Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was cold. Freezing really, the kind of cold that soaked through your clothes and your skin, seeping into your bones and freezing them solid. Hugo hated it with every chilled fiber of his being, he wanted out of it. Through the clouds of snow that blowed into his face he could faintly see a small orange light. Please god let that be fire.

Evidently, it was a village. An abandoned, torn down village with large black spikes invading every bit of the surrounding area. Frightening...but not really his problem. He pulled himself away from staring at the spectacle back to the source of the orange glow. Maybe they left in a hurry and there was still a fire going, he had to get to it before he froze to death.

When Hugo shoved open the door, he was not met with a roaring fire in a stone fireplace. He was met with a block of ominously glowing amber, a man trapped inside, and a boy crouched down, sobbing in front of it.

"Oh shit."

The boy jumped at the sudden noise, as though the quiet, shocked whispers rang louder than Hugo's failed efforts at opening the large wooden door. He slowly tried to push himself up, found the effort to be too much for him, and turned to face the intruder.

"Get out. There's nothing here for you." He said in a quiet, wobbly voice. He knew it was meant to be intimidating, though the effort was in vain.

"I um..." He took a step back and glanced outside. There was nothing for him out there either. "I can't really leave? You know, snowstorm and all. I-- I um-- what the hell is that?"

The boy glanced up at the amber, then back to him. "Get out."

Hugo took a few steps forward and knelt down to match his height. "Look I-- I'm not going to take anything I just--"

"Get out!" He grabbed his shoulders and weakly tried to shove him back. "Find somewhere else to go! Please just leave!"

He continued to push and shove Hugo, his shaking fists putting in every effort to get him away from the amber. The more he tried, the weaker the effort got, until it was nothing more than a small grip on his shirt. Then the grip loosened, the boy slumped in his arms.

"Ok! Ok...you got this. Just have to take this unconscious, soaked, maybe sick person away from their deceased um...relative, or friend, someone--" Hugo didn't dare look at the thing, it made him sick. "No problem! No issues whatsoever!"

He slowly shifted the boy so that he could carry him. He'd half expected to fail at it, considering his previous experiences with lifting things, but found that he was...surprisingly light. Convenient, but definitely concerning.

"Alright uh...Stripes! I'm gonna call you stripes, hope you don't mind that." He huffed and started walking around the house, trying to find a bed. "Of course you don't, you're unconscious."

Hugo let out a sigh of relief when he eventually did find a bed, a small room with some assorted books tossed on a table beside it. He slowly set him down and plopped onto a nearby chair.

"Thanks for the workout Stripes! Really needed that after walking eight fucking miles in a snowstorm."

He frowned, finally able to get a better look at him. He was in winter clothes, well, sort of, if a tattered cloak and thin bandaged shoes counted as clothing for cold weather. He was shaking, soaked almost as much as he was. He'd probably gone out in it too from the looks of it. Hugo sighed and leaned back in the chair, shutting his eyes and getting rest for the first time in days.

He woke up to the sound of screaming.

"Wh-- Woah hey are we under attack?!" Hugo shot up and looked around, already getting out his knife and prepping for a fight. No one in sight, he relaxed. "What the hell Stripes?"

Hugo looked down at the bed to see the boy curling in on himself, muttering panicked words incoherently. He caught a few, father, promise, something about a princess? Maybe it had something to do with the man in the amber, it'd make sense if that was his father, terribly depressing, but logical.

"Ok um-- god I don't know how to do this." Hugo slowly walked over and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Hey, whatever it is you're dreaming about. It's not real. I mean, it probably is, but-- fuck I'm just messing up here aren't I?"

Surprisingly enough, his breathing started to slow from the rapid wheezing it had been earlier. Hugo gave a nervous smile. "Oh, I guess my rambling helps? That's good."

He moved his hand up and down his arm, watching as his breathing slowed to something resembling normal. He shifted and blinked open his eyes.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty, you didn't manage to kick me out and I'm going to make that your problem."

"...what?"

"I-- I um--" Hugo noticed his hand was still touching his shoulder, he quickly moved it off. "Hi? The name's Hugo, you look like literal shit and that storm is still pretty bad, so I figured I'd just stay here for a bit."

He squinted his eyes.

"You uh-- you wanna tell me your name, Stripes?"

"Stripes?"

"It's what I've been calling you, but I could give you the pleasure of being referred to as your name if you told me it."

"Varian."

"Great! Now I'm not just some stranger holed up in your house."

"You are a stranger."

"Well that's no way to treat someone who's taking care of you." Hugo huffed and looked around. "I'm gonna go get some food or somethin, try not to die while I'm gone?"

Varian glared at him as he left, but made no effort to get up, he could already tell it would be useless.

"Some house you got here..." Hugo mumbled to himself as he walked around the place. He was going to get food, and some things to help with Varian while he was at it, but his main goal was to get the layout of the place. Habit mostly. His eyes fell on an open chest in one of the upstairs rooms. "Hello gorgeous."

Hugo slid over to it and looked inside. No gold, just some old armor and keepsakes. He glanced over to a small graphtyc among the items and opened it. Inside was a small, torn piece of a scroll. He shrugged and pocketed it, it might end up being useful to him later, if nothing else to sell it. He shut the chest and kept looking around.

"Ah! Sweet gloriousness there's a kitchen here!" He smiled and ran inside. He grabbed some bread, some other assorted foods and a wet cloth, and made his way back to Varian's room.

He was already asleep again. Not too surprising, though he was sad to lose that source of conversation. Hugo moved the books on the table and set down the food instead, then slowly put the wet cloth on Varian's forehead, sat back onto the nearby chair, and ate a portion of the bread while inspecting the scroll he'd found.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into..."

The next days went by quickly. The storm subsided after only a few hours, which Hugo thought was odd, though he didn't think much of it. He didn't leave either, even though he could. Something in him didn't want to leave Varian alone. Compassion maybe? Gross.

Varian was slowly getting better. Slowly. Much to his disliking, as he'd tried to escape his room a number of times, only to be dragged back inside by his shirt collar kicking and screaming. At least he'd like to think he was kicking and screaming, really it was only quiet muttering and the occasional small shove.

The graphtyc had been what had peaked his interest most. He'd managed to figure out a small portion of it, something about a glowing flower. It was endlessly interesting to him, and had been the only thing entertaining him outside of Varian's escape attempts.

Once he was able to walk without leaning on anything, Hugo let him out of his room. They started working on the scroll together. His help was very much appreciated, apparently the first part was an incantation the princess had sung. They had a useable key, at least some of it. Though now he was starting to get curious about this princess.

Princess Rapunzel. She apparently had seventy feet of hair, used to be able to heal people, though it didn't anymore. She had some sort of a connection to the rocks, he said they'd glowed a brilliant blue when she went near them. That's why he went to her during the storm(Hugo thought it was genuinely terrifying that Varian had gone to the capital and back without anything more than a mild cold), he thought she'd be able to help.

She'd been 'busy' at the time. She couldn't help him then, but he seemed certain she'd help him eventually. It had already been almost two weeks. Hugo didn't have the heart to tell him she'd probably never come.

"She promised me she'd help, Hugo. I trust her."

He frowned. "Look, Stripes, I know she's your friend and all but I really think--"

A loud knock came from the door. Hugo recognized the method, the strength behind it, he grabbed the scroll and put it in his bag, then grabbed Varian's wrist and pulled him out of sight, hiding them both in the cellar underneath his lab.

"What the hell are you--"

"Sh!" Hugo pointed up just as one of the guards kicked the door down, Varian slammed his mouth shut.

"Look everywhere! Turn this place upside down if you have to!" One of the men yelled, punching the stone wall with enough force that it made both of them jump.

They'd heard the sound of glass shattering, things being torn and tossed aside, the loud stomping of boots above them. Varian pushed past him and reached up for the latch out of the cellar, only for Hugo to yank his hand back down.

"We don't know what they're here for." Hugo whispered. Varian sighed and stepped back.

They stayed there, hidden, waiting for the guards to leave. They only let themselves relax when the sound moved outside, quieting down until there was once again silence.

"Alright, come on." Hugo pushed open the door and hopped up, grabbing Varian's hand and pulling him up as well.

"What do you think they were here for?"

"No clue. You stay here, I'll look into it."

Varian nodded and waited as Hugo slowly made his way toward the entrance, watching two of the guards.

“How the hell can one stupid scroll be so hard to find! We tore that place apart, it should have been there!” One guard complained, Hugo made note of the masks they all wore.

“Lets check the main house. It could be in there.” The other said calmly.

“Fine, fine. More searching. I dont know why we have to go through all this effort for some paper with a flower drawn on it.”

Hugo took a step back, holding tight to his bag, scroll safely tucked away inside. He looked back to Varian, ran over to him, grabbed his wrist, and once again pulled him back down to the cellar.

“Hey, what are you?—“

“We have to get out of here.”

“Why? Why are they here?”

“The scroll. Is there a way out from the cellar?”

Varian glanced down to Hugo’s bag, then back up to him. “Yeah, I’ll show you.”

They grabbed what they could manage, just before the guards came inside again, and ran out the back door of the cellar. They ran, they didn't stop until they were a good distance away from Old Corona, until the masked men were long since out of sight.

"What now?" Varian asked.

"I don't think it's safe to go back there. We'll wait out here, and we'll go back when they've had enough of the place."

The guards caught them about a week later, they'd made the mistake of going back, just to see if they'd left, only for them to be there with reinforcements. They'd barely gotten away that time. The men continued to chase them for the following months, they'd hide away in caves and abandoned houses, underground or as high as they could manage, but they'd always find them no matter how hard they tried.

"We need to get the princess." Varian said finally, after almost three months of being chased. "She might be able to explain the situation to them."

"Goggles we've already talked about this, she hasn't come to help you yet, who says she'd help you at all?"

"Please." Varian took his hands and squeezed them. "It's not like we have another option."

"I..." Hugo sighed. "Fine. We'll ask for her help."

Varian smiled and let go of his hands, taking a paper and quill from his bag and writing out a letter. They couldn't risk taking it in person, the capital was crawling with guards, they'd be caught in an instant. Instead they made a small lantern, something she was bound to recognize, and set it off to float over to the castle.

"She'll come."

"Don't hold your breath."

Chapter Text

They'd elected to stay in one of the abandoned houses in Old Corona while they waited. They hadn't been there long enough that they doubted anyone would look for them there, at least they hoped no one would. When they heard a faint sound of hooves stomping on the ground, people talking, Hugo had insisted he check ahead. He wanted to see if this princess really was the person Varian said she was.

"I can't tell you what a treat it is to be spending time with a cold-blooded, dead-eyed bird of prey." Eugene crossed his arms and glared at Cassandra.

"Owl are warm-blooded dumbass." Cassandra glared back at him.

"I wasn't talking about the bird."

Cassandra laughed. "Alright, guess I walked right into that one."

Hugo couldn't believe it. They were joking. They were having a light, easy conversation, smiling and laughing as though he and Varian hadn't been fighting for their very lives ever since the blizzard. He looked over at the princess, she hadn't said anything. She frowned when she saw a black spike, but she didn't do anything about it. He didn't bother listening in on the rest of it, and walked ahead to where Varian and him were staying.

"They're here!" Varian said excitedly. "I told you she'd come!"

"Yeah, she did." Hugo couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes.

Varian grabbed his wrist and tugged him forward, starting to run over to where the group had stopped. "Come on let's go--"

"Wait." Hugo pulled him back.

"...what?"

"The guards are still out there. We can't risk being out in the open."

"But the princess is there, she can figure things out--"

"I just--" Hugo sighed. "Let's just stay hidden for now, ok? We'll try talking to them once they're inside."

Varian frowned, but nodded. "Alright."

The two followed behind the group, keeping a good distance and staying out of sight, as they went inside Varian's lab. Eugene commented on how cluttered the place was, saying how terrifyingly disorganized he was.

It was because your dumb girlfriend's bodyguards ransacked the place jackass Hugo thought to himself, though he didn't dare say that out loud.

Rapunzel gasped when she peaked under the tarp they'd put up when he'd first got there. She pulled it off to reveal the amber underneath. Hugo glanced over at Varian, he was terrified, it never failed to make him sick to look at the thing, no matter how many times they saw it.

"Oh no! It's Varian's father!" She exclaimed with her hands over her mouth.

Eugene put a hand on her shoulder. "Blondie are you ok?"

"Maybe...maybe you were right. Maybe my dream was trying to tell me to stay in the castle."

"She...She doesn't care." Varian took a step back, Hugo pulled him away, they left before they heard the rest of the conversation.

"She lied." Varian muttered to himself, tears forming in his eyes the second they were out of Old Corona. "She said she wished she didn't see it, she doesn't want to deal with my problems, she said she'd help--"

"Varian, hey, it's ok." Hugo cupped his face in his hands and brushed the wiped the tears that had started to fall. "We'll figure something out."

"She was the only option we had left! Without her help we're as good as dead."

Hugo looked down at the scroll in his bag. "We've still got another option. The sundrop."

"Hugo, no, we've talked about this. The flower is probably locked away in the castle, we can't get to it."

"Sure we can, I could get us in and out no problem."

"We'd be stealing it."

"Yes, exactly, that's the idea."

"No, no we're not doing that." Varian slumped against a tree. "Lets...lets give her another chance."

"We're not doing that either."

"Why not? The flower would be her property, if we asked I'm sure she'd--"

"What proof do you have that she'd help us?! She hasn't done anything but mope for three months!"

Varian tensed, eyes going wide at Hugo's growing anger. "I...we haven't tried talking to her yet. Maybe if we explained the situation, or tried to hear her side of the story, we could figure something out."

Hugo rubbed his hand up and down the bridge of his nose. "You know what? Fine. Let's do that."

Varian gave him a sad smile. "Thank you."

"Yeah yeah I'll just add it to the list of things you owe me for."

Rapunzel sighed and drew her legs into her chest, resting her head on top of her knees. "I don't know, Pascal, I don't even know what to do anymore."

Pascal squeaked and nudged her hand, she smiled. "Ha, thanks buddy."

The two jumped at the sudden rustle of crates nearby. "Did you hear that?"

More rustling and banging could be heard from behind them, one of the boxes knocked over, a small chitter following after that. A large raccoon jumped out of the shadows and onto her lap.

"Oh! Ruddiger! Where did you come from?"

A person hopped down onto the boat, turned her around and slammed their hand over her mouth.

"Hugo!" Varian whisper-shouted, hopping down onto the boat and sitting across from her. "You don't have to do that!"

"Wh--" Rapunzel pushed herself away from Hugo once he let go of her and looked at the both of them. "Varian? Who is--" She stopped herself, pulling Varian into a tight hug. Varian laughed when he saw Hugo roll his eyes at it. She pulled away. "Who's your friend?"

"This," Varian gestured over to him. "Is Hugo. He's been helping me with...you know."

"Varian, I am so sorry, I had no idea--"

"We don't have time for this." Hugo interrupted.

"Right!" Varian took the scroll out from his bag and showed it to her. "Do you recognize this?"

"Its the sundrop, and-- and the black rocks, Varian where did you get this?"

"It was in my father's room. Hugo and I managed to translate it, we think the sundrop flower might be the key to figuring out the black rocks."

"But...my dad said it was long gone. No one's seen it since he'd saved my mom and it.." She tugged at a strand of her hair.

"It's still in the castle." Hugo slid next to Varian, letting Ruddiger crawl over from Varian's lap onto his. "We're sure of it. The king wouldn't just throw away an object with that kind of power."

"Sure, but even if he did have it, I doubt I could just ask him to hand it over."

Hugo narrowed his eyes. "Why not? You're the princess, it's as much your's as it is his."

"I--" Rapunzel sighed. "We aren't exactly on good terms right now. He wouldn't be willing to listen, no matter how much we needed the flower."

Hugo looked over to Varian, silently asking the question he'd asked numerous times before. Varian sighed. "Then we'll just have to hope seeing the aftermath of the sundrop's power will be enough to earn his forgiveness."

"What? Varian what do you mean?"

"He means we're gonna steal it." Hugo said with a smug smile.

"Why do you have to sneak us around?" Hugo whispered, getting tired of being tugged around every which way. "We're not fugitives."

"And we're in the wrong place!" Varian yelped when Rapunzel pulled him into a door, the three of them slamming their backs against it. "The flower is most likely in the royal vault, which is on the other side of the--"

"The other side of the castle, I know. But if we want to get past the vault's security, our best bet is to use the underground tunnels, and Herz Der Sonne's joural has a complete map of them."

"You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?" Hugo narrowed his eyes and walked inside the room behind her. Rapunzel pretended not to hear him.

She ran ahead and grabbed the book, tucking it under her arm and running back to meet up with them. She stopped in front of a painting of her father, his stern, solemn face looking down at her. "What am I doing..."

Hugo walked over to her. "We got what we came for, let's go--"

"Taking the journal, stealing the flower, these are all acts of treason."

"We all knew that going into this. Besides, all you have to worry about is the length of the lecture you're going to get. We have to worry about getting killed if we get caught, so why don't we get a move on?"

Varian frowned and put a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder. "This flower may be my father's only hope, it may be Corona's only hope. I know it doesn't feel right, but we're doing the right thing."

She sighed and started walking ahead. "Alright, come on."

"I found the entrance!" Hugo pointed to a small hatch leading underground. He jumped down and caught Varian when he jumped as well, though he didn't help Rapunzel down, he left that to Varian, catching Ruddiger instead when he hopped down and letting him crawl onto his shoulders while he followed the other two.

"Absolutely fascinating! These tunnels depict an ancient technology of pre-corona era--" Varian jumped back when the light in his hand shone over a skeleton, hiding behind Hugo and slowly pointing in another direction. "Let's-- yeah let's go that way."

"We should be careful." Rapunzel commented as they started walking in the direction he'd pointing. "These tunnels may be long forgotten, but they're still dangerous. We don't know if the traps still work or not."

Hugo scoffed. "Oh, I think we'll be fine. We have experience with traps--"

He stepped on a loose brick, causing arrows to fly in his face, only narrowly missing him.

"So!" He laughed nervously. "We know that they work!"

The three walked into the next room, gasping when the walls shook and rumbled, closing in on them. They each ran to one side of the room, pushing against the walls and trying to get them to stop.

"Varian!" Hugo yelled over the rumbling. "Do you think we could blow up the mechanism?"

"Isn't this supposed to be a puzzle of sorts? We could try and solve it--"

"We don't have the time!" Hugo took out a bomb from his bag and tossed it to Rapunzel. "Throw it at that gear!"

She nodded and looked over at her target, prepping to throw it.

"We don't have all day!"

Rapunzel groaned and threw the bomb at the gear, simply hoping it would hit right. The gear blew up, just as the wall had smushed them all together, Rapunzel pressing herself against both walls, Hugo and Varian pressed up against eachother.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Varian wheezed out.

They'd elected not to talk after that initial incident. Traps suddenly held more weight to them, any loose wire or brick might mean the end. They jumped at the sound of pascal catching a spider.

"Pascal no!" Rapunzel walked forward. "I need you to slowly, carefully let go of the spider."

Pascal looked between her and the spider, slowly walking forward till he was inches away from the string, then letting go. The three let out a sigh of relief, only for Ruddiger to run into the wire moments later.

Rocks crumbled and fell in front of them, Rapunzel leaped forward and grabbed the animals, while Hugo pulled Varian out of the way.

"Everyone ok?" Rapunzel asked, out of breath. "We're getting closer to the surface, we don't want to alarm the guards."

Hugo laughed to himself. "Oh I'm sure they have their hands full."

"What?" Rapunzel and Varian asked in unison.

"O-- oh I mean uh--" His laughter turned nervous. "They have their hands full everyday!"

"Hugo, wait what do you mean--" Varian walked forward, accidentally setting off a trap in his haste to get over to him. The ground crumbled beneath him, causing him to fall through.

"Varian!" Hugo ran forward and grabbed his wrist, hanging onto him for dear life. "Hold on!"

"It's not like my other options are pleasant!" He yelled back.

Rapunzel ran forward and grabbed Varian's other wrist, the two of them pulling him back up onto the ground. Hugo didn't let go of him, even after they'd started walking again.

"Are you sure about this?" Rapunzel asked. "It's Corona's only hope?"

"It's the only thing we've got, it should be, but uh, it's not really my top concern right now." Varian laughed nervously.

Rapunzel gasped. "You don't care about Corona?"

"What? Of course I do, I just-- well right now I'm more worried about my father."

"Right..."

"Why is it our job to care about this country? It's not like it's done anything for us." Hugo snapped, shocking the other two.

"Hugo!" Varian pulled away from him.

"What?" He asked, huffing when Varian decided to walk with Rapunzel instead of him. "Fine, whatever."

"So..." Rapunzel spoke in a low voice. "What's the story with you and Hugo?"

"He showed up in my house during the blizzard, he took care of me, he's been helping me try and save my father." Varian looked ahead at Hugo, who had a sour expression on his face. "He can get...a little overprotective at times."

"Why did he show up at your house?"

"O--oh, I'm not sure really. I assumed he was looting it."

"So he's a thief?"

"Maybe?" Varian blinked. "Wh-- what does this have to do with anything?"

"Nothing! I'm just...wary of him, is all. He might just be after the flower."

"Isn't your boyfriend a former thief?" He waited for her response, when nothing came, he walked ahead, going back to walking with Hugo.

Varian was pissed. He was pissed at the both of them really, Hugo for hiding...something from him, he still wasn't sure yet, and Rapunzel, god what wasn't he pissed at her for? She'd been talking about how wrong everything was the whole time, but she never did anything about it, she'd act as if him caring about his father was some crime against humanity, and now she thought Hugo, the person who had sacrificed so much for him, wasn't to be trusted? He knew he was up to something, but he knew his intentions were good. They always were.

"Great! It's a dead end." Hugo huffed when they reached the end of the tunnel.

"No, this is it." Varian pointed to the map on the journal Rapunzel held. "We should be right under the vault."

"Hm...how do we get the latch open?" Rapunzel looked up at the latch on the ceiling.

Varian and Hugo looked around at the pillars. One two three four...They looked at eachother.

"Seven pillars, seven notches." Varian grabbed one of the chess piece-looking notches, Hugo taking another one. They pushed the group of them forward to match the pillars till a click was heard.

Hugo smiled and high-fived him. "Got it!"

Metal stomped on the ground, the three turned around to see a large robot, glowing green eyes and rust. Rapunzel took a step back. "And you got a friend with it."

"Fascinating!" Varian exclaimed.

"Is that-- that's an automaton?" Hugo looked between him and the robot. "Oh I've always wanted to see one of those."

"Right? I've heard about them, but to actually see this-- this marvel of ancient technology is--"

Rapunzel let down her hair and pulled the two out of the way right before its fist slammed down on the both of them. "Focus! You can geek out later!"

"Don't worry princess, we got this." Varian ran forward and threw several vials of explosives toward the automaton, blowing it backwards into a pillar. "See?"

"Great! Now we just need to actually beat it!" Rapunzel ran forward, waving her hands. "Oi! Metal-head!--"

"Automaton." Varian and Hugo said in unison.

"Come and get it!"

The automaton stomped its way toward her, shoving and punching whatever thing got in its way. She jumped to the side when it got close, leaving it to hit the pillar behind her instead.

"Varian." Hugo pointed up to the two broken down pillars, already close to falling over.

He nodded. "Rapunzel! We're going to distract it, you use your hair and tie it around the two pillars!"

"Are you--" The automaton punched her again, only narrowly missing her and hitting a wall. "Ok! I'll do it!"

Hugo grabbed another group of vials and threw it at the automaton, before grabbing Varian's hand and running to the back of the room. The automaton tripped over Rapunzel's hair, falling over and getting crushed by the pillars that crumbled over top of it.

"Alright, let's go!" Rapunzel pulled down the ladder and started climbing up, the two got one last look at the automaton before they followed her up.

"That's it." Rapunzel sucked in a breath, looking at the end of the vault to see the flower, illuminated by a series of lamps. "The sundrop."

Hugo walked forward, ready to take it and be done with it, consequences be damned, only for Varian to shove past them and swipe it himself.

"Wh-- Varian!" She grabbed the handle of his bag. "Wait-- wait we can't take all of it!"

"Why not? What if I need more than just one part of it?" He tugged the bag away from her.

"Varian--"

"What difference does it make?! It was just sitting here rotting anyway!"

Hugo jumped at the sound of guards banging on the door. "Varian we need to get out of here."

"Why?! You've been going on about keeping everyone distracted, what did you do?!"

"I--" Hugo looked down at his own bag, the small glass vial inside. Varian followed his gaze and reached inside, taking it out. "I can explain."

"That's Xavier's mood potion." Rapunzel's jaw fell. "That-- that's not something you can just mess with--"

"You can if you know what you're doing." He snapped. "Someone had to make sure the flower was here."

She slammed her mouth shut. "You-- you made a truth serum and gave it to everyone?"

"Ding ding she's a winner!"

"Hugo!" Varian yelled, anger only growing the more the two of them talked. "Why the hell would you do that?!"

"Look, Stripes, I'm sorry I didn't really think it through but--" More banging could be heard from the door. "We need to get out of here. She's not going to stop them from arresting us."

"I defied a direct order from my father, the king, because I trusted him!" Rapunzel grabbed Varian's shoulders and pulled him over to face her. "Give me the flower, Varian. We can find a way to fix all this, the rocks, your dad....everything. Just, please, this isn't right."

Varian looked between the two, both looking at him with pleading eyes. Varian glared and shoved Rapunzel off of him, taking Hugo's hand and pulling them to the back of the room.

"I know first hand how well you keep your promises." Was all he said before the two left in a cloud of smoke.

The two ran. They ran and they didn't stop, not for a moment, not until they got back to Old Corona. They felt like they had months ago, running for their lives, running away from people who wanted them hurt, or worse. The two stop in front of his lab and take a moment to catch their breath.

"H--hey, goggles, you ok?" Hugo asked in between wheezes.

Varian didn't respond. He shoved open the door, took out the flower and started grinding it into a paste.

"Ok, ok silent treatment. That's-- that's fair I guess." Hugo walked over to him. "Look, I know I fucked up but I'm sorry--"

Varian glared at him, a look that made chills run down his spine. He shut himself up and let Varian walk past, pouring the paste onto the drill and pushing it into the amber. The loud, high pitched shrill pierced their ears, he drilled and drilled, whispering quiet pleads until the drill tore itself apart.

"No...No no NO!!" Varian shoved the drill into a wall. "That should've worked! That had to have worked!"

"Woah! Hey, it's ok we'll just try something else--"

"No! That was it! That was our one shot and we failed, I failed."

"You didn't fail. We'll figure something out." Hugo slowly walked toward him and raised a hand to touch his shoulder, Varian shoved his hand away.

"We wouldn't be in this situation if you didn't drug half the castle staff!"

"I--" Hugo sighed. "I wasn't expecting it to go that far. I just gave it to one of the guards, and he ended up taking it and giving it out to everyone else! I don't know why, but it was too late to talk him out of it, I couldn't exactly explain why he couldn't give it out and--"

Varian took his hands. "I'm still pissed at you."

"I know."

Varian let his head fall onto Hugo's chest and let go of his hands, moving to wrap his arms around his waist. "Extremely pissed."

"I know."

"We did all of that for nothing. She hates me and it was all for nothing."

Varian’s hands started to shake. " I can’t believe I did that. I— I can’t believe I said that to her. I don’t know if I could ever make it up to her—“

“No.” Hugo said firmly, pushing Varian away gently and putting his hands on his shoulders. “You don’t have to do shit for her. You had every right to do that, and you had every right to tell her off like that.”

