"Richie..." Y/n's sighed as she paced around the prison cell, her hands folded behind her back.

"Forget it," Eugene said, staring at the ceiling from his own bed. "We're stuck in here."

She whipped around, burning a hole into him. Their friend really was only so important to him? "What about Richie?!"

"What about him?" he sighed, throwing his hand over his eyes. "He's screwed, we're screwed...hey, life goes on. Not for us, but, you know."

"So you don't care?!"

He removed his arm, glaring at her now as he leaned on his elbow. "I never said I didn't care. I just said it doesn't matter anyway."

A guard opened the door, but thieves tithing to face him. "Let's get this one with, Riders," he said, chin in the air.

"Where are we going?" Y/n asked innocently. Hopefully to save Richie. But the guard stared her down in response. She put her hand to her throat, beginning to understand. "Oh..."

-

Gothel took out the last of the flowers in Richie's braid, dropping it in her basket. "There! It never happened!" she announced cheerfully as she got up, basket over her arm. "Now. Wash up for dinner. I'm making hazelnut soup." But when she turned to gaze at her lost prize again, she saw him sadly looking down at the floor. Y/n...and Eugene...

"I really did try, Richie. I tried to warn you what was out there. The world is dark, selfish, and cruel. If it finds even the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys it." She shut the curtain, leaving Richie to slowly open his hands, the piece of cloth with the crest on it, blinking away the tears.

Pascal squeaked, turning blue as he leaned against Richie's arm.

He flop back on his bed as he imagined what could have been with Y/n. Even what had was wonderful x even if it was all fake. Just s way to get the satchel back and run off with Eugene as Flynn and Jaylyn Rider.

He opened his eyes, catching something. At first, he thought he was hallucinating, but then he unfolded the cloth, looking at the sun. The paintings on his walls seems to have the same pattern and random spots. He sat up as the different suns in his flowers, plants, and when angel seemed to glow at him. In the middle of the room he stood, eyes wide as he had a flashback.

-

A blurred image of a woman and man appeared, the woman putting something on him.

-

The mural at the festival stood had contained two very similar looking people as the monarch.

-

Turning to the mirror, he slowly raised it up and put it on his head, taking his hands away slowly. It felt...right. As if...

Because he was.

-

Gasping, he fell backwards into his vanity table, trying to get ahold of himself.

-

Both prisoners kept their heads down as they were walked to their execution. Y/n glanced over and noticed the Stabbington brothers in one of the cells. Scowling, she body slammed her guard away and rushed to the cell, grabbing Sideburns by the jacket. "How did you know about him?!" she yelled, her voice echoing in the empty room. "Tell me now!"

Surprised that this was Y/n now, he stuttered on a defensive surrender, "It wasn't us! It was the old lady!"

She loosened her grip, beginning to realize Richie's 'mother's' intentions. "Old lady...?"

The guard grabbed her again, pulling her away from the cell. "Wait, no! Wait! You don't understand! He's in trouble! Wait!" She silently begged Eugene, naturally as charming as ever, but no longer seductive, but scared. And for the first time, her victim shook his head, looking down. [HELP YOUR FUTURE FOSTER BROTHER-IN-LAW, GOOD SIR.]

-

"Richie?" Gothel called, slowly climbing up the stairs. "Richie, what's going on up there? Are you alright?"

He stopped in his doorframe, mumbling, "I'm the lost prince..."

Gothel scoffed, demanding ever so rUdElY, "Please speak up, Richie. You know how I hate the mumbling."

Straightening his posture, he glared at her. "I am the lost prince. Aren't I?"

Gothel gawked at him, no longer full of insults towards her 'sOn', but now fear that threatened to spill from out her throat and engulf her whole.

"Did I mumble, Mother? ...or should I even call you that?"

Finding her voice again, Gothel tried to laugh it off as she walked up the stairs. "Richie, do you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?"

"It was you!" he shouted, pushing her. "It was all you!"

She stood upright again, her face hardening, trying to make it look like motherly sternness, but it came off as a witchy glare. "Everything I did was to protect you."

Consumed with anger, he pushed her away again, storming past her. "I spent my entire life...hiding from people who would use my power!"

"Richard!"

"When I should have been hiding from you!"

The same affect as earlier came back on, venom and a bit of pride dripping from her voice instead of stern love. "Where will you go? They won't be there for you."

"What did you do to them?" he demanded.

"Those criminals are to be hanged for their crimes."

He gasped as he imagined the guards trying to force Y/n to the noose while Eugene would be there to fend them off, but all in vain. "No..."

