Romance Fan Fiction / Other Fan Fiction ❯ Stars Above - A Cassunzel Fanfic ❯ Chapter 30: Soldier of Dusk ( Chapter 30 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

As Rapunzel looked at the entrance of the abandoned underground mine, she couldn't stop the creepy shiver that ran up her body. Rapunzel just so happened to stumble upon Gothel's hideout. She wasn't stupid. She knew it was no coincidence. Gothel wanted her to be here; she was walking right into a trap. But she couldn't find it in herself to care. Nova was there. Trap or not, she was going in to save her.

 

With a final deep breath, Rapunzel trudged forward and entered the cave. As soon as she did, the entrance closed and locked her in. Rapuzel stared at the dark, creepy path before her and she thinned her lips out, a fearful expression present on her face. Something about this place... unsettled her and she couldn't help but wish that Cassandra was here. If she died here... Rapunzel shook her head. No. She had to stay positive.

 

Swallowing down her fear, she started trudging forward and following the path that was apparently laid out for her. Rapunzel couldn't help but roll her eyes. Gothel was doing a poor job of making this look like it wasn't a trap. Then again, Gothel probably knew she was gonna show no matter what.

 

Rapunzel walked for a couple minutes before she came to an open clearing. Looking around, it was apparent there was no way out. That wasn't good. "Hello flower," Rapunzel jumped at the sound of Gothel's voice. Her heart immediately started pounding at the sight of the older woman walking down a pair of stairs; the smirk that Rapunzel always hated present on her face.

 

Swallowing, Rapnuzel stood as tall as she could. But in reality, she felt so small. Rapunzel wasn't scared of a lot - but there was something about Gothel that always frightened her. Even to this day. "W-Where's Nova?" Rapunzel mentally cursed herself for stuttering.

 

"Alive and safe," Gothel responded.

 

"Let me see her!"

 

Gothel smirked and suddenly, out of nowhere, something cold and unfamiliar slithered up her body. She realized she was being held in place by Gothel's shadows. Her heart started to race as Gothel got closer and closer. She struggled but to no prevail. Gothel stopped in front of her and roughly grabbed her face then she let go even rougher. "You really let yourself go, dear. See what happens when you leave your mother's side? I told you what was going to happen. You weren't ready for the real world. Look at the mess you got yourself in and the danger you put your family in. How sad."

 

Rapunzel narrowed her eyes. "You are not my mother," She seethed. "And I'm not a kid anymore. You have no control over me anymore!"

 

"Is that right?" Gothel mumbled and before she even knew what was happening, she was suddenly being roughly thrown against a wall. It knocked the wind out of her as she struggled to get up. Gothel didn't let her rest there, for she picked her up once more and threw her even harder against the wall. Rapunzel fell to her hands and knees and whimpered in pain. Gothel picked her up once more and this time, brought her towards her again. "Are you ready to listen now?" Out of self-defense and instinct, Rapunzel slowly nodded. "Good."

 

"Now," Gothel started. Gothel suddenly started to move, her shadows following her with Rapunzel with it. "Before you decided to betray me, I found out something extraordinary."

 

Rapunzel didn't like how she said that. "...And that is?"

 

"The fact that I don't need your hair to access the powers of the sunstone, of course."

 

"W-What does that mean?"

 

Gothel turned to her. "It means that there is another way to extract the power. Except it's much more... painful." Gothel smirked and Rapunzel gulped. "We never truly needed your hair in the first place. After I kidnapped you, I spent my time researching a way to use the powers of the sunstone without needing you so I could get rid of you. And the day you betrayed me, I found out how. You are the literal embodiment of the sunstone. It was born with you and it's a part of you. Therefore, there's a way to extract the power from your body."

 

"...The sunstone doesn't exist anymore. Besides, I don't have any powers anymore. They left when my hair was cut."

 

"Wrong!" Gothel shouted gleefully. "You can't access them because you don't have the actual stone anymore." 

 

"Exactly," Rapunzel responded, confused. "So how is it possible to extract the power?"

