."

"One day." Pan says, and she can basically feel the shield to her emotions having a small crack.

"I thought you hated him. Why all of a sudden you are speaking of him so fondly?"

He didn't know what to say for a second. "I'm starting to get his motives."

Another crack.

"What freaking motives? He has tried to take over your body for years, and for what? To make everyone on this island bat-shit crazy! Seriously, Pan, what is wrong with you?"

And it came down. Her shield. She couldn't hold it up any longer, all of the feelings she was pushing away came to the surface. Disgust, fury, sadness.

"You don't understand what it's like!" Pan's cover broke, and the innocent look went away. The fire in his eyes was back, and she would be lying if she said it didn't scare her. "You think you know what it's like to be not in control of your life? Imagine me! Imagine having no choice but to watch on in everything that Peter does. Imagine him pushing you back, calling you nothing less than a monster. I wasn't a monster in the beginning. But I became one when he kept on calling me one. He needs to understand how it feels. Rapunzel, I need to live a life. I need to be able to be in control for once."

"I'm not feeling sorry for you." She spat.

"You think I chose this?" He snapped. "You think I chose to be in Peter's body? Do you think I chose to be evil like this? Newsflash, princess, I didn't! I was made into his life, I was deemed a monster from the very beginning! If I could have been made into my own body, if I could have been my own person, I wouldn't have been like this."

"I'm not convinced."

"I'm sorry." He says. She looks to him confused, only to become more confused when she saw how genuine he really is. "I never meant for this to happen to you. I know you see me as a monster, and I know everyone else does too, but I only really cared about your opinion."

"That is bull." She snaps, forcing away the tug at her heart with his puppy-dog eyes.

"It's not. I know it sounds extremely silly, but when you were talking to Peter, spilling out your feelings, kissing him, I couldn't help but feel like you were talking to me."

"Silly?" Rapunzel laughs. "More like demented."

"I don't know what I did to make you hate me so much."

She didn't know either. Why did she hate him so much? Why did she have to be so harsh to him?

It was for Peter. He had hurt Peter, he had caused him pain.

But he had caused Pan hurt too.

What was he doing to her?

She was turning rogue.

Her eyes widen in recognition. She was turning rogue, which meant she was starting to feel the feelings for Pan that she normally did for Peter.

She didn't bother an explanation to Pan, all she did was run away. One part of her was hoping that he would follow her, but the other, the sane part of her, hoped he fell and died.

Rapunzel couldn't help but feel a new remorse for Pan. What he had to deal with, she never saw it from the way he did. She became what she never wanted to be, all in a nutshell.

And when she fell to her knees and cried out, she felt every single emotion and thought she ever faced onto Neverland.

She thought of the reason she had met Peter in the first place. Then she looked over to the side of the island.

When she slowly walked over to the edge and the tears just went down her face, she thought of her old life in the tower. Was it that bad that she thought of killing herself?

Yes, it was. She knew that now. Tasting freedom once made her grave it more than anything. She wanted to be in control of her own life, and if that meant taking her own life to make sure she makes her own decisions, then so be it.

She never felt so close to Pan before.

At the bottom of the cliff was rocks. Pointed, jagged, and all she could do was wish that it would not be suffering.

She turned around and closed her eyes.

"Rapunzel, darling." A voice stopped her. When she opened her blue eyes, her mother was in front of her. "Rapunzel, please don't."

"Why not?" She chocked out. "What do I have to live for?"

"Me, you have me." Gothel tried.

"I never had you." Rapunzel snaps. "You only wanted me for my magic, and that's probably all you still want me for."

"That's a lie. That was how it was at first, but then I started to see you as my daughter. Rapunzel, you are my daughter."

Would it be so bad if she lived? She could get out of Neverland with mother, they could start a new life. Gothel might even give her freedom to go out and about.

Rapunzel wiped away a tear and stepped towards Gothel. "I may be your daughter, but you will never be my mother."

And before Gothel could say "Stop!" Rapunzel turned around, and jumped off the side of the cliff.

"No!" Gothel screamed and fell to the floor.

The woman tried to cry, she really did. But she couldn't do anything but smile.

For the flower is reborn.