"Wither and decay.
End this destiny.
Break these earthly chains,
And set the spirit free.
Take what has been hurt,
Grant them no mercy.
Bend and break the reins,
And set the spirit free.
The spirit free..."
--
The Kingdom of Corona had received some distressing news. Their trade ships had all gone down, and people were afraid to go out on the sea around a certain area. King Fredric looked over the reports with a heavy heart, wondering what to do about this.
"Hi, dad!" As if somehow sensing his distress, or possibly just good timing, his beloved daughter Rapunzel came bounding into the room in her usual high spirits, tailed by her exasperated handmaiden Cassandra as usual.
"Why, hello, Rapunzel." Fredric chuckled, folding up the report and putting it in his desk. "What can I do for you?"
"I was thinking..." She leaned on his desk. "Why don't we go out to sea? Just us as a family. Oh, and Eugene. And Max. And Pascal of course. And also Cassandra."
"When did I say I wanted to go?" Cassandra asked with a groan.
"Hm..." Fredric looked thoughtful. On the one hand, he could go and check out the situation. If it turned out to be nothing he could actually do anything about, such as nature just being very aggressive, he could then move on to have a nice vacation with his family.
On the other, he really didn't want to put Rapunzel in danger. He'd only just gotten her back so recently after she was stolen from him 18 years ago.
But, he hated to let her down. And he did need to investigate what was going on there.
"Alright." He smiled at her hopeful expression as it turned to a cry of joy. "We'll go out to sea."
"Ugh!" Casandra threw her hands up. "I guess I better pack something a little more suited for sea travel to wear, then!" She stormed off.
"She's so excited!" Rapunzel said, gleefully oblivious to the handmaiden's annoyance.
--
"We're gonna what?" Eugene Fitzherbert, her ex-criminal boyfriend, looked up from admiring himself in a mirror.
"We're going out to sea!" Rapunzel bounced on her bare feet. "Isn't it exciting?!"
"Uh...but, Rapunzel, you know that sea air is bad for my hair." He said nervously.
"How do you know? We've never been at sea!" She spun in a circle and stumbled, falling into his arms. "Whoof!"
"Okay, save the falling over and stuff for when we're on the boat." Eugene laughed and helped her stand. "Ah, I can never tell you 'no', sweetheart."
--
That was how they ended up sailing out to sea. Rapunzel didn't care where they went, as long as it was out to sea, so her father took the lead.
His wife, Queen Arianna, walked up to where he was looking over a map. "Where are we going?" She asked with a knowing gaze.
He sighed. "To the Fallen Kingdom. Or where it was." He tapped the spot on his map. "You've read the reports, right?"
"I have." She nodded. "Are you going to tell them?" She looked towards the group of young adults that were interacting on-deck.
Cassandra had changed to an outfit that was more suited to a man to wear and was carrying a sword, a point of interest to Rapunzel who didn't see any need for weapons on this trip – but had brought her trusty frying-pan, anyway.
"I hope that it's nothing serious." Fredric said grimly, looking back at the map. "We still don't know what happened to the Dark Kingdom."
Arianna nodded, remembering how shocked they were to find out that their sister kingdom had disappeared overnight.
_-
It was a long ride, which only felt longer because of the close quarters and Cassandra and Eugene bickering over the littlest things like bratty siblings. Even Rapunzel was starting to wear down, but she refused to show it. Their beautiful sunshine girl was determined to keep the joy going.
They finally reached their destination and Fredric sighed as he looked around at what was a grand expanse of land, now nothing but ocean.
"So...what are we doing here?" Eugene asked as the King approached the side of the boat. "Not that I'm not having fun, I just thought we'd be doing a bit more, uh, land stuff at some point."
"Do you know what was here, Rapunzel?" Fredric asked, ignoring the man.
Rapunzel walked over to stand next to him. "Oh! Uhm...it's on the tip of my tongue..." She tapped her finger against her chin thoughtfully.
Cassandra sighed and walked over to stand next to her. "It's where the Dark Kingdom was, before they vanished a couple decades ago." She explained. "There's a lot of rumors around about what caused its disappearance, but no one has any concrete answers. Everyone from the Dark Kingdom vanished with it."
"Wow..." Rapunzel breathed. "Why was it called the Dark Kingdom, though? Isn't that kind of gloomy?" She asked curiously.
"The Dark Kingdom was said to be connected to the moon, just as Corona is connected to the sun." He smiled and brushed a stand of her brown hair behind her ear. "But...well, we don't know anything for sure."
"Yeah." Rapunzel nodded.
The boat suddenly lurched and she cried out as she nearly fell off the boat, saved by everyone next to her. "Phew! That was a close one!"
"Hngh..."
"Eugene?" She turned to him and saw her boyfriend slumping to the deck. "Eugene!" She ran over and knelt next to him.
"I-I'm okay. Probably something I—"
"Ohh..." Cassandra groaned as she and Fredric both slumped to the deck. "Feel...woozy."
Rapunzel frowned, and then she felt it. Something...was draining her. She suspected her own power was the only reason she wasn't as weak as the others. She looked over the edge and saw something glowing beneath the water. "There you are." She said angrily, climbing onto the railing.
"Rapunzel, what are you doing?!" Eugene called, but she was already diving down into the water.
She heard him before she saw him. A boy's voice singing a melody she would never, ever forget. The melody that Mother Gothel had taught her to sing every night. But, the words were...different.
"Wither and decay.
End this destiny."
'Oh no, you don't,' She thought, recognizing it as a spell that was meant to do the opposite of what she did. She swam towards this glowing stranger, furious.
"Break these earthly chains,
And set the spirit free."
