"Woah." Cassandra pulled Fidella's reigns, making the horse come to a hault.

Lance, mounted on Max, stopped beside her.  "What is it?"

"This place..." She looked around, the trees surrounding her.  "It's... familiar..." Cassandra signaled for the guards to dismount and set up camp.  She handed the reigns to Coli before turning around and walking away.

"Hey!  Wait for me!" Lance called, trying to pull his ankle free from the saddle's stirrup.  He had gotten stuck while he was trying to dismount Max.  Finally freeing himself, he ran after Cassandra, catching up to her.  "Where are you going?"

She didn't answer as she pushed the vines away, revealing a familiar meadow.  Her breath hitched as she stared.  It was almost as if she had seen a ghost, and she minus well have seen one.  After all, the tower had haunted her memories since she left.

Lance felt a cold rock in the bottom of his stomach.  He had only been there once, but he knew that seeing it again would not be light on Cassandra.  Setting a hand on her shoulder, he tried to steer her attention away.  "Let's go back to the camp..."

"You know... I kinda want to go inside," Cassandra admitted suddenly.

"You wanna go in there?" Lance's pitch went higher as be pointed a shakey figure at the tower.

"You're not scared are you?" She passed him a smirk.

"Me? Scared?" Lance gasped dramatically.  "Cassandra, I am offended! All this time, you must remember that I am the last to run from a fight!"

"Last I checked, you still scream like a little girl about the tiniest spider and leave every man to himself."

"Hey!  That doesn't count.  That has double truama tied to it." He let out a loud sniff as the reached the base of the tower.

Cassandra grinned, rolling her eyes.  "Alright, tiger.  Help me take these vines off."

He helped her pulled them off and she opened the door to the tower, revealing the long staircase.  Lance frowned.  "Why does it have to be so many?"

"It's a tower." Cassandra began to walk up the stairs and he followed.

"But why?" He cried dramatically.

They made their way to the top and Cassandra shoved the trapdoor open.  She got out, looking around the circular room she had grown up in.  "I never realized how small this place was..."

Lance stood beside her.  "It looks like some was murdered in here."

"Someone was," Cassandra retorted.

"Oh, yeah.  Eugene died.  Forgot that happened..."

"Along with several other attempts of murder.  Really not something that's easy to forget."

"Well, in my defense, I was sitting in cell awaiting a noose," Lance defended himself.

"That's true," she replied.

They grew silent.  Memories flooding through Cassandra's head as looked around.  She set bed hand on a red planet that had been left on the chair.  Picking it up as she pulled it close to her chest in spite of the dust.  Many times did she remembered using the blanket as a makeshift cape.  Smiling a little to herself, she remembered one of the plays in particular that her and her siblings did.

"Help!" Ten year old Rapunzel yelled as she was tied up, being held over a pit of lava by a giant robot.

Eight year old Varian laughed evily.  "Look at this!  The princess is crying for help.  You should have thought about that before you did everything you've done!"

"But I didn't do anything!" She cried.

"That's exactly the problem!" Varian snapped.  "You did nothing!"

"Princess!" Eleven year old Cassandra called from her place on the cliff.  The sun behind her as her armor reflected it, her cape blowing in the wind.  She drew her sword.  "I shall protect you with all my might!"

Suddenly, Varian slipped from standing on the dresser and the imagination was forgotten as he hit the floor.  "Ouch!"

"Varian!" Rapunzel squirmed in her hair.  He had tied herself up and hung off the raptors, but she realized she had done to good of a job and was having a hard time getting out of her own hair.

Cassandra jumped off the bed and ran over to Varian.  "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just a bruise... But I'm tired of being the bad guy now.  Can I have a redemption arch and someone else be the bad guy?" Varian asked.

"You want me to be the bad guy?" Cassandra said. "Fine.  Now I'm the bad guy."

Rapunzel gasped dramatically.  "Cassandra how could you?"

"I told you, Rapunzel.  You have to be careful who you trust," Cassandra said darkly.

"Oh, look! It's the book you knocked me out with!" Lance held up the large encyclopedia, pulling Cassandra out of her train of thought.  She laughed at the memory.

"And you woke up to Varian fanboying over Fritzerbert."

"Well, first, you and Rapunzel popped out of the shadows."

"Right.  You know, in spite of all the bad things, I really did have so much fun here... It was just me, Varian, and Rapunzel... Although, I'm glad my... our world is so much bigger now.  I'm twenty now and time has really flown in the blink of an eye since we went to Corona castle," Cassandra said.  She looked sadly at the broken mirror pieces on the floor.

"You miss her, don't you?"

She shrugged.  "Is it wrong to?  After everything she's done to me, my siblings and everyone else.. It feels gross missing someone like her, but..."

"Gothel was your mother.  She raised you.  And even if she never truly loved you, you loved her.  I may not know what's it's like to have parents, but from what I've heard, it would only be natural for you to miss her.  Even if she was a phsyco-" Lance offered.

"You know, I'm never going to get used to your serious little pep-talks." Cassandra ran her fingers through her chin length curls.

Lance gave a large bow.  "Of course, but even the strongest of angels will need a word if advice from time to time."

"What's up with you calling me that?" Cassandra raised a brow.

"What?"

"You know. Angel."

"Have I been calling you that?  I haven't noticed," Lance said, but she could see through him.  He knew very well what she was talking about.

Sighing, she shook her head.  She'd just leave it be this time.  Right now she had other things to think about.  But it gave her a weird feeling in her stomach.  Probably the lack of breakfast.  She hadn't felt like eating that morning after all.

"I'm famished, let's eat some lunch or something..."

"I brought the sandwiches," Lance said, holding up the bag.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks Eugunzel_4ever for the idea that the three of them play with homage to the original plot!