Romance Fan Fiction / Other Fan Fiction ❯ Stars Above - A Cassunzel Fanfic ❯ Chapter 29: Destruction of the Light ( Chapter 29 )

It was mid-day when Rapunzel heard screams of terror coming from outside. Rapunzel, worried, peered outside the window and gasped. Buildings were on fire and people were panicking and running, arms flailing and adrenaline pumping. She quickly sprinted around and ran to Nova's room. She took a sigh of relief in realizing that the baby was okay. After she picked her up and took a couple minutes to try and calm her, Rapunzel suddenly became increasingly aware of the heat coming from outside of Nova's room. She placed a hand on the door and quickly pulled it away. The door was burning hot and there was smoke coming through the small crack at the bottom.

Now stuck in a two-story building, in a small room with no way out, Rapunzel pressed herself as far away from the door as she could. She held Nova to her chest and lowered herself to her knees as she leaned against the wall; coughing the whole time. The room was filling up with smoke quickly. Too quickly. It wouldn't be long before the flames reached them or they died from smoke inhalation. Nova was crying, still pressed closely to Rapunzel's chest. Panicked, Rapunzel leveled her voice and gently bounced the baby. "Shh, shh.. Nova, it's alright, it's okay. It's going to be okay." In truth, she didn't know if she believed that. Cass had gone out to the market nearly two hours ago before all this even started. Was she okay? Rapunzel had no idea. What was even happening? What if...

Rapunzel quickly shook her head. No, Cassandra was perfectly fine. And she was going to save them. She always did. Rapunzel was doing everything in her power to stay calm for Nova's sake. But in reality, she was terrified. She didn't know if her wife was okay and she was currently trapped in a small room while the rest of the house burned and festered. As minutes ticked by, the more suffocating smoke entered the room and the closer the flames got to them.

 Having been trained what to do in this scenario, Rapunzel grabbed a cloth and dipped it in the water next to Nova's bed. She then gently placed it on Nova's nose and mouth. It would help protect her from the smoke. As for Rapunzel, well, there wasn't another rag but she didn't care about herself. All she cared for was her infant baby's safety.

Rapunzel covered her mouth into her sleeve, coughing and choking all the way. She suddenly started to feel dizzy as she got them both even closer to the ground. Rapunzel was running out of air as she did everything she could to stay conscious and keep pressing the rag to her daughter's face. "...Please.." Rapunzel wheezed. "...Cass, help.." Rapunzel's voice was barely above a whisper. Rapunzel suddenly fell onto her side, the baby still tightly clutched to her chest. "...C-Cass..." Rapunzel whispered one final time. Before everything went black, Rapunzel could barely make-out a familiar shadow smirking above her...

Rapunzel woke with a start as she shot up, breathing roughly. Hyperventilating, she suddenly felt two comforting hands on her shoulders. "Rapunzel! Breathe, come on, breathe..." Cassandra shushed as she rubbed circles on her back until Rapunzel's breathing eventually evened out.

"C-Cass…?" Rapunzel wheezed.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Cass confirmed quietly. Something about her tone of voice worried Rapunzel. "Here," Cassandra said softly as she pressed cool water to Rapunzel's lips. She drank greedily before trying to speak again.

"C-Cass, what..." Rapunzel, who's eyes finally unblurred, saw her wife sitting in front of her but she looked... different. No, not different... normal. Her once teal hair was reverted back to her raven locks and her once teal eyes were reverted back to her beautiful hazel hues. "....happened?" Cassandra suddenly looked away, a pained, guilty, sorrow-filled expression on her face. Rapunzel knew that expression... Something was wrong. Really wrong. Suddenly realizing something, Rapunzel treaded carefully. "...Cass, where's Nova?" Cass didn't respond. To her horror, Cassandra's expression darkened and she continued to avoid eye contact. Becoming panicked, Rapunzel gripped both of Cassandra's shoulders tightly. "Cassandra, where is-"

"Gothel took her." Cassandra mumbled, then she finally looked into her eyes. Rapunzel's horror-filled expression didn't help the tears that were already forming in her eyes as well as fear, sorrow and immense guilt. "I-I'm sorry, Rapunzel, I-I tried..." Cassandra swallowed. "...Gothel used her blackstone powers to keep me busy. While I fought off the shadows, she slipped through and by the time I realized what was happening... It was already too late. I smelt the smoke and I could see the flames from a mile away. I got there as fast as I could. While I was distracted trying to save you both from the fire, one of the shadows grabbed the moonstone from right under my nose. When I was finally able to make it to you... you were barely breathing. And Nova was..." Cassandra looked away again. "...already gone." Cassandra swallowed again. "I-I'm so sorry... I promised to protect you.. to protect you both... but I failed. As I always do."

Rapunzel placed her fingers under her chin and gently lifted her head, wiping the falling tears in the process. "I-It's not your fault, Cass, don't blame yourself." Rapunzel suddenly stood up. "But we need to go now." As soon as she got to her feet, she suddenly felt dizzy and almost fell back down but Cassandra caught her.

