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The cell door shut with an echoing clang, leaving Rapunzel on the far less preferable side of the bars. Varian met her steely gaze with a look of hardened distaste; he had guessed (or rather hoped) that she and the others had survived his aluminum oxide grenade, but he didn’t think she’d be stupid enough to sneak back into the castle alone.
So, really, her being stuck in here was mostly her fault.
“Varian,” she said, walking towards him with her fists clenched. “ How could you do this?”
Varian pursed his lips. “I want you to know I wish it didn’t come to this,” he said curtly, tapping the bars of the cell with his knuckle. “But when someone trusts you, and you betray them? Well,” He took a step back, “This is what happens.”
“My kingdom needed me,” she retorted. “I couldn’t do anything about the amber and I had to stay. I never meant to break my promise to you, Varian.” She paused, the coldness in her eyes melting ever so slightly. “We were friends.”
“ Friends?” Varian snorted; she couldn’t be serious. “Sorry to break it to you, princess, but we were never friends.”
A twinge of hurt flashed over Rapunzel’s face. “Varian, you know that’s not true–”
“Oh, don’t I?” he spat, narrowing his eyes. “Friends don’t let friends be tossed out of the castle in the middle of a blizzard. Friends don’t abandon each other for months on end with no intention of ever coming to help them. Friends don’t pretend to be nice to you when all they care about is following their dad’s stupid orders to keep a secret that never should have been kept in the first place! So no,” Varian finished, casting a scathing glare over the rather bewildered Rapunzel. “We’re not friends, and we never were. ”
“That– that doesn’t change the fact that what you’re doing is wrong,” Rapunzel pleaded, grabbing onto the bars of her cell. “You know that.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged. “Maybe not. See, that’s the beauty of my plan,” Varian smiled. “Once your memories have all been erased, what either of us have done in the past won’t matter anymore. And who knows?” said Varian, pacing absentmindedly in front of the cell. “We might even be friends for real this time.”
“But you’re only making it worse,” said Rapunzel, her eyes following him as he walked past. “None of these people did anything to you!”
Varian froze, a bubble of white-hot anger beginning to rise within his chest. Oh, so she was going to play the guilt card on him, huh? Well, two could play that game. “It’s not what they did to me,” he seethed, slowly turning to meet Rapunzel’s gaze. “It’s what they didn’t do.”
At the puzzled look on the princess’s face, he elaborated. “I begged these people for help, Rapunzel, and they turned me away. My own neighbors ditched me when I needed them most– when my father needed them most. And after everyone heard that I had supposedly attacked you the night of the storm? Well,” he chuckled grimly. “It was all over for me after that. So I did what I had to do.
“But,” he continued, folding his arms neatly behind his back. “Rotting in prison does give one quite a bit of time to think, and after a while I realized that it’s not fair to blame you or the people of Corona for ruining my life. Not entirely. No, that honor goes to good ol’ King Freddy!” Varian smirked, his voice sarcastically high and cheerful.
“My– my father?” Rapunzel questioned, her voice quivering. “Varian, I understand that you’re upset with him about the rocks, I was too, but he never ‘ruined your life’–”
“Oh, you wanna bet?” Varian bristled, taking a step towards the bars of the cell. “My entire village was destroyed because of the rocks. Lives were at stake and he did nothing … no, he did worse than just that. Your father sent the soldiers to run me out of my own house , all because I knew too much and he wanted to keep me quiet. I spent weeks hiding out in the tunnels under my village just to survive, ” Varian spat, jabbing his finger at the princess, his voice dripping with venom. “I didn’t have a choice. They wanted me to be the bad guy… so I became the bad guy.”
Rapunzel shrank back. “Varian–”
“But that wasn’t enough, now, was it?” Varian pressed on, too riled up to let her speak. “After your little magic show with the rocks, he tossed me into prison with this lunatic!” Varian shouted, pointing over to Andrew. He paused. “Uh… no offense.”
“None taken,” said Andrew with a smirk, crossing his arms.
Varian turned back to the princess, letting out a sigh. “But that’s all in the past. Soon, all this will feel like it was only a bad dream,” he said, leaning against the side of the cell. “With the Saporians in charge, your father’s incompetence will never be able to hurt anyone ever again , and once I erase everyone’s memories, life can finally go back to how it used to be.” Varian stared at the ground, his fingers curled into fists. “It’s the only way.”
“Yeah…” drawled Andrew, grabbing Varian’s shoulders and pushing him away from Rapunzel’s cell. “About that. There’s been a slight change of plans, buddy.”
Varian’s gaze darted up towards Andrew, raising an eyebrow; he didn’t like the sound of that. Andrew glanced down at him, a sly look crossing his face. “Now that she’s back, we don’t have time for you to get your memory formula right.”
“We are still using the formula you’ve curated… Quirinian explodes!” said Clementine with a wickedly gleeful smile. “It will turn Corona to ashes.”
“ What? No, no! ” Varian cried out, feeling his heart leap into his throat. This wasn’t what he wanted. This wasn’t the plan. Blowing up Corona, that was– they couldn’t do that! “We agreed that nobody would be harmed!”
“Relax, Varian… you don’t want to end up on the wrong side of history.” said Andrew, playfully elbowing Varian in the chest. “You understand, don’t you buddy?”
Varian felt his blood go ice-cold; the Saporians… he knew they were the ruthless types, but he never imagined they’d go this far. Horrifying thoughts of the kingdom up in flames danced before his vision, a mess he could never clean up…
Varian glanced to his left, unwittingly meeting Rapunzel’s pleading gaze. The knot in his stomach tightened; he still hated her, hated what she stood for and the people she reigned over. But as angry as he was with her and the king and the rest of Corona… he didn’t want them to die.