“But she was just trying to help—“

“Yeah! Herself! That’s just how rich people are! They only ever care how things effect them.” Hugo gave Varian’s shoulders a quick squeeze and let him go. “God I wish I could just shave her stupid head and burn that hair to ash. Its the only damn thing that makes her special in everyone’s eyes. She doesn't deserve that adoration just for having magic hair.”

“Wait...” Varian’s eyes go wide. “That’s it! Hugo you genius!”

“Why thank you— wait why am I a genius?”

“Her hair!! The sundrop’s power isnt in the flower anymore. It’s in her!”

"So what do we do? It's not like we can just princess-nap her."

"No, but we could always get her to come willingly."

"Varian I'm not going to try to appeal to her again--"

"We're not." Varian said firmly, a new emotion behind it Hugo couldn't quite recognize. "I had something else in mind."

Hugo watched as Varian grabbed a sheet of paper and started drawing out plans, building plans. He was drawing out plans to build an automaton, from memory. Holy shit he loved this boy-- wait what.

"We'll need to make about eight of these. Rapunzel's birthday is in two weeks. We have till then to make them." Varian spoke in a monotone voice, as though what he was suggesting was something simple or boring. It was almost terrifying.

"Why her birthday?"

"Heightened focus on her. We send one automaton after her in the morning, that will send her dad into putting all his men to protecting her. She'll get out of it, naturally, and when she does she and everyone else will be met with another."

"What then?"

"Then we go after the one person he forgot, the queen."

"We're going to kidnap the queen."

"Yup."

"Oh sweet Jesus take me now." Hugo sighed dreamily and leaned against him, one hand on his forehead. "I knew you'd fall to the cool side eventually."

"If it's what I have to do, I'll do it."

Hugo noticed how emotionless he sounded, definitely starting to get terrifying. "Right.."

"Once we have her and the rest of them have dealt with the second automaton, they'll launch an attack to bring her back. That's where the other six come in. Rapunzel will probably go out on her own to save her mother, so they're only there to keep everyone else distracted while we deal with her."

"So...that's the plan?"

"Unless you have any other suggestions, yes."

"Uh...no that's pretty foolproof."

"Good. Let's get to work."

Chapter Text

Varian didn't talk much while they worked. He focused on building the automatons and nothing else, he had to be forced to do things as simple as eat or sleep, at one point Hugo had resorted to using the knockout dust on him. At first he was happy Varian had finally given up on the princess, now...now he wasn't so sure. Varian didn't look like himself anymore, he didn't like it. Part of him wished he hadn't egged him on, but it was too late to turn back now.

The day came, everything was ready. When they sent the first automaton in with the other gifts, it had gone in and attacked without a hitch. Rapunzel took it down without much issue, but it scared her father enough to lock her up, just as they'd hoped.

"Are you sure about this?" Hugo asked, prepping the second automaton to attack the courtyard. "There could still be guards inside, I don't want you going in alone."

"I'll be fine. You just focus on keeping everyone out here distracted." Varian slid on his welding mask and turned to leave.

"Good luck." Hugo said as he left. He sighed and hopped up onto the courtyard's surrounding walls. "Alright, let's do this."

"Hello, Corona." Hugo spoke as fog flooded into the courtyard, he couldn't help but smile when their faces all turned pale in fear.

"It's Hugo." Rapunzel whispered.

"Something dark is coming for you, and your beloved king refuses to acknowledge it." He glared at the statue of the man, partially obscured by the fog. "In hopes of keeping his mistakes secret he has lied to you and persecuted the innocent."

"Get more men." Frederic ordered the captain. "I want all the guards out here."

"Yes sir."

"In a matter of days the rocks that have been plaguing the outer towns will infest the capital, destroying everything you hold dear. It has already overtaken the outskirts of the kingdom." Hugo glanced over at the bay, a hoard of rocks growing ever closer. "The key to stopping this destruction is Princess Rapunzel herself."

Eugene pulled Rapunzel close, glaring up at the walls around the courtyard, searching for the source of the voice.

"The royal family has ignored all cries for help, we will not be ignored any longer! And to make sure I have your attention, I have something special ready for all of you. I hope you have fun, and try to survive it. This is only the first event."

Hugo let out a bout of howling laughter as the guards ran around trying to avoid being crushed by the automaton. It was honestly kind of pitiful, they'd take one down just the three of them in a matter of minutes, yet over 40 armed guards couldn't even faze the thing.

Rapunzel, of course, was the one to take it down. Once it was destroyed Hugo hopped off the courtyard's wall and made his way to the rendezvous point. He only hoped Varian managed to get through his half of the job without getting caught.

He was already there when Hugo arrived. "Took you long enough."

Hugo laughed. "Well, I wanted to add a little fun to the whole thing."

"You gave a speech, didn't you."

"Yup, I did." He looked around. "Wait, where is the queen?"

"I'm right here." She said from behind him, making him jump.

"Wait-- wait why is she conscious, Varian what the hell did you--"

"Do you honestly think I'd get taken out by some fourteen year old kid with some pixie dust?" Arianna laughed.

"Ok, sure, alright." Hugo looked over to Varian. "Why hasn't she run away yet?"

"Apparently she hates the king as much as we do."

"Damn, didn't know the queen was down to commit treason. Though, I guess it isn't really treason if you yourself are a member of the royal family."

"I never said I supported what you were doing." She spoke calmly, walking ahead of them and beckoning them to follow. "Consider it an enemy of my enemy situation, I don't support my husband either, and I certainly wouldn't want to support attacking two children, so my only option is to side with you."

Hugo scoffed. "Woah, hey, we're not children."

"You won't be saying that when you get arrested. Adults get the death penalty."

He slammed his mouth shut and started walking closer to Varian.

"We're going to try to get out of this peacefully first. My daughter is more willing to avoid a fight when she can. We'll appeal to her, then my husband should follow."

"We already tried appealing to her. It won't work--"

Varian glared at him and whispered. "I know, but we still have a plan when that won't work."

"...right. Ok."

"You went out in this?" Arianna asked. The two tilted their heads. "Rapunzel mentioned you'd come to her in the storm. This was the route you took?"

"Um...yes?"

"Noted. I'll add that to my list of grievances."

The three walked the rest of the way there in silence. Arianna stayed in the front, apparently she'd been there many times before, or at least they assumed she had, it was the only way she'd be able to know the way like that.

She'd let them move to the front when they'd gotten to his lab, she couldn't stop the gasp that came out when she saw Quirin in the amber. She walked toward him, putting her hand up to it, almost as if to check if it was really real.

"We were old friends." Arianna said softly. "He helped me, when my daughter was first taken. I suppose its time I return the favor."

Arianna told the two of them to hide when they heard the latch into the cellar start to open. She'd talk to them first, then they would. Instead they prepped to attack.

"Alright, where is--" Rapunzel stopped, smiled, and ran over to hug her. "Mom! How did you escape?"

"I didn't." She said in a shockingly angered tone. "You never told me about your secret division, Frederic."

The king scoffed. "Do you honestly trust two children over me?"

"Would you honestly attack two children for a scroll?"

Rapunzel stepped back, her smile falling when the argument started. She found herself going closer to her father, though she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

"I never attacked them!"

"No, the armed battalion you sent for them did! How can you expect them not to lash out when you'd been abusing them for months--"

She was cut off, Frederic made a move to grab her wrist, to tug her out of the situation, away from their daughter. Hugo acted fast. He jumped out from his hiding place, pushed Arianna out of the way, threw a goo bomb at the king's feet, and held Rapunzel's arms behind her back before she could react.

"Looks like talking it out isn't going to work. Sorry, your majesty." Hugo said with a sigh, he'd honestly found himself hoping it would. "Varian, time for plan B."

Varian nodded and stepped out of the shadows, glowing yellow vial in hand. He held it up above a rock, one sitting right by the king's feet. "Either you help free my father, or your’s will meet the same fate."

"No! Don't!" Rapunzel pulled against Hugo's grip, fighting as hard as she could.

Varian shook his head and started to pour the solution. Hugo noticed his act falter a little when the crystal started to grow. He almost let go of Rapunzel so he could help him, but he couldn't afford to do that.

"Wait!" She stopped fighting against Hugo. "I'll do it! I'll do it."

Varian smiled. “Good. I’ll let him go once my father is free.”

Varian looked over to Hugo, silently motioning for him to let her go so he could get her up to the machine. He twisted her hair into it, sucked in a breath, and started to drill.

Rapunzel felt as though everything was being drained out of her, firey, hot pain shooting up to her head and making her double over. Arianna ran over to her on instinct, even if it had to be done, she didn't want to see her daughter in pain.

"Why won't you just work?!" Varian shouted, watching as the amber showed no reaction.

"Varian! You're hurting her, please!" Arianna begged once the drill had powered down. "We'll have to find something else--"

"Why does everyone keep saying that! There's always something else, that's how it always is, but it always fails! Who fucking cares if it's hurting her, I don't care if it kills her! I--"

"Varian." Hugo put a hand on his shoulder. "We've lost. Let's get out of here before we dig ourselves into an even deeper hole."

"No. No I'm not--"

"Please."

Varian looked between all of them, Rapunzel's exhausted face, the rest of them terrified, and slowly reached for the solution, throwing it at the goop keeping the king stuck and freeing him just before the amber wrapped around his leg. Hugo sighed, and took Varian's hand, only for him to shove it away.

"Wh-- Stripes what are you--"

Varian glared at the family, the three of them hugging eachother, happy they were all safe, then looked over to Hugo, right before leaving the cellar.

The three broke off from their hug. Rapunzel looked around. "Hugo, where did he go?"

Rumbling could be heard below them, Hugo took a step back. A large automaton broke through the ground, the eye glowing a bright red, Varian inside of it. He didn't say anything, no witty remark, no enraged comment, only silence and a metal hand reaching out to grab one of them.

"Come on!" Rapunzel grabbed Hugo's wrist and pulled him out with the rest of them.

Varian broke down the wall and reached again, grabbing the king off the ground and holding him up. Rapunzel balled her hands into fists, and stepped forward.

"Stand down, Varian. You've lost."

"No. Not yet."

The metal hand started to close in on itself, crushing the person held inside its palm. Rapunzel's eyes went wide, shock mixing with rage. A hoard of rocks shot up all around her. There was silence again, and then an explosion. Rapunzel held tightly onto two of the rocks, her hair glowing a brilliant yellow, and released a giant wave of them toward the final automaton.

The king fell out of his grip, not that the boy seemed to care anymore. He got up from the explosion and pulled manically at the levers and mechanisms, racing toward her. A large spike was sent to the automaton's leg, then another, then one to his arm, flipping it up into the air and sending one final spike through the middle, just before he could manage to grab her.

The rocks flattened and shifted to point in a singular direction, a marvel which they normally would've stopped to stare at, if their focus wasn't elsewhere. Rapunzel and her family reunited once more, Arianna and Eugene helping her stand.

Hugo was the first to step forward, the first to go inside the automaton to pull Varian out. The second the hatch opened Varian leapt out and raced toward the princess, Hugo was the first one to hold him back.

"Varian, please! We've lost! There's nothing else we can do!"

"No! I can't afford to lose! She can't take everything from me and expect me to do nothing about it!" Varian pulled against him as hard as he could, kicking and shoving against his grip.

A few guards pulled them apart, three were needed to hold Varian back, only one was needed to pull Hugo into the small cart they'd brought. He didn't bother to fight back, he couldn't really react to anything, instead blankly staring as Varian continued to scream at the princess. He couldn't believe he'd ever wanted this.

Chapter Text

4 years in a low security cell. That was the sentence they'd given him. They took him away from Varian, it was the only time he'd fought against the guards that whole time, he didn't want to leave him alone, he needed someone with him right now. Both to help him, and because...Hugo didn't want to be alone. Not in a place like this.

According to what he'd overheard from nearby guards, they'd painted some story about how Varian had dragged him into this, how he was the mastermind behind everything and Hugo was just some unwitting victim. They couldn't be more wrong. Varian wouldn't have done this if Hugo hadn't dragged him into it, it was his fault they were here, his fault Varian went that far, his fault he--

"Hugo." A familiar voice sounded. Hugo looked up and met eyes with her. "I...wanted to talk to you."

Hugo didn't respond to her, only glaring and turning himself away from her.

"I-- I know I'm probably the last person you want to see right now but--" She paused and turned to one of the guards. "Open the cell please."

"What?" Him and the guard asked in unison.

"This isn't right. I want to speak with him on equal ground." She responded firmly, leaving no room for the guard to convince her otherwise. The man sighed and opened the door, letting her inside.

Hugo moved as far away as he could manage when she moved to sit next to him.

She sighed. "Alright. Now we can actually talk."

"What do you want, princess?"

"I--" The level of hatred in which the words were directed at her stung more than she'd like to admit. "I came here for two reasons. The first was...I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"For everything. For ignoring Varian when he needed my help, for not treating his situation with the severity it was, for being unreasonable about the both of you when we took the flower, and...everything I did during the attack at Old Corona."

"Yeah, you really fucked up, huh?"

"I...I'm sorry for what I did, and I accept responsibility for the part I played in setting you two off. I want to make amends."

Hugo stopped staring at the ground, looking up at her with a curious expression. "...what about the second reason?"

"I found this in your lab. I thought you'd want it back." Rapunzel took the scrollpiece out of her pocket and handed it to him. "We're going to follow the rocks, see where exactly they're leading us. The scroll would be useful...but we don't know how to read it."

"And you need us to translate it?"

"Yes." She noticed him start to glare at her. "You don't have to! I'm not forcing you to do anything. I just thought, maybe coming with us would be a better alternative then..." She looked around the cell. "You don't deserve this. Neither of you do. If this is how I can get you out, then so be it."

Hugo's expression softened, he took the scroll from her outstretched hand and looked it over. "Have you asked Varian?"

"I...I don't know where they're keeping him. No one's really telling me anything."

"Find him. I'll talk it over with him first, and then I'll decide."

She smiled and stood up. "Of course. I'll find him as fast as I can."

"Wait!" Hugo said just as she turned to leave. "Thank you...for doing this."

Her smile widened. "It's the least I could do. Consider it the first of many ways I'm making things up to you."

Rapunzel visited him almost every day. She started bringing food with her, after about a week, and she'd tell him what exactly she'd found out about Varian. It was never much, really, she'd say which blocks she'd searched and which people she'd talked to, but there was nothing on him. He appreciated her telling him, it was...nice having her be honest about the situation. It meant more to him than she probably knew, or maybe she did, maybe that's why she was doing this.

She refused to leave until she found him, even after it had been almost a month. Hugo knew she could have just as easily forced him to go alone, he was glad she didn't.

After a month, she'd walked into his cell one final time, a sorrow expression on her face. "I found him."

Hugo stood up, walking toward the edge of the cell, he was shocked when she'd opened it, motioning for him to leave. "Where is he? Is he ok? Is he--"

"Follow me." She spoke quietly. He nodded and walked behind her.

He found himself glad they didn't end up going down to one of the lower levels, though that relief quickly dissipated when Rapunzel told him where she'd found him. High security, one of the lowest, most heavily guarded areas in the dungeons. He'd had a cellmate too, someone the princess seemed to despise enough to spit out his name, or maybe it was just her displeasure with them being in the same cell.

When they reached a room at the end of the hall, Rapunzel opened the door and let him walk inside. Hugo took a cautious step forward. "Varian?"

He was covered in cuts and bruises, burn marks scattered across his arms, his bare arms, his gloves nowhere in sight. There were purple bruises on his wrists, rusted chains most likely, Hugo had scars of his own from dealing with them. Hugo took another step forward and knelt down to meet his height. The thing that scared him most was the look in his eyes. Empty, looking through him, like he wasn't even there.

"What..."

"He was like this when I found him." Rapunzel said with a shaky voice, one she tried to keep steady. "He won't talk to me, I thought...maybe he'd talk to you."

Hugo slowly put his hand up to Varian's face, brushing back his matted hair and wiping the dirt off his cheek. He noticed the medical supplies nearby.

"Rapunzel...if it's alright, I need a few things." He spoke quietly, he had to force the words out, he could barely talk.

"Of course." She took a step forward, bandages in her hands.

"I need you to find his gloves." Hugo took Varian's hands, carefully touching the uninjured parts of them. "His goggles too, and Ruddiger."

"I.." She set the bandages down next to him. "I'll see what I can do."

Rapunzel wiped the tears from her eyes as she left the room. She couldn't let herself cry, not yet. There was a room where prisoner's belongings were kept, she was glad his gloves and goggles were there. Ruddiger was harder to find, though easier than she'd expected. He'd been pawing at the castle's walls, just outside the prison. She didn't know how long he'd been there.

When she'd come back to where Hugo and Varian were, Varian was fully patched up, leaning against Hugo's shoulder. She almost thought he was asleep, if it weren't for his eyes being slightly open.

"I...I found everything you needed." She gave a nervous smile and set Ruddiger down on the ground, letting him scamper up onto Varian's lap and lick his face. She handed Hugo the goggles and gloves.

He smiled. "Thank you."

Hugo took Varian's bandaged hands and slid the gloves on, then slowly put the goggles on top of his head. "There," He sucked in a breath, trying not to cry himself. "You look a little more like yourself now."

Varian's head leaned further onto the crook of Hugo's neck, he raised his hand to scratch ruddiger's head, the first movement he'd made since they'd seen him. Hugo couldn't stop the tears from falling then.

He looked away from Varian, for just a second, to thank Rapunzel for her help, but found she'd already left the room. Instead he shifted Varian so that he could hold him and Ruddiger both, leaning back against the stone and finally letting himself relax.

Rapunzel broke down crying the second she'd entered her room, falling to her knees and cradling herself as tears cascaded down onto the floor. She'd been afraid of them, she was angry with them, they'd tried to hurt her father, herself, Varian probably wanted her dead still, even now. But they were children, two kids that were just as scared as she was, just trying to keep eachother safe. Why had she never seen that? Why didn't she notice sooner? Why didn't she--

"Sunshine?" Eugene stepped inside, kneeling down and pulling her up to a sitting position. "Hey, hey are you ok?"

"I-- I found Varian, he-- he was hurt, they hurt him Eugene!" She choked back another sob. "This is all my fault, they wouldn't be here if it weren't for me!"

"No, no Blondie this isn't your fault."

"It is! I left them, I'd assumed the worst of them, I pushed them into a corner and shamed them for acting out and now they're-- now he's--"

"Hey, hey listen to me." Eugene held her face in his hands, tucking her hair behind her ear. "What happened to them...it's awful, I can't imagine what it is the guards did," Eugene thought back to Lance's nightmares, his scars. "and it's terrible, but you can't blame yourself for it. It won't do anyone any good."

"But I--"

"No. You made mistakes, and so did they. You're making up for them now, you're helping them even when you don't have to. That's what matters." He kissed her forehead. "We're going to help them, the both of us. I'll stand by whatever you chose to do. If you trust them, so do I."

She smiled and hugged him. "Thank you, Eugene."

"No problem Sunshine."

They'd packed up the caravan, ready to leave the second Hugo and Varian made their decision. Rapunzel visited both of them one final time.

"Have you decided?" She asked nervously, opening the door and looking inside. She'd almost expected them to be asleep, they weren't.

"We're going." Hugo nodded and stood up. Varian stood up as well and followed behind him, latched onto his arm. She noticed the way he limped on one of his legs.

A guard stepped in front of them, slapping cuffs onto both their wrists. It was a precaution, they'd expected it. Hugo stopped after they'd been walking for a while, about halfway over to where the caravan was.

"Alright, that's it. Someone please uncuff me." He said with an impatient tone.

"What? Why?" Rapunzel asked, she noticed how angry the guard looked at the request.

"Because Stripes over here is being an idiot."

Rapunzel, while confused, motioned for the guard to uncuff him. He'd been ready for Hugo to attack, to try and hurt the princess, only for Hugo to turn around, slide his hands under Varian's knees and neck, and pick him up.

"There, now you won't be walking on that very obviously hurt leg." He huffed and kept walking, ignoring the embarrassed protests from Varian, various insisting that he was fine and that he could walk on his own.

Rapunzel smiled, shook her head, and kept walking.

They found themselves surprised that only one member of the group looked at them with hatred in their eyes. Eugene looked solemn, staring down at Varian, now asleep in Hugo's arms, was it pity in his eyes? It might have been. The look on the other man's face, Lance's, that's who Rapunzel said he was, was that of understanding. Hugo noticed the familiar scars on the man's wrists. So they weren't the only ones.

"There's three rooms. Me and Cass are sharing one, Lance and Eugene are sharing one, and the third one is your's." Rapunzel led him over to the room in the back of the caravan. It had two beds, two desks, and various books stacked around.

"Oh. Didn't think you'd want to leave the two of us alone." Hugo joked, wincing when Cassandra narrowed her eyes and started reaching for her knife.

"Consider it an act of trust." Rapunzel said with a smile. "We're going to start traveling now. There's a change of clothes for the both of you as well. Just ask if you need anything, ok?"

"Uh...sure." Hugo smiled nervously and stepped inside. Rapunzel returned with her own smile and shut the door, walking around to the front of the caravan and starting it up. Hugo set Varian down on one of the beds and grabbed one of the piles of clothes.

Varian had started to stir after a little while on the road, Hugo had already changed and was starting to look through the books they'd been given. There were some on ancient languages, others on alchemy and engineering, it was actually a great reference, he'd half expected it to be things they already knew, but it wasn't.

"Hugo?" Varian blinked open his eyes and pushed himself up.

"Heya, have a nice nap?"

He looked around. "When did we get here?"

"Little while ago, you've been out for a while. Though, from the looks of you, it was a much needed nap."

Varian messed with his gloves. "Hugo, I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"You kept trying to get me out, when our plan didn't work. I didn't listen and I took it all way too far. I'm...sorry I didn't listen to you."

"What? You don't have to apologize for that. You were pissed, I get it. Besides, you wouldn't have even been in that situation if I hadn't pushed you to hate the princess. Really I kind of put this on myself."

"No! This isn't your fault. I chose to do all this, with or without your involvement. Everything that happened was my choice, I'm at fault for it."

"I'd just like to say that I did help make those automatons, and I was the one who drugged the castle staff, and I helped quite a bit with the attacks. You're not the only one who fucked up here. I don't know what got into your head to make you think this was all on you, but it's not."

"It is, you-- you didn't do anything! I was the one who messed up, I'm the one who needs to pay for it, I--"

Hugo stood up, walked over to him, and pulled him into a hug. "Stop blaming yourself. There's not one person to blame for this, it was all of us."

Varian slowly returned the hug, crying into Hugo's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"I know, I'm sorry too."

Hugo shifted around, sitting down on Varian's bed and letting him lay on his stomach, wrapping his arm's around Hugo's neck.

"Where'd you get the clothes from?" Varian asked, face still buried in Hugo's chest.

"Rapunzel got them, you've got some too."

"They look nice."

Hugo blinked, trying to ignore the blush that creeped onto his face. "O-oh! Thanks."

Varian hummed and held onto him tighter. His breathing started to slow again, he'd probably fallen back asleep, the jerk.

Chapter Text

Over the next week they'd slowly started to get comfortable with being around everyone else. Varian and Rapunzel were walking on eggshells around each other, though Hugo didn't really find himself surprised at that, neither of them really hated each other, but they didn't know how to tell eachother that. It was frustrating, but to be expected. They both were terrible at communication.

Eugene was an odd combination of wary and pleasant, he was nice to them, he didn't seem to have any ill intent, but at the same time his eyes always seemed to go wide anytime they talked to Rapunzel or got close to her.

Lance had decided he was going to befriend them whether they liked it or not. He'd kick open the door and give them food, rambling about whatever dumb friend drama the other three would get into, he found it entertaining to watch. They actually valued his company, he was the only one there that didn't hold anything against them. Plus he had experience in prison, that helped a lot anytime Varian would have issues, he always seemed to know what to do.

Cassandra...despised them. Anytime she'd even bother to talk to them it would be some sort of insult, and even then that was rare. Most of the time she'd move as far away as possible, sharpening her knife and glaring at them. It was annoying more than anything, and there wasn't much they could do to assure her they weren't going to hurt anyone, so they put up with it.

They'd made their first stop after a week of traveling. Lance and Eugene went out to get more supplies while the rest of them stayed with the caravan.

"So! Eugene proposed, didn't he?" Cassandra asked Rapunzel, breaking the silence that had formed once the other two had left.

"What? No!" She laughed nervously. "How...how did you guess?"

"I know you two well enough. You always get like this when the topic of marriage comes up."

"Wait, you're not married?" Hugo interrupted sitting down next to Rapunzel and leaning against the caravan, Varian sitting next to him and leaning against his shoulder. "I thought you were."

"And I thought you guys were dating for the longest time so..." Rapunzel joked, watching as the two of them choked and stuttered out panicked responses. "But...no. We're not. And he did propose."

"And what did you say?" Cassandra asked.

"I said...nothing. I just kind of stood there." She buried her face in her hands. "I'm not sure why."

"Oh I can tell you why." An unfamiliar voice interjected. The four of them looked around for the source, a tall, white haired woman eating an apple leaned against the caravan. "You have bigger things on your plate then relationship issues." She said, with food still in her mouth. "Greetings."

"Wh..." Rapunzel stepped forward. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Oh! Right, totally forgot about that." Adira tossed the apple aside and bowed. "Hello! I am Adira."

"And what do you want Adira?" Cassandra moved in front of Rapunzel, her hands balled into fists.

"A word with Rapunzel and Varian is all...alone, if you don't mind."

Hugo found himself stepping in front of Varian at that, he wasn't as wary of her as Cassandra was, but he'd rather not leave him alone either.

"Not gonna happen." Cassandra put her hand on Adira's shoulder, forcing her to stop when she walked forward.

"Just a second, Cass." Rapunzel interjected. "Let's...hear her out."

"Ok," Adira chuckled. "I gotta be honest. I know we just met, but uh, I'm not a big fan of people touching me."

"And I'm not a fan of people who lurk in the shadows."

"Alright, last chance to do things the nice way." Adira grabbed Cassandra's wrist, her eyes flicked down to the brotherhood marking on the back of her hand.

"And where's the fun in that?"

Adira smiled and threw Cassandra off of her, watching as she flipped and slid to a stop. Adira adjusted her stance, and waited for Cassandra to attack.

"I should've brought popcorn." Hugo joked, watching as Rapunzel readied her frying pan and joined the fight. "Five bucks this chick kicks their asses."

"Ten bucks she does it in under five minutes." Varian muttered in response.

"Let's try that again, weirdo." Cassandra took out her sword and raced toward her, slamming it against the ground and swinging it in her face.

"I'm not a weirdo." Adira said casually, dipping and diving out of the way of her attacks as though it were easy. "Am I? Eccentric maybe." Rapunzel started swinging her frying pan at her, the result was just the same. "Unconventional, sure, but weirdo?"

With a swift kick, Cassandra was knocked to the ground.

"Oh come on guys, this is ridiculous! I don't wanna fight you!"

"You could've fooled me." Cassandra wheezed out, already out from breath from her attacks.

Adira jumped and flipped over her before her sword managed to hit, hands still behind her back. "You guys aren't even trying." She caught the frying pan Rapunzel threw on instinct. "Oh wait, they are trying."

Hugo chuckled. "Oh my god I think I'm in love."

"That's it!" Cassandra sent another attack to Adira, the woman used her leg to deflect it, kicking and moving the sword out of Cassandra's grip. She sent one final kick, one that stopped only an inch away from her face, and watched as she fell over.

Adira smiled and walked over to her, offering a hand to help her up, only for Rapunzel to whip her hair around it. "Enough."

"Yeah, see, I thought we covered this." Adira used her free hand to grab her sword from it's hilt. "I don't like being touched!"