"Now, now," Gothel tried more gently. "It's alright. Listen to me. Everything is as it should be." She tried to pat his hair again, but this time, Richie caught her by the wrist, glaring at her, eye contact maintained at all times, no matter how much Gothel struggled.

"No. You were wrong about the world. And you were wrong about me. And I will never let you use my hair again!" He threw her backwards, Gothel knocking into a mirror. It fell over, the frame shattering on impact. She looked from the mirror to her prisoner, who angrily marched the other way, ready to find a way to escape.

All love devoid from her eyes, she whispered only for herself to hear, "You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I'm the bad guy." [Duh. *instrumental break* I'm only good at being bad...baaaaAAAADDDDdddd]

-

Y/n finally stopped struggling as she tried to think of a rational way to get out. The guards approached the door, time stopping [ZA WARUDO! TOKI WO TOMARE!]. But she snapped out of it when she saw a ceramic unicorn on one of the cell sills. Curiously, she kept it in her sight until all the doors suddenly banged closed.

"What's this?" The captain banged on the door to the noose. "Open up!"

The window slider slid open, the old drunk man on the other side. "What's the password?" He shut it again, only opening it again to answer.

"What?"

"Nope."

"Open this door!"

"Not even close."

"You have three seconds! One..."

A hook came down from the ceiling, picking up Eugene's guard, Y/n's looking around worriedly.

"Two..."

Another came down and picked him up.

"Three..." The captain turned around, confused as to why only the prisoners were there. Goofball persona reignited, Eugene just waved.

One of the thugs from the bar opened from the other side and wacked the guy as hard as he could with a frying pan, Y/n perking up.

"Frying pans! Who knew, right?"

More guards came rushing at them, Eugene taking Y/n's hand and running for it, but the thugs made sure nobody got to them.

The mime put out a hand for them to stop. He did a few hand motions, then signaled for then to look to their right. Vladimir came running at them, the guards screaming as they were tackled by the hefty guy.

-

As they got down, more guards came charging after them. Hook Hand picked up Eugene and put him on a wooden board, then picked up Y/n and put him in his arms.

"Head down," he directed him.

"Head down."

"Hold on to her tight."

"Hold on to her tight."

"Knees apart."

"Knees apart - knees apart? Why do I have to keep my knees apar -"

That was when Vladimir jumped on the other end, sending them both flying. They screamed as they toppled through the air before landing safely...on a beautiful white stallion.

"Max..." Eugene realized. Maximus only smirked back at them. "You brought them here?"

His lips curled a bit in confirmation.

"Thank you."

He shrugged in his own horsey way.

"No really, thank you. Uh, I feel maybe this whole time we've just been misunderstanding one another. And we really just..."

Maximus and Y/n gave him the 'wrap it up, kid' look.

"Yeah, you're right. We should go." He swung Y/n behind him as Max dodged the crossbow arrows. Guards came from the other side, though, trying to get to Eugene and Y/n.

"Max..." Eugene asked hesitantly as he only picked up speed. Y/n grabbed onto his waist, trying not to look down.

When he was close enough to the edge, Max jumped over the guards, flying over the kingdom while the others screamed, praying to god they did not die. He slid off a roof, back into the air, and then fell back on the ground, citizens quickly moving for him.

"Alright, Max. Let's see how fast you can run," Y/n encouraged and he did, in fact, show her, almost throwing them both off as he picked up speed across the bridge.

-

Not even waiting for them to stop, Y/n jumped off. "Richie!" she called. "Richie, let down your hair!"

When nothing came, she grabbed onto the stones to the tower, ready to climb, until something inside moved. She backed up, waiting expectantly, before a long trail of blond hair came down after her. She jumped into it before it could finish falling and climbed, Eugene following.

Jumping in, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Richie, I thought I'd never see you again." But when she looked up, she saw him bound and gagged, screaming at her to run. But before she could run over and untie him, she felt something stab her in the rib. She fell over, grabbing onto it, Richie's screams getting louder as he tried to call her name. Gothel only scoffed as she paced in the other direction, Eugene climbing up. He took one look at Y/n on the ground and was about to go into ultra protective big brother mode, when Gothel saw him and took another stab at it [*badum tss*], but Y/n saw and forced herself up, getting in between them, hands on Eugene's shoulders. "No...!" she cried as the blade pierced through her shoulder blades. This time when she fell, there was no getting up.

"Oh, look what you've done, Richie," Gothel scoffed as she threw the blade aside near a picture of an apple. "Oh, don't worry, dear. I'll take care of him later and our secret will die with them." She picked up the chains, trying to drag him along, but he resisted, trying to crawl to Y/n as he felt the tug. "And as for us? We are going...where no one...will ever find you, again." But he kept pulling, not easy to go without a fight. Pascal finally made himself known, trying to pull her away, but Gothel kicked him back. "Richard, really! ENOUGH ALREADY! STOP FIGHTING ME!"

