Chapter Text
Hugo is pulled away from sleep when he feels something tickle the end of his nose.
“Wakey-wakey blondie,” he hears Lance hum from somewhere above him. “You’re on duty.”
Hugo wants more than anything to flip the big man off and roll over into the warmth of the cot. He was always on the night shift at the mines, meaning he could sleep all day if he wanted. This taking-shifts thing is really messing with his circadian rhythm. An excuse is on the tip of his tongue as he goes to curl back around Varian, but—
The other side of the cot is cold.
Sitting up, he rubs his bleary eyes to confirm—yep, Varian is gone. Panic bolts through his heart before he can stop it. They were thousands of feet in the air—there’s no way he got kidnapped again, right?
“Where’s Varian?”
“Saw the little dude heading down toward the engine room a while ago.” Lance shrugs. Hugo frowns. The engine room? Did Xavier need help with something? “Now c’mon, up. The rooster’s nest awaits!”
Hugo has the right mind to correct him— crow’s nest, Lance, you live here, how do you not know it’s a crow’s nest —but whatever. He finds his glasses and pushes himself out of bed before he can think better of it.
Lance suggests he grab the blanket off the cot to take with him for warmth, and boy is he glad he did. The second the door to the room opens Hugo is slapped with air that’s frigid . It’s cold this high in the sky; add the midnight chill and it’s absolutely miserable being outside. Lance only laughs at his reaction and disappears back into the warmth of the New Dream — jackass .
Hugo ties the blanket around his throat like a cape and ascends the ladder on the side of the ship with practiced grace. Climbing on precarious things reminds him of the work Donnie had him do on some bigger cranes back in Ironhaven. He ignores the sudden stab of homesickness, letting himself get distracted as he straps into the safety harness of the basket.
Because damn, what a view.
The inky clouds swirl around the New Dream like fog against a milky window pane. It’s not too dark—the lights of the stars provide plenty of light. They’re like diamonds all the way up here, beautiful and delicate as crystals. Something settles in his soul, humming in delight. This close to the heavens, he feels infinite.
Alright. Maybe doing watches in the middle of the night isn’t the worst thing ever.
He’s content to just sit here and bask in the starlight—maybe he should have brought a canister of coffee or something—but his attention is drawn away when he hears a noise caught on the wind. Glancing both right and left sides of the ship and finding nothing but sky, he turns his attention down to the ladder below.
“Varian?”
The smaller boy is huddled close to the side of the ship as he makes his way up the ladder. A particularly strong gust of wind hits the side of the ship, making Varian cling a little harder to the rungs. He’s only holding on with one hand, pressing the other one tightly to his chest for some reason—what the hell is he doing? Hugo’s heart leaps into his throat. “Be careful!”
“I’m fine,” the other boy calls back, muttering quietly to himself, “I won’t drop you, I promise.”
Once he reaches the top, Hugo helps him climb into the basket. Another burst of wind hits and Varian nearly goes flying—they both cling to each other tightly, Hugo quickly wrapping his arms around the smaller boy to keep him secure. “Here, you should take this.”
Hugo tries to undo the safety harness around his waist, but Varian brushes him off. One of his hands is still curled up into a small fist, almost like he’s holding something. “You need that. Besides, I’ve already survived falling off an airship once.”
“That was when you had a magic rock.”
“According to you, I’m magic all the time.” Hugo blames the heat in his face on the frigid night air. The teasing glint in Varian’s eye is scarily disarming. His eyes are so blue they rival the sky around them. Gods, he’s beautiful .
A shiver runs down the smaller boy’s spine and he wraps his arms around himself. “I won’t say no to the blanket, though.”
“Whatever my prince desires.” With a grin, Hugo wraps the blanket around both of them, easily encompassing Varian and drawing them even closer together. Their faces are nearly touching; they're so close. Varian’s cheeks have gone pink under his freckles, the color is as delicate as a rose’s petal.
“Ha, ha.” The smaller boy rolls his eyes. “I regret telling you that.”
“You saying you don’t want me to worship you?” Hugo waggles his eyebrows—he can’t resist.
Varian’s face remains unchanged. “Keep talking and I won’t give you your surprise.”
Hugo perks up immediately. “Ooh, gimme.”
“Ask nicely,” Varian says, but even as he speaks he can’t keep the excited smile off his face.
“Pretty please.” No sooner do those syllables leave his mouth, Varian unfurls his hand to reveal—
A tiny, robotic mouse. The shape of it is strikingly familiar, the moonlight glinting off gears and golden panels. Tiny green eyes blink up at him and the breath gets caught in his lungs.
