What if I changed things ?

Part 9 : To face someone else' defeat.

After Anastasia and Drizella again united their magics, and began to cure Henry, this one... felt nothing. No good, no evil.

But, according to Regina's and Zelena's relieved faces, it worked.

"Well... Regina told everyone. Now that it's done, I propose to anyone to come home, and tomorrow, we will see if things changed or not... Henry, Ella, Lucy, come home, I am sure that you have a lot of things to tell to each other."

The three of them nodded.

"Regina... Drizella asked her in an almost shy voice... can I stay ?"

The witch immediately accepted.

Some days passed, quite quiet. Gothel stayed locked up, and the other members of the "cult" - six, without Drizella, of course – were locked up too like her.

Well, everything was good, finally, and it got even better, when Ella and Henry finally kissed, breaking the curse.

Gothel grimaced as she felt magic invade completely Seattle, and as she herself knew since some days that her magic was gone forever.

Her rage just became stronger when she saw Tremaine in front of her, smiling to her.

"What do you want Rapunzel ?

- To tell you that it's over for you. You lost, and everyone remembers. And for this time, I have got my revenge. You will pay for what you did to me.

- And what about you ?

- Don't worry. I will pay too. I will take my responsibilities, a thing you never did.

- And what about the father and his dear daughter ? She said, evoking Hook and Alice. How are they ?"

Rapunzel smiled.

"They are well. But not thanks to you. They are together, again, and Hook had been cured. Is it okay for you ?"

According to the witch's face, not really.

"You destroyed my family, Gothel. And yes, maybe that I destroyed this one by myself too, but I am sure of one thing. Me, and my daughters, we are going to rebuild this one. And there is nothing you can do to stop us from doing this."

A sinister smile then took place on Gothel's lips, a smile which could have scared Rapunzel at another time, when she was just an innocent young lost woman, who just wanted to protect her family.

"We will see.

- You and I are not good people Gothel. I know this since Marcus died, and obviously after what I did to Cecilia. And I hope that, one day, I will succeed to be really different from you. I don't know what made you become this way, and maybe that I was luckier than you, in a sense. Because I have Drizella and Anastasia. But you, you have no one."

The witch's face then became darker.

"Humans destroyed my family and my world, she whistled with hatred and rancor. I am just doing to them what they did to me.

- You and I are monsters, I have no doubts about this. But all humans are not. Anastasia and Drizella are not. Just as Ella or Henry Mills.

- What does it change exactly ?"

And, for the first time, Rapunzel Tremaine saw herself feel pity for Gothel.

"I don't know, she told her with honesty."

She was thinking again about Anastasia, and about how she always was a good person, and about Ella too, who never gave up, despite what she lived.

Despite what she herself made her live.

And she thought about Henry too, and about his pure heart. About Lucy, and all the other, who were just kindness toward the other, what Gothel may was, at another time.

And she told herself that Gothel was definitely wrong.

"Maybe that it changes nothing, the villain added. But what I know, is that, it means something."

When she left the cell, Rapunzel both felt a little relieved, and sad too.