The Rider's Tangled Journey

DISCLAIMER; I don't own Tangled, Disney does. I do not own Ghost Rider, Marvel does. I only own the OC. This is strictly for entertainment, not money. Please don't sue me. I'm not worth the time in court nor do I stand a chance in prison.

It's a sunny day in the middle of a forest where a wanted poster reads, 'WANTED, Dead or Alive. Flynn Rider; Thief' is nailed to a tree.

"This is the story of how my hopeless, condemned life changed forever. Don't worry! This story's actually more fun than I just made it out to be. To be honest, it's barely even mine. That guy with the smug grin isn't even me. My name is Jonah Payne. And this is a story about a girl in a hidden tower and a rogue thief whose heart she stole, ironically enough. And it begins with the sun."

The sun shines in the sky.

"Centuries ago, a single drop of sunlight fell from Heaven. And from this small drop of sun grew a magic golden flower."

The sunlight drop entered the ground and turns into the magic flower.

"It had the ability to heal the sick and injured."

An elderly woman in a wine-red dress and a night sky blue cloak carrying a green lantern.

"Oh, you see that old woman over there? You might wanna remember her. She's pretty important."

"Centuries passed and a hop, skip and a boat ride away there grew the kingdom of Corona."

The kingdom's construction fast-forward from its founding to its completion.

"As the world outside had changed throughout the 2 hundred years or so, Corona remained the same. And, to this day, the kingdom is ruled by a beloved king and queen."

"The queen is about to have a baby, but she got sick. Really sick."

A room with the ill and pregnant queen in bed with the king kneeling at her side holding her hand in worry. The servants are just as worried for the queen.

"She was running out of time, and that's when people usually start to look for a miracle."

The people of Corona, along with the palace guard, search the land for a cure.

"Or in this case, a magic golden flower."

Then we're back to the old woman and the magic golden flower.

"See? I told you she'd be important. Instead of sharing the sun's gift, Mother Gothel has hoarded its healing power and used it to keep herself young for the past hundreds of years. And all she had to do was sing a special song."

Gothel removes her hood before singing to the flower.

"Flower, Gleam, and Glow Let Your Power Shine"

Music comes out of nowhere as the magic flower shines brightly and Gothel continues to sing.

"Make the Clock Reverse Bring Back What Once Was Mine"

The flower emits its magic as she finishes.

"What Once Was Mine"

She then uses the magic to restore her youth, smiling with satisfaction.

"OK, you get the idea; She sings to the flower, she turns young, basically cheating death in the process. Disturbing, isn't it?"

Gothel's satisfaction is, however, short-lived when she hears voices closing in from a distance. Scared of losing her personal "fountain of youth", she hides the flower in a fake bush before picking up her lantern and running to hide. Without noticing, she accidentally knocks the false bush off with her lantern, leaving the magic golden flower in plain sight.

As soon as Gothel is out of sight, a guard shows up and sees the flower before shouting out, "WE FOUND IT!"

They have found their queen's best hope. Moments later, two of the guards uproot the flower to bring it back to the kingdom, much to the dismay of Gothel, who was watching from behind a bush.

After the magic flower was brought to the kingdom, it was mixed into a bowl of water so that the queen could drink its magic.

"The golden flower's magic healed the queen."

"After that, a healthy baby girl, a princess, was born with beautiful golden hair."

Corona's newborn golden-haired princess giggles happily in her crib as she sees her parents' happy faces. The queen, looking like she's about to burst into tears of joy, picks up her daughter and holds her into an embrace. The king gently sets his daughter's tiara on her head with a smile on his face.

"And the king and queen named her Rapunzel."

"To celebrate her birth, the king and queen launched a flying lantern into the sky."

The royal parents did exactly that and the lantern floats as high up as possible as the kingdom rejoices.

"And for that one moment, everything was perfect."

"And then, that moment ended."

Later that night, Gothel, in her old age, broke into the king and queen's master bedroom and crept over the princess's crib as everyone slept.

"Flower, Gleam and Glow"

Gothel sings the lullaby as she reaches for a lock of the baby's golden hair while it glows the same glow as the flower.

"Let Your Power Shine"

Her youth was restored.

"Make the Clock Rever-"

She sings as she cuts the lock of the baby's hair in the hope of using that bit of hair for her youth, only to gasp in shock and horror as that lock turned brown and seemed to lose its power as Gothel's outer beauty fades away. Desperate and greedy, Gothel decided to kidnap the princess. The baby girl's cries wake her parents up to witness, too late, the intruder stole their baby.

"Gothel broke into the castle, stole the kid, and just like that, was gone!"