With one swift movement, Adira swung the sword down onto Rapunzel's hair, both it and her hair started to glow, but neither broke.

"Huh..." Adira said softly. "It didn't cut."

Rapunzel gasped. "It didn't break."

Varian moved toward them, pushing himself in front of Hugo's arm, which had been outstretched in front of him the whole fight, and stopped in front of Adira. He looked down at the mark on her hand.

"Where'd you get that?" He asked slowly.

"The sword? Well that is quite the tale--"

"No. The mark. The one on your hand."

"This?" She looked down at it, as though she'd almost forgotten it was there. "Just some cool tattoo they give you when you join a certain club. Only three members if you'd believe it. Sometimes I guess I miss them, my two stupid, idiotic brothers..."

Varian looked up at her, they could see the gears turning in his head as he came to a decision. He turned over to Rapunzel. "We should hear her out."

"If you trust her, that's even more reason to assume she's up to no good." Cassandra spat out, stepping in front of Rapunzel again.

Rapunzel sighed and pushed past her. "No. Varian's right. She has information, we need that. Let's give her a shot, ok?"

"Good. There's hope for you lot yet. Your friends are returning, the two of you can catch up while we have a much needed talk." Adira smiled and motioned for the two of them to follow. They did, though Varian stopped when Hugo took his hand.

"Are you sure about this?" He whispered.

"No, but I have a hunch I'd like to confirm. Just...trust me, ok?"

He sighed and let go of Varian's hand. "Ok."

"What is it you wanted to talk about, Adira?" Rapunzel asked cautiously, the two of them sitting down on a log across from her. Adira noticed how they tried to keep as much distance from each other as possible, and took note of it.

"Two things. The first will interest both of you." She pulled out a small piece of paper from her hand. "A scroll piece, information on the black rocks. There's more out there, you should be able to find them on your journey."

Varian's eyes went wide, he slowly took the scroll piece and matched it up with the other. Rapunzel smiled.

"I'm here to help you. You said you needed information, I have a lot of that to give. I know you may not trust me just yet, and there's nothing I can do about that, but I can assure you I'm only here to ensure that you make it to your destination safely."

"Do you know what I'm doing this for, or where we're even going?"

"You're the sundrop, you're connected to these black rocks, and you're also connected to it's source. You'll find it at the end of the path, in the Dark Kingdom."

"Wow, sounds spooky. Wouldn't want to live there." Varian joked with a nervous laugh.

"That's...the second thing I wanted to talk to you about. This mark, where have you seen it before?"

"Oh um...just, around, I guess. I found the symbol on this old chest in my dad's room, it was on some of his stuff too."

"Quirin? Is-- is he your father?"

"Yes, how-- how do you know that?"

She smiled. "He's...he's my brother."

"Your brother?"

"Yes, he and I both hail from the Dark Kingdom, and, evidently, so do you. Did...did he never talk about me?"

"No, I'm sorry. He uh...wasn't exactly a very open person." Varian sighed. He noticed Rapunzel putting a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile, he, although nervously, gave her one back.

"Wasn't?" She paused. "How is he?"

"He's...um..." Varian tried to find the words, some way to explain the situation to her, though he could barely muster the energy to speak.

"He's dead, isn't he?"

"We're not sure." Rapunzel spoke for him, he was relieved at that. "That's part of the reason we're here. If we figure out how these rocks work, we might be able to save him. He's not dead...but he's not really alive, either."

"Oh..." Adira hesitantly walked over to them slowly pulling Varian into a hug. "I'm sorry."

"I thought you didn't like being touched." He said quietly.

"I don't, but I think you needed this."

He smiled and returned the hug. "Yeah, I guess I did."

Adira broke away after a moment and waved as she left, leaving the two of them alone.

"So...I know we've been a bit..." Rapunzel fiddled with her hands and scooted closer to him. "On edge...around each other lately."

"Yeah...I mean, it's only fair for you to want to distance yourself, I hurt you. Badly."

She blinked. "I thought... you were the one who needed space after I hurt you."

"What? No. Honestly, I wanted to talk to you. I mean what you did wasn't great, but...I dunno, I guess I kinda...missed...you?"

"Aw, I missed you too Varian." She smiled. "Come here, you're getting another friendship hug!"

"What? No! That was a one time thing! Rapunzel--"

Without another word, Rapunzel tugged him in for a tight, long hug.

"Alright! We're doing this now!" Varian wheezed out.

She gave him one final squeeze before breaking away, letting her hands rest on his shoulders. "Oh, I never really got the chance to properly apologize to you. For everything I did to hurt you these past few months, I’m sorry, I was wrong to judge you and Hugo, and I pushed you into an awful position because of it. I regret that, and I won’t do anything like it again."

“I…” Varian slowly put his hands over hers. “I’m sorry too, for the outburst I had, I don’t...really regret hurting your father, but I do regret how it hurt you. I’ll manage my anger better, and I won’t do that again either.”

Rapunzel smiled and hugged him again. “Ok, let’s go meet up with the others.”

"Right." Varian smiled and stood up, walking behind her. He found himself smiling as they made their way back to the rest of the group. They were friends again, maybe not fully, but they were getting there. He was glad.

Chapter Text

"Someone's acting awful full of himself..." Hugo muttered to himself, him and Varian sitting on top of the caravan.

"He did just save us from a pack of slayer wolves." Varian pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah king of the wild or whatever. But we've been out in the wild too. We could've taken them on no problem. Plus, I have been out in the woods since I was like, 6. If anyone is king of the wild, it's me."

"You're just jealous because he came up with the plan instead of you."

"What? No I'm not!"

"Jealous." Varian said in a sing-song voice.

"I am not jealous--"

"Great!" Eugene said loudly, pulling them from their conversation. "The black rocks have lead us to a huge swamp."

"D'awww pretty boy, the big scary swamp too much for the 'king of the wild' to handle?" Hugo hopped down from the roof of the caravan, catching Varian when he jumped down as well.

"It's too much for the caravan." Eugene rolled his eyes. "We can't cross this, we'll have to go around."

"I had no idea coronans were such...quitters." A tree, cut in half down the middle, fell at the end of her sentence, one half falling across the water in front of them. Adira stepped out from the wreckage. "You know, I always say, if you can't go through something! Go over it."

"Oh thank god someone who actually knows what they're doing." Hugo mumbled under his breath.

"I told you I'd be around if trouble came your way. There's trouble," She pointed ahead of them. "And here am I."

Cassandra narrowed her eyes and coughed, motioning for Rapunzel to follow her away from the group. Rapunzel looked between the two, shrugged, and followed her.

"Rapunzel, we've talked about this. I don't trust that woman." Cassandra whispered. "She keeps popping up out of nowhere, I don't like it."

"Yes! Yes I agree." Eugene interjected. "Plus, we don't need her! We already have someone who can--"

"Oh, I dunno, I think you're gonna need her." Adira interrupted, smiling when they all jumped. "She's the only one who can get you through...The Forest of No Return."

"Ah, pleasant name. I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time." Varian said warily.

"Few have made it out of the forest alive. You're lucky enough to have one of those people on hand, me." She chuckled. "The first time I went through here I had nothing but a dagger and a handful of nuts. And I had bronchitis."

Hugo tapped his shoulder. "Varian, Varian can we switch places? I want her to be my aunt."

"What? No! Back off!"

"Oh don't worry, I'd love to take someone under my wing." She said with a smug smile.

"You're amazing." Hugo whispered.

"I know." She whispered back.

Cassandra looked at Eugene, silently asking him to step in and stop her from bragging any further. Hugo's constant praise was only making it worse. He sighed and stepped forward.

"Look, Adira, the help is appreciated and all but we don't really need it. I know you think you're great and all--"

"I am."

"Sure, alright, but I got this. You can go...chop down another tree or hide in the bushes. What do you even do when you're not popping up out of nowhere."

"Cool things, obviously. That's irrelevant."

"No, no I think it's very relevant." Cassandra interjected.

"Wait, guys, listen," Rapunzel put her hand on both their shoulders and turned them to face her. "Eugene, I know you have a lot of experience in the wild, and I do trust your judgment, and Cass, I know you don't exactly trust her but you both have to admit, she has experience in this area."

"So? We can just backtrack. It'll probably add another day or so to our trip but it's not that big of a sacrifice."

"We might not be able to find the path again, and if this is the route the rocks want us to take, we'll take it. Ok?"

They sighed and nodded.

"Great! You made the only choice there is, the right one." Adira smiled and hoped on the top of the caravan, Hugo and Varian quickly following to sit next to her as she pointed ahead. "That way!"

"That is one scary tree..." Lance muttered to himself, leaning out the window of the front of the caravan.

"Relax, Lance. There's nothing to be afraid of, this swamp is just like any other swamp. Just a normal, run of the mill-- woah woah wait what's going on?"

The group watched as the trees slid and shifted around, their path changing to something else entirely.

"The forest of no return is in perpetual motion and changes without warning. Luckily I procured this special map years ago." Adira took an oddly folded map from her pocket and handed it down to Eugene. "It's the key to traversing the woods...safely."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I've got all the directions I need right here." Eugene pointed to his head and tapped his skull.

Adira sighed and handed the map to Varian and Hugo, who started to mess with it. "Suit yourself."

"And wow! Look at that! I got us out of this stupid forest in no time-- No wait that can't be the same tree!"

"We're in exactly the same place we were before. Great." Hugo fell backward on the caravan's roof, groaning when he hit the back of his head on it and sliding off the side to join with the others.

"Now now I know what you all may be thinking, but this is not my fault."

"Not your fault? You led us in one giant circle!" Cassandra slammed her hand onto her face. "We're never getting out of here!"

"We can if we use the map, Short Hair."

"Wait, what did you call me?" Cassandra turned to Adira.

"I find remembering people's names to be less time efficient, so instead I'll refer to them by their defining characteristic. Hence Short hair," Adira pointed to her. "Earrings, Princess, Glasses, and Goggles."

"Aww that's just his name." Hugo pouted and leaned against Varian, laughing when he glared at him.

Cassandra laughed as well. "What's Eugene's?"

"Fishskin."

"Alright, that's it. I'm gonna strangle her."

"No, no how about we not do that." Rapunzel stepped in front of Eugene before he could get to her. "Instead, why don't you just..take the map?"

"Fine, whatever, hand me the map."

"Wise choice, Fishskin." Adira set down the wood she'd been carving and held out her hand with the map, Eugene quickly swiped it.

"Stupid Adira, stupid swamp, stupid map, stupid-- Caravan! The caravan!"

The group looked over and watched the caravan, along with the horses, sink into a pile of mud. Adira sighed and gave a solemn wave goodbye. "They're in a landpit, no use following them, they're likely in a completely different section of the woods now."

"Of course they are!" Eugene groaned and dragged his hand down his face. "Alright! We're going to find them, and we're going to get out of here! Follow me!"

After a day of travel, hearty complaints made by all, and further humiliation on Eugene's part, the group had finally made it to the edge of the forest.

"Alright, who got us out of this forest? Adira? The map? Get in everybody this is gonna be a lot of syllables. Eugene Fitzherbert, Esquire, navigator extraordinaire--" He stopped and gasped. "Oh great."

Hugo took a step forward and stopped, moving his arm in front of Varian when he followed. "That's toxic gas. We can't go through it."

"The map says that we have to." Adira interjected. "It's possible, if we time it right."

"Nope! There is no way we are walking through that." Eugene shot an arrow across the gorge, a rope attached to it, and swung Rapunzel's hair of the rope. "Everybody pile on!"

"You're making a mistake, Fish Skin."

"Muscles, Madame Ice Queen, Sunshine, up you go!" Eugene turned around. "Alright kids you too."

"Nope. No way. Not in a million years. Stripes?" Hugo looked over to Varian, silently asking if they were going to go along with it.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go with a hard pass." He laughed nervously and stepped behind Adira.

"Suit yourselves, we are getting out of here."

"Eugene, wait I don't think this is a good--" Rapunzel was cut off by Eugene starting to push them across the gorge. They stopped, flipped off of it, and landed on the ground on the other side. The exact same place they'd started.

"Of course."

"They're idiots." Hugo sighed, watching them all argue from across the gorge. "Completely braindead."

"Oh wow." Varian watched Eugene trip and fall into a landpit. "There he goes."

Adira sighed and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "Let's go see where he ended up, alright?"

"We don't have the map, how are we supposed to find anyone?" Varian asked.

"I also serve as a second map. I've got this place figured out from the inside out."

"Amazing."

"I know." She smiled and turned around, walking back the way they came. "Now, let's go find our favorite idiot."

"Alright. Magic black wall of fire it is!" Eugene yelled and ran through the fire, tripping and tumbling down a pile of dirt and landing on his face. He looked up and smiled. "Adira! Have you seen the others."

"Not since you jumped across the gorge like a delirious madman, no." Adira hopped from the boulder. "So what's your plan?"

"My plan..." Eugene handed the map to her. "Is for you to take the lead."

The other three's eyes went wide, shocked at his sudden change in demeanor.

"Look, I don't exactly trust you, Adira. Or you two either really, but I don't think that's really fair. None of you have done anything to warrant that in quite a while. So I'll go whichever way you think is best."

Adira smiled. "And look at that, you're no longer a blubbering fish."

"What, not some magical reveal that my nickname was a compliment after all?"

"No, no it was an insult. But now it no longer fits. You have earned the right to be called by your name, Fitzherbert."

"Of course you chose the stupidest one." Eugene sighed, trying to ignore Hugo and Varian's snickering.

"That I did, now let's go find your friends."

"Spiders, why, why is it always spiders?!" Lance screamed from the back of the group, running backwards to get a good look at the drexis. One of them grabbed him and spun him around into a web.

"Lance!" Hugo and Varian yelled in unison, the both of them taking explosives from each of their bags, Hugo hitting the spider, and Varian hitting the web holding him still.

"When did I get bodyguards?"

"Wh-- that wasn't--" Hugo stuttered out.

"We just--" Varian laughed. "Really hate spiders! Yep! That's it! Hate em."

Eugene and Adira ran in together, Eugene laughing maniacally while throwing a dagger above Cassandra, releasing her from a drexis' hold, while Adira stayed quiet, slamming her sword down on one of the creatures in front of them.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel smiled. "What do we do?"

"I believe that is a question for Adira." He smirked.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Not the time for humility, Fishskin!"

"That nickname has been retired! Adira, what does the map say?"

"The landpit!" Adira pointed to a pool of pink liquid to her left. "That's the exit!"

Eugene nodded and motioned for the group to follow. They jumped in one by one, Eugene being the last to leave, cutting down a tree on top of the pit so the drexis couldn't follow.

"The sun! Oh sweet jesus how I've missed you you big beautiful ball of light!" Lance held up his arms and sighed.

Eugene rolled his eyes and smiled. "Thanks Adira, for ever--"

"Everything? You're welcome." She smiled and pumped her fist in the air. "Once again, I have conquered the forest of no return, and singlehandedly saved all of your sorry asses. Oh, and I still have bronchitis. Which I didn't tell you, because, let's face it, I'm a champion."

"And here I thought no one could match your ego." Cassandra joked.

"Ha, very funny." Eugene looked over at her to tease her further, only for his eyes to fall onto the caravan. "Guys I have some great news for you, there's the--"

"The caravan!" Lance interrupted. "Today just keeps getting better and better!"

Chapter Text

They'd found the third scrollpiece in a place referred to as the spire. A tall mountain, with the most annoying guide they'd ever interacted with taking them up it. The guide, Calliope, had gotten quiet after just a few hours of bragging. Hugo had managed to utterly decimate her verbally, they thought she'd started crying at one point. Apparently heat and long distance travel didn't blow over with his patience.

They ended up doing things entirely on their own. Though, Rapunzel insisted on at the very least befriending her on the trip. The rest of the group left her alone to do so, and once they finished their mission they'd elected to forget about it all.

"You know, when I saw the black rocks were leading us across the water, I had my doubts about turning the caravan into a boat, but I have to admit! You two are pretty good at construction." Eugene said from the wheel of the caravan, now a ship.

"Yep! Bet you don't regret bringing us along now, huh?" Hugo said smugly.

"I never have." Lightning crashed behind them. "Although, I am now concerned for our safety!"

"Alright everyone!" Rapunzel jumped up to the top of the caravan. "The most important thing is to stay calm."

"Really?!" Varian yelled up at her. "I thought the most important thing would be to not drown!"

"You both have a point! Now Lance, I'm gonna need your help on this. It's been awhile since we've dealt with a storm of this magnitude, but we can do it!" Eugene looked to the rest of the group. "Ice queen, Sunshine, grab the helm. We need to hit these waves at a 45 degree angle. Hugo and Varian, you two empty the bilge. We'll get everything tied down."

Each group ran off to do their assigned task, racing around the caravan and dodging the waves that crashed over them.

"Would now be a bad time to mention I don't know how to swim?" Hugo said nervously.

"No! It's a great time to mention--" Varian tripped over one of the boxes and fell over the edge, the only thing stopping him from falling into the water was the hand that grabbed him and pulled him close, really close.

"You ok?" Hugo asked slowly, he was barely an inch away from him.

Varian squeaked and pushed away. "Yep! Fine!"

"Good. Uh, please don't do that again. We can't really afford to fall off this-- fuck." Hugo looked up at the huge wave building up in front of him. Varian grabbed his hand and tried to pull them away, but they were caught in it before they could meet with the others.

"Shit! Hold--" Varian coughed up water. "Hold on Hugo!"

"I don't really have another option!"

"Right, right." Varian gasped and wheezed, barely able to hold the both of them above water. He looked around for the caravan, only to find something else. "Land!"

Another wave came crashing down, sending the both of them forward, fast. They fell under the water, the world went dark.

They woke up to a face full of sand.

"Hugo!" Varian shot up and looked around. He saw him laying down nearby and ran over, holding his face up to his own. "Hey, hey are you ok? Please be ok!"

Hugo groaned and opened his eyes. "I dunno, try giving me mouth to mouth. Just to be sure."

Varian dropped him back on the ground.

"Varian! Hugo! There you are!" Rapunzel ran up to them and pulled them both into a tight hug, making them cough up whatever sand and water that was still lodged in their throats. "We were so worried when we couldn't find you two!"

"Right, sorry about that." Varian looked around. "Where are we?"

"Well, I've got bad news, and really bad news." Eugene pulled out a telescope and looked past the shore. "Bad news is we're off the black rock path, worse news is...our caravan is kaput."

"As for where we're going to be stuck for who knows how long," Lance walked over to the sign posted against one of the trees. "Terapi Island. It's an agricultural port, there should be a boat coming by to harvest the crops around the next new moon."

"So that's..." Rapunzel opened up her notebook and looked through her charts. "A little over two weeks from now."

"Great. Two weeks on this sandy, hot, terrible island." Cassandra groaned and dumped the sand from her boots."

"Look I know its not exactly ideal, but if we have to be trapped somewhere," She smiled and looked around. "At least its in a beautiful place like this?"

"A beautiful place that will quickly become awful if we don't build some sort of shelter. Alright nerds! You know how to build things, come with me!"

"Aye aye captain dickhead!" Hugo gave a salute and followed him as the man ranted away about the key points of building a shelter.

"Alright, I think its time you guys take a little break." Rapunzel walked over, now dressed in a shorter green dress, handing each of them a drink. "I've got some different clothes ready for all of you so you won't get a heat stroke. Scarves aren't exactly island friendly."

Varian looked down at the scarf around his neck and tugged at it. "Fair point, fair point."

"Yep, you're first varian! Come on!" Rapunzel grabbed his wrist and tugged him away from the group, causing him to drop the drink.

Hugo caught it and drank the rest, choosing to ignore Eugene's judgemental stare. "What? Wouldn't want to waste it."

After a while of laying around, the two of them occasionally working some more on the house, Varian was pulled out again by Rapunzel to rejoin them. She'd taken off his scarf and under shirt, buttoned down the short sleeved shirt that was originally on top, rolled up the pants he'd had on and switched out his clunkier boots for the bandaged ones he'd had before. Hugo found himself staring at him for...a slightly embarrassing amount of time. Only slightly.

"Hugo!" Rapunzel shouted in his ear.

"Hm? What? I'm listening!"

"It's your turn dumb-dumb. Come on!"

"Woah! Hey!" Hugo shouted as he was pulled away. "My turn for what?!"

When Hugo got back the house was almost finished, he pretended not to notice how the muscles on Varian's arms were now completely visible, almost sparkling with the sweat dripping off of them.

"Welcome back glasses." Eugene chuckled, poking Varian and turning him around.

His shirt, previously long sleeved, was rolled up just above his elbows, now falling loosely instead of being tied tight with a cloth around his waist, his pants had been switched out for shorts, and he'd elected to avoid shoes altogether.

"Uh...hi Hugo!" Varian laughed nervously. "We're um-- we're almost done here, if you hadn't noticed, so uh-- not much left to do I guess-- wow it's really hot all of the sudden--"

"You ok, stripes?"

"Yup!" Varian said a little too enthusiastically. "I'm fine!"

Eugene and Rapunzel met eyes and smiled, a motion not noticed by either of the boys.

"So!" Rapunzel sat everyone down inside the newly finished shelter. "My hunch has been confirmed."

"What hunch?" Cassandra asked.

Eugene smiled and pointed outside. Varian and Hugo were sitting next to eachother, a bit more distance than usual. They couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but it was...very obvious what the tone was, with Varian's panicked flailing arms and Hugo trying to avoid looking at him.

"Wow, took them long enough." Lance laughed. "So what, are we setting them up now?"

"You're all a bunch of busybodies." Cassandra rolled her eyes and stood up. "I'm going to be productive and get us some food, instead of trying to get to criminals to kiss eachother."

"Have fun being lame, Ice queen!" Eugene called after her.

"I will, Fishskin!"

"This is...rather elaborate." Eugene commented, looking over Rapunzel's complicated machine.

"No, its just the right amount of elaborate." She grabbed a string and pointed to each part. "You see this string, I pull this to release a lever which will cause the ball to fall onto that platform, the platform will push down onto the slingshot, releasing that pepper to fall onto its target, causing a tripwire to tighten and make one of them trip."

"Couldn't you have just...laid a tripwire between the two trees?" Lance asked.

She laughed. "And where's the fun in that?"

The three quieted down when Varian started walking toward where they were. He caught eyes with Hugo and started going toward him. Rapunzel smiled and pulled the string, watching her machine go to work.

Varian tripped right as the wire tightened, just as she'd planned. He fell over, barely being caught by Hugo, though they both ended up falling over in the end.

"U--um...I'm so sorry!" Varian's face turned a bright red as he quickly shoved himself off of him. "I-- I must of tripped over something? I mean I didn't see anything but-- I dunno I trip over air sometimes so--"

"Uh..." Hugo tried to respond, still slightly dazed from Varian being on top of him. "You're...fine?"

"Oh! Let me help you up!" Varian stood up and leaned down, reaching out his hand for Hugo to take.

Hugo stared at him for a moment, the sun was directly behind him, shining down on him like he was a god damn angel. Hugo choked and pushed himself up. "I've got it! Don't-- don't worry uh. I'm just...gonna go."

"Yeah, yeah I'm--" Varian dusted himself off and walked backward, accidentally hitting his back against a tree. "I'm gonna go too."

The two walked in opposite directions, staring down at the ground with wide eyes, muttering to themselves. Eugene couldn't help but laugh when they were both finally out of sight.

"Looks like your plan didn't work, Blondie. Sometimes simple works better than complicated."

"Oh? What did you have in mind?"

"Ha, alright. Let's let the master get to work."

"This is your in-genius plan? It's just a room." Rapunzel put her hands on her hips, staring at it, slightly confused.

"Ah, but it's not a very large room. I am going to lock them in. A tale as old as time, two emotionally frustrated teens, trapped in a closet together. We might need to get a little distance."

Rapunzel gagged.

"Uh...are you sure about this?" Lance cut in. "It's a little...too small."

"Nah, it'll be fine. Just watch."

The three stepped aside and waited for Varian and Hugo to arrive, once they'd walked inside, following the instructions Eugene had given them, some bullshit excuse to get them over there, he ran and slammed the door shut behind them.

"Wh-- Hey! What the hell?!" Hugo whipped around and started banging on the door. "Let us out, jackass!"

"Nope! You're stuck there till I decide to let you out! Have fun!" Eugene yelled through the door and walked away, holding Rapunzel's hand. "Now, we wait for you to realize I am way better at this than you."

"Stupid fucking idiot and his stupid fucking idea of a joke--" Hugo slumped against the wall and sighed. "Varian do you know how we can-- Varian?"

Hugo knelt down to match Varian's height, he was curled up on the ground, covering his ears and hiding his head in his knees, shaking violently.

"Hey, hey you're ok." Hugo slowly reached forward to touch him, only for him to violently flinch away. "Shit, alright. Is-- is it how dark it is? I can fix that."

Hugo pulled a match from his pocket, Varian's eyes went wide, he jumped back. "No no I'm sorry I won't-- I don't know what I did I-- I'm sorry--"

"Nope! That didn't work!" Hugo quickly blew the match out. They really needed to have a talk about his time in prison.

He sighed and slowly moved closer to him, ignoring the initial flinch and shifting Varian so that he was being held in his arms. "You're ok, Eugene's just an idiot with a bad sense of humor. You're fine. No one's going to hurt you."

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I-- I didn't mean to I--"

"You're ok. You don't need to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong." Hugo ran his hands through Varian's hair, waiting for his breathing to slow and the shaking to stop. The door opened after a few minutes.

"Hey." Lance said quietly. "I guess I was right."

Varian slowly relaxed at the sudden light, sitting up and wiping the tears from his eyes.

Lance sighed. "Come on, let's get you two out of here."

"So, was I right or was I right--" Eugene yelped and rubbed his head after Lance slammed his fist on top of it. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Don't. Put. Two. Kids. With. Repressed. Trauma. In. A small. space!" Lance punched his head again after each word.

"Shit! I get it I get it I'm sorry! Would you stop hitting me?!"

Lance gave him one final smack upside the head. "There. Now I'll stop."

"Now that I've cleaned up your mess," Lance said with a long sigh. "We can do this my way."

"And what is your way, oh wise one." Eugene bowed dramatically.

"We find their common interest, and we exploit that. You two, what do you have in common?"

"We both like cupcakes? Oh! Oh! We both really like festivals!" Rapunzel said excitedly, bouncing up and down.

"And your relationship was founded on cupcakes and festivals, my point exactly. Now, watch a real master at work."

"Hey Hugo, I noticed you were quite the handyman the other day." Lance plopped down next to Hugo. The group was all having dinner around a fire. Varian had elected to sit a little further away than usual, not exactly across from him, but not close.

"Uh...what do you mean?"

"I mean with the boat, and the house. You were the one who came up with a lot of the plans."

"Oh, well yeah. Varian's a lot better at alchemy than I am, but I like to think I'm the better engineer, ha."

"How'd you figure it out?" Lance asked, he glanced over and noticed that Varian had pulled away from his conversation with Eugene and was now looking at the both of them, he smiled. "What's your process? I think it's good to know this sorta thing, tell me about it."

"Oh! I mean, if you're sure? I wouldn't want to bore you or anything--"

"Nope, not boring at all, info dump away my friend."

"Alright..." Hugo rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, it starts out with the big picture, the general shape, the function, the goal, all that fun stuff, then you get a little more detailed from there."

Hugo kept rambling about it, once he'd started getting into it he couldn't really stop. The group noticed how Varian had started to lean forward, resting his chin on his hand and watching Hugo talk with a dazed, enamored look in his eye. Lance and Eugene caught eyes, Lance winked, Eugene rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Wow, look at that." Rapunzel muttered under her breath, just loud enough that Eugene could hear it.