"NO!" he cried, the gag falling around his neck, hair in his eyes. "I won't stop! For every minute of the rest of my life, I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you!" He recollected himself before finally offering, "But...if you let me save her...I'll go with you."

"No...!" Y/n cried out in a gasp, Eugene already cradling her from behind. "No, Richie..."

He ignored her, too deadset on saving her life. "I'll never run. I'll never try to escape. Just let me heal her and you and I will be together. Forever. Just like you want," he promised, fully believing that was what she really wanted. "I promise. Just let me heal her."

She eyed him suspiciously, face unmoving.

"Just let me heal her."

-

Gothel tied her up, whispering menacingly, "In case you get any ideas about following us."

Once she was gone, Richie was by her in an instant. "Y/n! Oh, I'm so sorry...everything is gonna be okay, though."

"No, Richie..."

"I promise. You have to trust me."

"No...I can't let you do this...!"

Her eyes were already struggling to stay open as Richie looked over her, tearing up, his beautiful thief in the much pain. "And I can't let you die..."

"But if you do this..."

"Shhh..."

"Then you...will die..."

"Hey." He cupped her cheek. At least she would be living. "It's going to be alright."

"Richie, please, hurry," Eugene begged. "We can get you out, just don't let her die."

His gaze fixed itself upon him for a minute before he shook his head. He never broke a promise.

He took Y/n's hand and put it up to his head, opening his mouth to get easy to sing.

"Richie...wait..."

He opened his eyes as he saw Y/n lean in. He went to do the same, not noticing the piece of glass from the mirror in her hand. In a swift motion, she chopped it off with the last bit of strength she had, her arm falling back.

Richie touched his hair as it began to rapidly turn brown. "Y/n, what..."

"NO!" Gothel screamed as she looked at all the hair, gripping her wrist as it turned white and crinkly. "No...NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHAT'VE YOU DONE?!" She saw her reflection in the mirror, aging rapidly. "NO! NO!" She pulled her cloak down as she screamed, fumbling around the room. "NO! NO!"

Fed up with this nonsense, Pascal used the dead hair to pull out and trip Gothel. She fell out the window, screaming. Richie reached out for her as the screams fading to nothing, Gothel only a pile of dust.

After recollecting and realizing what the heck just happened, Richie threw himself back over to Y/n, begging, "No, no, no, no, Y/n...! Oh, look at me! Look at me! I'm right here!"

"Y/n, why...?" Eugene said quietly, then more angrily, "Why couldn't you have waited until after he had healed you?! Are you really that stupid?!"

"Don't go, stay with me, Y/n!" He put her hand back on his head, "Flower, gleam and glow...let your power...shine...make the clock reverse...bring back what once was mine..."

"Richie..."

"What...?" Richie croaked, heartbroken.

With a small smile, she admitted, "You were my new dream."

Voice thick with tears, he responded, "And you were mine..."

Content, she let herself die in their arms, the room cold and grey, silent as their only sunshine succumbed to the night. Richie leaned over her slightly, still crying.

"Heal what has been hurt..." Eugene continued, off-key and too heartbroken to sing it properly. Richie looked over him, sniffling. "Change the fate's design..."

He turned back to Y/n, closing his eyes, the same pitch he knew all his life still in there. "Save what has been lost...bring back what once was mine..."

Unable to continue singing, he finished, "What once...was ours..."

They sat there, crying, for moments that felt like centuries. One of Richie's tears landed on Y/n's cheek, neither one noticing. But the spot it had fallen on began to glow as a sun. Gold and white light erupted from her rib and shoulders, flooding the room, the boys looking at it in awe. The greyness ceased as Richie leaned in closer, wondering - praying - if maybe...

"Richie...? Eugene...?"

Gasping, Richie whispered, not yet ready to believe it, "Y/n...?"

She looked up and behind her at Eugene, then back at Richie, the same seductive smile from when they first met. "Did I ever tell you I have a thing for brunettes?"

Grinning, he yelled, "Y/n!", tackling her into a hug. Her face in his shoulder, she frowned when she remembered she could have lost him, but quickly changed back when they pulled apart. He could not see her like that, no matter what. He pulled her into an awkward kiss, only pulling away when Eugene grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"You do that again, I'll kill you first," he warned, but she only laughed as Richie fell into her from the other side in a hug.

Once the moment passed, she asked, "Quick question. How do we get down?"

Sighing, Eugene lied flat on the floor. "Alright. Grab onto my legs."