“I know it’s not exactly an exact replica,” Varian starts, voice quavering with obvious anxiety. “I had to work based on memory.”
Hugo eventually finds his voice, even though it’s more of an awed whisper. “You made this?”
“Xavier helped a lot,” he admits. “The dos and don’ts of creating sentient life is still pretty unknown, but I wanted to take what I learned from seeing that robot and replicate it on a smaller scale. She might be a little clunky since I had to use spare parts, but I figure if we work on her together we could—”
“I love it,” Hugo breathes. “She’s perfect.” He holds out his hand like one would approach a tiny, delicate bird. The mouse tilts its little head, then with a whirring of gears, she climbs into his hand.
Varian beams. Hugo wants to kiss him.
What the—where did that come from? Nope, not thinking that. He doesn’t even know if Varian would—maybe he could ask…but would now be the right time? While they’re running in what could be the most important race of their lives? Certainly not.
Still…
He lets the robot Olivia roll up his palm, his wrist, his forearm, until she’s settled on his shoulder. It’s a movement the real Olivia would have done, and it makes his heart ache. He can’t help but be that much more grateful for the kind gesture. And the fact that Varian made her, put time and thought and effort into this for him…
Hugo feels something warm unfurl in his chest as Varian settles next to him. It’s the same kind of feeling he gets when they curl up together to sleep.
Varian doesn’t look content, though. There’s a serious wrinkle between his brows, one that Hugo desperately wants to smooth away with his thumb.
“What’s wrong?”
Varian’s gaze is out toward the stars, a million miles away. “I’m just thinking about things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Like how I’m scared,” Varian says, immediately sobering Hugo’s mood. “Terrified, actually. About finding Meridian. Who knows what’s going to happen when we get there? I’m not even sure if we will even get there—”
“Did you lie to Rapunzel about the direction of the light?”
Varian shakes his head. “Just because we have a compass doesn’t mean we should be following it. It’s just—Andrew said he wants to find Meridian because its technology will help people. Rapunzel said he wants to find it because he wants to use the magic to hurt people. Even if we are the ones to get there first, I keep thinking, would it be better for us just not to go at all?”
He turns his face out to the sky, letting the cool breeze whip through his hair. It ruffles the blue streak, a mark of the magic that saved his life. “My mother’s family ran from Meridian for a reason . My father hid my bloodline for a reason . This whole thing has turned into such a mess, and if someone else dies because of me—”
“Whoa,” Hugo catches the smaller boy’s hands in his own and squeezes. Varian’s fingers are like ice. “No one has died because of you. I’m still here.”
Varian glares down at their feet. “That’s not true.”
Ah. It finally clicks. “You mean the robot?”
“It was trying to protect me!” Baby blue eyes flicker up, bright and glossy. Oh. That still must have been affecting him. “All of this is because of that stupid spell. If I hadn’t said anything the Moonstone wouldn’t have shown Andrew anything! I shouldn’t have been so weak.”
“You’re not weak for being scared, Varian. If you hadn’t said that spell then you’d still be stuck with Andrew.”
Varian’s mouth twists into a frown. “You don’t get it. It’s not the only spell I know.” At Hugo’s curious eyebrow raise, a wry smirk lifts on his face. “I know tons of them. For cleaning, for when you’re looking for something, something to cure sickness…I thought she was just teaching me gibberish to help me get better at doing my chores.”
He laughs once, the noise dry and so different than the bright sound Hugo usually hears. It sounds wrong falling from Varian’s lips. His face is hard, the line of his mouth tight.
“One spell she made me swear I’d never repeat, and I almost said it when I was trapped in that tower.”
Hugo can’t help but lean forward. “What does it do?”
“It’s a spell of decay and destruction. She said in order to use magic for good, I also had to know how to use it for evil. I was scared to learn them, but now that I know that power is real, and that Meridian might have that same evil that we’re flying right toward…” Varian’s buried himself so deep in the blanket now it’s basically up to his nose. He glares out at one cloud in particular, as if that one personally offended him.
“I wish I would have thrown the shard away,” he whispers, voice nearly swept away by the wind. “Then none of this would have happened.”
“But then we wouldn’t have met.” Varian turns to look at him, wide blue eyes reflecting the light of the stars around them. Hugo can’t help but crack a shy smile even as he knows the answer. “I’m not that bad, am I?”
“No,” Varian breathes. A small smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “I’m really happy we met.”
“I am too.” Hugo weaves their fingers together, just like they were at that compound when Varian tried to push him away. It's funny, the way they fit together. Hugo’s long digits wrap so neatly around Varian’s smaller ones. Almost like they were meant to lock in place.