"Wow." He whispered in response.

Over the course of their diner Varian had somehow managed to move onto the same log, sitting next to Hugo, encouraging him to keep going anytime he stopped. Lance slowly got up and left, along with the rest of the group.

"So, I believe I win."

"Well, sure. But neither of them are really doing anything." Eugene pointed out.

"Shit, wait. This is what they do already." Lance dragged his hand down his face.

"Wait-- have you guys tried just...setting them up on a date?" Cassandra cut in, startling the lot of them.

"I thought you weren't interested, Cass." Rapunzel teased.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not. Just pointing out the obvious."

"Why didn't we think of that before?" Eugene ran his hands through his hair. "That's so obvious!"

"Yeah, it is." Cassandra chuckled. "Let's face it, I'm the one with the brain cell in our lovely group."

"And you use it for evil." Eugene said with a glare.

"Alright, I think we've found the perfect spot." Rapunzel pulled the three of them into a large grotto, water on one side of it with holes revealing the ocean outside.

"Wow..." Eugene let out a breathy sigh. "We're definitely going to have a date of our own here in the future."

"Oh!" She laughed. "Yeah, this was originally where we were going to have ours, since its my turn to plan one. But I suppose I could spoil the surprise for the sake of some other lovebirds in our lives."

Cassandra gagged. "Remind me again why I got dragged along here?"

"Because it was your lovely suggestion to do this!" Rapunzel grinned. "Now, let's get started!"

"You said you found minerals over here?" Varian asked as Rapunzel tugged him along. "You know, fun fact about sea glass, it's actually rarer than pearls and can be used in a multitude of things including--"

He stopped in the middle of the grotto, looking around at it all. Hugo was already there, waving nervously from the table they'd set up. "Woah."

"I know, beautiful right?" Rapunzel smiled.

He slowly waved back to Hugo, his eyes never leaving him. "Yeah..."

"Why don't you two have fun! Uh..looking for minerals." Rapunzel pushed him forward and ran away, whispering excitedly with the rest of the group once she met up with them right outside the cave.

"I...think they're trying to set us up." Hugo laughed nervously, glancing down to the table of food beside them.

"Yeah," Varian rubbed the back of his neck. "I think they are."

"Well, I'm not one to waste free food. I vote we uh, play along."

"Pft, ok."

The two sat down on either side of the table and picked at the food, Hugo nabbing little pieces of it while Varian simply sat there.

"So..." Varian said after a few minutes.

"Yeah?"

"We've been...a little...awkward around eachother lately, huh?"

"I guess." Hugo set down his fork and looked down to the ground.

"I don't know why, really, maybe it's the constant efforts from them trying to get us together or...something else, but I don't really...like this. It's weird not being comfortable around you."

"Yeah, the whole 'I'm too scared to talk to you' thing is getting kind of annoying."

"Do you wanna just...ignore all of this and go back to the way we were before? Friends?"

"Please god yes. I can't stand this mushy romance crap."

Varian winced slightly at the comment, part of him had been hoping he'd say no, part of Hugo was hoping Varian didn't ask that, but they both ignored it. They were glad to at least be close again. They didn't hear the distant groans of the rest of the group outside.

Chapter Text

The next night dinner went a little better. Lance had fashioned himself some homemade bongo's and declared that it would be music night. Eugene, who had had a little too much to drink, and Hugo who had slipped a little more than he'd let on, started dancing along to it while Varian and Cassandra made fun of them. At one point they'd tried to drag the both of them into it, only to get...very flavorful threats if they did.

Rapunzel had rejoined the group after awhile, Eugene pulled her in and let Hugo take a break. He slumped the back of his head against the log Varian was sitting on and laughed. "Ok! I'll have to admit, this island is growing on me."

Varian laughed and ran his hands through Hugo's hair, a soft smile on his face. When he looked up again, Rapunzel had started to walk away, she looked like she'd been crying.

"What's up with her?" Varian asked when Eugene had made his way back over to the rest of them.

"She's just feelin' a little homesick. She should be back to normal tomorrow morning."

"She'll be back to normal in the morning, he says. I'll be just fine, he says." Varian rolled his eyes and watched Rapunzel walk away, still wearing the same expression she'd had the night before.

"Ok so the homesickness was a little worse than I thought." Eugene said through nervous laughter. "But that's fine! We'll just have to figure out a way to cheer her up.

Rapunzel ran back after about twenty minutes, a wide smile on her face.

"Or...or I was right?"

"You guys won't believe what I just found!" Rapunzel took a small wooden totem from her hands and waved it around. "Look! See?"

"Uh...see what exactly?" Cassandra asked.

"Wait...why don't they see you?" Rapunzel asked...the fern.

"Well, she's back," Lance leaned over to Varian and muttered. "But I don't no that she's 'all there'."

"Wait! Wait I think I got it." Rapunzel ran over to Eugene and handed him the totem. "Ok. Now do you see him?"

"Blondie, I love you, really I do, but I think you've spent a little too much time in the sun-- Sweet mother of pearl the royal yacht!" Eugene laughed and hoped on top of what was seemingly just a large boulder. "Now we can get off this dreaded island in style."

"They're crazy. They're both...crazy." Cassandra stared at Eugene with a dumbfounded expression.

"Oh? On the contrary," Eugene handed her the totem. "Believe me now?"

Cassandra's shocked look turned to a wide smile as she stared swinging her sword at thin air, saying something about how she'd missed fighting like this.

"Crazy." Lance dived out of the way of her attack. "Absolutely bonkers."

"Oh really?" Cassandra tossed the totem to him, the next thing they knew he was shoveling sand in his mouth as though it were fine wine.

"They've all completely lost it." Hugo blinked, contemplating taking the damn thing away from him.

"You want a crack at it?" Lance held it out for Hugo to take.

"Nope! No I think I'm good. You wanna be eatin' sand, goggles?" Hugo turned around to Varian, who shook his head violently. "See? We're good."

"Great!" Rapunzel ran over and snatched the totem from Lance's hands. "I'll just...take it back!"

"Woah, hey, what gives Raps?"

"Yeah, Blondie, since when were you not into sharing?"

"Whaaaat? Not into sharing? Me?" She held the bag closely to her chest. "No no no no, I-- I love to share, It's just that...I don't wanna use up...uh...all the magic at once! Ya know? Ok uh, bye!"

Before anyone could ask any further questions, Rapunzel ran away into the house.

The second Rapunzel slammed the door shut the rest of the group split up and started coming up with plans to get the totem back.

"Hey uh...buds, old pals of mine, you're good at...distracted the princess..." Lance started to say.

"Are you by chance referencing when we attacked half the royal guard and kidnapped the queen?" Varian asked, slightly dumbfounded.

"Yep! That's the one! I was thinking maybe you could put those combined smarts of yours to use and help me get that totem."

"Yeah no. Not gonna happen." Hugo rolled his eyes. "We are not getting dragged into this."

The two sat down and watched the madness unfold. It was entertaining at first, watching them fumble around eachother, max dancing around in a grass tutu at one point, though it got less entertaining and more..concerning when they started physically fighting one another.

"Alright, that's it!" Hugo dived into the fight, kicking everyone off of him and pulling the totem away.

He stopped for a moment, his eyes turning a brighter, more ominous shade of green, but he collected himself after a little while.

"You have all lost it! Yesterday we were all fine! Celebrating, doing all that friendship nonsense you preach constantly about! Now you're all trying to kill eachother!" He sighed and dragged his hand down his face. "Varian and I are going to get rid of this thing. You lot are going to stay put. Understood?"

The group nodded.

"Good. Let's go, Stripes."

"Uh...Hugo? You've been a little quiet lately." Varian spoke up after they'd been walking for a while.

"Hm? Yeah, guess so." He responded, though he seemed to be paying more attention to something ahead of him than anything else.

"Maybe I should just take it--"

"No!" Hugo held it closer to him. "No, I just-- I didn't mean it like that I just meant that--" He sighed. "We need at least one person who's still sane here."

"Hugo," Varian frowned and put a hand on his shoulder. "Whatever it is that thing is making you see, it's not real. You have to remember that."

"I know..." Hugo looked ahead of them again, then back down to the ground. "I know it's not real."

"They're taking too long." Cassandra popped her knuckles. "I bet they double-crossed us. They just want the totem to themselves."

"Genius! That's exactly how I would've done it. I've taught them so well..." Lance bit his fingernails.

"Oh god, you're right. They've been on about how they aren't affected by the totem, it was just a ruse!" Eugene shook his fists at the sky. "A ruse I tell you!"

"Guys! I'm sure they're just making sure its...really...really destroyed. Completely blown to bits." She tapped her foot on the ground. "We should go check on them! All of us. Let's go!"

The four caught up with them faster than they thought they would, each member of the group with angered looks on their faces.

"Guys! It's only been five minutes!" Varian stepped in front of hugo, holding an arm in front of him. "Can you not be away from this thing?"

Rapunzel growled and threw herself forward, taking the totem from Hugo before he could react.

"Rapunzel!" Varian yelled. "Look at yourself! You're not like this! You're all being selfish jerks right now and it's pissing me off! Give us the totem. Now."

She sighed and slowly, steadily handed it back to him. Her eyes started to glow a deep red, she yanked back the totem.

"Rapunzel what are you--"

"Let him go, Varian!" She yelled, staring down at an empty space beside him. "Don't you dare lay a finger on him!"

"...what?"

"Enough!" She ran toward him, pushing him onto the ground. The totem fell out of her hands and rolled over to the rest of the group, their eyes glowing a similar red when they touched it.

"Change of plans, Blondie. You three can stay here, and the totem will stay with us."

The three of them were tied up in a matter of minutes. It helped that both Varian and Hugo were distracted, Varian by Rapunzel's sudden hatred of him, Hugo by...something else.

"Ok. Fine. I messed up." Rapunzel huffed, pulling against the ropes. "I admit it!"

Varian turned his head to look away from her.

"Ok! Silent treatment! Fine! So what that I took the totem for myself, I needed it! And sure I ruined our chances of getting rid of something that made everyone crazy, and I thought that you were....that you..."

Rapunzel's expression softened, the red finally fading from her eyes. She started to notice that tears falling down Varian's face.

"I'm sorry, Varian. I didn't mean it."

"Of course you did. I don't blame you for still holding a resentment. I tried to kill your father. You have every right to...to..." He sighed. "It's fine."

"No, it's not. That wasn't right. What you did was wrong, but I understand where you came from, and you're a different person now. You've changed." She gave him a nervous smile when he started to look up at her. "I think it's time I change as well."

"Alright," Rapunzel sighed. "Hugo, do you think you could--"

"Done!" Hugo held the untied ropes that had been holding him hostage in his hands. "And I'm done with Varian's too."

"Wh-- why didn't you say anything?" He looked down, sure enough the ropes were undone.

Hugo shrugged and started untying Rapunzel. "I didn't want to interrupt you two."

"There's the totem!" Rapunzel pointed to the group fighting over the wooden statue. "Think it's within seventy feet?"

"I'd say so." Varian grabbed a portion of her hair and threw it at the totem, grabbing it before anyone seemed to notice. "Let's go."

The three ran up the steps of a large temple nearby, ignoring the shouting from below them. Rapunzel set the totem down, grabbed a rock, and slammed it down. It stopped just before it hit.

"Rapunzel! We don't have much time! They'll catch up any second!" Varian kneeled down next to her."

"I can't...I can't do it!"

Hugo knelt down on the other side of her. "Then we'll help you."

The three put their hands on the totem, all at once, and raised the rock together. Varian looked up for just a moment, they could tell he'd seen something as well, but he didn't hesitate to slam the rock down, and neither did they.

"What...what happened?" Eugene stopped just before he went to grab on of them, putting a hand to his forehead. The other two had similar tired expressions on their faces.

"You ok Rapunzel?" Hugo asked.

She sighed. "I'm...still homesick. But I think I can handle it."

Everyone seemed to go back to normal after a while. Celebrations continued just as they had the night before, Lance banging away at his drums, Eugene and Rapunzel dancing along while Cassandra laughed at how stupid they looked. Varian and Hugo, on the other hand, had found themselves in the same position they were two weeks before.

The group noticed their returning discomfort, and elected to 'kick them out so they could talk about their feelings'. They insisted they didn't need to talk it out, they were fine! There was nothing to talk about. The group kicked them out anyway, so they'd started walking along the beach instead.

"So, did you see something?" Hugo asked, tossing a rock onto the water.

"Hm?"

"There, at the end, when we were all touching the totem. Did you see anything?"

"Yeah."

"I'm guessing it was your dad?"

"...no." He stopped walking. "It wasn't."

"Oh? What was it then?"

"I uh...." Varian glanced to the ground. "What about you? What did you see?"

"I saw um...well-- well I saw--"

Varian stepped closer. "Yeah?"

"No! Wait! You're deflecting! You never answered the question, so-- so you have to answer first--"

"I saw us." He blurted out.

"Do you mean like us as in us, or like...us?"

"Right before we destroyed the totem, I looked up, and I saw us. You put your arms around me, you pulled me in, and you...you kissed me."

"Oh." Hugo gulped. "I-- I may have...seen that...too?"

"Oh."

"So...what now?" Hugo noticed just how..close they were now. Varian was only an inch away from him, staring up at him with those curious, gorgeous blue eyes of his, eyes he could feel himself already getting lost in. He never realized how pretty they were...how pretty he was.

"Well, I don't really know how this works, but I think we..." Varian glanced down to his lips.

"Y--yeah?"

"We could....we could...kiss?"

"Us....kissing?" Hugo laughed nervously. "Us...kissing."

"No, see, ok, its stupid. That was stupid, let's just ignore that!"

"No wait! Don't ignore that! I mean, god that'd be great--" His voice cracked, he sounded...so stupid right now. "I mean. not saying that I want to like-- make out or some shit, I mean unless you want to? Do you? Want to I mean, no wait thats a stupid question why am I even asking? Am I talking too much?--"

Varian grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him into a kiss, after a moment, he slowly pulled away. "Yeah, a little."

They jumped at a sudden noise. Clapping? Laughing? Something about bets?

"I think I'm going to go back to being a villain." Hugo said through a thin smile.

"Sorry! Sorry we didn't mean to listen in," Rapunzel tripped over a bush and fell on her face. "Ok, maybe we did."

"It doesn't matter because I won!" Lance pumped his fist in the air. "I said it would take some sort of outside magical force to get them to confess to eachother and I was right!"

"You placed bets on us?!" Varian, his hand still holding onto Hugo's shirt.

Eugene sighed. "Yes, yes we did. And.... and I said you'd be able to do it without an outside magical force...I believed in you!" He shook his fists at the sky "You failed me!"

"We're...sorry?" Hugo tilted his head, his hands were still around Varian's waist.

Eugene pouted and crossed his arms. "You should be."

The group continued to joke around, at one point commenting on how Hugo and Varian still hadn't let go of eachother. Cassandra had laughed along with them for a while, but her confidence was starting to falter. They were kids, they weren't criminals-- they weren't just criminals. They were two kids who dorked out about science, made fun of their friends, kids who tripped over eachother trying to find a way to talk about their feelings. They were...they weren't what she thought they were. She was hating them unjustly.

Varian was kind, he cared about people, sometimes a little too much. He was dedicated, just like she was, neither of them really knew when to quit. Hugo...they were actually rather alike. They had someone they felt they had to protect, plus... they both liked to make fun of Eugene. Maybe she'd give them a chance.

There was a...sizeable amount of teasing from the rest of the group, Rapunzel going on about how she was right about them liking eachother from the beginning, which wasn't entirely wrong, but not entirely right either, and Eugene and Lance continued to argue about betting. Cassandra actually commented a few times, not the hard jabs they were used to, calm, good natured jokes that were typically only reserved for Rapunzel. It was weird, but welcome.

Chapter Text

The two weeks were up, and thanks to everyone's help, the caravan had been fixed up, they were back on the road in no time, some light-hearted travel while they made their way to the half-point of their journey, the Great Tree.

"When are those two going to get back from their 'lookout'?" Hugo asked, slumping against the caravan's wall and fiddling with his dagger.

"They said something about getting some 'girl time', whatever that means. They'll probably be awhile." Varian huffed.

Chatter could be heard outside, familiar voices talking and laughing.

"Or they're already back." Varian stood up and hopped outside the caravan. "What'd you see?"

"The Great Tree, the one Adira mentioned, it's just over that ridge." Rapunzel smiled and picked up a portion of their luggage, dumping it onto the caravan.

"Fantastic!" Varian walked over and took the bucket from her hands, helping her with packing everything up. "I've always wanted to see it in person. She said the ecosystem inside was entirely unique to just that tree. Could you imagine the kind of materials I could find there? What they could do? Oh it'd be--"

"That's it! I'm going back on my villain arc!" Hugo's shouting could be heard from outside the caravan's walls. Rapunzel and Varian looked at eachother, sighed, and walked inside.

"Hugo! We've talked about this! Don't. Stab. Your friends!" Eugene lectured, holding him back from attacking Lance.

Varian cleared his throat, watching as Hugo's expression turned from complete rage, to a quiet, happy smile. "Hello beloved boyfriend of mine, would you mind being a completely impartial judge here and tell Lance that what he's saying is bullshit?"

"What's going on now?" Cassandra asked, leaning against the caravan's entrance.

Lance sighed. "Hugo doesn't think karate chops are a part of rock paper scissors."

"They're not."

"See? Thank you, Cassandra! Someone who finally knows what they're talking about!"

"Hugo, baby I love you but maybe don't stab someone over a children's game." Varian laughed.

Hugo squinted his eyes, sighed, and put away the knife.

"Thank you."

"Yeah yeah whatever."

Just as their conversation had come to a close, rumbling could be heard outside. Cassandra was the first to step out, followed by Eugene and Rapunzel. They met eyes with a crazed man atop a rhino, two bearcats on either side of him.

"Uh...friend of yours?" Cassandra asked nervously.

"Why do I feel like that was directed at me?" Varian said with a sigh.

"Alright," Eugene hopped in front of the caravan, pulling Rapunzel and Cassandra along with him. "Everybody stay inside! We're going to try and outrun him, whoever he is."

The other three nodded and slammed the door shut, though they'd all opened the roof of the caravan to look outside after about a minute of riding.

"Look at that! A rhino!" Varian let out a breathy laugh. "I never thought I'd actually get to see one."

"I know!" Hugo smiled and leaned forward to get a better look. "If it weren't chasing us and our lives weren't on the line--"

"It is and they are, I thought I told both of you to stay inside!"

"Sorry!" They said in unison, ducking back down inside the caravan.

The group barely managed to stay away from the man, he kept a close distance from them, the bearcats at one point hopping on top of the roof. Eugene had jumped up to fight one of them off, and managed to get it off the roof with a little help from Lance, but Cassandra couldn't manage to keep the man from making his way onto the back of the caravan.

Adira jumped in to help, literally, slamming her sword down on the chain the man walked across and watching him flip up on top of the caravan's roof.

"Sit tight Short Hair, I'll clean up your mess." She said as she jumped on top of the roof as well.

"My mess?! I don't even know him!--"

She was cut off by the sound of clashing swords and punches. Adira jumped down and slid through the door, their attacker following close behind, matching each attack she sent. They jumped back up as quick as they jumped down, leaving the three people inside frozen stiff.

"Was that Adira?" Hugo asked, still in the same position he was when they'd entered.

"Yeah." Varian nodded. "I think so."

"You can't protect them, Adira!" Hector shouted after being kicked off the caravan, landing atop his rhino and racing to catch up.

"Oh, my mess, huh? Then how come he knows you?!" Cassandra shouted up at her.

"What does he want?" Rapunzel called from the front of the caravan.

"Hey, uh, guys," Lance poked his head out from a window. "Hate to be a backseat driver and all but, WE'RE GONNA RUN OFF A CLIFF!"

"I know! That's the plan!" Rapunzel let down her hair and used it to grab Adira's sword, looking down at the two horses racing ahead. "Alright you two, I'm gonna need you to dig deep, really get some distance between us and the rhino! Everyone get on the roof of the caravan!"

Rapunzel narrowed her eyes and cut the rope attaching them to the caravan right as they ran off the cliff, jumping up and wrapping everyone in her her hair, not exactly caring where or how they were tied up, she didn't have time to worry, then latching it all onto one big branch under a dip in the cliff.

Varian, who was more than embarrassed to say, had developed a fear of heights, was both latched onto and tied up against Hugo, Lance was tied up upside down, Eugene was contorted in a rather uncomfortable position, while Adira simply held onto the end.

"There are days like these where I wish I'd just stayed in prison." Hugo said with a sigh.

"Alright, she better start talking." Cassandra muttered to herself. "Adira!"

The woman turned to look at the group, noticing the glare Cassandra directed at her.

"We um--" Rapunzel stepped in front of her. "Who was that man?"

"And don't give us your usual cryptic run around talk."

"His name is Hector, and I don't think I appreciate your tone."

"Aw, I'm sorry," Cassandra said in a fake sweet voice. "I didn't mean to give the impression that I care about the things you appreciate!"

"All right, all right." Rapunzel put her hands on Cassandra's shoulders, guiding her away from Adira. "Who is Hector?"

"Hector is the third member of the brotherhood, and the only one who has stuck to the final order given to us by the king. To keep any and all away from the dark kingdom." Adira sighed. "He's the most dangerous out of all of us, he lacks a certain amount of...restraint, when dealing with his foes. I used to admire that about him. Now..."

"Why is he here? Has he been following us?" Eugene interjected, putting an arm around Rapunzel's shoulder.

"This is his domain, where he's been hiding out for the past few decades. It's the one of many straits one is required to pass through to get to your destination, so it is unavoidable that we run into him."

Eugene groaned. "Of course it is."

"Guys, we barely got away from this Hector with our lives, and now we're going to trust her to take us through his home turf?" Cassandra pushed forward ahead of Rapunzel and glared at Adira. "I don't like it."

"Well," Adira said with a heavy sigh. "Like it or not, it's our only option."

"Raps?"

Rapunzel looked between the two, each of them silently asking her to side with them. "If we backtrack we may risk running into him, and we're already here. The fastest way to get through here and avoid Hector is to go through the tree, so...I'm going with Adira on this."

Cassandra rolled her eyes and followed from the back of the group. "Fine."

"Alright, I'll watch Hugo, you watch Varian." Rapunzel said to Cassandra once she'd caught up to the front of the group.

"Why would you need to do that?" Adira asked.

The two pointed at Hugo and Varian, already taking out various flasks and glass tubes to get samples of the trees and flowers nearby.

"We..." Cassandra sighed. "We don't want them to get separated from the group."

"Hm." Adira thought for a moment. "I think I know a way I can keep their attention with us."

The woman walked over to a vine covered wall and slashed it, hard, each member of the group snapping their attention over to what she was doing. Adira smiled.

"I believe you've noticed a certain...magical aura around the ecosystem here. This is why," She pointed up to the drawing carved onto the wall. "It was once known as the tree of Zhan Tiri."

"Zhan what now?" Hugo asked, nudging Varian to join up with the rest of them.

Rapunzel's eyes went wide. "Wait wait wait, the ancient sorcerer who's magic caused a deadly snowstorm that nearly destroyed Corona?"

Varian winced. "Great, I already don't like them."

"Not to worry, it's perfectly harmless now." Adira sheathed her sword and looked up at the carving.

"How?" Cassandra asked.

"Millenia ago," Adira began. "This tree was once a sentient being, a force for good. It was corrupted by the evil sorcerer Zhan Tiri to destroy anyone who approached. It was Zhan Tiri's stronghold. Inside it, she was invincible."

"Sounds like a fun time..." Eugene muttered under his breath.

"The reign of terror was put to a stop by Lord Demanitus, who put a stop to the tree's magic using an ancient spear." She sighed and smiled. "So you see, you have nothing to fear.“

“Wait...Lord Demanitus was here." Varian took a step forward.

"Yes, the spear is still here as well, at the bottom of that gorge." She paused. "That was not an invitation to jump down."

"Well!" Rapunzel patted down her skirt. "It's a long way up. We better get a move on."

"Right, right." Hugo walked up to Adira, Varian close behind. "So, Adira, do you know anything about the spear? Do you think there could be building instructions on it here?"

"It's a possibility, there are many scrolls kept inside here, both on ancient magic and archaic science."

"There's...a scroll room?" Varian asked hopefully.

"Yes. Yes there is."

While excited rambling could be heard from the front of the group, the same could be heard from the back.

Eugene picked up a few flowers from its bush. "Do you think Rapunzel would like these?"

"Oh god buddy not again." Lance groaned. "She likes all flowers, but I don't think she'd like another proposal attempt."

"I know, I know, we talked about it before. But it's been almost 6 months since then, I think it's only fair that I...check in?"

"If she wanted to give the whole marriage thing another shot I think she would have told you by now," Lance set down the flowers that had been handed to him, only for another bouquet to be shoved in his face. "Plus, are the over the top proposal's really necessary?"

"No! I've learned my lesson. She doesn't want to be pressured, so she wouldn't want it to be public. I am going to privately ask her to marry me. This tree is absolutely beautiful, it would be the perfect spot."

"And are you sure now's really...the time?"

"Lance, our lives are on the line right now, there could not be a better time to do it."

"I beg to differ, but to each his own."

"Wait." Eugene looked around, two passageways in front of them. "Where's the rest of the group?"

"Why...why are there always bodies in places like this?" Varian hid behind Hugo, burying his face in his arm as they walked through the long hallway.

"These?" Adira looked at the armored statues. "There aren't any bodies in these."

A sigh of relief could be heard.

"Zhan Tiri typically disintegrated the bodies inside, the armor was kept as a sort of trophy."

"Worse. That is so, so much worse than--"

"I think there's something up there." Rapunzel interrupted, pointing up to the vines that Adira cut.

"Holy shit..." Hugo took a step forward, covering his eyes when light started to shine in. "I think this is the scroll room."

"It is! Lance get a look at--" Varian stopped and look around. "Where are Lance and Eugene?"

"Oh, oh no. We should circle back and--" Rapunzel gasped. "Varian...could you take out the scroll piece you have?"

"Hm?" Varian followed the direction of her gaze, his expression morphing to match her's in level of shock, and taking out the scroll from his bag. "Fascinating..."

"If someone had access to the scroll here, they might have some of it translated." Hugo looked around and started going through the scrolls. "We could see if they have any more than we do."

"Is this useful?" Cassandra asked, handing them a rolled up piece of paper she'd found lying on the ground.

Hugo unrolled it and showed it to Varian. "Yeah, yeah I'd say so."

"Blondie? Cass?" Eugene called out.

"Varian? Hugo? ...Adira?" Lance called behind him. "I have a feeling we picked the wrong passageway.

"Hm. Too late to turn back now, we'll just have to hope they let out in the same spot--" Eugene tripped over a vine and fell into the pit in front of him, moving, shifting...quicksand. "Wait, Lance, stop right!-- ...there."

"Quicksand!" Lance panicked and fought against it. "Why, why does it have to be quicksand! Oh god we're gonna die! We're gonna die!"

"Woah, hey, calm down. We'll uh...figure this out." Eugene sighed and reached into his pocket and took out a box, opening it up and looking at the ring inside.

"Is now really the time to be thinking about proposing?! We're about to die!"

"You just don't get it, do you?!" Eugene shouted in response, the both of them gasping at his sudden raise in volume. "I... Lance, we're constantly in danger. Our lives are constantly at risk and I'm constantly seeing the woman I love risk her life. I'm worried there might be a time where she can't bounce back."

"Eugene..."