She disappeared into the night.

"Despite their best efforts, the kingdom could not find the princess, for deep within the forest, in a hidden tower, Gothel raised the girl as her own."

About 6 years later, in a lone hidden tower, surrounded by a gorge, now lives Gothel and the little girl with abnormally long magic golden hair which the woman brushes as the girl sings the flower's lullaby in front of the fireplace,

"...What Has Been Lost. Bring Back What Once Was Mine What Once Was Mine"

Gothel smiles in satisfaction, once again, as her youth returns to her.

"Gothel had found her new magic flower, but this time, she was determined to keep it hidden."

Gothel returns to brushing her "daughter's" hair.

"Why can't I go outside?" Rapunzel asks her "mother".

"The outside world is a dangerous place, filled with horrible, selfish people." Gothel replies with a lie, "You must stay here, where it's safe. Do you understand, my flower?"

The little girl complies, "Yes, Mommy."

"But the walls of that tower couldn't hide everything."

The little longhaired girl snuck out of her room to the only window to the tower without waking Gothel to see the mysterious floating lights in the sky that make her feel peaceful for reasons she doesn't understand yet.

"Each year on her birthday, the king and queen release thousands of lanterns into the sky in the hope that one day their Lost Princess would return home."

Back to the present, almost 18 years after the princess was taken from her family, Jonah Payne, who has dark brown hair that's combed back, light brown eyes with a shade of green, a thin jawline beard, a large, angry scar that starts from half an inch above the corner of his right eyebrow to the right corner of his jaw, wearing a leather bomber jacket that has a zipper on the right side of the front of it, even though it's the middle of summer, blue jeans, black leather gloves, and steel-toed boots rides on his late father's customized yamaha vmax walzwerk motorcycle on a dirt path that leads into the forest just outside the kingdom.

"That's where I come in. For by chance, or God's will, depending on what you believe in, I've unintentionally found myself on a journey that would change the way I see the world around me, and how I would see myself, forever."

He rides into the forest on his way to the kingdom.

After riding since the crack of dawn, Jonah decides to take a short break and parks his bike in front of a tree.

"I need a break." Jonah mutters to himself as he takes a quick drink of water to quench his thirst as he notices how tired he is. He dismounts from his motorcycle and sits back on the tree he parked in front of. As he sleeps, he thinks about the 4 years he spent in solitude riding alone, looking for work when he needed it, looking for trouble to blow off steam, and that's during the day. Most of all, he thinks about that night from 4 years ago, when a cruel act of fate turned his life upside down forever.

Back at the tower, a green chameleon runs out the cracked open window before hiding behind a flower pot and blending into its colors.

"HA!" Rapunzel, just a day away from 18 years old, opens the window instantly to look for the chameleon. She instantly notices him as she moves her hair behind her ear.

"Hmm... well, I guess Pascal's not hiding out here." Rapunzel says playfully as she 'walks away' from the window.

Pascal, the chameleon, snickers under the belief that he fooled Rapunzel and won this round of Hide-and-seek until a strand of golden hair wraps around his tail and pulls him up to be face to face with Rapunzel.

"Gotcha!" Rapunzel says while hanging upside down. Pascal shrieks in surprise before he calms down as the blonde lowers him to the landing.

"That's 22 for me." Rapunzel boasts sportsmanship. "How about 23 out of 45?"

Pascal frowns in annoyance.

"OK, well, what do you wanna do?" Rapunzel asked as she took a seat on the landing. Pascal gets an idea; go outside and have some fun.

"Yeah... I don't think so." Rapunzel says as she sets herself on the ledge before setting her amphibious reptilian friend on her lap. "I like it in here and so do you."

Pascal just sticks his tongue out in disagreement.

"Oh, come on, Pascal. It's not so bad in there." Rapunzel says before running back inside with her hair dragging along behind her.

Then, music plays out of thin air.

"7 am, the usual morning lineup!"

Rapunzel starts singing as she sweeps the floor.

"Start up the chores and sweep 'til the floor's all clean!"

"Polish and wax, do laundry, and mop and shine up!"

She does the chores she mentioned.

"Sweep again, and, by then, it's, like, 7:15!"

"And so, I'll read a book! Or maybe two or three!"

Rapunzel picks up books to read on her bed. Then, she paints a mural on her wall.

"I'll add a few new paintings to my gallery!"

"I'll play guitar and knit and cook and, basically, just wonder when will my life begin!"

After cooking, she notices a space on a wall behind a mirror that's surrounded by curtains and decides to use that as a new spot to paint.