“Think of it this way, Goggles,” he says, “every day people are building faster airships. One day, someone’s going to find Meridian. It might as well be us instead of someone like Andrew, right?”
Varian still doesn’t look convinced. “I guess.”
“If you wanted to run away from all this, I would follow you,” Hugo tells him, meaning every word, “but Andrew would follow us, too. And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to deal with the guy who locked me in a basement cell for the rest of my life. I want to make sure that guy’s good and gone before we even think about heading back to Old Corona.”
That makes Varian perk up. The light of hope that shimmers in his eyes is dazzling. “You…you want to go to Old Corona with me?”
“’Course I do. Gotta get you home to your pops. Also, you haven’t stopped telling me about the perks of farm boy life, so obviously I want to see if your stories hold up.”
Varian’s smile is bright enough to rival the moon. Hugo barely catches a glimpse of it before arms are thrown over his shoulders and he’s dragged into a hug. Wrapping himself around Varian is more instinctive now; he does it without thinking.
The last time Varian hugged him, they were surrounded by Rapunzel and Fitzherbert and the other pirates. Now, they glide up in the clouds alone, braving the dark with no one but each other.
Varian leans back, but doesn’t totally let go. No, he leaves enough room that they’re face to face, noses almost touching. Shit, he’s right there. So close Hugo can feel the gentle puffs of breath on his lips. And speaking of lips…
Hugo finds himself leaning forward, pulled by an invisible string. Was it fate? Destiny? Maybe. Varian could be all of that and more. His forever. The smaller boy leans forward too, and—
The hair on the back of Hugo’s neck stands on end. That’s the only warning he gets before the world rocks beneath their feet.
They both shout and scramble to grab the metal siding as the New Dream tilts sideways to make a hard left. Hugo feels tiny robotic claws dig into his shoulder, but hell he’d take the sharp pain instead of losing her. The ship levels out, and Hugo scrambles for the comm tube because what the hell did Rapunzel think she was doing—
Varian’s gasp of horror makes him freeze. “Oh no .”
Hugo looks. It looks like a giant metal whale is bursting out of the clouds on the starboard side of the ship. Another airship. A massive one, decorated with ugly government insignia.
Andrew .
Varian snatches the comm out of his hands the second they’re righted again. “Rapunzel, it’s the Saporia! Andrew caught up to us!”
“We know, kiddo!” comes Eugene’s voice. “Hang on, we’re gonna—”
The rest of the man’s sentence gets cut off by the crack of cannon fire. On instinct, Hugo hits the deck, taking Varian down to the floor with him. He feels the way New Dream takes the hits, the whole hull rattling with impact. White hot panic spikes in his heart. He wants to be back on the ship, on the ground, anywhere but literally sitting out in the open like sitting ducks—
The New Dream tilts again, and this time lurching down. Thank every god in the sky that it’s cloudy tonight; it provides the kind of cover they need to evade those spotlights and canon scopes. The white quickly overtakes them, hiding them from the hunting behemoth.
It’s wet inside the cloud cover. Hugo can barely see, but he sure can still hear those cannons firing. Varian trembles underneath him as he’s got his hands clenched in his jacket. Hugo’s shaking too. Olivia, thankfully, has climbed her way into his shirt pocket, so at least he won’t be losing her. But all of that won’t matter if they got shot out of the fucking sky. Gods, he hopes Fitzherbert can fly this thing, otherwise they’re screwed.
“We have to climb down!” Varian screams in his ear. “We can’t stay up here, we’ll get hit!”
The idea of hanging off the side of an airship under gunfire really doesn’t sound that appealing. “Goggles, if we move, we’ll die!”
“We have to do something! ” The smaller boy squirms out from under him, reaching for the comms. “Eugene, we’re going to come down, try and level out!”
“No!” Rapunzel’s voice comes crackling through the metal instead of her husband’s. “Both of you stay there! If Andrew caught up with us that means we’re closer than we thought. I need you to keep us on course!”
“But how?” Hugo edges closer to speak into the mic. “We can’t see shit in these clouds!”
“There’s a lever on the bulkhead,” Rapunzel says, and Hugo is already searching for it. “Turn that clockwise and the crow’s nest will turn into a kite. Once the hanger is up there’s another lever that will release the wings. You’ll still be tethered to us with a wire so you won’t go far, but you’ll need to get the wind on your own.”
That won’t be a problem . The wings, which have already been released, already are fluttering in the wind. Varian had followed Rapunzel’s orders as she was giving them, and now he’s tightening the coils and screws.