"I've never loved someone the way I've loved her. I thought, maybe," Eugene shut the box and put it back in his pocket. The sand was up to his knees now. "I'd at least like to be able to show that, before I might lose her."

Lance pulled Eugene into a tight hug. "You're not, and we're getting out of here, ok?"

Eugene smiled and returned the hug. "Ok."

"They already have the first half of this translated, nothing new there." Hugo pulled Varian over closer to the pool of water at the center of the room and sat down. "They've only got bits and pieces of the second half too."

"Maybe they're parts we don't have yet." Varian pulled out his notes and compared them to the scroll. "They are! Hold on."

"I guess we're just going to have to wait here while they finish?" Cassandra sighed. "Hopefully the others catch up with us."

"I'm sure they will." Rapunzel smiled.

"Ok, ok, so we matched them all up, right?" Hugo rolled up the scroll piece and looked at the notebook. "That part is fully translated?"

"I'd say so. Wither and decay..." He laughed. "Definitely not as bright and cheery as the sundrop's incantation."

"I wonder what it does."

"Hm...wither and decay..." Varian muttered the incantation under his breath, analyzing each part to see what it meant. He went over it again, this time dropping the notebook and standing up.

"Stripes? Wh-- is something wrong?" Hugo stood up and raised his hand to touch Varian's shoulder, only for Adira to grab his wrist and pull him away.

"Don't."

Chapter Text

Hugo pushed against her grip, trying to get to Varian. When he met eyes with him, his were completely black, his hair glowing a faint dark blue while the stripe glowed white. Hugo felt like he couldn't breathe, suddenly his efforts to pull away from Adira seemed useless. He fell over, still gasping for air, and passed out.

"Hugo!" Rapunzel gasped, running over to him.

Cassandra and Adira weren't faring much better, they'd already dropped to their knees and started gasping for air. The room around them started to decay, the vines twisting around the walls falling off into the pond in front of them, Varian at the center of all the destruction, completely unaware of anything around him.

"What-- what I do? Adira!" Rapunzel shook her, trying desperately to keep her awake. "How do I stop him?"

"You-- push him into the water--" She took in a deep breath. "It-- it might--" Another gasp. "Shock him out of it."

Rapunzel stood up and took a step toward him, only for Adira to grab her wrist.

"Don't--" Another, shaky breath. "Touch him."

She nodded, Adira's grip loosened, and she passed out as well.

"Ok, ok, you got this." Rapunzel slowly walked toward Varian. "Just...shove him into the water...without touching him. No problem!"

She looked down at her hair, stopped, and untied it, backing up a little to get a head start, and racing forward.

"I'm sorry about this!" She said as she covered her hands with her hair and shoved him into the water.

Hugo blinked his eyes open and looked up, watching as Varian fell into the water. "Varian!"

Hugo pushed himself up and sprinted into the water, dropping to his knees and sliding over to where Varian had fallen. "Hey, hey, Varian! You're going to be ok, please, please be ok."

He slowly held Varian's face in his hands, pulling him up and pressing his forehead against his own. Varian blinked open his eyes.

"That was..." He let out a breathy laugh. "Unexpected."

Hugo gave him a nervous smile and pulled him into a deep kiss. "Stop putting yourself in danger like this. I'm this close to losing it."

"Sorry, I'll...avoid reading strange incantations out loud from now on." Varian turned to look at Rapunzel. "Thank you, for um...helping me out of that."

"You should be thanking Adira." Rapunzel smiled at the woman. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without her."

Cassandra sighed and pushed herself up. "Of course you wouldn't have."

Muffled screams could be heard above them, sand pouring down from the cracks in the ceiling, followed by Lance and Eugene falling through the empty space.

"We're alive?" Eugene coughed up sand and looked around. "We're alive!"

"Come here buddy, I take back every mean thing I've ever said about your ears!" Lance pulled him into a tight hug, coughing up sand as well.

"Wh-- wait what have you said about my ears?"

After taking a moment to catch their breath, the group continued walking up the tree. Varian and Hugo fell over the second they reached the top, both exhausted from the event before, Lance and Eugene doing the same not long after.

Adira sighed. "I think now would be a good time to take a break."

"No way." Cassandra stomped over to her and glared. "We can't afford to take a break when there's a psycho on our trail!"

"Cass," Rapunzel put a hand on her shoulder. "Look at them."

Cassandra turned around and look at the rest of the group, all already laying down and leaning against one another, one the verge of passing out. She sighed.

"I agree, it's dangerous for us to stop right now, but we can't really fight the way we are now. We need to rest." Rapunzel slowly took her hand off Cassandra's shoulder and looked up at Adira, who nodded.

"Fine. But I'm taking first watch."

"I'll take it with you." Adira smiled and followed her over to the edge of the platform, smile growing even wider at Cassandra's protests.

Rapunzel shook her head and flopped on top of the pile the other four had formed, falling asleep as well.

"So," Adira plopped down next to Cassandra. "I know you're not the biggest fan of me."

"Oh, wow, I wonder why that is."

"Actually, I do." She sighed. "I don't know how I can convince you to trust me."

"Well for starters you could try not just appearing and disappearing whenever you like. Where do you even go?"

"I scout ahead for trouble. I may know this path well but it's been a while since I've traveled on it."

"Why not just say that? Why do you always feel the need to keep things a secret?"

"You never ask." She shrugged. "I'm more of the don't tell unless asked about it type I suppose, and you're the type to want all the information right off the bat without prompting. Not that that's bad, it just clashes with how I work."

"Ok. So if I asked you something right now, you'd answer it. Honestly."

"Within reason, yes."

"Alright, what's the deal with Hector?"

"He's...he's my brother. He wasn't always like this, or maybe he was. I never really understood him. I don't..really know what his 'deal' is. He's just like this."

Cassandra sighed. "Fair, and um...sorry for assuming the worst of you. You're actually...not that bad."

"Oh, I know that."

"Of course you do."

Hugo and Varian woke up after an hour or so. They walked over and sat down next to Adira, asking if they could take over watch with her. Cassandra, who was feeling tired herself, even though she didn't want to admit it, sighed and agreed.

"Have a nice nap kiddos?" Adira said with a smile.

"Totally, getting possessed by unexplained magic really helps conk you out." Varian huffed.

"I'm sure it does." She sighed. "I'm not really sure why you reacted to the incantation like that. I can look into it, but I've got no promises on if I'll find something."

"We'll look into it too." Hugo put a hand on Varian's shoulder. "Can't believe mister 'I don't work with magic' has the magic touch."

Varian buried his face in his hands. "Shut up."

"Thank god she's finally gone." A man hopped down from one of the trees, landing in front of them.

Adira held her hand onto her sword's hilt. "Hector."

"Wait!" Hector held his hands up, stepping back when a dagger and bomb held up to his neck. "I'm not going to attack."

"Likely story."

Hector sighed and set down his own weapon. "Just...hear me out."

The three lowered their own weapons, but didn't let go of them.

"I saw what happened in the scroll room." He sat down. "The girl's hair, nothing burned when she touched him."

"What?" Varian and Hugo asked in unison.

"The last time someone touched the moonstone, his arm burnt away to nothing. It can only be assumed a product of that would cause something similar." Adira answered, finally setting down her weapon. "So, you're finally going to admit I was right?"

He groaned. "Yes! Fine!"

Adira smiled and looked over to the other two, motioning for them to put away their weapons. "I'm surprised you were willing to admit that."

"Well," Hector dragged his hands down his face. "I'm tired. It's been over twenty years, sister. If the girl can put an end to all this, I'd be willing to at least try."

She slowly pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, for trusting me."

They heard a gasp, when Adira pulled away and they started talking again. The rest of the group had woken up, their weapons ready and poised to attack.

"Wait!" Varian shot up and stepped in front of them. "Don't attack! He's--"

"Out of the way Varian!" Cassandra yelled, racing forward, the rest of them running behind them.

Hugo pulled Varian out of the way. "Let them handle this, ok?"

Varian shoved away from him and grabbed Lance. "Don't!"

"What? That's the guy that tried to kill us!"

"Yeah, I know. Just-- get them to stop attacking!"

"Stay back, sister. I can handle them." Hector took out his dagger and stepped forward.

"Hector--" Adira jumped in front of him, only for the man to pick her up and slam her against a tree.

"Sorry," He said quietly. "I'll make it up to you."

Varian jumped in the middle. "Hector, Cass, Everyone! Please just-- stop fighting!"

"Stay out of this, kid!" Cassandra glared.

"I'm not-- would you all just listen to me?!"

Cassandra pushed him to the side and ran ahead yelling, Eugene and Rapunzel following close behind. Hector managed to deflect their attacks with little effort, each swing either dodged or deflected.

Then they started hitting. Varian noticed he never threw a hit, his weapon was out, but he used it to block.

Hugo tried again to hold Varian back. "Varian, I know what you're thinking about doing, but please don't--"

Rapunzel grabbed Hector's ankles with her hair while Eugene tripped him over, Cassandra delivering the final blow, shoving him over the edge.

"Hec...Hector!" Adira blinked her eyes open and shot up, watching as Varian kicked Hugo off of him and leapt over the edge. "Varian!"

She ran over as fast as she could, she couldn't catch Varian, he was already too far down, but she did manage to stop Hugo before he jumped in after them.

"Varian!!" Hugo called out, kicking and screaming against Adira's grip. "Let go of me! Please, I-I can't--!"

Adira pulled him back, she couldn't find the words to respond.

They started falling, hitting against rocks and vines, something sharp slashed across Hector's side and fell down with them. What it was, Varian couldn't see, Hector had grabbed onto him and shielded him from the worst of it. When they hit the ground with a loud thud, Varian could barely push himself up.

Everything hurt. He could see blood on the ground, he couldn't tell if it was his or not, twisted limbs, he noticed his leg was bent the wrong way. He knew it had to have felt worse than it did, but everything felt so distant, he barely felt that vines start to wrap around his ankles.

...wait. Vines?

Varian slowly lifted his head up to look at the man standing in front of him, he was covered in vines, glowing a sickly bright green. There was nothing behind his eyes. "...Hector?"

"Why didn't you listen to him?!" Hugo shouted, far louder, and far angrier than he'd ever sounded in his life. "If-- if you had just stopped fighting none of this would have happened!"

"We're-- we're sorry Hugo," Rapunzel tried to stop the tears from falling down her face, but they fell anyway. "We didn't think--"

"No! You didn't! You all just ran in there guns blazing without thinking of the consequences! And now they're-- now he's--"

"Hugo." Adira said firmly.

"What?!"

She flinched, but regained her composure, pointed down at the glowing green pile of vines that was quickly rising up to meet them.

"Shit."

When the vines rose as high as they could go, the unraveled, revealing Hector at the center, his skin growing a bright green as well as his eyes. Varian was tied up as well, slipping in and out of consciousness.

"I think..." He wheezed out. "I know..why your dad was so pissed at me."

"Varian! You're alive! You're--" Hugo couldn't help but smile when he saw him, Adira had to put an arm in front of him to stop him from running directly to his doom.

A series of vines slammed down in front of the group, all of them barely able to fend them off.

"We have to get him out of there!" Rapunzel yelled, wacking away at one of the vines with her frying pan.

Adira ran up one of the larger vines and slammed her sword down onto Hector. "Snap out of it, jackass! You're hurting people!"

The spear fell from his hands and slammed down onto one of the vines. Cassandra noticed how it singed the vine it hit.

Hector showed no reaction to Adira's words, instead sending a vine to kick her off of him.

"The spear!" Cassandra yelled, managing to get their attention. "We need to use the spear!"

Rapunzel looked around, found it, and whipped her hair around it, tugging it into her hand. "Alright, I need everyone to keep Hector distracted. Hugo and Adira well go in and cut Varian free. Cassandra,"

Cassandra looked up at her and caught the spear when she threw it.

"You better not miss."

Adira and Hugo were already doing what they were instructed to do, which was partially the reason she said it. She knew they'd go and save him either way. The rest of the group fended off the smaller vines, leaving plenty of room for Cassandra to run up and stab the spear through the vine's center, a small, pulsing heart just under where Hector was being held.

"Alright," She muttered to herself, taking a step back, waiting for Varian to be cut down so she could deliver the killing blow. "You got this."

She saw Varian fall down out of the corner of her eye, Adira catching him and pulling Hugo away from the vines before they wrapped around the three of them. Now was her chance. She took in a deep breath, and raced forward.

A vine slammed down in front of her. The spear burned through it without any issue, as did the rest of the vines when she pierced the heart of it all.

"Hector!" Adira handed Varian to Hugo and ran forward, barely managing to catch the man before he fell down again with the rotting vines.

Rapunzel let out a sigh of relief, though that was cut short by the sound of rumbling around them. "We need to get out of here!"

The group raced out of the tree, jumping over the gorge outside and rolling onto the ground. The tree crumbled into nothing the second they all got out.

"Is-- is everyone alright?" Rapunzel asked, looking around. She only now noticed how strong the glares were coming from Adira and Hugo.

"We're fine. I'm going to take Hector and...discuss things with him." Adira looked down at Varian and Hugo. "Do you want to come with us."

Hugo looked between the two, genuinely contemplating her offer, Rapunzel felt like her heart might break then and there if he decided to go, she couldn't lose them both. Luckily, he shook his head.

"Suit yourself." Adira picked Hector up and walked away, stopping and turning around to look at them. "I'll...see you in the Dark Kingdom. Best of luck."

"Hugo," Rapunzel slowly walked over to them and moved to put a hand on his shoulder "I'm sorry I--"

Hugo grabbed her wrist before she could manage it, then let go and stood up, holding Varian tight in his arms. "Don't even start."

Chapter Text

Things hadn't seemed to get any better after a few days. Almost a week had passed, going on two, and Hugo barely left their section of the caravan. Lance was the only person he was willing to talk to, they were glad for that, at least then they could know how Varian was doing. As it turns out, it wasn't good.

Lance said he'd broken a number of bones, some of his ribs, his leg, his arm, even his nose. There were cuts too, only one big gash while the rest were manageable. He'd gotten sick after about a day. Lance said Hugo barely slept at all, he'd have to force him to.

Out of all the people in the group, Rapunzel was the one he seemed to be most furious with. He'd expected that sort of brashness from Cassandra, he wasn't surprised Eugene went along with it, but Rapunzel...she always was the type to listen, to avoid a fight. She'd changed, he thought she did, but now she was back to the way she was before, and so was he.

"I get why Hugo's mad at me. Varian had tried to tell us Hector wasn't a threat, and I didn't listen, and he ended up getting hurt. But," She scribbled furiously into her notebook. "If Hector wasn't so insistent on acting like he was the bad guy, maybe we wouldn't have assumed it!"

Pascal squeaked and nudged her face.

"Alright, fair point. We did jump to conclusions. And...he hadn't been attacking us then. And...Varian was...really, really hurt." Rapunzel wiped a tear from her eye. "I hope he's ok..."

She watched Hugo leave the caravan to get food, one of the few times he'd ever leave.

"I think maybe we could work things out if he'd just talk to me, I could apologize! And...maybe we could be friends again."

"We're running low on supplies." Eugene huffed. "A bunch of them were destroyed when the caravan fell, and there's not another town for a while now."

"Do you think...a few of us should go out and search for some?"

"I mean, sure. We're running low on food, mostly. I think we can manage with everything else." Eugene shrugged.

She smiled. "Great! Hugo and I will go."

Hugo stopped right as he opened the door to go back inside. "I'm going to what?"

"We're traveling together!" She ran up to him and pulled him into a hug. "To go get supplies, won't that be fun?"

"Yeah...sounds great."

"Alright!" Rapunzel smiled and let him walk ahead, turning around and letting pascal crawl down onto her hands. "Can you stay here for now? I need a little one on one time with Hugo."

Pascal nodded and jumped off her hand, saluting her as she left.

"Ok...you got this. Just-- just try not to set him off, and talk to him. You can do this."

"So, I've been charting some stars lately, and I couldn't help but notice something rather interesting." Rapunzel started rambling, easing him into the idea of talking about a more difficult topic. "The sun and moon are getting closer, I think there's a possibility they could end up...aligning at one point. Don't you think that's interesting?"

"Mhm. Sure." Hugo nodded, not really paying attention.

"Well... um..." Alright, so finding a common interest was off the table. "What about...you? Anything on your mind lately?"

"Piranhas."

"...Really? Kind of unsettling but, fair enough I guess--"

"No." Hugo put his arm in front of her. "The river, it has piranhas. Pay attention. We're getting supplies, not having a conversation."

"Right, right, sorry."

"We can use the trees to climb across." Hugo hopped up and started climbing across the branches, rolling his eyes when Rapunzel whipped her hair around the opposite tree and swung across.

"Do you need a little help?" Rapunzel yelled from across the river. "That looks...kind of far!"

"No, no I'm fine--"

Just as he said that, the branch snapped. Rapunzel quickly threw her hair around him and yanking him across the river.

"Phew! That was close, huh?" Rapunzel let out a breathy laugh.

"Yep, thanks for the help." Hugo responded in a monotonous voice as he shoved the hair off of him and kept walking.

"Well..." She sighed and muttered under her breath. "At least he said thank you. That's progress, right?"

"Huh, looks like there's a town after all." Hugo said quietly, hopping over a bit of rubble. "Well, was."

"Woah." She followed close behind him, looking around at the ruins left behind. "The black rocks really did a number on this place."

"Maybe it has a thing against towns. It's not much worse than Old Corona." Hugo huffed and started looking through everything, ignoring Rapunzel's wince at that comment. "We should see what we can find before nightfall, then we'll just have to call it a day.

"Oh! I think I found something!" Rapunzel ran over to a small wooden cart. "It's an apothecary cart."

"Really?" Hugo poked his head up, the first time he'd shown interest in something she'd said all day. "It could have medicine in it."

"Hmmm...growth potion, magic powder, ooo! A snow potion." Rapunzel threw it down directly in front of Hugo, causing a pile of snow to fall on his face. "Sorry."

"Great, so it's a lunatics apothecary cart." He groaned and picked up a random book. "Look at this, the Wand of Oblivium. Stupid."

"Erases what you wish you could forget...hm." Rapunzel frowned. "You know, it's too bad there isn't a `Open up to your best friend' wand, huh?"

"What?"

Rapunzel slowly set down the wand and book. "Hugo, I know you're mad at me, and I don't blame you for it. I...I just want to say that I'm sorry. Really, I am."

"Great, you've apologized, congratulations!" Hugo threw his hands up in the air and started walking away from her. "You keep apologizing for things, but you never actually try to change what you did wrong!"

"Hugo I--"

"You know what? Never mind. It doesn't matter. Let's just.." He sighed. "It's getting dark. Let's set up camp for the night. We'll meet back with the others tomorrow morning."

"I can't sleep."

"Rapunzel it's only been two minutes. I'm sure you can manage."

"Hugo," Rapunzel sat up. "I know you may not want to talk about what happened, but I think we need to."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"You know I don't believe that." She stood up and walked over to him, watching as he stood up as well. "Please, whatever it is you're mad about, I don't care how many things it is, you can talk to me about it. You know that."

"I think it's fairly obvious what exactly it is I'm mad about! You didn't listen! Simple as that! You never listen to people! And somehow, everytime you ignore someone, they're the ones who end up getting hurt because of it!"

"Hugo I--" Rapunzel took a step forward, accidentally bumping into the cart and knocking the wand off of the ledge and into her hand. "Agh-- I messed up! I get that! But you're not exactly listening to me either!"

"Of course I am! You told me that you're sorry, and I listened. I just don't care."

"No that's not it! I said that I was sorry, but I've been telling you that none of us knew that Hector was on our side, and he wasn't exactly clueing us in on it! It's not just our fault!"

"It's mostly your fault--"

"Ugh, I wish you'd just forget all this ever happened!" She paused."No, wait. I'm sorry, that-- that was rude. I got carried away I--"

"Who are you?"

"Wh-- Hugo, I get that you're mad at me and all but don't you think pretending like you don't know who I am is a little much--"

"How do you know my name? Wait-- where are we? Did you kidnap me? I've never been kidnapped before, is this for ransom? Do you want money? Wait, I don't have money. Um, what-- wait-- why exactly--"

Rapunzel blinked, watching Hugo panic and ramble for the next few minutes over being kidnapped. She glanced down at the wand in her hands, then to the book on the cart. Crap.

"Wait, you're trying to kill me aren't you?!"

"What? No! I'm not going to kill you!"

"See, that's exactly what someone who wants to kill me would say. I mean, you don't look like you could kill someone, but maybe that's the idea. You've probably got a whole gang of goons waiting in the bushes somewhere to jump me!"

"No! No one else is here either, it's just me."

"Of course you'd say that! You're trying to lull me into a false sense of security so I'll let my guard down, but I'm not buying it! You can't fool me, so ha."

"I..." She sighed. "Alright, just give me a second."

Rapunzel grabbed the book and opened it to the instruction page, which she was more than glad they had on hand.

"See? This is a memory wand. I know you, you know me. We got into a fight," She panicked when his eyes started to widen again. "A verbal one, just a disagreement, and I said the wrong thing at the wrong time, and I think it erased your memories."

"That's...a very...elaborate lie."

"It's not a lie. I'm being honest, ok? And I'm going to fix this, I just need you to trust me."

Hugo looked around, he couldn't recognize anything. "Not like I have much of a choice here..."

"Oh god what is that?" Hugo asked as they walked through the woods, pointing down at something on the ground.

"That, is a rabbit."

"What is that?"

"Rabbit, again."

"OH SWEET JESUS WHAT IS THAT?"

"...another rabbit." She sighed. "Have you...never seen them before?"

"Ok, ok, listen. I live in the city. The only animals I see are rats. And bugs, if those count as animals. I think they do?"

"I didn't know you lived in the city."

"Well, duh, I thought that was obvious." He paused. "Wait, that's obvious, and you said we know eachother but you didn't know that, so that means you're lying to me and you really are leading me into a deathtrap--"

"No!" She grabbed his shoulders. "I am not going to kill you. You just...never told me that, ok?"

Hugo narrowed his eyes. "...sure."

"Ok. It says here there's a cure for this. We just need to follow the instructions for a simple potion." Rapunzel flipped through a few pages. "Well, if simple means thirty pages worth of ingredients, then yes!"

"What's that?" Hugo looked over her shoulder to see the contents of the notebook. "It's poison, isn't it?"

"For the fiftieth time, no. It is not another murder attempt. Now we better get moving if we want to get the potion--"

"Poison--"

"Potion, finished by the end of the day. I'm sure the you with all his memories would want to get back to the others as soon as possible."

"The others? So you are a part of a gang."

"Ugh, no! We're friends. It's a group of people, who like eachother, and don't want eachother, or anyone else for that matter, dead." She dragged her hand down her face. "If I really wanted you dead, don't you think I would have done that already."

"...Fair point. I will trust you." She let out a sigh of relief. "For now." The sigh turned to a groan.

"You know we don't actually need that much of everything." Rapunzel chuckled, watching Hugo take as many of the herbs they'd found as he could.

"Well, sure, if it's just for that one potion, but who knows what else these could be used for. I'd like to get as many samples as I can."

"Hm, nice to see that side of you hasn't faded with time."

"What do you mean?"

"Just that...I've had to pull you away from trying to get samples of everything more than once."

"Oh, sorry."

"No you don't have to apologize. I'm the same way, it's a mutual thing." She pulled a flower from the ground and put it in her bag. "I haven't really been out in the world for a while myself, so I tend to...collect."

He smiled, she found herself smiling as well.

"Oh! Blondie, I just wanted to ask--"

"Wait, blondie?"

"Well you haven't exactly told me your name, so I figured I'd just call you that because you know, you have...really long blonde hair, so--"

"Oh! I completely forgot you don't know my name!" She quickly held out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Rapunzel."

"...like the lettuce?"

Rapunzel laughed. "Yes, like the lettuce."

"Alright! That should be the last of the ingredients." She sighed and looked up at the sky, already nightfall again. "I'll put this all together and let it stew overnight, and we should have a working cure by noon tomorrow!"

"Cool." Hugo responded, his focus instead on something above him.

"...what's up? Did you see something?"

"No I just...I've never really seen this many stars before."

"Oh." She smiled, no wonder he'd taken an interest in astronomy when she'd introduced it to him. "Well, I've been charting stars since I was six. I could tell you about them, if you'd like."

"Yes. Tell me everything."

"Ha, ok. In exchange, but only if you want to, I've...got a few questions for you, too."

"Sure, that's fine, ask away."

"Alright, first, a little astronomy lesson."

Rapunzel sat down and talked while she put together the ingredients, Hugo hanging on her every word as though it were the most interesting thing he'd ever heard. She didn't really think anything of it, but right now it was new to him. She missed talking to him like this.

"Now for my questions."

"Shoot, ask away. I am an open book."

"For the first time, yeah." She muttered under her breath. "So! Have you been on your own for a while?"

"Oh, starting with the sob story early, huh?" He chuckled. "Yeah. I uh... I was in an orphanage till I was about eight. I left, and I've been on my own ever since."

Rapunzel put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"No, no it's fine, really! I can manage. I mean, I have to steal pretty much everything just so I don't die, but that's the case for a lot of people where I'm from."

"Oh. Still though, even if it is common, that doesn't mean it's not terrible."

"I mean I'm not dead so I can't complain."

"You spent the first few hours of our time together thinking I was going to kill you any second."

"In my defense, waking up in a secondary location does not bode well for my confidence."

"Fair, fair."

"So...what about me in the future? Well, present, I guess. What exactly does he have going on?"

"I'd say he's in a better place now. He's got friends, family too, though he doesn't admit it. You know, you accidentally called Lance-- he's one of our friends-- dad. No one's ever going to let you live that one down."

"Huh."

"Oh, and you have a boyfriend."

"Wait what?!"

"Yup! And he's a total dork, too. You're practically made for eachother."

"You've gotta be kidding me." He ran his hands through his hair. "You have got to be kidding me. There is no way that I have a boyfriend. I am...not that smooth. In any sense of the term."

"Oh, trust me, you don't have to be. You should see the heart eyes he gives you when you trip and fall on your face."

"...ok now you're just messing with me."

"I'm not! Really," She laughed. "I'm not messing with you."

Hugo narrowed his eyes.

"Ok, fine. How about this." She sighed and put a lid over the potion. "There's still a few more things I have to do for this potion. We're already close to where the group is. I could...let you meet him?" She paused. "And no, this isn't a trap to lead you to your death."

Hugo shut his mouth. "Right, ok."

To say Hugo was nervous was an understatement. The closer they got to the group's current camping site, the more he could feel his heart trying to beat out of his chest. He didn't know what reason was behind this, the possible thugs that could jump and kill him, the death trap, or...having a boyfriend.

When they'd gotten there, the two were happily greeted, some even making comments about how they'd finally made up, mentioning how Hugo was holding on to her hand the whole way there. He didn't realize he was doing that, so he quickly let go.

"I um... hold on." Rapunzel pulled Hugo around to the back of the caravan. "I'll explain things to Varian, he's the one I mentioned earlier, and you can stay here while I finish things up, ok?"

"Uh..sure."

"Ok, I'll be just a second."

By the time Rapunzel walked back outside he was almost shaking. She gave him a quick hug and pushed him inside, leaving him to panic alone.

There was a boy sitting up on the bed in the back of the room. He was gorgeous, even further proving to him that Rapunzel was bullshitting him, and he looked injured. There were bandages covering his arms, he had a tired look in his eyes.

"Um...you...ok?"

"I've been better." Varian smiled. "Then again I've also been worse."

Hugo coughed and looked at the ground, glancing up when Varian patted the chair next to him. He slowly walked over and sat down.

"So, you don't remember...anything."