 

Gothel shook her head in exasperation. "I see you haven't changed much. Still clueless as ever." Gothel turned towards her once more. "The powers of the sunstone are quite literally your life source. But with an incantation - they can be removed. You wanna know the best part?" Rapunzel gulped at the animalistic grin that filled her face. "Since I'll be taking your life force.."

 

Rapunzel's eyes widened. "I won't survive it."

 

"Precisely!" Gothel patted her head. "You're not as stupid as I thought. And the second best part - it's a quite painful experience."

 

Rapunzel's mouth fell open in horror. "You're sick...! How could you do that? You raised me.." A realization struck Rapunzel. "....You never cared about me in the first place, did you?" It was said with such pain and heartache...

 

"An ungrateful brat like yourself? No, I never cared for you. You were merely a pawn." Rapunzel had to admit: that hurt like hell.

 

"You won't get away with this! Cass will come and-"

 

Gothel turned to her and gave her an amused grin. "Do you really think she's coming for you? It was made sure that she wouldn't."

 

Rapunzel stopped short and her eyes widened before they slowly darkened in warning. "What did you do?" Her voice was cold and threatening.

 

"It's not what she did," A voice cut in. Rapunzel looked up and her breath caught in her throat as her eyes widened. "It's what I did."

 

"Zhan Tiri..." Rapunzel said in horrified amazement.

 

Zhan Tiri slowly walked down the stairs, a smirk plaguing her lips. "Hello Rapunzel, it's such a pleasure to meet again."

 

"The feelings aren't mutual.." Rapunzel mumbled. That deserved her a tight squeeze from the shadows still wrapped around her. It slowly became increasingly harder to breathe. "I don't understand... How are you alive? We saw you die.."

 

"Oh, that's just what I made you believe," Zhan Tiri smirked. "You see, Gothel and I have been planning since before Cassandra and I even met. Everything that happened - it was all part of the plan. Unfortunately, there were some... setbacks." Zhan Tiri narrowed her eyes and snarled at Rapunzel. "Everything was going according to plan until you decided to steal my pupil's heart."

 

"If I remember correctly, you're the one that took the moonstone from her in the first place and ended her reign." Rapunzel responded sarcastically. That earned her an even tighter squeeze that had her seeing stars. And not the good kind either.

 

"Because I started second-guessing her loyalty. Thanks to you, of course. I had... big plans for her."

 

Rapunzel didn't want to know but she just had to find out. 

"...What kind of plans?"

 

"After she executed you and had the sunstone in her possession, I was going to take her all across the lands and manipulate her into destroying and taking over the world."

 

"Cass would have never-"

 

"Oh, you underestimate her motives! You weren't with her for the months she had the moonstone. Besides - as long as she had the moonstone and I kept using her own emotions against her, it would corrupt her until she was just a shadow of the person she was before. Then no one, not even you, could have saved her. Eventually it would have led to her death. Since she was being run on negative emotions, and the moonstone wasn’t meant to be used as such, her health would slowly deteriorate until it killed her. But by the time that happened.... the world would have been at our mercy. She would have done the dirty work for us." The smirk never left neither Zhan Tiri's or Gothel's face.

 

Horrified and disgusted, Rapunzel responded: "Cassandra is stronger than you think!”

 

"I beg to differ," Zhan Tiri responded. "I had her wrapped around my finger."

 

"But she still came back to the good side in the end!"

 

"She won't be on ‘the good side’ for much longer."

 

Rapunzel glared daggers at her. "Cass would never stoop to your level!"

 

Zhan Tiri's face slowly morphed into an unsettling grin. "Maybe not willingly."

 

"If you're thinking about trying to take her over again with the blackstone, it's not gonna-"

 

"Oh, but it will! Remember when you asked what we did? Without her even knowing it, I trapped her in her own mind. I showed her dark 'visions' where she failed to save you and the kid. I showed her her failures. I showed her the worst stuff imaginable. If she does choose to come and rescue you, her mind will be filled with so many degrading thoughts that it will be no problem to take her over."

