*Okay, here's the thing. I'm changing the climax of the movie drastically. I'm sorry, but the girls are the main characters here. I'm giving them more to do than just trip the two henchmen while the boys chase after the main baddie. That's why Steph and Matt had to swim out of the mine rather than just be lifted up in a barrel. I wanted these guys to work for it. So I'm also giving Cristina and Nate more to do by holding up the wedding. In short, yes, I know this scene wasn't in the movie. I made it up for my own climax.*

Nate had managed to relocate the wig that Matt gave to Cristina. She put it on and changed into Stephanie's long white nightgown. "How do I look?" She asked. 

"Perfect... Princess Stephanie." He chuckled. Cristina did too. They took a strange, childlike joy in doing this; as if they were no more than teenagers pulling pranks on another friend. 

The two troublemakers were meant for each other. Cristina pulled Nate closer to her by pulling on his collar (Nate had removed his armored disguise, and was now in his usual red clothes, though he wasn't wearing his crown,) and kissed him. They separated, giggling.  

"Do think we're enjoying this too much?" Asked Cristina. 

"No possible way." He said. "Ready?"

"Ready." 

Meanwhile, Preminger was checking in on his fiancé. Because the wedding was so rushed, the castle staff hadn't even bothered to make a new wedding dress. Instead the queen was wearing one of her cream-colored gowns, and the castle staff had given her a veil to put over her face. They decided to use the supplies from what would have been Stephanie's wedding, much to the queen's discomfort. 

"Look at you..." He said. The queen turned to him to see him staring at himself in the mirror. "Looking at me. Wonderful." He then turned to the Queen. 

"And you look beautiful as well, your highness." He said. 

"Thank you." She stepped off the stand where the ladies were tending to her. "If you don't mind, I'd like to take a bit more time to mourn before the ceremony." 

Preminger was getting impatient, but he had to remind himself to play nice. "Your highness, I understand that you're in pain, but we must not delay for any longer. If we do not get this done as soon as possible, it may affect everyone in the kingdom."

The queen sighed. "I understand, but I-" 

Nate and Cristina nodded in unison. He knocked at the door, having listened in. Cristina hid behind the door so that when it opened, she would be concealed behind it. 

Preminger opened the door. He looked genuinely shocked. "King Nathan! What are you still doing here?" 

"I convinced my ambassador, Josh to let me stay for the wedding." He said. "He wanted us to leave, but I had to tie up loose ends. Your highness, I am deeply sorrowful about the death of the princess." Nate actually felt genuinely sorrowful. Even though he ever MET Stephanie, he did feel upset about her death, especially since she and Cristina seemed to be so close. "I understand that I am no longer.... needed for the kingdom's restoration. It seems as if you've found a fine man who can help in that department." He motioned to Preminger. 

"Yes, she has. Now, if you'll excuse us-"

Nate cut him off. "HOWEVER, to ease the tension between our kingdoms, I'd like to extend a formal trade agreement. It would be preferable if we did this before the wedding, so that you may start working with it as soon as the wedding is over." Nate held his breath. So did Cristina. 

"Oh, thank you, King Nathan." The queen said. "Preminger, I'm going to go handle this. Please, wait a little longer?" 

He gritted his teeth. "Of course, my queen." He could wait. He had a whole life of kingship ahead of him. What was another few minutes? Besides, now he had a trade agreement with King Nathan's kingdom. Already off to a good start. Nathan and the queen left the room as she led him to the throne room, where she preferred to do business. 

When the queen slipped out, Cristina slipped into the room without anyone, even Nate, seeing her. He only knew she was gone when the door closed and Cristina wasn't behind it anymore. 

Preminger kept admiring his reflection in the mirror. Cristina took a deep breath and came up behind him in the mirror. "Hello, Preminger." 

He screamed. "Princess?! No, wait- you're that-"

"Does it matter who I am? You have killed us both." She whispered, a chill in her voice. Cristina did all she could to keep from giggling. She liked playing ghost. 

"Killed you? So the collapse in the mines did finish the job." He snapped back to attention. "What are you?!"

"What do you think, Preminger? The last remaining spark of life... a life you took from me." She gritted her teeth. "This time I am not Cristina. But do not think I am alive and well. I... am dead." She had totally given up on grace, and instead walked with anger and dominance. "You killed me, Matthew, and even Cristina. Monster."

"Wait-"

"Monster!"

"Hold on!"

"MONSTER!"

Suddenly, Preminger stopped. Despite the panic, he started to see some gaps in "Stephanie's" words. "I never killed that other girl. The impostor." He said. Slowly, he started inching towards her.

Cristina noticed him calming down. It made her start to panic a bit, but she held herself firm. "She's in the dungeons right now." He added.

"You... may not have killed her literally, but your actions will lead to her death." She said. He was starting to doubt her. Luckily, now that she could drop the "princess" pretense, she could focus on playing the part better. And she had more in common with Steph than her looks. That was the one advantage she had in this situation. Anything that Cristina said was naturally something Steph would say, so Preminger wouldn't be able to doubt her supposed feelings. 

However, they had not been through the same experiences. And that was his advantage. 

"Princess, I promise, I had nothing to do with anything that happened to her. One of the guards found her out. HE had her arrested, not me." He said. 

Cristina balled her fists, channeling what Stephanie would say. "You DARE lie to me? I know for a fact that you had Cristina arrested. You did this to her!"