"Nope, nadda, zilch. One minute I'm in the iron kingdom, the next I'm in the woods."

"Yikes, doesn't sound like fun."

"No, no it was not." Hugo huffed. "Are we...really dating?"

"Yup. Hard to believe, I know. You are...way out of my league."

Hugo blinked. "What? How?"

"Well first of all you're a solid ten. You're smart, funny, brave. You've...saved my life more times than I could count. I owe you a lot." Varian messed with his hands and looked to the side. "I genuinely could not believe you liked me until almost a month into our relationship. It was kind of sad."

"Oh...ha...you...you think I'm brave?"

"Of course I do. You protected me, maybe you were just as scared as I was, but you never really showed it. It's...weird, seeing this side of you. I like it though, it's genuine."

"You like me? Right now? Even though I'm some big cowardly mess?"

"Why wouldn't I?" He smiled. "You're comfortable enough around me to say that you're scared. That means a lot."

"Oh."

"Hey, I explained the situation to everyone, and I think I've finished the potion--" Rapunzel stopped. "Hugo are you crying?"

Hugo sniffed and wiped the tears from his eyes. "...no."

Rapunzel sighed, smiled, and handed him the potion. "I hope it works."

"I do too." Hugo took it, staring at it for a moment, then drank it.

The three stood there for a moment, waiting for some sort of a reaction. Hugo blinked and looked around, turning around to look at Varian and smiling.

"Heya Goggles."

"Hey idiot." Varian smiled. "Stop being a jerk and go make it up with the princess."

"Right, fine." Hugo sighed and turned back to Rapunzel. "Let's...go do that gross talking thing you wanted to do."

"So..." Hugo said after they'd been talking for a while, a good ways away from the rest of the group. "I guess what I'm saying is, I don't really blame you for it. I'm just..mad that Varian got hurt and I wanted someone to pin it on. And...and I felt like you were going back on what you said to me before."

Rapunzel smiled and hugged him. "I meant what I said then, I trust the both of you, and I trust your judgement. I...I made a mistake, and I can't say I won't make mistakes in the future, but I can say that I'm going to keep trying to be better at this."

"And..I'll stop taking my anger out on you."

"Friends again?" She paused. "Not...trying to push it or anything."

"Friends again."

Chapter Text

It had been a month since they’d left the Great Tree, two weeks since Hugo had started talking to them all again, as well as Varian being able to walk around. Though, he hadn’t been able to do much of that either way, as the ongoing storm had forced them to stay inside.

At first, Hugo, as well as the others, saw this as a blessing. They didn’t want to rush Varian’s recovery, and forcing him inside was near impossible without outside influence, but as the days stretched on, being trapped in a caravan together proved to be more of an annoyance than anything else.

Cassandra’s sword practice had grown tiresome, people’s hair almost getting chopped off in the process, Rapunzel’s singing, usually not an issue, was now ringing in their ears without a second of relief. Lance’s snoring, usually satiated by a long walk in the woods, was now the soundtrack to their every night, the lack of sleep contributing to their nasty moods. Varian, Hugo, and Eugene were the talkers of the group, the two kids staying up till the wee hours of the morning talking about their latest experiment, Eugene testing everyone’s patience rambling about his morning routine.

It was safe to say everyone was a bit on edge, and the caravan getting stuck didn’t do them any favors.

Rapunzel goes out to see what exactly went down outside, and when she comes back in, tells the group that a tree fell, probably struck by lightning from the storm. No one's exactly happy to stay in the already leaking caravan, so when Rapunzel points out an oh so convenient inn, the group steadily ignores Cassandra's protests about it being safe and sprints inside as quick as they can manage.

"Um, hi, sorry to bother you sir but--" She looked back at the caravan, able to see the water leak through it all the way from where she was. "Would it be alright if we stayed the night? Our caravan isn't exactly prepped for this kind of weather."

"Ah, of course! A leaky caravan is not a very good one, I understand." The man responded in a thick french accent, opening the door and bowing. "Come, stay as long as you need."

"...Right, thank you." Rapunzel motioned everyone else to go inside. "If you could just point me to the front desk I can go ahead and pay--"

"No need! You may stay free of charge!" He chuckled. "We do not get much business around here, your company is more than I would need as payment."

"Probably because you parked an inn in the middle of nowhere." Cassandra muttered under her breath.

The man showed them around his inn, one made entirely of seashells...somehow. Rapunzel took the lead, being far too pleasant with the owner while the rest of them either goofed off or complained about how little they trusted the place. Varian was originally with the former group, until he caught a glimpse at one of the door handles, a familiar figure carved onto it.

"Hm..." Varian poked it, jumping when Hugo got his attention.

"Something up?" He asked.

"I'm not sure yet. I...think I'm going to take a look around if that's ok. If anyone asks just say I was collecting parts of the walls, they'd probably believe that."

"Um...sure? Let me know if you find anything."

Varian nodded, looked back at the doorknob and noticed it had changed to something normal. Interesting...

He slipped away from the rest of the group before anyone else noticed he'd left, walking around the inn and looking over each little detail. He'd catch certain things, nothing more than the shifting doorknob from before, little clues into an ulterior motive behind the innkeeper's apparent kindness, but nothing more than that.

"Alright, now is this mirror a normal mirror, or will you turn me into some kind of evil demon?" Varian muttered to himself, poking it and looking it up and down, his eyes started to glow an eerie red. "Oh great, a demon mirror. Gotta say, red is not my color."

The reflection laughed, something he found himself not ready for, his panic spiking even more when the reflection reached out and grabbed him, tossing him inside and walking out on its own.

"Well....shit."

Dinner had started off...weird. First of all, Rapunzel, Cassandra, and Hugo had all shown up before the others. They weren't surprised that Varian ended up being late, but Eugene and Lance typically sprinted over at the mere word of food. When the others did enter, it got even weirder.

Lance kicked open the door, cackling when the group jumped at the sudden noise, his laughter getting even louder after he'd tripped Varian over. Eugene had laughed along as well, less sure of himself then Lance was. Varian didn't even react, simply pushing himself up, giving a quick smile, and walking over to sit down with everyone else.

Lance slammed Varian's face on a plate of food the second he sat down, the man's howling laughter never once ceasing.

"Dude, what the hell?" Hugo narrowed his eyes.

"Oh! It's fine," Varian wiped the food from his face and grinned. "I didn't really plan on eating anyway."

"Um...sure."

"I don't really see the problem either." Eugene shrugged.

"It was funny as hell," Lance spoke through laughter. "You should've seen the look on his face!"

"We did." Cassandra deadpanned. "It wasn't funny."

Lance rolled his eyes. "Course you'd think that, Ms. Stick in the Mud."

Eugene gave an awkward laugh, while the others only glared further. The rest of the dinner continued with… awkward silence for the most part, Rapunzel, Cassandra, and Hugo all watching carefully at the other three’s behavior. Lance was the most obvious change, seemingly caring more about making a good laugh than Varian’s literal safety, Eugene went along with it all, what backbone he’d had completely disintegrating the more the night went on. Varian… he cared more about pleasing them than anything else, it worried them.

"After this is over, I vote we lock the two of them in their room." Cassandra whispered to Rapunzel. "Something happened, we need to find out what."

Rapunzel nodded. "What about Varian? he isn't exactly acting...normal either."

"No, but," Cassandra looked over at him, watching as he continued to wave off jab after jab. "I don't think he's a threat."

"Does that sound ok, Hugo?" Rapunzel leaned over and asked.

"Either that or I just kill 'em."

"Locking them in their room it is." She stood up and forced on a pleasant smile, clapping her hands together and waiting for the others to stand. “Alright! I think it’s about time we retire for the night, hm?”

Rapunzel stayed at the head of the pack, trusting the other two to watch those kept in low regard, they did, Cassandra and Hugo making a sandwich between them, with Cassandra watching from the front and Hugo watching from behind, it took every bit of patience Hugo had not to pummel them, and so it seemed, every bit of Cassandra’s as well.

"You, my friend, need to loosen up a little." Lance patted Varian on the back, though it sounded a lot harder than it probably should have been. "I mean, I spent ten years in prison and I'm not as stiff as you are."

Varian winced at the comment. "I-- right, sorry."

"Jeez, we get it, torture sucks and everything. You're just so sensitive all the time." He laughed. "What, you think we're gonna beat you up or something?"

"No, not really I don't--"

Lance slammed his fist on a nearby wall, barely missing Varian's head, he started cackling at Varian's responding yelp.

"Oh no!! Please don't hurt me!" Lance wheezed out. "You're killing me kid!"

"No, I'm going to kill you." Hugo whispered, Cassandra quickly went over to hold him back, Rapunzel doing the same as well.

"We don't know what's going on just yet. They could still be them, something similar to the mood potion we dealt with a while back." She sighed. "We're almost to their room, then we pull him out of there."

It felt like ages before they managed to reach the room the two had been staying in. Lance and Eugene walked inside, with some not so subtle manipulation from Hugo, while Cassandra slammed the door shut before they put that together, sliding a nearby chair under the knob so they couldn't get out.

"There! That is...so much better." Cassandra said, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Wait-- wh--- what are you doing?" Varian looked around nervously. "You can't just lock them in there!"

"Oh we most certainly can." Hugo spat out. "Now, let's figure out what exactly happened to them."

The girls walked ahead and started looking around, Hugo moved to follow them, but stopped when Varian grabbed his wrist.

"Wait, I think I might be able to help."

Hugo looked ahead, then back at Varian. "....ok."

"I think this is what caused everything." Varian stopped in front of a mirror, Hugo noticed the way Varian's eyes shifted to a deep red.

"Do you...know how it works?"

"I have an idea." Varian slowly moved his hand up Hugo's arm, turning him around so that his back faced the mirror.

"Um-- what-- what are you doing?"

"Look, I like you. I don't want to do this, but..." Varian smiled, not warm, not happy, there was something dark behind it. "I have a job to do."

"Wait, what do you--"

Before Hugo could say any more, a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and tugged him inside the mirror. Varian took a few steps closer to the mirror, poked it, and walked away, following behind a second Hugo, one with similarly red glowing eyes.

Rapunzel had realized the two were missing far later than she’d liked to have to admit. She ran back once she did, not sparing even a moment to explain to Cassandra her worries, worries that didn’t cease when she ran into Varian, running to her as well.

"Varian?" She panted out. "Where's Hugo?"

"I don't know. He-- he said he saw one of the other two walking around, he thought they broke out.“ Varian glanced to the ground. "I'm sorry, I should have stayed with him."

Rapunzel pulled him into a quick, tight hug. "You're alright, we'll find him soon enough, and we'll..figure it out from there."

"...You're not mad?"

"Of course I'm not." Rapunzel took his hand and led him down the hall. "Come on Cass!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

About forty minutes passed before they stopped racing around the mansion, even more out of breath than they were before.

“I know,” Cassandra wheezed. “I know this place is insanely huge, but you’d think we’d have found those three loud assholes by now.”

“In our defense, we were all thieves.” A voice spoke from behind them. “Frankly I’m offended you think so little of us.”

The three whipped around to find the source of the voice, Hugo, as it turned out, lying comfortably across a table on his back, head hanging over the edge as he fiddled with a golden trinket.

Cassandra narrowed her eyes, glancing over to the other two, silently asking a question, to which the two silently responded in agreement. “Mind telling us why you ran off like that, and more importantly, what were you doing during that time?”

Hugo shrugged and sat up. "I got bored.”

"You got--” Cassandra groaned and leaned over to Rapunzel. “Are you sure we can’t kill them?”

"Ouch." Hugo hopped off the table and folded his hands, moving his arms up and resting his head on them. “If I actually gave a shit that might hurt, here I thought we were friends.”

Rapunzel took a step back, putting an arm in front of Varian, trying to get as much distance between them and Hugo as possible, to which the boy rolled his eyes.

"Hm." Cassandra thought for a moment. "You know, Varian's being dragged into this too."

Hugo rolled his eyes. "And? That doesn't really effect me."

Rapunzel took another step back. "Cassandra, I think we should leave."

“So soon? I thought you wanted us all to stay together.” Hugo pouted, letting his arms fall to his sides before leaning against one of the walls. “First you lock the others in their room, then you abandon me? Some friends you are.”

"The other--" She stopped. "You let them out, didn't you?"

Hugo smiled. "I thought I’d make things a little more interesting.”

"It's an ambush!" Cassandra yelled, fighting off the hands that went to grab her and tug her away.

Rapunzel turned around and fended off her own attacker, she was almost glad Cassandra had been attacked by Eugene, she was handling dealing with him a lot better than she would have.

The four fought tooth and nail, not even noticing how neither Hugo nor Varian intervened. The doubles had backed them into a corner, pushing them closer and closer toward a mirror at the end of the hall. Eugene got the better of his opponent, shoving Cassandra inside the second her back hit the glass.

"Cass!" Rapunzel jumped back at the second Cassandra that stepped out. It was five against one. Well, three against one. Still...her odds weren't very good.

Before long she was also shoved against the mirror, her double reaching out to grab her and pull her in. Rapunzel fought against her as well, the two kicked and shoved at eachother, but eventually, only one was the victor.

The doubles stopped in front of her, looking her over to see if they had really won. When she smiled, so did they.

"We've won." Cassandra grinned. "Not a single double left."

"What do we do now?" Eugene asked.

Rapunzel's smile turned wider. "Free reign, let's go wild. We can do whatever we want now!"

"Yes!" Hugo laughed. "I like the way you think! Lance, I believe the kitchens are calling our name. Let's go make a mess of things."

Rapunzel waited for everyone to split off then snuck in the opposite direction, not noticing one of them still tailed behind her.

"Alright...how do I fix this..." She muttered to herself. "I need to get them back in the mirror, but how..."

"I think I can help."

Rapunzel jumped. "Varian! I-- I can explain I--"

"You're pretending to be a copy, I got as much," He smiled. "Great acting by the way, you almost had me fooled."

"Um...thank you? You're not going to um-- turn me in are you?"

"After everything you've done for me? I wouldn't dream of it." He took her hands. "I know how to get rid of them, and get your friends back. I'd like to return the favor, you helped me, so now I'll help you."

Rapunzel smiled. "Lead the way."

"Now all you have to do is lead them onto this rug, I'll tell them you're a fake, and pull the rug out from under them. Your friends should be able to pull them back in. Once everyone's swapped back...I'll go as well."

"Are you sure this is the only way to get the real ones back?”

"Don't worry about me, really. I’ve handled these guys before.”

"If you're sure, then...let's do this."

"There!" Varian shouted, pointing the clones in the direction of Rapunzel. "There she is! She tried to trick all of us!"

"Why you little-- that's it! I'm gonna kill her!" Cassandra was the first to run forward, followed by the rest of them.

Rapunzel simply smiled and waited for them all to reach the rug, giving a thumbs up the second they got there. Varian nodded and grabbed the rug, watching as the reflections gasped and tried to pull away, a smile of his own forming on his face watching them all get tugged back inside.

The four managed to shove down their doubles with only minimum difficulty, quickly jumping off the mirror and standing next to Rapunzel.

"Oh!" Rapunzel gave each of them a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're all back."

Rapunzel turned to Varian, a sad smile on her face, waiting for him to step on the mirror as well. Instead, he took a step back.

"Why is he still here?” Hugo asked in a low growl, eyes narrowed, expression falling from the previously relieved one. “He’s the one who caused this whole mess, the bastard tricked me and pushed me in!”

“You--” Rapunzel looked over to the boy, almost hurt. “You did?”

Varian glanced between the five of them, shaking eyes falling on Rapunzel more than the rest. “I had a job to do, I had to do it, and-- and I helped you, didn’t I?”

The glares didn’t stop, not from any of them, though Rapunzel still looked at him with the same pitiful expression. He took a step back.

“I’m not going back! You-- you’ll have to kill me first!” His breathing started to get fast, he took another step back “I’m not going back with them!”

The group’s expressions shifted this time, their concern matching Rapunzel’s own. “We can’t let our Varian stay with them either, we’ll find a way to help you both just don’t--”

Another step back, his foot landed on the mirror, already being grabbed by… everyone in the mirror but Varian.

Rapunzel gasped, leaping toward him the second he got tugged down, pulling him out and reaching inside to kick the others off, she met eyes with the other Varian, her Varian, and managed to pull himself up as well.

“You know what?” Hugo glanced between the two Varian’s looking at each other with shock and… mild disgust. “I’m ok with this, actually.”

“You lot go… somewhere else, we’re going to figure this out.” Rapunzel shooed them off, keeping her hand firmly latched onto… the other Varian? Varian’s copy? His double? They weren’t quite sure.

They walked off, not listening to their conversation, though from how long they waited, it lasted a while. When Rapunzel walked up to meet with them, she came alone.

“Did you… send him back into the mirror?” Lance asked slowly, almost afraid to even mention it.

“I found a way to make him his own, he’d be by himself in it, but he seemed far happier to be alone than with… us.” She laughed quietly, then sighed. “The west hall, obviously, and the library are now off limits.”

Eugene snickered. “Of course he picked the library.”

"You." Rapunzel pulled Varian into another hug, ignoring Eugene’s joking comment in the process. "I am very mad at you right now."

"What? Why?"

"Because you’re a doormat and almost got yourself killed!”

“I’ve done that a lot, you’re going to have to be more specific.”

"I--" Rapunzel huffed and pulled away. "That’s exactly what I mean. Our doubles were all the worst parts of ourselves, things we need to work on. Your’s… you worry me."

"I’ll work on it." Varian sighed and pushed himself out of the group hug. "Now can we please get out of here? I'd rather not have to swap bodies or something."

"Ew gross let's go." Cassandra stood up and followed him out. "Could you imagine? I'd probably get swapped with Eugene. The world is cruel like that."

"That it is... At least we can just--" Varian stopped. "Wait where did the door go?"

"The door is missing? The door is missing!" Lance banged on the walls. "Oh god we're trapped in here!"

Eugene flopped onto the floor. "Fuck it, I'm going to sleep."

"Right here? Right now?" Cassandra asked.

"Yup. I'm tired. If I get turned into an animal during REM sleep I'll just deal with it in the morning, goodnight."

The rest of the group looked at eachother, shrugged, sighed, and laid down as well.

"I'll take first watch." Cassandra volunteered. "You lot get some rest."

"Thank you Ice Queen, we are forever in your debt." Eugene yawned and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

"You know," Rapunzel stood up and stretched. "Aside from the fact that we were almost replaced by evil doppelgängers last night, and that we're now trapped in here with no way out, this place is actually pretty comfortable."

"You, blondie, have very low standards and a very positive attitude." Eugene chuckled. "Let's all do some searching, there's got to be another exit around here somewhere."

"And no splitting up this time." Cassandra glared.

Varian looked around at them. "Why is everyone looking at me?"

"Alright everyone! Place your bets!" Hugo stepped in front of one of the shell doors. "Is this...an evil demon door? A portal? Or just a regular room?"

"Let's hope it's an exit." Cassandra rolled her eyes and watched as Hugo stepped inside, then...stepped outside another room.

"Damn, it was a portal."

Lance handed Varian a single coin with a sigh. "Maybe we shouldn't...actually place bets on this. I have a feeling I'm going to lose a lot of money."

"No goofing off, we need to get out of here." Cassandra walked up to a door and shoved it open, the wind blowing inside it almost sucking her inside before she managed to pull herself out and shut it again. "Well," She huffed. "We can mark that one off our list."

"Maybe we should be a little more...careful about going through these doors." Rapunzel laughed nervously, stepping to the side when she opened one. She didn't see its contents, but she heard the sound of dogs barking, so she made sure to slam it shut.

"Personally, I'd rather not spend the rest of my life here. Of course, I might end up doing that because someone keeps insisting on goofing off- Lance! I said no splitting up!"

"Lance I swear to--" Cassandra stopped when she'd walked inside the room, looking around to see toys as far as the eye could see. "Alright, not an exit. Let's go."

"It may not be," Lance said as he tossed around a bouncy ball. "But it is by far the funnest room we've come across."

"Sounds great, but the adults would like to get out of this hellhole-- god damnit." Cassandra sighed, Eugene and Rapunzel had run off, while Lance had pulled Varian and Hugo away in a different direction. "Don't split up, is that too much to ask?"

"You know, Cassandra does kind of have a point." Varian inspected the toy Lance had handed him as though it would explode at any minute. "Maybe we shouldn't treat this like a game."

"Kid," Lance put a hand on Varian's shoulder. "We're constantly in semi-life-threatening situations. Sometimes taking a little break and having fun is just an act of maintaining your sanity."

"I for one, am completely down with this. So long as it pisses off Ms. Buzzkill over there." Hugo chuckled and tossed a ball onto Varian's face.

"You just love pissing people off, don't you?" Varian rolled his eyes and smiled, taking a step closer to him.

"Oh, totally." Hugo took a few steps backward, letting Varian back him into one of the shelves. "It's my favorite pastime."

Lance gagged and walked away. "Kids these days..."

Varian took another step forward, forcing Hugo to press his back against the shelves, grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him into a kiss. "You’re the worst, and I hate you."

"Why thank you, I do my best--" Without warning, a small top fell on Hugo's head, bouncing off and landing in his hands. He smiled. "Oh! I used to have one of these."

"Oh?" Varian snickered. "You have a thing for tops?"

Hugo shoved his arm and set the top down on the ground. "For your information, I had one in the orphanage I grew up in. They're kind of bland but I thought they were pretty fun."

Varian rolled his eyes, smiled, and sat down next to him. "Alright loser, indulge away."

"Yes."

"Hey kids?" Eugene pushed past a mountain of toys and walked over to them. "Just checking to make sure you didn't find anything stupid that might-- oh no."

"Alright Lance, Cass has a point." Rapunzel sighed and set down the large stuffed bear. "We should probably go back to looking for an exit."

Lance groaned. "Alright, fine. I'll go get the...kids?"

The three looked at the room's entrance, watching three children run out of the room. The tallest one, a boy with a brown ponytail, tugging along another kid with a mop of curly black hair, while the shortest one, a blonde kid, was being tugged along by the second one. They looked at eachother, and ran to follow them.

"Ok what the hell is going on--"

Before Cassandra could finish her sentence, a bowl of mash potatoes was slingshotted onto her face.

"That's for saying bad words around the little ones." Eugene smirked and turned to the other kids, high fiving them both and ruffling their hair. "Fantastic job, sidekicks! You've made your brother proud!"

"Is that..." Rapunzel started to say.

"...our friends?" Lance finished.

Cassandra groaned and wiped the mashed potatoes off her face. "Alright! All three of you sit down right now and tell us what's going on."

Eugene's smile grew wider, he looked down at the other two kids. "Do you really want to listen to her?" The kids smiled as well and shook their heads no. "Anarchy!!"

"No! There's going to be no anarchy until we get you three back to normal!-- Get back here, Fitzherbert!" Cassandra yelled after the trio, chasing them around the dining hall and dodging any food thrown their way. "Would you two at least try and help me?!"

"Get something sticky and throw it in her hair!" Lance called out to them. "That'll be sure to piss her off!"

"They're so adorable!" Rapunzel squealed. "Look at them, they're all so small..."

"You're both useless!"

Eventually Cassandra managed to grab Eugene and Varian, dragging them into a seat at the table and sitting them down. She counted herself lucky that Hugo silently followed and did the same.

"Ok." She wheezed out. "Now we can figure out what happened."

Rapunzel patted Cassandra on the back and smiled at the three kids. "Alright, do any of you know how this happened?"

"How what happened?" Varian asked, resting his chin on the table and flopping his head to the side.

"How you all got turned into children."

"Why do you have a bird in your hair?" Varian asked instead. "And why's your hair so long?"

"Oh well-- hm, that's a little off topic. Eugene, do you know what--"

"Nope, no clue what you're even talking about." Eugene responded, kicking his feet up onto the table.

"Ok, that's fine, Hugo?"

Hugo shook his head.

"Ugh! Of course none of you know what happened!" Cassandra groaned.

Hugo yelped and jumped out of his chair, moving to hide behind it. Rapunzel quickly walked over to him, only for him to run over and hide his face in her skirt.

"Hey! Don't yell at him!" Eugene hopped off his chair and put his hands on his hips, glaring up at Cassandra.

"Yeah!" Varian said, copying the movement to the best of his ability.

"He said he doesn't know what's going on, so he doesn't know what's going on." Eugene crossed his arms.

Varian crossed his arms as well and nodded.

"Do you seriously think I'm going to listen to a lecture given to me by some snot nosed brat and his shadow--"

Lance tapped Eugene's shoulder. "Let me handle this, ok?"

Eugene took a step back, pulling Varian over to where Rapunzel and Hugo were and helping her coax him out from hiding in her hair.

"Cassandra, they're just kids. They don't know what's going on."

"So what if they're kids? They weren't just a few minutes ago! They should be able to remember this sort of thing."

"Well they don't, so we'll just have to figure something else out." Lance sighed. "The last room they were in was the toy room, we'll just look in there."

"Taking a bunch of rowdy kids to a room full of toys? Great idea Lance!"

"I know, god forbid they have fun in there, or," Lance gave an exaggerated gasp. "What if they even smile?"

"Guys?" Rapunzel interjected, Hugo no longer hiding himself, though still holding tightly onto her skirt. "Why don't we at least look for what might have caused this in there, ok?"

"Ugh, fine." Cassandra sighed.

"Listen up kids!" Cassandra glared down at them. "We're going back to the nursery, and we're going to find whatever did this. There will be no playing, there will be no goofing off, and if one more person throws food in my face I am going to lose it! Does everyone understand?"

Eugene glanced over to Hugo, already moving to hide back in Rapunzel's hair. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"You-- of course you do." Cassandra sighed. "Come on, let's go. You two take them to the nursery, I'll handle their crazy ring leader."

"You know, Cass really shouldn't be that rigid with kids," Rapunzel held Hugo's hand and started walking in the opposite direction. "I mean, we haven't yelled at them once and they haven't-- Varian! Wait no, please don't run off!"

Varian laughed and grabbed Hugo's hand, tugging him along every which way in the hallway, hopping onto various tables and statues. "The floor is lava!"

"Wait-- Varian we can't--" Rapunzel paused. "Lance, why are you hanging onto a chandelier?"

"You heard him, the floor is lava." He chuckled. "And you're getting burnt."

Varian continued to run around the halls, eventually jumping up onto a chandelier and swinging off of it, landing Lance and hanging off of him. Hugo slowly went back to holding Rapunzel's hand.

"Hi." Varian said into Lance's ear, slightly too loud.

"Hi." Lance smiled and responded back. "You look tired."

"I'm not tired."

"Oh?" Lance grabbed him and moved him so that he was laying in his arms. "Are you sure? You're looking a little worn out."

Varian yawned and leaned his head against him. "'M not."

"Ok, night kid."

"Night dad..."

Lance looked over at Rapunzel, tears in his eyes. "He called me dad."

She chuckled. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"Rapunzel, I think I want to adopt kids."

Rapunzel glanced down at Hugo, then back up at Lance. "Yeah, me and Eugene and definitely going to have a talk about this when they all get turned back to normal."

"Why wait?" A familiar voice asked. "They could stay like this, you know."

"Oh, Mr.Mathews." Rapunzel smiled. "What-- what do you mean?"

"Well, there is a time limit to this, and you have wasted a good quarter of your time already. Why not just let them stay this way? I doubt you could fix it all in fifteen minutes."

"There's a time limit?" Rapunzel asked. "Nevermind, that doesn't matter. They're not staying this way. I, personally, would like my boyfriend back, and despite how absolutely adorable these two are," She ruffled Hugo's hair. "I'm sure they'd like to be changed back as well."

"You know about this?" Lance raised an eyebrow. "How do we fix it?"