 

Rapunzel’s mouth fell open. That was why she was acting like she was before she left... "You underestimate Cassandra. She won't fall for your plan. She's smarter than that!”

 

Zhan Tiri laughed. The bitch laughed. "Oh, but she already did! She walked right into my trap!" Rapunzel, eyes determined and dark, opened her mouth to say something else but suddenly Gothel's shadows covered her mouth, making her unable to speak and barely breathe. "And you know what I'm gonna make her do?" Zhan Tiri was now in front of her. As the demon gently traced her jawline with her claw and her evilistic grin widened, Rapunzel couldn't help but shrink back with fear. 

 

Zhan Tiri suddenly met her eyes. "I'm going to make her kill you and that daughter of yours. Once she realizes what she had done, she'd be so heartbroken that the blackstone will take over her soul completely and 'Cassandra' would be no more. She'd be a walking, mindless idiot only able to follow directions. Then we'll extract the sunstone power from you. You don't need to be alive for it to work." Rapunzel couldn't help but gulp as Zhan Tiri's eyes bore into her and her animalistic grin, as well as Gothel's, only grew bigger. For the first time since before she left the tower, Rapunzel was genuinely terrified and felt so small. So helpless. So... cowardly. She felt so alone. She was alone...

 

"You know, when you have a plan like that, you're not supposed to announce it. That's like villian knowledge 101." All three heads snapped in the direction of the voice. What they saw stopped all three of them in their tracks. All for different reasons. There stood Cassandra in all her glory, smirking in her usual confident manner, her arms crossed as she leaned against the wall. Rapunzel's eyes lit up in joy and relief as she tried to say her name but it came out muffled.

 

Gothel snarled. "How did you-"

 

"Your so-called 'guards', the ones who were guarding Nova, aren't very good at their job. It was easier to sneak into here than taking candy from a baby.” Cass paused then added: “Pun totally intended. She's safe and far away from here." Rapunzel couldn't help but take a sigh of relief. She also couldn't help the smile plaguing her lips at the fact that Cassandra, her Cassandra, was back to her confident, amazing self and better than ever. She missed that cocky smirk dearly. That smirk widened. "Sorry to put a damper on your so-called 'plan'."

 

Much to their horror, Zhan Tiri wasn't phased. Actually, her smirk only widened. "Who says you put a 'damper' on anything?" That's when Rapunzel noticed a strange figure slowly creeping behind her... Her eyes widening at seeing the low glow of the blackstone, she tried to warn Cass but she was already too late. 

 

From behind, the blackstone was shoved into her chest. Cassandra gasped and fell to her knees. As soon as the stone entered her chest, the shadows dropped Rapunzel to the floor. "No!" She shouted and tried to get up to go to her but black rocks suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking her path and effectively keeping her pinned to her spot. She watched helplessly as the stone took Cass over. Cassandra tried to fight it but it was just too powerful. Too strong. Cass clawed at her throat at the weird feeling of the power slither all over her body. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, that was for sure.

 

Black sparks flew in every direction and covered Cassandra like lightning. Cass's appearance suddenly started to change. Unlike her moonstone form, her raven hair turned into a deep dark blue color. Her clothes morphed into a blue and red leather jacket, black and dark blue pants, red and blue gloves and dark blue boots.

 

Cassandra let out a ferocious shout and the room was covered in black shadows. Then everything went quiet. Rapunzel slowly opened her eyes and she had to hold back a gasp as her breath caught in her throat. Cassandra stood tall, her eyes were dark and unrecognizable, and she looked absolutely terrifying. Her dark blue evilistic eyes suddenly found Rapunzel and her breath caught in her throat once more. 

 

"Kill her," Zhan Tiri said with a triumphant smirk. 

 

Cassandra raised her hand towards Rapunzel. 

 

...And attacked. 

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Phew, what a chapter. I have art for this but I don't think you can attach art so guess not haha. Anyway, we're getting so close to the end! (Unfortunately ;-;) But hey, don't worry! I'm thinking of making a sequel. ;3.