The gang watch Cassandra nervously as she ambles across the cable that stretches over the deep, dark chasm. Taking each step carefully and slowly, she holds her arms out on either side of her for balance.
"I mean, you'd think she would've taken the heavy armor off before climbing on a flimsy cable over an endless chasm..." Eugene remarks.
"Uh, maybe she's making a fashion statement?" Lance suggests.
"Honey, armor is so last fall," Shorty adds.
Normally, Varian would take up for Cassandra. But he is currently too nervous to hear what the others are saying. He is regarding Cass with bated breath, hoping with all his might that she makes it to the gondola safely. Ruddiger is on his shoulders, patting his head comfortingly.
Suddenly, Cassandra begins to wobble. Losing her balance, she falls to one side. "Whaa—"
The others gasp, but thankfully Cassandra catches herself by hooking the backs of her legs around the cable. Varian feels like he might faint from all the stress.
Grabbing onto the cable with both her hands, her legs still wrapped around it too, Cass begins to slide along the cable. She finally reaches the gondola and disappears inside it. Varian lets out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"Wow, that takes a lot of guts," Rapunzel says in amazement.
"I guess she really does have your back," Eugene says.
"I told you," Varian says.
But Eugene thinks for a moment. "...Unless she's planning on taking that car to the other side of the chasm and leaving it there. Then you'd have no way of getting across!"
Varian shakes his head, but Rapunzel appears anxious again. "Oh, come on Rapunzel! You can't actually believe that."
But as he says this, the gondola creaks and begins to move... in the wrong direction. As it slowly inches toward the other side of the chasm, Rapunzel and Eugene gasp.
"Just give her a second," Varian says to them, still having complete confidence in Cassandra.
Sure enough, the gondola stops and then begins to make its way towards them. Rapunzel and Eugene sigh with relief, but Varian smirks at them smugly.
Everyone climbs the platform to the gondola as Cassandra pulls it in. She pops her head out the window and stares at the others, but when they still don't enter she opens the door. "Um, did you want me to get the door for you, too?" She says, sounding irritated.
Rapunzel approaches Cass and throws her arms around her. Cassandra seems confused, but her face softens. The others hop inside the gondola, and they begin making their way across the chasm.
As Cassandra and Lance work together to move the gondola, Varian can't help but stare at Cass. He is impressed, amazed, and... concerned. He doesn't want to believe anything Rapunzel and Eugene are saying about her, but he can't shake the feeling that something is definitely off about her.
"Uh, that was pretty brave what you did back there," Lance tells Cassandra. "I mean, I was gonna do it before you volunteered, but..."
"Thanks, Lance," Cassandra says. "All in the name of fulfilling destiny."
"Wait... what?" Varian chimes in.
"You really buy all this destiny stuff?" Lance asks.
Cassandra pauses for a moment, and then smirks. "I believe everybody's got a destiny."
"Since when?" Varian asks.
Cassandra raises an eyebrow at him.
"It-It's just, I've never heard you say something like that before," Varian continues. "Doesn't really seem like your kind of thing?"
"Yeah, well... Things change," Cassandra replies. She suddenly clams up, like her usual self, and Varian takes it as a hint to make himself scarce. He waves to the animals, who are all huddled together in the corner of the gondola, and then he strolls to the other side, where Rapunzel and Eugene are having a quiet conversation.
"See? I told you guys Cass wouldn't let us down," Varian tells them.
"Okay, okay. I might have read too much into that monkey's warning," Eugene admits. He turns to face her as he continues, "It's just the thought of anything hurting you..."
"Hey, none of us want anyone or anything to hurt Rapunzel," Varian says. "But Cass wouldn't do that."
Rapunzel smiles gratefully at Varian, and strokes the side of Eugene's face reassuringly. But before she can say anything, they hear a loud thud! coming from above as the gondola quakes.
Staring up, the gang realize that there is a hatch in the ceiling of the gondola. Eugene opens it up, and gasps when he sees a large man standing on the roof of the gondola, wearing a bear mask and donning an axe. Before the stranger can chop them with his axe, Eugene slams the hatch shut and backs away, arms in front of Rapunzel protectively.