"Well, I personally disagree with the idea of doing so, that top is quite the party favor, and you two do seem to be enjoying yourselves-- oops. I did not mean to say that."

"So it's a top." Rapunzel looked over to Lance. "Alright, we just have to find the top in the nursery and they'll be back to-- Where did Mathews go?"

"Huh." Lance looked around. "He just...disappeared."

"You can't catch me!" Eugene yelled behind him, sprinting over to the rest of the group and laughing.

Varian blinked his eyes open and whined, for a second Lance was worried he'd start crying, he'd already started tearing up, but his mood quickly shifted when he realized it was Eugene who had woken him up, smiling and hopping down to hug the boy.

"Hi!" Varian squeezed him tight.

"Oh, heya kiddo." Eugene instantly dropped the maniacal act and patted Varian's head. "You have fun with the cool adults?"

"Mhm!" Varian broke away. "Hi cassie!"

"I..." Cassandra wheezed. "hate...children..."

"Woah! Look at all this!" Varian laughed and grabbed Hugo's hand again dragging him along, Eugene jumping ahead and taking the lead. "This place is insane!"

"Oh thank god we found the nursery." Cassandra groaned and dragged her hand down her face. "Now we just have to find whatever started this and all this can finally be over."

"Alright, what to mess with first." Eugene chuckled. "That wagon looks like fun, oh! I bet we could annoy the crap out of the Ice Queen with this slingshot, or--"

Hugo picked up a top off the ground and looked at it. "I like this one."

Varian and Eugene blinked, taking a second to register the fact that he'd said something. Eugene smiled. "The top it is!"

"The top?" Rapunzel looked over. "You found it! That has to be it! Now if you could just give that to us we could--"

"Woah! Wait!" Eugene stepped in front of them. "He said he wanted it so he gets to have it, you can have it in a bit."

"Ok, I really hate to be the bad guy here but." Rapunzel sighed. "We really don't have time to do that."

"Make time then." Eugene shrugged. "Come on, let's go."

"No, wait, please just--" Rapunzel pushed her hair back.

"You're being too nice to them! We just have to demand they give the top back, and if any of them have a brain, they'll give it back!" Cassandra threw her hands up in the air. "I don't see why there's an issue here!"

"The issue here is your method doesn't exactly work on these kids." Lance rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I don't know if you noticed, but none of them really respond well to your sergeant attitude."

"Well playing around or indulging them isn't helping either!" She growled. "Who cares if they don't 'like' it, we can't afford to appeal to their every whim!"

"Guys, guys, let's just-- let's stop arguing about this, it's not going to do anything but waste time." Rapunzel interjected.

"Are you sure, because Lance over here just loves to waste time."

"Wow." Eugene whistled. "They're really goin at it, huh?"

Eugene looked over at the two kids, the smile on his face quickly turning to a frown when he saw how terrified they were. Even Varian had started to hide behind them, muttering something to himself that panged his heartstrings to the point of almost crying himself.

"Ok, why don't we all give them some space to work things out." He said with a sigh, pulling the both of them out of the room.

Varian pulled back. "But what if they get mad at us again?"

Eugene looked at the adults, then back to Varian. "Then I'll just tell em off like I did with Cass. Don't worry about it, ok? I'll handle it."

Varian nodded and followed him out of the room.

"Ok! That's enough!" Rapunzel said finally. "We'll see what we can do, but we need to get that top and get them back to normal as soon as possible-- oh no. Where are the kids?"

"Of course they'd run into a room filled with rabid wolves." Cassandra muttered under her breath.

"I'll get Eugene, Lance, you get Varian, and Cass, you get Hugo."

"Are you really sure I should be the one to handle--" The other two left before Cassandra could finish her sentence. "him..."

"Eugene, hey," Rapunzel quietly stepped over one of the wolves, making her way over to Eugene, who was preparing to attack one of the wolves. "I know you want to be in charge and all, and you're doing a very good job at it, but I need you to listen to us for now--"

"You're not the boss of me."

"No, I'm not, I'm just strongly suggesting that you get out of here before that wolf decides to eat you--"

"Wow." Eugene rolled his eyes. "Look, Blondie, I know you're trying to be nice and all, and that's great, and I hate to agree with Madame Jerkiness over there, but you're really just being a pushover right now."

Rapunzel huffed. "Fine. You want firm? I'll give you firm." She took in a breath. "Eugene Fitzherbert if you do not get your butt over to the exit in the next five seconds, I'll make sure that the wolves are the least of your worries, do you understand?"

"But--"

"I said, do you understand?"

Eugene nodded and started walking away. "Yes ma'am!"

"Varian, hey, if you could just--" Lance gasped when Varian hopped over one of the wolves. "If you could just go back out of the room that would be great. We could-- make it a game?"

"I don't wanna play a game." He whined. "I like it here."

"That's great, and normally I'd be all for a little adventure but." Lance sighed. "Ok, Varian, I need you to listen to me."

Varian stopped and turned around. "Hm?"

"Look, I get that you just want to have fun, but it's not really the time for that now." Lance glanced over to see Eugene walking slowly toward the exit. "You see Eugene? He knows it's not safe to be here right now. You want to be like him, right?"

"Yeah!"

"You want to be a big kid?"

"Mhm!"

"Then go follow him outside, and we'll play a game later, ok?"

"Ok!" Varian quickly jumped back over the wolf and ran over to follow Eugene. Lance let out a sigh of relief.

"Hugo, let's go." Cassandra groaned. "Everyone else has already left, why can't you just follow them?!"

Hugo yelped and took another step back, nervously looking over to Rapunzel and taking a step toward her.

"No! No, don't walk further into the death trap! Why won't you just--" Cassandra sighed. "I...ok. Fine. I'll play along."

Hugo stopped and turned around to face her.

"I know I can be kind of scary sometimes, and I'm sorry about that. I just want you all to be safe and go back to normal, ok? And you guys aren't safe right now."

Hugo messed with his hands and looked down to the ground.

"So...could you please go join up with the others?"

"I just...want Rapunzel." Hugo mumbled.

"Great, of course you--" Cassandra sighed. "I know you want Rapunzel right now, but Rapunzel's busy. If you go meet up with everyone else, I promise you'll see her in a bit?"

Hugo looked at the ground again.

"I can...take you? I'll hold your hand if you want?"

He looked up and slowly, carefully took her hand.

"Phew, ok, let's go."

"Ok, is everyone good? Great, now we just have to--"

The wolves growled and stepped around the top, all fully awake and poised to attack.

Lance stepped in front of the kids, Cassandra stepping in front as well.

"Hold on, I have an idea." Rapunzel undid her hair and threw it over the wolves, grabbing the top and yanking it back.

The wolves ran at them all jumping at them, over the top. The group shut their eyes and prepared for the attack, only to open their eyes to a litter of puppies.

"Is everyone ok?" Rapunzel asked. The group nodded. "Great. Now let's get you three back to normal."

Rapunzel inspected the top and set it down in front of the three kids, stepping back and setting it off again. A bright light exploded from it, leaving their friends back to normal once the light had faded.

Varian smiled. "You said we were brothers."

"I-- ok--" Eugene huffed. "That's just a thing I did when I was a kid! You were the one copying me all the time."

"I-- no wait that was just--"

Hugo started laughing. "Oh yeah, that was great."

"Like you have any room to talk, you were latched onto Rapunzel the whole time." Varian flicked his nose.

His laughter turned nervous. "I um-- well you see--"

Rapunzel ruffled Hugo's hair. "It's ok, you don't have to be embarrassed. It was sweet."

Chapter Text

"Good morning Varian!" A voice called out to him, the bright and cheery tone that came with it foreign to the owner of the voice. "Sleeping in again I see? I thought we agreed you'd stop working so late all the time."

"Yeah dad I know I just--" Varian's eyes shot open. "Dad?"

"Yes?" The man tilted his head and walked over to him, gasping when Varian pulled him into a tight hug.

"You're-- you're actually here you're alive you-- how are you?--" Varian stuttered out, tears falling down before he even knew what to do with them.

Quirin, albeit confused, rubbed circles onto the boy's back. "Bad dream?"

"I..." A dream? What did he mean by that? Was it a dream? "Yeah."

Quirin slowly pulled out of the hug and kissed his forehead. "You're alright now, I'm not going anywhere." He smiled and sighed. "Now, your boyfriend's waiting downstairs for you, says he has some sort of surprise. It must be important if he's up before noon."

It all felt so weird to him. There he was, walking down the halls of his home, untarnished by break ins or black rocks, talking with his father, alive and well. He wasn't supposed to be here, his father wasn't supposed to be here either. It felt so wrong, yet...he didn't want it to be.

"Goggles!" Hugo waved and ran over to him, picking him up and swinging him around. He wasn't normally this openly affectionate. Odd. "Nice to see you're with the land of the living."

"Um...sure." Varian laughed nervously, the positive energy radiating off the both of them almost making him uncomfortable. "My dad mentioned some sort of--"

"Surprise! Yes!" Hugo moved to hold his hand and looked over to his father. "Mind if I steal him for the day?"

"What is it with you and stealing things from my house?" Quirin said in a joking tone, some sort of an inside joke they were all supposed to share. At least, that's what he thought from the way Hugo snorted at the comment. "Be back before dark."

"No promises!" Hugo called out to him, pulling Varian away.

His eyes flicked back to his father, part of him not wanting to leave the man, to stay there just a bit longer. He noticed the amber crawling up the man's wrist and forced himself to look away.

"So uh--" Varian tried to forget what he'd seen when he left. His father was fine. He knew he was. He...thought he was. "What is this surprise of yours?"

"That will have to wait till tonight. The big one at least." Hugo's smile grew brighter, was that even possible? "For now I figured we could just...hang out around the capital? We've been so busy with work junk it feels like we never take time to talk to each other, you know?"

"Work junk?"

"Yeah. You finally got those boilers working and now everyone and their mother wants you to install and repair them." He laughed. "Well, you install them. I repair them. You and maintenance don't exactly go well together."

Varian found himself laughing as well, he had a point there. "Honestly I'm surprised I got the boilers to work. It'd be the first time an invention of mine didn't go disastrously wrong."

Hugo rolled his eyes at him, Varian swore they were the wrong shade, a bright, sickly green instead of dark and muted, he could feel something wrap around his ankle. He stopped and looked down to check, nothing was there. He looked up again and met Hugo's eyes. They...they were normal.

"You ok, Stripes?"

"Fine! Just..." Varian forced a smile. "Thought I saw something."

"Alright then, if you're sure." Hugo shrugged. "So I was thinking maybe we could--"

"Varian!" Rapunzel let out a breathy laugh and sprinted over to him, pulling him into yet another hug, almost squeezing the life out of him. Once again he felt vines crawling up his legs, he tried to tell himself they weren't there.

"What is it with people and the hugging thing today?" Varian wheezed out, more than relieved when she finally let go of him.

"Well I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm personally just excited to see you!" Rapunzel hugged Hugo as well, just as tight. For once the other didn't respond with a groan. "The both of you."

"Ah, yes. Nice to see I'm the afterthought." Hugo joked, going back to holding Varian's hand the second she let go.

"You know that's not true, Hugo." Rapunzel ruffled his hair.

"Yeah yeah whatever." Hugo swatted her hand away. "Is there a reason you're interrupting us today of all days?"

Rapunzel's eyes went wide. "Wait that's today--"

Hugo glared at her, putting a finger up to his mouth and shaking his head. She slammed her mouth shut and nodded.

"No reason! No reason at all. Just um-- saying hi! Yep! That's it!"

"Um...." Varian looked between the two. "What exactly is so important about today?"

"Nothing!" The two responded in unison.

"Oh...kay...."

"So..." Hugo started talking again after a moment of silence in the conversation. "If you have no reason to be here, could you maybe leave us alone?"

"Rude." Rapunzel flicked his nose. "Now I'm going to be your super awkward third wheel, just to make you mad."

"I know you're just joking but I swear to god if you do that I'm switching out your shampoo for hair dye. Seventy feet of bright neon green. No mercy."

"Ha! The jokes on you! Green is my favorite color."

Varian raised an eyebrow. "I thought you liked every color."

"Of course I do. I'm just rotating out colors, today is green, and that is purely out of spite."

"Like you staying here longer than you probably should?" Hugo interjected.

"Oh! Right, right I'll go."

"At least you're willing to admit when you've lost."

Varian stopped, the last words he heard ringing out in his ears louder than a glass shattering scream. They were joking, they were smiling and laughing, not even looking at him, yet it felt like they were yelling at him. They were begging him to stop, stop hurting someone, stop hurting himself, just admit that he's lost the fight before he digs himself into an even deeper hole he can't escape--

"Let him go, Varian."

"What?"

"I said you should probably let go of his hand before you break his fingers." Rapunzel laughed, suddenly the atmosphere was bright and cheerful again, like someone had just turned the lights back on.

He looked down at his hand and noticed the tight grip he had on Hugo's. "O--oh. Sorry about that."

"You're fine." Hugo shook and flopped his hand around, holding his wrist with the other one. "You've got one hell of a grip though."

"I uh...yeah, guess so."

"Well," She sighed and hugged them both again. "I'll leave you two alone then. Have fun!"

"See ya princess!" Hugo gave her a quick salute and slumped onto Varian's shoulder when she finally left. "Wow, I thought she'd never leave."

"Ha, yeah, she um...really knows how to drag out a conversation."

"You ok?" Hugo asked, standing up straighter. "You've been acting...weird all day. You're not coming down with something are you?"

"No, no I'm fine I just.." Varian thought about telling him for a second, about the vines, the amber, things he heard that weren't really there. He'd think he was crazy, and...hopefully this would just go away. "I'm ok. Why don't you show that thing you wanted to do?"

"Right!" Hugo's smile returned as quick as it had left. "So, as you know, I'm not much of a sweets person, but I have heard nothing but good things about Atilla's cupcakes, and I know you've got a sweet tooth, so I figured we'd stop by there."

"Oh! Yes! I've been wanting to take you there forever, and I've been wanting to go myself ever since...since..."

A noise started to flood his ears, quiet ringing turned to faint screaming, he swore he could hear someone say something. He couldn't quite make it out.

"Since when?"

"Since um...a while ago. I haven't been in a while." Varian tried to block the noise out. "Let's go, I know something of his you'd definitely like."

"Wow." Hugo devoured the rest of the croissant he'd bought. "You were right! This is...I've had these before, I swear I have, but damn does that dude know how to bake."

"Yup." Varian responded, not touching the food he'd bought, not really paying attention to anything either. The screaming had only gotten louder the longer he'd tried to tune it out. It sounded like...begging.

"Varian!"

"Hm?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes." Hugo huffed. "What's up with you? Did something happen? Wait, shit, are we breaking up?--"

"What? No!" Varian's attention had been fully pulled over, the voice in the background finally quieting down to something he could manage to ignore. "No it's nothing to do with you I'm just...I'm...having an off day I guess?"

"Sure..." Hugo sighed. "I guess."

"And how is the happy couple doing on this fine evening?"

"Lance?" Varian couldn't help but smile seeing him, he had that effect on people. "Do you...work here?"

"Yep! New job, today's my first day. And I actually showed up this time! I'm calling that an improvement." Lanced leaned down and whispered to Hugo. "I don't know exactly what's going on with him, do you need help?"

Hugo looked over at Varian, then back to Lance. He shook his head.

Lance sighed and took their plates. "Alright then, I suppose I'll...leave you two alone. I'm not allowed to talk with customers...I end up taking too long with just one table...Jobs...are so hard..."

"Oh, wow, it's almost like it's work." Hugo teased.

"Yes, very very hard work, and I don't appreciate your lack of sympathy for me. I am suffering after all."

"Ah yes, a former criminal trying to get a paying, legal job, who would ever know about that kind of pain."

Lance narrowed his eyes. "Fair point. I will be leaving now."

"Why are you so insistent on getting everyone to leave?" Varian asked once Lance had walked away.

"I want some alone time, sue me."

"I mean sure, I get that, but Lance and Rapunzel are usually ok with the whole gross romance crap, so I don't really see a problem with it--"

"You need to get out of here."

"I...I do?"

"Yeah, we should leave. I... I think I'll go ahead and go through with the whole 'big surprise' thing now, I didn't really have much planned anyway, and you seem...disinterested."

"I'm not."

"Well I mean you've been--"

"I'm not Hugo." Varian took his hands and squeezed them. "I'm...sorry if I gave off that impression, and I'm definitely looking forward to this surprise of yours."

Hugo smiled and pulled him out of the bakery. "Ok, let's get going then."

"Where exactly is the place you're taking me?" Varian asked, he didn't really recognize the route they were taking. He thought he knew the capital pretty well.

"You'll see, it's right up..." Hugo stopped and smiled. "Here."

Varian looked around, the place was dark, weirdly dark for it supposedly being noon, as though it was already night. Lights hung up on strings lined around the small courtyard, completely surrounded by flowers.

"Wow...this is...gorgeous."

"I know, right?" He laughed. "Found this place by accident. I don't think anyone even knows it exists."

"It's...wow." Varian sighed. "Hugo, really this is amazing, I'm glad you showed me it--"

When Varian turned around to look at him again, he was down on one knee.

"What...what are you doing?"

"Winning a bet against Lance." Hugo took out a small box from his pocket. "He said I didn't have the guts to do it."

"I..." Everything felt so loud to him, the screaming, the begging in the back of his mind, pleading with him not to do it, to get out of there, flooding back all at once, overwhelming him. "Hugo this is..."

"Extra, I know. You...." Hugo looked at him nervously. "Are you just going to leave me hanging?"

"I...I don't know what to say."

"A yes or a no will suffice." He joked. "Though-- I'm hoping for a yes?"

"Hugo we've-- we haven't even been dating for a year and-- and we're both still kids." Varian could barely hear his own words over the screaming. It was just so loud. "Are--are you sure about this?"

"I know I'm going a little fast, I just thought-- I dunno," Amber spiked up around his leg as he talked, curling itself around him. He didn't seem to notice. "I didn't really think, I guess."

Varian took a step back. He had to get out of there, he had to get help, wake up, he couldn't watch this again, please Varian, wake up, he couldn't lose someone else, Please I can't lose you, he couldn't do that to himself again, he had to get away.

"God, no, this was so stupid what was I thinking-- Varian?" Hugo stood up and watched Varian run away. "Shit!"

Vines caught his ankles with every step he took, Varian had to pull and tear against them each time. Chains had formed on his wrists, they cut and dug into his skin in an oh so familiar way that only sent him spiraling further, he swore he could see spikes of amber on it instead of rust, suddenly he found himself hoping it was just rust.

"Hey buddy, you alright?"

Varian stopped in his tracks and fell to his knees, curling in on himself and screaming over all the noise, it just wouldn't stop.

"No need to cry about it." The man laughed, he hated the way he laughed at him. "It's not that big a deal."

"Shut up, Andrew!!" Varian shouted over it. "I know this isn't real! I know it's just a dream so please just let me leave!"

"You're making this rather difficult for me." A young girl's voice spoke. For once, she was someone unfamiliar to him, all the other noise faded out. "I wanted to talk to you in your dreams, you were insistent on making them a nightmare."

"Wh--" Varian looked up. The vines, the chains, the amber, they were all gone. Everything was gone. It was a black void. "Who are you?"

"A friend." Varian noticed the other voices layered beneath the main one, he didn't know how many there were. "Or at least I'd like to be."

"You didn't answer me."

"My identity is a personal matter." She sighed. "I apologize for Mathews'...actions the past few days. I told him to keep you here until I could find a way to contact you, and he decided it would be a good opportunity to er...mess around."

"You're responsible for this?"

"If you're referring to the dream, then no. I'm afraid this is all your doing." She looked around. "Your mind is quite the enigma. Deep down I suppose you wanted that boy to marry you, or something of that sort, though you don't seem to think you deserve it. But," She sighed again. "I'm not here to analyze your psyche."

"What...what are you here for?"

"I'm here to ask something of you." She took a step toward him. "I believe it will benefit us both."

"...how?"

"The moonstone. It's the source of the black rocks, the same thing that encased your father, correct?" The girl paused and waited for his confirmation, she found the wince to be satisfactory. "I want you to take it."

"You want me to-- I can't do that! The princess-- Rapunzel’s supposed to take it."

She groaned. "I don't have time to explain this. You're connected to the moonstone, you know this. You're a piece, you have to reunite with it. Please, just trust me."

"Trust you-- I don't even know who you are!" Varian watched the girl disappear, light starting to flood in all around him. "Wait! You can't just leave like that! I don't know what I'm supposed to--"

"Varian!"

"Wh--" Varian shot up and looked around. He was in a dark, stone chamber, dried up vines wrapped around him like ropes. "What the hell is--"

"I'm so glad you're ok!" Hugo smiled and kissed him. "You-- you had me worried for a second there."

"What's going on? Where am I?" Varian met eyes with Rapunzel and Lance. "Where's Eugene and Cassandra?"

"We don't know, let's hope they're already out." Rapunzel took his hand and led the four of them out of the room, just before it crumbled into a pile of rubble. "This place just started destroying itself! We have to get out of here fast."

"It's what?!--" Varian started to ask again, a large part of the ceiling fell down in front of them.

"Ask questions later!" Hugo yelled.

They all raced out of the mansion as fast as they could manage, ducked and diving out of the way of falling debris. Varian noticed the way they all nervously glanced back at him.

With one final leap out the door, they all tumbled down a mountain of sand and flopped onto the grass in front of them.

"We..." Lance huffed out. "We made it!"

Hugo pushed himself up and pulled Varian into a tight hug. "You scared the shit out of me, jerk!"

Varian laughed nervously and pulled away. "Oh-- um...sorry about that."

"Raps!" Cassandra ran over to help Rapunzel up, then joined Eugene to help the others. "What the hell happened with you four?"

"If...If I had a coin for everytime the kid went off on his own and got us all wrapped in vines I'd have two coins." Lance wheezed out, still slightly out of breath. "Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice."

"What about you two?" Rapunzel asked. "How'd you escape?"

"We uh--" Cassandra laughed. "We accidentally found the exit. Once we got out here the door disappeared and it wouldn't let us back in."

"Hey," Eugene put his hands on Varian's shoulders. "You look a little shaken up, kid. You alright?"

"Fine!" He smiled a bit too wide and shoved Eugene's hands away. "I'm fine. Let's um-- we should probably get back on the road. We've been here long enough."

The others looked at eachother, all silently questioning his behavior, before slowly following him to the caravan.

"Hey, Varian," Hugo sat down next to him in their part of the caravan. "You want to tell me what all happened back there?"

"Um...what happened to you?" He asked instead. "I noticed Mathews wasn't there anymore."

"Yeah, he tied us all up in those stupid vines so we couldn't pull you out of whatever bullshit you got yourself into, then crumbled into nothing the second you woke up. It was weird." He laughed. "But you're changing the subject."

"So I am." Varian looked to the side. "I'm sorry. That had to have been difficult."

"I..." He sighed. "Yeah, it was, but I know what you're doing."

"What?"

"You're focusing on me so I'll forget about asking you what you went through. I'm not buying it this time."

"Wh-- I'm not pretending to be worried about you just to change the subject."

"I didn't say you were pretending, but you are diverting the conversation. Now talk."

"I...a lot happened, I'm not really sure where to start." He chuckled. "Just, a bunch of weird dream stuff, I guess."

"Weird dream stuff like it makes no sense or weird dream stuff like the prophecy shit Rapunzel gets?"

"Both?" Varian buried his head in his hands. "I hate magic."

"Don't we all." Hugo pulled Varian over so that he leaned on him, rubbing circles onto his back.

"I saw a girl." He said finally. "A child, she looked like she was about eight? She sounded like a crowd of people were saying the same thing all at once when she talked to me. It was...really weird."

"Uh...yeah? That sounds weird? What exactly did she say?"

"She said I had to be the one to take the moonstone." Varian slowly let his hands fall onto his lap. "This whole mansion thing was just some ploy so that she could tell me that."

"And do you believe her?"

"No," Varian paused. "Yes? I don't know! I mean, it makes sense, kind of, but she's just some random kid that showed up in my dreams so who knows!"

"Well, um...I don't really know prophecy stuff. You'd have to talk to Rapunzel about that."

"No! No, I don't want to tell her about this."

"...why not?"

"I-- I don't know she might...she might think I'm going to betray her again. I mean, this whole moonstone thing is her destiny, and I'd be stealing it. Just like with the sundrop."

Hugo frowned. "That's not the same, Goggles."

"I mean, it basically kind of is. Same action, same goal--"

"And this time you're talking to her about it beforehand." He sighed. "Alright, how about this. For now, let's keep translating the scroll, see what information we get. If it's starting to sound like this devil child is right, we'll talk about it with Rapunzel. For now let's assume it's a trick."

"Of course that'd be what you'd assume."

Hugo held his hands up. "I'm just being cautious." He smiled. "Does that sound ok?"

"I...yeah, ok."

Chapter Text

"Alright everyone! We're only about a week out from the dark kingdom! I hope you all packed your torches." Rapunzel winked at the group. "....because it's...dark. That's where I was going with that."

"Rapunzel I've said this before and I'll say it again," Eugene put a hand on her shoulder. "You really need to step up your game with the jokes."

"Well I think they're wonderful. Hugo thinks so too, right Hugo?" Rapunzel looked over to the two of them, both leaned over the scroll pieces. "Hugo?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, totally." Hugo responded, taking notes in his notebook and showing them to Varian.

Rapunzel hummed and sat criss cross on top of one of the barrels. "Are you two ok? You seem...distracted. Well, more than usual."

"Maybe they don't want to...make...light...of the situation?" Eugene smiled.

Cassandra groaned. "Horrible job everybody."

"Pft, we're fine, really. It's just..." Hugo sighed and shut his notebook. "We're getting close to the Dark Kingdom, really close, and it'd be nice to have as much information on it and the moonstone as we can."

"I get that, but...you two have been at that for days now, don't you think you need a little break?"

"We'll take a break when we're done." Varian narrowed his eyes and took Hugo's notebook to compare notes with it.

Rapunzel sighed and took both their notebooks out of Varian's hands.

"Hey! What are you--"

"I'm pulling rank. You're both on mandatory leave until tomorrow. I hereby order you to have fun."

"I don't think that's how it works." Hugo deadpanned.

Rapunzel rolled her eyes and pulled them up, pushing them to the edge of their campsite. "I'm kicking you both out too. Take a break, look around the area, go collect samples or something, just stop worrying about everything all the time." She paused. "Oh! And try not to die."

Hugo looked at Varian, then looked back at her. "We'll do our best."

"What are you doing?" Varian asked, watching Hugo hop from rock to rock on a trail of black spikes.

"Following an offshoot of the black rocks. Who knows, maybe it's important. And either way," Hugo slumped against one of them. "I'm bored."

"It's been five minutes, how are you bored?"

"Because if my life isn't at risk things are going obnoxiously slow."

"Ok, so we're at risk of dying a lot, but that doesn't mean that quiet moments aren't at all interesting?" Varian kept walking forward, only to stop a slump against a rock himself. "You know what? Why don't you just pretend to stab me?"

"Yes! Finally someone with a fun idea!" Hugo took a knife from his pocket and pretended to stab him in the chest, missing by about an inch.

"Oh the betrayal!" Varian yelled dramatically, shaking his fist at the sky. "I trusted you, my beloved, and you took advantage of it!"

"That I did, you fell right into my trap!" Hugo laughed maniacally. "And now you shall perish for it!"

"Noooooo...." Varian pretended to die, letting his head fall to the side, then sighed. "Nope, still bored."

"Yep. Same."

A monkey chittered nearby, they both sat up and looked around.