“Go back to the bridge,” Hugo tells him. “I can radio you—”
“I’m not leaving you.” There are a few things they could argue about—how Varian’s life was obviously worth more than his, that the other boy is still afraid of heights—but those baby blues are set with the same determination and stubbornness that Hugo has grown to love. He doesn’t press it—they don’t have time.
Instead, he cracks a grin. “Hold on.” He waits until he feels Varian’s arms wrap around his middle—and then, he hits the release.
The crow’s nest launches . Hugo’s stomach drops to his feet at the sudden shift in gravity, and by the way Varian’s arms tighten, he can’t be the only one affected. His sweaty palms grip the steering levers of the kite like his life depends on it—and it does. The New Dream gets swallowed by the clouds, the only thing telling him they were still tethered is the whistling of that cable.
The kite bursts out of the clouds seconds later, casting them up into the stars. They go higher and higher until the tether pulls taunt. It’s somehow even colder up here, but the adrenaline keeps Hugo’s skin burning.
Varian unwinds himself as they level out. “I don’t see them anywhere.”
Hugo frowns, squinting at the clouds below. “Maybe they’re hiding like we did.”
“Or maybe they’re in there.”
In there means the swirling nimbus of clouds ahead of them, dark and foreboding. A tropical storm, Hugo realizes. And they’re heading right toward it.
He grits his teeth. A ship as big as the Saporia probably wouldn’t get rocked around that much, but something as little as the kite they’re in? It’s a death sentence. He really doesn’t want to go in there, but it looks like they don’t have a choice.
“Are you scared?” Varian asks softly.
“No,” Hugo lies. The smaller boy easily picks up on the tremble in his voice. A small quirk of his lips makes Hugo’s heart flutter.
“Me neither.” Somehow, Hugo knows that’s a lie too. Varian goes to wrap his arms around his waist again, preparing for them to enter the swirling winds. There’s a flash of lightning—shit. The closer they get, the more it looks like a tornado of lightning. They might get swept away or electrocuted.
Panic suddenly hits as the thought of losing Varian in the storm. “Wait, you should tie yourself to me. You might not be able to hang on.”
“Good idea.” Thank whoever was here last that there’s some rope in one of the compartments. Varian makes quick work of it, securing them both together. It’s not as solid as the harness, but it'll have to do.
Hugo can only imagine the panic the rest of the crew must be going through right now. Flying straight into a storm probably isn’t how Rapunzel wanted to spend her night. He hopes Xavier can make sure the engines can handle this, if they overloaded that wouldn’t be good—
Varian mutters something behind him, the exact words lost to the wind. Hugo’s heart lurches and he frantically searches the clouds for the goliath of metal that was surely chasing them.
“Did you see the Saporia ?”
“No,” Varian calls back. Even though they’re right next to each other, they have to shout over the wind to be heard. “It’s—the sun. It’s rising in the wrong place!”
“ What? ” He looks to where the shining rays of golden light are starting to pierce through the clouds. Varian is right—it’s on the wrong side. They were supposed to be headed East, not North. Rapunzel’s going to have a field day. “How did we get so out of position?”
“I don’t know! We were on the right heading before! Maybe Andrew’s trying to throw us off?”
Hugo frowns—maybe, but something else wasn’t right here. “But that means he’s heading in the wrong direction too.”
Varian shares his look of confusion. Would the shard lead Andrew away from Meridian? Is it conscious enough for that? The dark clouds edge even closer. The wind picks up, slapping their kite around so hard it feels like they’re being shaken up in a bottle. Varian latches onto him and he latches onto the ship, the both of them hanging on by their fingernails. His heart leaps into his throat—along with something else. Oh gods, he’s going to be sick…
The radio cracks to life with Rapunzel’s voice. “The storm is confusing our compasses! We’re gonna try and pull back but we might have to ride it out! Hold tight up there.”
“Easy for you to say!” Hugo shrieks, but his voice is lost to the wind. His hair has been ripped out of the tie, the strands whipping across his face and getting in his mouth.
He can feel the kite shaking. The tether cord trembles and whines as it’s pulled taunt again and again. Hugo eyes the storm with a sense of defiance— come on, just try and kill him, he’s made it this far he won’t be stopped now —the roaring of his pulse louder than the wind. He hears Varian say something, but he can’t make it out.
And then, the hurricane swallows them whole.
It’s dark. It’s loud. It’s terrifying . It’s a miracle the steering levers don’t rip off with how tightly Hugo’s gripping them. It’s all he can do. He thinks he screams—he isn’t sure. He can’t see, he can’t hear, can’t do anything but hold on as the whirlwind tosses them around like a ragdoll.