Preminger smiled. She had fallen right into the trap. He looked her right in the eye, making Cristina very nervous. "You're exactly right. But... there is no way you could have known that unless you were there." He stepped closer to her. "Cristina." 

Preminger grabbed her wrist, before ripping off the wig, revealing her short black hair. "This time, I WILL kill you." 

But luckily, he was one of those people who underestimated people based on gender. So he neglected to notice, (or care about) Cristina's hand coming up to slap him. It broke his hold on her wrist. 

He stumbled back. Cristina jumped back quickly, grabbing a glass vase. When Preminger stood up again, he lunged for her but she whacked him over the head with the vase, shattering it. 

Meanwhile, Nate and the queen heard the crash of the vase. "What was that?" She stood up from the desk, but Nate stood up as well to distract her thoughts. 

"Um... your highness, please allow me a few minutes. I think Josh is... throwing... hedgehogs.... out the window." Nate said. 

The queen's eyes went wide with confusion. "What?" 

"It's a very specific mental illness." Nate said. "Please allow me to check on him." 

"Oh, of course. I wouldn't want way more hedgehogs to get hurt." The queen said. She nodded, giving him permission to leave. Permission to go help Cristina. 

As for her, Preminger was standing up. She held what was left of the vase above her, ready to attack again. She was so preoccupied that she didn't notice him picking up a shard of glass. "Wait, wait!" He pretended to hold up his hands in surrender. "You got me, okay?" 

Confused, Cristina lowered the vase just enough for hum to knock it out of her hands and press the glass against her throat, pinning her in place. "You know, if you had told me from the start, we could have worked together. You could have been more than a stand-in. You could have been a queen." 

"But who's queen? Yours?" She laughed in his face. "I don't think so." 

"And why is that? We're both paupers. We both made our way to the palace through trickery. Or... is it King Nathan?"

Cristina's eyes went wide. Preminger chuckled. "Ah, I see. The pauper in love with a king. Adorable."

But Cristina wasn't shocked that Preminger found out about her feelings for Nate. She was shocked because Nate had snuck in behind him. Nate put a finger to his lips. 

"Well, here's my advice. Don't let that stop you. Because honesty will only hurt your plans. The only way to win in this world is to lie." 

"I'd rethink that if I were you." Before Preminger could even turn around, Nate had whacked him over the head with a table leg. He fell to the ground, landing on his back. 

Before Preminger could stand back up, Cristina and Nate were standing above him, looking more smug than he ever could be. "See Preminger, I think you're wrong about that whole 'lying' philosophy. I may have tricked people to get here, but I was honest with my intentions. With myself. And I'm glad I was." She smiled at Nate. 

"So am I." He said. 

"Oh, Nate, can you hand me that table leg?" Cristina asked sweetly. 

"All yours, honey." Nate passed it to her casually. 

"What are you two planning? The princess and her tutor are dead. There is no stopping this." Preminger said. 

"Yeah, well we don't plan to stop it. We plan to stall it. At least until they come back." Nate said. 

"Wait, Stephanie and Matthew? They're both dead!" Preminger tried to sit up, but Nate stepped on his chest, pinning him down. 

"Well..." Cristina shrugged and held the table leg loosely in her hand. "You've lied about everything else." 

And with that, she knocked him unconscious. "That should buy us some time." Nate said.

"Oh, I love you." She pulled him in again and kissed him. "But what are we going to do now? What's the plan? We can only stall for so long." 

"We have to prove that Preminger is behind this. Obviously, our word alone isn't enough, but if we can stall for long enough, we can stop the wedding all together." He said. Cristina looked upset. Nate placed a hand on her cheek lovingly. "What's wrong?"

"I just... wish they were still here." Cristina said. For once, she would meet Nate's eyes. Now that there was honesty between them, they could finally fully see each other. "I never had any friends until them." 

"I'm sorry. I know I didn't know them as well as you did, but... I'm sorry." He wrapped his arms around her, embracing her in a tight hug. She rested her chin on his shoulder, looking out the window. 

"Oh my god." Cristina let go of Nate, pulling away from him. 

"What?"

"Nate, out the window! Look at the mines! Someone's coming out!" She shouted. She couldn't see them very well, but there were indeed two very small dots that were clearly people. Cristina's years of sewing tiny details on clothes had trained her eyes very well, but not enough to see who it was. 

Nate rushed over to the dresser; one belonging to the ate king; Stephanie's father. Nate opened it, finding a telescope. He gave it to Cristina. "You have better eyes than me. You look." 

Cristina nodded and took the telescope. She looked through it, seeing the mines slightly closer. Enough to see a waterlogged woman coming out of a hole in the ground. She was wearing a plain underdress, but she didn't seem to care, as she was preoccupied with pulling a man, also sopping wet from the same hole. They were both panting, but after a few seconds of exhaustion, they started laughing hysterically. 

Cristina zoomed in on the man's face. "Oh my god." She turned back to Nate. "That's Matthew. Matthew's alive."

"Who's the other person, then?"

Cristina looked through the telescope again. "Turn around, turn around, turn around, come on..." She twisted the lens as far as it could go. She couldn't zoom in any more. Finally the woman turned around. 

Cristina gasped. "Who is it?" Nate asked, taking her by the arms. Cristina covered her mouth, trying to stifle her screams of joy as her eyes welled with tears. "It's Stephanie." Nate gave an astonished smile. "Nate, the princess is alive!"