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

Chapter 18: Striking back

     Cassandra drummed her fingers on the piano that she sat atop, her sword discarded, placed behind her on the piano. With her other hand, she fingered the Cassandrium necklace that she had clasped around her neck that morning. Lance sat on the piano stool and Kiera and Catalina sat at the edge of the stage, swinging their legs over the side. Pascal and Ruddiger sat on her lap and Maximus, Fidella and Shadow stood to the side of the stage. Her Dad, Xavier, Monty, Feldspar, Hector and Adira sat around one of the tables. Attila, Big Nose, Shorty, Ulf, Vladimir, Pete, and Stan sat at the bar. The other guards sat around another table. The servants were scurrying around patching up a range of injuries from big to small, the men carrying equipment for the women and the women were clotting blood, cleaning cuts and one had sewn up Nigel's leg.

     Pascal had climbed out of the closest window in the hallway then ran as fast as he could across the courtyard and a fair way across Corona City. He was soon running out of breath and knew though determined that he wouldn't be able to run much farther. But that's when he saw Owl circling ahead at the same time the bird had spotted him. Both bird and raccoon hadn't wanted to leave their humans behind in unknown danger so had waited down an alleyway. Ruddiger had already been picked up by Catalina as she ran past and Owl swooped down, letting Pascal climb onto his back and delivered him to the Snuggly Duckling.

     Cassandra sighed, spirits were low, and she didn't have Rapunzel's enthusiasm. Rapunzel. The last time she had seen her, her princess had been in Lady Caine's clutches. Cassandra dreaded to think what was happening to her now, and Eugene. He had given himself up for the woman he loved, he had known it was absurd, that's why he had sent them away, but he had been prepared to risk himself to save her.

     "What do we do now?" Catalina asked, spinning around to face her and Lance. Neither had the heart to answer her because the truth was none of them knew.

     Cassandra picked up Pascal and Ruddiger and placed them beside her, hopped down off the piano and walked over to Varian. He was leaning against the wall on the stage, facing away from everyone. "It's ok, you did what he asked, there's nothing we could've done to stop him."

     Varian hung his head, "Nevertheless, I know that I should've done something more, I shouldn't have just walked away from them both,"

     "Hey! Hey," Cassandra grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to face her, "You did not walk away from anyone. No matter what trouble Eugene has gotten himself into I'm still saying that he acted like a jerk, okay? What happened with Rapunzel gave him no excuse to speak to you like that. But if we had stayed that just would've meant more of us in trouble - like it or not we were losing, we had no plan and they would've overwhelmed us. There was no right decision, we made the only decision that didn't involve us getting beaten, morally and physically. You did what you had to Varian,"

     "Here, here!" Lance cried, the Old Captain and Xavier raised their drinks. "We have faith in you little buddy!" Varian smiled shyly and rubbed the back of his head. Cassandra hugged him and patted his back. "Just like old times eh?" Lance speculated, some people in the room laughed,

     "Yeah, poor Eugene, his did his best, that day," Kiera said,

     "Good thing Rapunzel intervened when she did," Catalina added, "We could really use her upbeat morale right now."

Varian bit his lip and stared into the distance, deep in thought. Suddenly, he squared his shoulders and walked to the front of the stage. "You're right guys." Varian raised his voice slightly so that everyone could hear him. "We always looked to Rapunzel for light in the darkest situations and somehow, she managed to provide it no matter how the odds were stacked against us." He had captured the attention of the whole room. "We always depended on Rapunzel and she never disappointed us. Are you telling me that we are just going to sit here, while she and Eugene are in who knows what trouble? Our Princess and Captain wouldn't hesitate to help any of us so it's only fair that we do the same for them. It might have seemed that Rapunzel created positivity out of mid-air, but she reminded us of what deep down we already knew but had lost sight of in the gloomy situation. Each of us have something worth fighting for, whether we are fighting for our home or the people that we care about, something important to us. Coronans have faced worse together and it's when we stood together that we were strongest."