He wasn't moving, she thought, but she was having trouble getting to him. No...she was growing weaker. That was it. She pushed through the pain and got close enough she could actually see the singer. It was a boy, couldn't be older than fourteen years old, and he had a black fin with a blue streak that glowed, and he seemed to have a matching set in his hair.
"Take what has been hurt,
Grant them no mercy."
Oh, right. He was still singing. Think about his appearance later. She swam closer, taking her frying pan off her belt and getting ready to strike him."
"Bend and break the reins,"
She felt her grip loosening and her lips parted as she grew unable to hold her breath any longer. Was this it? Was this how she died? She didn't want to die, not yet! There was so much she wanted to see, so much to do!
She'd only just recently left her tower...
"And set the spirit—"
A burst of yellow met her vision and she felt her energy return as horribly-familiar long, blonde hair sprouted from her head and startled the singer out of his song. He turned to go, looked back at her, then swam away in a swift motion.
'Okay! Great!' Rapunzel thought, swimming back up to the boat. With her strength no longer being sapped away, she could do this much faster!
Of course, she still had the problem of her hair weighing her down. She got near the surface and felt arms around her.
"I got you, Rapunzel!" Eugene said, pulling her up into a lifeboat. "I got—whaaaat the hair?!" He gestured to it while she coughed out water, safely out of the depths.
"I...I don't know." She croaked out. "But, I need it cut again. Now."
"Okay, let's get you back on the boat and, uh, we'll have Cassandra use her sword to cut it." Eugene said, then looked up. "I got her! Pull us up!"
They pulled up the lifeboat and get them back on deck. Rapunzel whimpered as she grabbed at her long hair. "I need this cut! Cut it!"
"On it!" Cassandra drew her sword and gripped Rapunzel's hair, starting to cut it. Oh, she tried to, at least. What actually happened was her sword was cracking and finally breaking and she stared numbly at the broken blade, then back at Rapunzel's long hair. "...Was this...a thing before?"
"No! Eugene cut it with a piece of a mirror before, and Mo—my kidnapper used scissors on it once! Why isn't it cutting?!" Rapunzel started hyperventilating, curling up in her hair like a blanket.
"Oh dear..." Fredric walked over to look at it. "Rapunzel...what did you see down there?"
She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "I saw..." She gasped. "That boy! He must've done something to me!" She got up and went to look over the edge for him furiously.
"What boy, dearest?" Eugene asked, confused.
"The boy that was singing the song that was kind of like mine but it hurt, it didn't heal, and he had a long black fin like a fish! And he had glowing streaks and a staff!" She gripped the railing. "My hair was perfectly fine and short and not magical and now after meeting him it's long again and can't be cut! He did something to me! We have to find him!" She turned to her parents.
They exchanged glances. "Rapunzel...we should get you back home to the safely of the castle." Fredric said, shaking his head.
"If we leave, then I may never find out why my hair is like this." She insisted.
"If we remain out here, then you're at risk of—"
"Don't lock me up inside! That's what she did!" Rapunzel cried, gripping her hair.
Everyone else onboard suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable.
"...Alright." Fredric said, glancing away. "We'll give you three days to try to find this boy. Then we'll take him back with us and find out what he did and how to undo it or go back without him."
"Okay." Rapunzel nodded, letting go of her hair. "So...where do we start?" She looked towards the sea.
--
"Varian."
The boy looked over from his alchemy work to see his father sitting at the mouth of the cave he'd set up shop in. "Yes, dad?" He swam over to him, leaning his arms on the rocks next to him.
"You were attacking ships again, weren't you?" His father, Quirin, looking at him with a stern expression. "After I told you to stop."
Varian glanced away, moving back into the water and sinking down until just his bright, blue eyes were looking up at him in a silent plea for forgiveness.
Quirin sighed and moved a hand to rub the boy's head. "It's...too dangerous for you to use your powers so much. You know that. If the King found out it was you that was using the powers of the moonstone..." He looked outside the cave. "Why do you think I moved us so far from the castle, Varian?"
Varian rose out of the water again, resting his arms on his father's lap. "Because you didn't want the King to know I was born with moon powers."
"Exactly. I told you about our origins, didn't I?" He looked at him.
Varian nodded and cleared his throat to recite. "'Years ago, before you were born, we were human and lived on land. Our Kingdom had long worshipped the Moonstone and its power, and when our King decided to take the power for himself, the Moonstone retaliated and we were changed and cast into the depths of the sea. The moonstone vanished, never to be seen again'." He tapped the blue streak in his hair. "Except it's not gone, it's right here."
"And if the King knew, he'd take you from me. He's gone mad with hunger for power, and searches for the Moonstone." Quirin pursed his lips grimly. "Which is why you must stop attacking ships that come too close to the Kingdom! You are drawing attention to yourself, what if someone saw you?!"
"I-I'm sorry..." Varian whimpered, looking down.
Someone had seen him, though. That strange human girl with the glowing hair. He couldn't let his father know about her, though. He'd never let him leave the cove! And then he'd never find out who the girl with the glowing hair was.
He had heard of power like that, like his but different. The sunstone, which had come down from the heavens at the same time as the moonstone. It added up and would explain how she was able to resist his powers longer than others had. And when she was at her limit, her hair had changed.
Fascinating. He had to study her. But from a distance.
"Varian, are you listening?" Quirin sighed.
Varian looked up at him. Quirin sighed and rubbed his head again. "Stay away from those boats, understand? And stop using your powers."
Varian pushed off and swam back to his workstation, going back to his project. "Yes, father." He said, though he had absolutely no intention in listening to him.