"Rapunzel, you're in no condition to travel. I don't think you understand the severity - not only do you have second degree burns, deep lacerations, but you also inhaled a lot of smoke and-"

"Cass, we don't really have a choice! Nova is in danger - we can worry about me later!"

Cassandra suddenly shot back, her eyes angry and fearful. "You don't get it, do you? I don't have the moonstone anymore! We don't stand a chance against-"

"So we're just gonna sit back and do nothing? I told you already, the moonstone doesn't make your pers-"

"It makes me strong! L-Like this, I am nothing! I. Am. Nothing! I-I can't protect you, I can't protect Nova, I can't do anything! I promised I would protect you both - I-I promised... I'm worth nothing without the moonstone. ...I'm useless now... Without the moonstone... I'm not.. me... I can't give you the life I promised. I can't do.. anything. "

"Cassandra, I didn't marry you because of the moonstone. I didn't fall in love with you because of the moonstone. I have watched you take on pirates, demons and so much more without the moonstone. I didn't marry you because I wanted 'the perfect life'. I married you because I love you. I fell in love with Cassandra. My confident, strong, considerate, loving best friend. N-Not this... person who thinks she needs some kind of magical power to be strong and worthwhile."

"....Then I guess I'm not the person you thought I was." Cassandra whispered.

Rapunzel shook her head and cupped both of her cheeks. "You're that and so much more." She whispered. "I fell in love with you, Cass, you. You're courageous, loving, brave and stronger than you think." She gently rubbed her thumbs over her cheekbones. "You're the strongest person I know. You don't need some kind of ancient power to prove that - you've been proving it to me since the first day I met you. The moonstone is a part of you, yes, but you control it, as I have said before. Everything that you did - it was because of you. Not the moonstone. Not some other ancient power. You. You've climbed and climbed your whole life without the moonstone."

Cassandra pulled back and away from her. "And where did that get me? I've always been an outcast, I've never fit in. For my whole life, I worked and worked to try and get somewhere, to try and rise, but it always ends the same: in failure."

Rapunzel crossed her arms. "And do you know why?"

"Because I'm a failure?"

"No, Cass. Because you set yourself up for failure. If your mindset is in a negative place, if you always tell yourself you're gonna fail, you're going to fail. Ever since I met you, if something bad happened or there were setbacks, you always gave up. So what if you've made mistakes? So what if you're not the same as everyone else? Who wants to be normal anyway? That's life, you're going to make mistakes and you're going to fail every now and then. But you can't let that deter you, you can't let those failures run the rest of your life. You can't give up. Ever. ‘Cause the moment you do, you already lost before you even began."

Cassandra had her arms crossed as she looked away ashamedly. "I gave up a long time ago." She mumbled.

Rapunzel huffed. "You know what?" Rapunzel uncrossed her arms and turned towards the doorway. "I'm going to go save our daughter whether you're coming or not," As she walked past the still ashamed-looking Cassandra, she gave her a half-attempted, disappointed glare. "You're welcome to join me when you find the confident Cassandra I know and love." With that, Rapunzel walked out of the door and slammed it shut, making Cassandra wince.

Cassandra stared at the spot where Rapunzel once stood, her lips pulled into a thin line. Her eyes casted downward as she held up her scarred hand and squeezed it into a tight fist. As Cassandra slowly lowered herself to the ground and hugged her knees tightly to her chest, her back against the hospital bed, she couldn't hold it back anymore. Hiding her face in her knees, she finally let the tears fall that she had been holding back for the last couple of hours.

Everything was perfect. She was finally happy. How could everything go wrong so fast? Why did the world hate her? Why wouldn't it allow her to stay happy? As a million negative thoughts raced through her mind, her silent tears turned into soft sobbing.

As always, she ruined everything. She couldn't do anything right: not even protect her own family that she promised. So much for never breaking a promise. She lost the two most important people in her life in one day. How is that even possible? Her best friend, her wife, her light and her beautiful daughter that she loved so much were gone. While Rapunzel was out there, fighting for their daughter's life unknowing to the fact if she was even still alive or not, all Cassandra could do was crumble, break and sit pathetically on the floor and sob uncontrollably. How pathetic was that? She lost her light and now what was left in its place was complete utter darkness that she couldn't seem to escape from. 

Her heart, her hope, her everything was shattered to reveal the cold truth of reality. The reality that she forgot was there for a while. She knew it was too good to be true. She didn't deserve love, she didn't deserve to be happy and she most certainly didn't deserve Rapunzel and Nova. Cassandra pulled herself into a tight ball as her sobs slowly started to fill the quiet room, the quiet halls, and she realized one thing:

All this, everything that was happening, was all her fault.

Hey guys, I apologize for such a short chapter. I promise the next chapters will be longer. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed, reviews are always appreciated (your guys' reviews are warming my heart and it's giving me so much confidence so thank you, thank you so much!). Stay tuned!