"Who is that?!" Varian screams.
"Can we not go just one place without some weirdo jumping out of nowhere?!" Eugene shouts.
The stranger continues swinging his axe in an attempt to get inside the gondola. Varian winces with each blow, hiding behind Eugene and Rapunzel.
"Lance, Cass, you guys keep cranking!" The princess tells them. "Get us across this as fast as possible." They immediately comply, and begin to crank faster. "Eugene, Varian, let's go see what our new friend wants," she adds, letting her hair down.
Eugene nods with determination. Varian is shaking nervously, but he nods as well and draws his sword.
The three of them climb out the windows, and pull themselves up to the top of the gondola. Eugene is the first of them to make it, and before he can react the stranger swipes his axe and breaks off the piece of the gondola Eugene was holding on to.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel and Varian both call out as he begins to fall backwards. But Maximus rushes forward and grabs onto his boot.
"Eugene, look out!" Varian shouts, pointing up at the stranger.
The man is towering directly above them, his axe at the ready. Rapunzel quickly whips her hair up at him, knocking his axe out of his hands. It slides across the gondola, and the stranger chases after it. He picks it up, but Rapunzel wraps her hair around his feet and pulls herself up.
Angered, the stranger grunts as he attempts to slice Rapunzel's hair off his feet with his axe. But he gasps in surprise when all this does is break one end of his weapon.
Taking advantage of the stranger's momentary distraction, Eugene leaps up and tackles him. But the man grabs Eugene, rises up, and kicks him across the gondola. Eugene breaks through the old wooden boards, but gets stuck in the hole, unable to move. The stranger rears his axe back, preparing to strike, but Rapunzel wraps her indestructible hair around the axe and pulls with all her strength, keeping the man from hurting Eugene.
Varian inhales deeply, and then charges at the stranger, sword held high. He plans on slicing that bear mask right off, revealing whoever their attacker is underneath.
But before he can do this, the stranger lands a well-placed kick in Varian's stomach. He flies backwards across the gondola, skidding along the old boards.
"Varian!" Rapunzel screams, loosening her grip on her hair as Varian plummets over the edge of the gondola. But Cassandra swiftly pops out of one of the windows, grabs Varian, and pulls him safely inside.
"Probably best you sit this one out," she tells him.
Varian nods, feeling an extreme adrenaline rush from both almost dying and being saved by the woman he loves. He momentarily loses consciousness as Ruddiger rushes over to him worriedly.
Returning to the crank, Cassandra and Lance continue to pump. But through the hole that Eugene created above them, they see the masked stranger use his axe to chop at the cable holding up the gondola.
"Guys," Rapunzel says to them, peeking down through the hole. "Uh, I'm not trying to rush you... Go faster!"
Cassandra and Lance put every bit of their strength into pumping, but the cable has already begun to fray. And Rapunzel and Eugene are all out of options.
"We're never gonna make it!" Varian shouts. Having regained consciousness, he is clinging to his raccoon nervously.
All of a sudden, they hear another shout in the distance. Seemingly out of nowhere, Adira comes sliding down the cable and does a flip onto the gondola, her black rock sword at the ready. She knocks the stranger over, who had Rapunzel and Eugene cornered.
"Aunt Adira!" Varian hollers excitedly.
"Where did she come from?" Cassandra wonders aloud with irritation.
"Like an angel, she fell from heaven," Lance says, a smitten smile on his face.
"And now Adria's here. Because, why wouldn't she be?" Varian hears Eugene say above him.
Through the hole in the ceiling, Varian sees Adira wave at them and then face off with the stranger. As the stranger attempts to attack her, she simply dodges each blow with leaps and flips. She endeavors to land her own blow with her sword, but the man flips it out of her hand with his axe. It flies off of the gondola, and stabs directly through one of the black rocks below with a flash of blue.
Without her weapon, the stranger manages to kick Adira off the gondola.
"Adira!" Eugene shouts.
"No!" Lance screams helplessly, as she falls down into the chasm.