It’s almost like the wind doesn’t know which way it wants to toss them. Like one gust was blowing one way while the other blows the opposite. There’s something dimly familiar about that but the adrenaline won’t let him make sense of that, since he’s certain he’s about to die—
Then:
“That’s it!” Varian shouts in his ear. “That’s Meridian! In the center of the storm—Hugo, the wind .”
He wants to snap back that he’s aware of the wind, thank you , but then it clicks what Varian means. The two opposing winds. The hurricane that chases everyone away. The odd-shaped clouds, being so high up—
It’s exactly how his father described it.
A thrill of elation runs through his veins, but it doesn’t last long. A shape emerges out of the clouds, and it’s not the mystical isle.
It’s the Saporia . Son of a bitch.
If they thought they were sitting ducks before, they’re basically on the platter now. There’s nothing they can do but hang on as the behemoth starts to open fire on the New Dream.
Hugo tastes blood. He’s definitely bitten his tongue, the metallic, coppery taste thick and overwhelming. Around them the storm continues to rage, loud and monstrous. It’s almost like it wants to swallow them all alive, to drag them down to the bottom of the sea for daring to try and best it.
Their tether cable groans in agony, pulling tight against the winds. Below them Saporia screams, her bulkheads opening wide in a series of gaping maws. Varian shouts something shrill as the ship below them shudders, then screams .
The New Dream rocks horrifically when Saporia takes the first shot. The canons, rows and rows of them, unleash a barrage on the smaller ship, tearing into it with reckless, vicious abandon. Even their little glider shudders at the hit.
Hugo doesn’t have to look down to know that the New Dream is struggling. He can hear it, the groaning screams of warping metal and snapping wire. The storm rages harder, wind and rain and lightning enshrouding them and threatening to tear them apart–and something in Hugo knows that if it gets the chance, mother nature will gladly swat them out of the sky.
Saporia takes another shot. This time Varian shouts something as it rips into the New Dream , his voice dismayed. It’s like watching a friend be torn asunder. The Saporia takes another shot, the smell of gunpowder and gasoline high in the air.
Then, something even more terrifying happens:
The cable snaps .
Hugo doesn’t scream. He can’t; the winds punch him until all the breath is out of his lungs. Left, right, up, down–direction becomes meaningless as they’re slaves to the whims of the whirlwind. The dark clouds are suffocating, closing in on every side. Hugo grits his teeth and holds on, the steering levers rattling under his hands and threatening to break.
Thunder booms around them as they’re pulled directly into the hurricane. Bright lightning cracks across the midnight black clouds, so close that Hugo feels the electricity raise the hair on his neck. Sheets of rain start to hammer them from every side. He feels like he’s fighting something fierce, some living, breathing animal that’s snapping its teeth at them.
Varian is pressed fully against him. The other boy isn’t screaming anymore, just clinging for his life. Trusting Hugo to pilot them through the storm. Adrenaline pumps through him, forces him to focus, use what little leverage he has to steer around the lightning strikes and get them to safety.
The storm spits them out as suddenly as it engulfed them.
The sudden sunlight makes Hugo dizzy. It’s bright and brilliant against a picturesque calm sky. They must be in the eye now. That means they’re not out of the woods yet, not while they’re still flying so high without a ship to tether them. Within moments they’ll be falling into the sea with no way of escaping, or get sucked back into the clouds ahead—
Wait. Is that…something green?
The clouds clear right before Hugo’s eyes. It’s—it’s a tree, he realizes. A giant one, floating impossibly in the eye of a hurricane.
For a moment, it’s all he can do to stare. Does…does this mean they made it to Meridian? Shouldn’t there be a giant castle, not a huge tree? The lack of wind means their kite coasts lower toward the canopy of leaves—too low.
The whole kite jerks as the cable catches. Hugo tenses, anticipating the whole thing to snap and send them careening again, but to his absolute shock, the force of it sends them drifting gently. It’s a nice change, considering the absolute hell they just flew through.
The mist clears enough for Hugo to see a stone outcropping. He steers the kite toward it—it glides through the air like butter. They hit the ground and immediately go lopsided, but Hugo can hardly care. They’re on land. Death is no longer knocking on their doors. That’s all that matters.
They’re both scrambling to get out of the kite as soon as they can. It’s a messy affair—they’re both still tied together, and Hugo definitely gets elbowed more than once. During their haste, the clouds slowly fade away, letting the sun peek through the mist.
Varian gasps at the sight before them. “Is this…?”
“Yeah,” Hugo breathes, then he lets out a laugh. It echoes across the crumbling stone in the fields ahead of them. Beyond that lies a castle of black stone, interwoven with roots and greenery. It’s dilapidated, but it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
Hugo can barely stop grinning as he turns back to Varian. “It’s Meridian.”