"Then, after lunch, it's puzzles and darts and baking!"

She does these things.

"Paper mache, a bit of ballet, and chess!"

Rapunzel spins, causing her to get wrapped in her own hair and trip over before making her move on the chessboard, which causes Pascal to look surprised.

"Pottery and ventriloquy, candle making!"

"Then, I'll stretch, maybe sketch, take a climb, sew a dress!"

Rapunzel does these things. The last one, Pascal was not pleased with.

"And I'll re-read the books if I have time to spare!"

Rapunzel re-reads her books with a bored look.

"I'll paint the walls some more, I'm sure there's room somewhere!"

Rapunzel looks at the walls for a few spots to paint.

"And then, I'll brush and brush, and brush and brush my hair!"

Rapunzel brushes all 70 ft. of her hair.

"Stuck in the same place I've always been!"

"And I'll keep wondering and wondering, and wondering and wondering when will my life begin!"

Rapunzel throws her hair around her.

Then, she leans on the balcony gazing at the morning sky.

"Tomorrow night, the lights will appear. Just like they do on my birthday each year."

She sings while dreaming about the floating lights.

"What is it like out there where they glow?"

Rapunzel looks back at the painting of the lights.

"Now that I'm older, Mother might just let me go."

She finishes painting her mural of the lights that float once every year on her birthday by adding herself to the mural.

Back at the kingdom, three thieves, Flynn Rider and the Stabbington Brothers are performing parkour across the roofs of the castle while avoiding detection from the guards until they reach the throne room.

Rider hangs near the edge of the roof until he notices the view. "Wow." Rider expresses as he enjoys the view. "I could get used to a view like this."

"Rider! Come on!" The Stabbington with the sideburns tells Rider, wanting to get this done.

"Hang on." Rider says waving them off, being full of himself, as usual. "Yup, I'm used to it. Guys, I want a castle."

"We do this job, you can buy your own castle." Sideburns says as he walks up to Rider before grabbing him by the collar of his vest and pulling him to the roof's opening.

With a rope tied to his waist, Rider is lowered into the throne room by the Stabbington Brothers just above the tiara of the Lost Princess. Three palace guards stand in front of it, completely oblivious to the thieves who are about to steal it.

One of the guards sneezes before regaining composure.

"Ugh! Hay fever?" Flynn asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah." The guard replies.

It took a few seconds for him and the rest of the guards to realize that the throne room has, or had, an intruder. But it was too late. Flynn Rider and the Stabbington Brothers have stolen the crown.

Minutes later...

"Can you picture me in a castle? 'Cause I certainly can!" Flynn says, being full of himself again, as he and the Stabbington Brothers run across the bridge to the kingdom that leads into the forest to evade the local authorities. "Oh, all the things we've seen and it's only 8 in the morning! Gentlemen, this is a very big day!"

After an hour's worth of sleep, he wakes up and looks at his watch, which says 8 am, and notices a hand-drawn wanted poster nailed on a tree on the other side of the path. He gets up to take a closer look.

Taking what he now knows is an 18th-century style hand-drawn wanted poster of a thief named Flynn Rider.

"Flynn Rider?" Jonah couldn't help but question, believing that name to be one of the most pretentious and made-up names he's ever heard in all his life, "And I thought 'Johnny Blaze' was too far on the nose."

Speaking of noses, the nose in the sketch did not match the rest of his smug face, which looks a bit like Fandral of the Warriors Three from Asgard. The differences are that this guy's hair is darkly shaded instead of empty, indicating he's brunette instead of blonde, and he has no facial hair save for a small goatee.

Jonah then notices another wanted poster on the tree, but this one has two fully grown men, who look like nearly identical twins, known as the Stabbington Brothers. One has sideburns and a scar below the right corner of his mouth, the other has no facial hair and his left eye is covered by an eyepatch, and their blank expressionless faces make them both look like cold-blooded killers.

"I could probably use the reward money." Jonah thought. His funds are a bit low and he has to do something to change that.

Just like that, he puts the wanted posters into his pocket, gets on his motorcycle, starts the engine up, and rides through the forest.

"This is a big day." He says to himself out loud on the way. What he doesn't realize is that this big day is also going to be strange.

AUTHOR'S NOTES; I must apologize for the sudden deletion. I realized that there are some details I need to put into the story and some flaws I need to correct. If you've read what's been put down already, chances are you probably won't even notice the differences. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I think I might enjoy writing it.

Also, you find this story in it's completion on fanfiction.net or the fanfiction app if you don't wanna wait for it's completion on this app.

Thank you, and please enjoy.