He never wanted that.
“... you’re right,” said Varian, slowly unclenching his fists as he reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a turquoise orb against his better judgement. “So I’m gonna have to ask you to step inside that cell.”
At this point, the Saporians had gotten to know him well enough to take caution at the sight of one of his alchemical compounds; all five of them immediately began to back away, their arms raised in surrender.
“Are you betraying us, boy?” Clementine hissed, looking as if she’d like nothing better than to turn him into a bug and crush him underfoot.
Varian steeled his jaw; there was no backing out now. He stepped forward, ready to pitch the orb at the Saporians the minute they tried anything funny. “I’m getting on the right side of history.”
Clementine snarled. “Take him out!”
In the blink of an eye, Varian tossed down the compound, shielding his face from the incoming explosion. White light flashed for a second, and when he opened his eyes, he expected to find the Saporians caught in a vat of sticky, inescapable goo.
What he didn’t expect was for them to be covered in… bubble bath.
Varian cringed; of course. “Oooh… sorry guys, that was, uh… yeah, that was a bath bomb.”
***
Being on the inside of a prison cell brought back unpleasant memories. While the princess tried in vain to wedge herself through the bars, Varian had curled up on one of the bunks, pressing his face against the rough stone wall.
Way to go, Varian. He had tried to do the right thing, and look where it got him: he was going to be blown to smithereens, just like everyone else in Corona. But the hardest part about that?
It was all his fault.
“Hey… Rapunzel?” he choked out, hugging his knees. “I… I’m sorry.”
This was enough to get Rapunzel’s attention. “...what?”
Varian swallowed. “I- I didn’t mean for it to go this far. All I wanted was to save my dad… make him proud, y’know?” he said, his voice cracking. “‘Course, if he were free from the amber now… if he saw everything I’ve done… well, he’d be ashamed.”
It hurt to say it out loud, but that didn’t make it any less true– Varian supposed that, deep down, he had always known that what he’d done was wrong, and if his father were there to see it, he’d be more disappointed than Varian could bear.
Rapunzel looked at him for a moment before slumping down on the bunk opposite to him. “Y’know… standing up to Andrew just now was… pretty brave.” she said forlornly, letting out a sigh. “Look… I know how much it hurts to have someone you trust let you down. I mean,” she continued, sounding far more knowledgeable about the subject than Varian had expected. “After you go through something like that… how can you ever trust anyone again?”
“…I dunno.” said Varian quietly, burying his face in his arms. “I just thought that… well… maybe if I could make everybody forget about what I’ve done, if I could start over... everything would be okay again.” Varian turned back towards the wall, blinking away the tears that were beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. “But I guess life doesn’t really work that way.”
A moment of silence passed over the two, the only sound coming from the dripping ceiling and the rats scuffling through the dimly lit hallways. Varian closed his eyes, covering his face with his bandana; Andrew said liftoff was in twenty minutes. If Varian was going to die in a chemical fire, he might as well sleep through the inevitable pain–
“...I’m sorry too.”
Varian’s ears perked up; Rapunzel had cast a wary smile in his direction, her eyes brimming with regret.
“I’m so sorry for what happened, Varian,” she started, her voice quivering. “I wasn’t there for you when you needed me, I let you down… I wasn’t a very good friend, was I?”
Varian huffed. “No, you really weren’t.”
Rapunzel went on, staring at the ground. “I honestly didn’t know about most of those things you told me about. I… I didn’t know how much my father did to you. When you were arrested, I told him to go easy on you- he said he’d get you help–”
“He tossed me in a cell with a terrorist and threw away the key.” Varian said flatly. “Who was that supposed to help?”
Rapunzel didn’t answer at first. She furrowed her brow, jutting out her chin in determination. “Well, if my dad won’t help you… then I will.”
Varian rolled his eyes. “Didn’t you hear what the Saporians said? They’re going to blow Corona sky-high with the formula I created. We’ll be dead within the hour.”
At that, Rapunzel looked slightly disheartened, but no less tenacious. “Not if I have anything to say about it. All we need is a way out of here. Uh… maybe I can use my hair clip to–”
“Pick the lock?” said a voice from outside the cell. “Gotcha covered, blondie. But honestly, I’m offended. I can’t believe you were going to break into something and you didn’t even ask me! It’s kinda my thing.”
Varian’s eyes widened; Flynn– sorry, Eugene was standing on the other side of the bars along with a horse and a tall, bald man Varian remembered from the night he got arrested. With a flick of his wrist, Eugene clicked open the lock, the cell door swinging open with creak.
“Thank goodness you’re here!” Rapunzel exclaimed, running into his arms.
Varian stood up, meaning to follow Rapunzel out of the cell, only to be blocked by the bald man and the horse.
“And where do you think you’re going, little man?” he asked, arms crossed. He smirked, reaching down to rub off Varian’s drawn-on goatee with his thumb. (was it really that obvious that it was fake?)
The two men chuckled, but Rapunzel’s look was somber. “Guys, we’re going to have to trust him.”
Eugene wrinkled his nose, stepping into the cell to glance Varian over. “After everything hair stripe here has done, you’re going to trust him?” Eugene demanded, making Varian cringe.
“ Yes, ” said Rapunzel firmly. “He’s the one who made the formula that the Saporians are about to drop on Corona.” She leaned down, placing a gentle hand on Varian’s shoulder. “We need him.”
Varian stiffened; while he was pretty sure the princess’s apology just now had been sincere, that didn’t mean he was ready for their friendship to get all touchy-feely just yet.
All the same, he couldn’t help but smile.