"What the hell was that?"

The monkey chittered again, swinging down from a nearby tree and landing on Hugo's head. He jumped and swatted it off, only for it to jump onto Varian's shoulders.

"Now aren't you interesting?" Varian scratched the monkey's chin. "I don't believe monkeys are supposed to be from this area."

"Wh-- don't be nice to the random… thing that hops onto you like a deranged animal."

"Why not? I think he's cute." Varian laughed when the monkey bumped its head against his and hopped off his shoulders, sprinting along the path. Varian started to follow it.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Following a monkey! What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Yeah, ok, that makes total sense-- Hey! Wait for me!"

Hugo and Varian raced after the monkey, tripping and falling down a hill, sliding across the ground and bumping their heads onto a pillar.

Varian rubbed his head and looked up at the thing he hit. "The Path of...Demanitus?"

"Demanitus?" Hugo sat up and looked ahead of them, eyes going wide. "Hey Varian?"

"Hm?" Varian stood up and walked to the entrance the monkey stood in front of. Hugo stood up and walked next to him. "Wow...is that..."

"...a maze?"

"Ha, how's that for entertainment?" Varian laughed nervously, leaning down and patting the monkey's head. "Thanks, bud."

"We are not going through that. It's...it's huge."

"And it's from Demanitus, we have to check it out." Varian took his hands. "Rapunzel told us to have fun, and spend the whole day doing it. Don't you think this fits that?"

"I..." Hugo sighed. "I mean...it's so large, it'd be nice if Demanitus left a-- a map or a clue or--"

"You will need no map." A man's voice spoke behind him, they turned around and met eyes with...the monkey. "For I… am Lord Demanitus."

There was silence, for a moment, and then there was howling laughter.

"Holy shit!" Hugo cackled. "Ok, ok, discounting how little sense that makes, you reincarnated yourself as a monkey? That's-- of all things to pick you chose-- oh my god."

"Hugo!" Varian smacked him upside the head. "I'm sorry about him, he's...not the best when talking to new people."

"Excuse you, I'm a delight." Hugo kneeled down and poked him. "So, what's the secret here? Is this some one's idea of a joke? I'm betting it was Eugene. He's doing the voice, Lance is pulling the strings."

"This is no subterfuge I assure you." Demanitus swatted his hand away. "I am Demanitus, and I have arrived to help you through this maze, for at its center is an item that will interest you both, the fourth and final piece of the scroll."

"...what?" Hugo stood up.

"Now," The monkey hopped onto Varian's shoulders and pointed ahead of them. "It would do you well to listen to everything I am about to say. I only have a few hours to tell you what you need to know, by then this spell will wear off and I shall return to the beyond."

"Sounds fun," Hugo hopped down the steps. "Just one question, how do you know you're supposed to be helping us? For all you know we could be looting this place."

Varian glared at Hugo again, but didn't say anything. Demanitus grabbed the hairstripe on his head and tugged it. "Your friend is recognizable."

Hugo shrugged. "Fair enough. Lead the way, oh wise one."

Demanitus rolled his eyes and started to explain how he'd arrived in his current situation, pointing them in each direction they needed to go. The topic diverted a number of times, it seemed he was much more keen on talking about himself than the more...important information. Eventually the monkey hopped off and went ahead, leaving the two of them to talk.

"What's up with you?" Varian asked, talking quietly so Demanitus wouldn't overhear. "I thought you were as much of a fanboy as I was."

"Yeah yeah whatever, I don't trust him. Demanitus has been dead for what, a millennia? I don't know about you, but it seems a bit of a stretch for him to be here right now." Hugo narrowed his eyes and looked ahead. "Plus, you know the saying 'never meet your heroes'? If this guy really is Demanitus, he's annoying as hell."

"I wouldn't say he's annoying, just...self important?" Varian sighed. "Ok so the whole egotistical rambling is a little annoying but-- well it could be important?"

Hugo raised an eyebrow.

"Did I not say I only had a short amount of time to do this?" Demanitus jumped around the corner and glared up at them.

"We're comin, we're comin." Hugo said with a groan, pulling Varian along to follow him.

"I have to say, that is not encouraging." Hugo commented, glancing over to a skeleton laid across the ground.

"Hm...the door's locked." Varian stopped and looked around. "Oh! A riddle."

"Oh, so we don't have time to take a break from walking all around this maze but we do have time to solve riddles."

"What do you have against riddles?"

"Nothing, nothing, I just think they're kind of pointless here. Get any old thief with a few brain cells and they'd break in in no time." Hugo's eyes fell on a small mushroom beside a rock, a piece of metal sticking out the bottom. "Like so."

Hugo walked over and pulled the mushroom up, revealing a large lever for him to pull. The door slowly opened.

"Tada!" Hugo smiled and walked up to the door, bowing and motioning Varian to go through it, his smile grew wider as Varian rolled his eyes.

"You know, it might do you good to follow the rules." Demanitus sneered.

Hugo shrugged and followed Varian ahead. "Rules aren't really my thing."

Demanitus returned to rambling, his words slowly becoming white noise for them, something to tune out whilst they made their way through the maze. Eventually they found a fountain, a statue, and a riddle. Well, a list of instructions.

"So...we have to just...throw a coin in this fountain."

Varian took out a coin from his bag. "Looks like it."

"There is absolutely no way you can get me to do that."

"Hugo--" Varian sighed. "Do you know how many deathtraps we've gotten ourselves into going through a place like this? We don't know if this could trigger something, it's better just to be on the safe side."

"It's a cash grab. I'm not going to just waste money on something we don't know is even working."

"If you don't put in a coin you're sleeping at your desk tonight."

Hugo scoffed and tossed a coin in. "There, jerk."

Varian smiled and tossed his in as well, kissing Hugo and walking ahead. "Thank you!"

"Yeah, ok sure." Hugo looked back at Demanitus. "You gonna throw one in too or what?"

"Ah! Yes, I'll get right on that." Demanitus took a coin from his own bag and tossed it in the air. He caught it the second Hugo turned away. "This might help deal with his...arrogance."

The two had turned it into a competition of sorts, Hugo solving the puzzles by simply trying to blow up the locked door, or recognize the lever, while Varian tried solving the riddles. They were tied up, something Hugo was loathed to admit, though it helped that Varian was really good at riddles.

"Hugo! Look!" Varian ran over through a large door and pointed ahead. "We found the scroll piece!"

"Great! Now all we have to do is..." Hugo gulped, looking down at the pit of acid below them. "Go over that."

"Oh..." Varian laughed nervously, taking a step back and hiding behind Hugo. "Why is it always heights..."

"You have nothing to fear." Demanitus tapped the sign. "For the bridge will stay sound so long as you believe it will."

"So long as you--" Hugo groaned. "No, no way, not gonna happen. That's stupid."

"No, it is not stupid." Demanitus looked over to Varian. "You, you're the one who actually listens to what I have to say. Side with me."

"I-- I um..." Varian looked over to the pool of acid, the large drop, and went back to hiding behind Hugo, electing not to respond at all.

"Great."

"You know, there's an easier way to do this." Hugo walked over to the start of the bridge, Varian still latched onto him, and took out a crossbow. "If we can't get to it, we'll make it get to us."

"No, that's not how you're supposed to-- " Demanitus watched as Hugo shot the arrow, a rope attached to it, in the direction of the box, dragging it over once it hit. "...do it."

"No, it's not. And yet," Hugo took the key attached to the wooden sign and unlocked the box, pulling out the final scroll piece. "Here we are."

Varian smiled and took the piece, walking back into the previous room and putting them together with the others. "Hugo! Look at this!"

"Hm?" He joined up with Varian, shoving the monkey off when he tried to climb onto his shoulders.

The scroll pieces glowed a bright blue, blindingly bright. They shut their eyes, opening them again when the light faded. The scroll was all in one piece.

"Wow..." Hugo blinked. "Alright, I'll admit it. That was pretty cool."

"Yeah..." Varian smiled and rolled up the scroll, putting it in his bag and turning to the room's exit. "So, ready to head back--"

A loud boom sounded in front of them, metal hitting and punching the ground.

"What the hell was that?!" Hugo yelled, taking a step back.

The booms got louder, rocks crumbling from the ceiling and fell to the ground. The two looked around for the source of it and ran out of the room. They met eyes with a large robot.

"What..." Hugo took another step back. "Is that...the statue from the beginning?"

"That-- that makes no sense! We did that part right!" Varian started running from it, Hugo following close behind. "We-- we all put in the coins why would it--"

"That damned monkey!" Hugo grabbed Demanitus and held him up. "You did this, didn't you?!"

"There is no way around this one, you have to follow the rules."

"So you purposely set off a death trap because I pissed you off?!"

"Yes!"

"Hey!" Varian yelled, pulling them both out of the way of one of the robot’s attacks and into a side room. "Both of you stop arguing!"

"He gave us a literal death sentence! I think I'm allowed to be pissed right now!"

"Yes, let's focus on the death sentence please!" Varian slammed the door shut, ignoring how the robot banged against the stone door. "We can yell at him later, for now, we need him to tell us how to fix this!"

"Fine!" Hugo turned to Demanitus."What's the trick to beating this thing?"

"I..." Demanitus paused. "I don't remember."

"You-- you don't remember--" Hugo punched the wall next to him and yelled. "Of course you don't remember!"

"The spell is wearing off, so I'm sorry if my memory is a little finicky!" Demanitus groaned and turned to Varian. "I need to get this out quick, listen well."

Varian and Hugo looked at eachother, sighed, and let him speak.

"The moonstone and sundrop must unite. It's a difficult path that awaits you, if you could not find it in yourself to make it through these trials, you will not be able to face the ultimate challenge."

"So...he does have to take the moonstone."

"Yes."

"And..." Varian glanced down to the scroll in his bag. "What if I didn't?"

"The black rocks would continue to grow like a virus, overtaking everything in its path, no matter what, or who it is."

The robot banged again on the door, a large crack forming in the middle, meeting eyes with them. Hugo slowly moved to take Varian's hand, squeezing it and giving him a nervous smile.

"I...I have to apologize...to both of you." Demanitus sighed. "I thought I knew better than you, that any other way of doing things simply wouldn't work. I stubbornly insisted I was right, and now I've gotten you in a mess I can't get you out of."

Demanitus took both of their hands when they knelt down, staring at them both with a fiery intensity.

"Neither of our ways are going to get you out of this. There's no trick, there's no gimmick, there's no puzzle to solve. The sundrop and moonstone must reunite, you are not going to die today, neither of you are. I need you to trust that you'll make it through this."

"Demanitus I--" Varian started to say, stopping once the life flickered out of the monkey's eyes, its demeanor changed back to that of an ape. "Horrible timing. He has...horrible timing."

The door had crumbled away to almost nothing. They were trapped, cornered in a room with no way out, nothing there that could beat it.

"Shit! We're going to die here. We're going to get crushed to death by some stupid robot and no one's even going to know--"

"Varian!" Hugo took his hands. "Hey, we're going to get out of this."

"Just because he said we wouldn't die doesn't mean that it's true! I mean, you-- you said it yourself, we can't trust a thing he says!"

"I don't trust anything he says." Hugo pulled him closer. "But I do trust you, and you trust me. We'll get out of this."

"I...ok."

Varian shut his eyes and held him tight, when he opened them again, they glowed.

Spikes shot out all around them, the walls came crumbling down, the robot getting crushed by the room around it. The whole maze came crumbling down as well, leaving them in a large, empty pit once the rocks receded. Varian shut his eyes, and fell over.

"Varian!" Hugo quickly caught the boy and looked him over, smiling when he blinked open his eyes. "That...was awesome."

"Ha, I...I didn't know I could do that." Varian let out a breathy laugh. "I think I get why Rapunzel passes out anytime she does magic, it's exhausting."

"I bet." Hugo sighed and helped Varian up. "Come on, let's head back."

"Hey you two! You were out for a while," Rapunzel smiled. "Did you have fun?--"

Hugo dumped the completed scroll onto her head and fell onto the ground, Varian following shortly after. "Demanitus is...the worst."

Chapter Text

"We stopped." Varian commented, they'd been translating the scroll in silence for a while, he snorted at how Hugo jumped at the sudden noise. "We should be close to the Dark Kingdom now."

Hugo shut his notebook and sighed. "Varian, I think we should talk to Rapunzel about this."

"About what?"

"You going with her to take the moonstone. We've had two people tell you that you have to do this, but I don't really trust either of them and...well I'm not sure you should."

"Why not?" Varian shut his notebook as well. "It makes the most sense, and I'd rather not risk the possibility of Demanitus being right about what happens if I don't."

"I know, but--"

"We're here!" Rapunzel kicked open the door. "You guys have to see this."

Before they could get a word out, Rapunzel tugged them along to see ahead of the cliff they'd parked in front of. They looked out, their eyes falling on a large, black tower, surrounded by black rocks. Everything else was torn apart.

"Wow..." Varian frowned and took Hugo's hand. "This could be everywhere else." He muttered under his breath.

"What?" Rapunzel asked.

"N-- nothing. We should um...we should find a way to get the caravan through this--"

Just as he'd started to speak, black rocks went surging through the ground, one spike shot through the caravan, another shoved it over the cliff, letting it fall and crumble to debris.

"Does everyone in the universe want this caravan destroyed?!" Lance cried out, shaking his fists at the sky.

"Well!" Rapunzel put her hands on her hips and smiled. "I guess we'll just have to walk the rest of the way. No point in rebuilding the caravan just yet if we've only got half a day's worth of travel left."

"Great! Now we just have to find a way down that doesn't involve jumping down a cliff." Varian took a step toward the edge, only to jump back again.

Rapunzel sighed and wrapped her hair around him. "Here, I'll let you down the easy way."

Hugo laughed and watched Varian get carefully lowered down the cliff, his laughter only getting louder when Varian shouted insults in his direction. He followed the others down the cliff, jumping from rock to rock and untying Varian from Rapunzel's hair.

"You're such a baby." Hugo rolled his eyes and smiled, waiting for Rapunzel to join them.

"Personally, I think having a fear of heights is something completely normal and logical. One wrong move and boom, I'm dead."

"And yet you have an unhealthy obsession with setting things on fire..."

"Irrelevant."

"Ok, we've got a lot of ground to cover and we better do it fast!" Eugene started marching ahead, a comical movement that made everyone outside of Rapunzel roll their eyes.

They'd kept the energy as bright as they could manage, each member of the group laughing and joking around. Neither Hugo nor Varian could bring themselves to do more than give a passing smile. It was something the others noticed, something that only seemed to worsen the more they walked, the closer they got to the castle. A few hours into walking, enough distance so that they only had a small stretch left to go, Rapunzel declared that they were to take a break.

"Hey," She said quietly, sitting next to the two of them while the other three elected to sit separately. "You guys ok?"

"Oh, um, yeah we're fine!--"

"Actually Rapunzel," Hugo managed to get out, ignoring Varian's glare. "We need to talk to you."

"Ok! What's up?"

"I um..." Hugo sighed. "We've translated a good portion of the scroll so far, and spoken with the writer of the scroll."

"I still can't believe you said he was a monkey." Rapunzel snorted.

Varian laughed. "It was...pretty stupid."

"Well, what he said we had to do had a conflict of interest with what's written on the scroll." Hugo cut in, his tone not as light and joking as the other two.

"...what exactly did he say you had to do?"

"He wants me to take the moonstone, Rapunzel." Varian said. "Along with you."

"Which, considering what the scroll says, I don't think either of you should."

"We've been over this, Hugo. What's on the scroll about the sundrop and moonstone combining is purely hypothetical. We don't know for sure if we won't--"

"Won't what?" Rapunzel asked, her demeanor suddenly matching their's.

"There's a chance that reuniting the sundrop and moonstone would cause a catastrophic explosion." Hugo took Varian's hand. "It'd be a suicide mission."

"We don't know that." Varian spoke firmly. "And we do know that the rocks haven't stopped spreading yet. And that they react to both me and Rapunzel. Taking the moonstone makes the most sense."

Hugo groaned and dragged his hand down his face. "Rapunzel, what do you think?"

"We didn't come this far just to turn back now." Rapunzel took Hugo's hands. "I know you're worried, but we'll be fine, ok?"

Hugo shoved her hands away and stood up. "Fine, let's get this over with, then."

Rapunzel and Varian looked at eachother, both with worried looks on their faces, but followed, Rapunzel telling the others they were picking back up again.

After about another hour of walking they reached yet another cliffside. Lance joked about how high it was, how he was waiting for Varian to latch onto Hugo and refuse to take another step. Varian looked over at Hugo, saw the glare still present on his face, not really directed at him, but it felt like it was, and latched onto Lance instead.

"Look!" Rapunzel smiled and pointed up ahead of them. "There's a gondola we can use to cross!"

"A gondola that is...halfway across already." Eugene sighed.

"I'll get it." Hugo raised his hand.

Varian coughed. "Hypocrite."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The rope is barely keeping itself attached. There's a chance you could fall into an endless chasm and die."

"And you're saying you do or don't want me to go?"

"I'm saying it's not fair for something to be ok when it's you but not when it's--"

"Ugh!" Hugo threw his hands in the air. "Fine! If you're so against this, let's just find some other way across!"

"I um..." Rapunzel started to say. "There's...a good sized rock a little bit down the chasm. If I go to the edge of it I should be able to pull the gondola to us."

"Sounds like a plan." Hugo huffed and leaned against one of the black rocks, watching Rapunzel go over to pull the gondola. He didn't notice the way everyone looked at him, nor did Varian.

The group stayed quiet waiting for Rapunzel to finish pulling the gondola over. They stayed quiet getting into it too, and halfway through going across the chasm.

"Oi," Cassandra walked over to where Hugo stood. "You two having some sort of lovers squabble?"

"We're fine." Hugo said with a glare, one that softened when Varian jumped and held tight onto Lance's arm when a piece of the gondola broke off.

"...sure." She sighed. "Look, kid, whatever it is...try not to let it get to you? I don't know how many arguments between me and Raps led to us almost never speaking to each other again, but we always managed to pull through."

"This isn't some fight about who's being heard or whatever it is you two argue about all the time."

"Then what is it about? Talk to me, Hugo. It helps to talk about it."

"It's fine, he just...he's stubbornly insisting that he should do something that could seriously hurt him, just because he thinks it will help everyone else in the end." He huffed. "He does this all the time, stupid self sacrificial bullshit and I'm sick of it."

Cassandra put a hand on his shoulder. "Rapunzel's the same way. If anyone gets it, it's me."

"...how do you deal with it?"

"Well," She sighed. "I'm just as stubborn about it as she is. Sometimes she'll listen to me, sometimes I'll listen to her. We go through with whatever plan ends up winning, then we talk it out after. It's...probably not the best way to go, but it works for us."

Hugo snorted.

"Point is, try not to stay mad at him for too long? You've only been arguing for a few hours and I think he's already about to lose it."

Hugo looked over to Varian again. They caught eyes, apparently he'd been looking at him during the conversation, only for Varian to quickly look away. "...yeah, ok."

After a while, the gondola finally reached the other side of the chasm. They stepped out, all more than glad to be off the thing, only to look up and see two familiar faces.

"Took you long enough." Adira smiled.

Hector rolled his eyes. "I'm surprised they didn't break the gondola, there's so many of them."

The group stepped back, taking on defensive positions. They didn't know if they were against them, they hadn't exactly left off on good terms.

"We're not going to attack." Adira assured them. "We're here for a means to an end. Whatever personal issues we’ve had up until this point isn't as important as the end goal."

"I..." Rapunzel sighed. "Adira, Hector, I'm sorry for assuming you were going to attack us, and for what happened as a result. I should have listened, but I stubbornly insisted on taking you down. I'm...glad you're doing better now."

"Not the first time I've fallen off a cliff." He shrugged.

Adira smiled and motioned for them to follow her. "This place is lined with deadly traps, even in death the king and queen wanted to make sure no one would make it through here."

"Ah, yet another place with traps. Just our luck, huh?" Rapunzel joked, nudging Hugo and smiling. Her smile fell when he showed no reaction to it.

"This place is pretty worn down, huh?" Lance whistled, looking around at the torn down houses and ruins. "Must've been some attack you guys had."

"It wasn't an attack." Hector muttered. "The moonstone did this. It kept spreading around our kingdom till there was nothing left."

Varian frowned and looked over to Hugo. They caught eyes for a moment, only for Hugo to look away. Adira stopped in front of some stairs and put an arm in front of the group, slowly stepping onto the first row.

"Watch out!" She yelled, spikes came surging up through the floor, shaking with all their might, only for them to crumble into dust. "Ok, ok I oversold the traps...in my defense, they weren't exactly built to last--"

"Woah!" Rapunzel's hair started to glow a bright yellow, floating up above her head, she looked over to Varian, his hair glowing and floating as well, he looked like he was about to have a panic attack. The hair dimmed, and fell back to the way it was.

"What was that?" Cassandra and Eugene spoke in unison, glaring at each other for the matching question.

"The moonstone," Adira answered. "It must know you're close."

"Great..." Varian groaned. "Now we're just going to turn into walking glowsticks every couple of minutes."

Hector patted his back and followed Adira toward the castle. The traps broke down each time they set one off, Adira or Hector panicking on instinct only for the trap to break down each time. Lance and Eugene started placing bets on it for how long they would last before crumbling away, Cassandra, while insisting she wasn't participating, always won.

"Alright, we're at the entrance." Adira huffed and started pulling open the door, both her and Hector turning the wheel to open it. "Come on, the moonstone's chamber is a long way down, at the bottom of the castle."

"So..." Varian walked to the front of the group. "This is the place I came from? Was it always like this?"

"No." Hector ran his hand along the walls, looking up at stained glass portraits of former leaders. "It used to be a thriving kingdom. Though I suppose forming a settlement around something that dangerous wasn't the best idea."

Varian stepped closer to him, looking up and waiting for him to continue.

Hector sighed. "The kingdom was formed around the opal, originally our people worshipped it, it was like a god. The king and his knights, each generation of them, were sworn to protect the moonstone, as well as protect the people from its wrath."

"That's the brotherhood?"

"Yes. Things started to go...sour...during our king's reign. He wasn't exactly the most sane person on the planet, he thought it best to destroy the moonstone all together. It..did not take the attempt well, the responding blast killed him instantly, and killed his wife not soon after."

"Your father protected us from that blast." Adira interjected. "We would have been dead too, along with everyone else in the moonstone's chamber on that day. He prevented it."

Varian smiled and tugged at the hairstripe on his head, groaning when it started to glow again. "Great..."

Rocks started shooting up all around them, Varian caught a glimpse of Rapunzel, her own hair glowing as well. The ground beneath them shook and broke, leaving a gaping whole in the room, taking them to the floor below. The glow faded, they finally let themselves relax.

"I guess the moonstone is getting impatient." Eugene joked, though he didn't expect it to do much of anything to lighten the mood.

The group hopped down to one of the lower floors, there was a staircase nearby for them to walk down, though that isn't what they paid attention to. Instead their eyes fell on the room itself.

"This...they had a son." Adira whispered. "We never got to see him, we don't know what happened to him."

Cassandra looked around, her eyes falling onto a small note next to a crib, she gasped. "Eugene...I think you'll want to read this."

My son,

I don't know if this will ever reach you, if the maids will remember to leave this note with you, or if you'll ever come back to this place. Part of me hopes you'll never return. I don't want you to see what has become of your home. Your father is no longer with us. In his attempts to rid our country of this....thing...he's doomed us all. I doubt I have much time left either. I wish more for you than this. I hope that when you look back on this place, what has become of us, you'll be glad that I sent you away. I hope you ended up better because of it. I hope I did the right thing. I'll miss you, I hope you'll miss me too.

To my darling prince, Eugene Herbert,

Your mother

Chapter Text

"That's..." Eugene looked around, his eyes falling onto the portrait in the room. The baby...his eyes, his hair, his nose. When he looked at the parents..they looked like him. "What?"

"Oh, I see," Varian puts a hand on Eugene's shoulder, looking up at the portrait as well. "I get daddy issues and you get a castle."

"I..." Eugene leaned against a nearby table. "I think I need a minute."

"Are you ok Eugene?" Rapunzel asked.

"Oh, you know, one minute I'm sitting here, no clue who my family is, next thing you know I'm a prince. So yeah! I'm doing great!"

"I mean...at least you're not alone?" Varian took Eugene's hand. "It's not exactly the same as finding out you're royalty but...I get it."

"Ha," Eugene ruffled Varian's hair. "Thanks kid."

"Does that make you two like...cousins or something?" Lance joked.

"Wait-- would it?" Varian looked over to Adira, she shrugged. "I vote it does."

"Hell yeah!" Eugene high fived him. "Cousins!"

Hugo watched as the two laughed and joked around, doing some god awful combination of a secret handshake and celebratory dance, the embarrassment of it all at the very least taking Eugene’s mind off it all. A small smile formed on the boy’s face, one that he quickly shook off. No, he was still pissed at him, even… even if he was being kind of adorable right now.

A rock shot up and ripped his sleeve.

"I think uh-- I think the moonstone wants us to keep going." Hugo laughed nervously.

"Rude." Varian muttered under his breath, releasing Eugene from a tight hug and flicking the rock.

The group continued walking down the steps, most of them talking with Eugene about their new discovery, Adira and Hector teasing him endlessly over it. The tone got serious again fast once they reached the bottom.

"This should be it." Adira sighed. "The room ahead of us is the moonstone's chamber. Just a little further--"

Just as Rapunzel and Varian started walking toward the door, the room started to shake. Statues, one for each monarch, all around the walls of the room glowed, their eyes a sickly bright blue. Forms stepped out from them, each donning a weapon and preparing to attack.

Lance let out a perfectly normal and manly scream, dodging out of the way of fully formed ghosts and sprinting behind the nearest person. “What the fuck what the fuck what the--ghosts!"

Lance looked around, he watched Hector slash through one of the ghosts, its statues' eyes glowed, then it went out to attack again. His eyes fell on Adira's sword, he smiled.

"Mind if I borrow this?" He asked, taking the sword from her and running up to one of the statues. He leaped up as high as he could and slashed the sword down through the statue. The ghost poofed away, and this time it didn't come back.

"Lance, I'm only going to say this once but," Eugene let out a breathy laugh. "You're a genius!"

"Took you long enough to realize that!" Lance laughed and tossed the sword to him, watching as Eugene slashed it across one of the statue's legs.

"Oi! Ice Queen! You're up!" Eugene threw the sword to her, she kicked it upward and slammed it down onto the statue.

"Raps!" Cassandra threw it over to Rapunzel, her hair wrapped around it and threw it up to another one of the statues, Adira jumped up and dragged the sword down the statue's chest.

"Would everyone stop tossing my sword around?!" She yelled, only for Hector to swipe it and slash it across one of the statue's heads. "Hey!"

"Kid! You're up!" Hector tossed the sword over to Varian, he fumbled to catch it, but managed to get a solid grip on it and lodged it into the last statues' chest. Hugo jumped up and finished the job, digging it further in and tugging the sword out, it crumbled to the ground the second Hugo jumped back down.

"Wow that was--" Varian turned over, about to pull Hugo into a kiss, but he stopped himself, instead smiling awkwardly and looking off to the side. "That was um-- pretty cool."

The group took a moment to catch their breath, almost forgetting about their mission altogether, though they were soon reminded of it by the moonstone’s soft glow, shining through the crack of the door.

"Alright," Rapunzel smiled and took Varian's hand, opening the door in question and starting to walk inside. "That was..certainly interesting, but we made it! Now we just have to--"

"Wait." Hugo jumped in front of them, blocking them from going any further. "You shouldn't do this."

Varian rolled his eyes, anger returning despite his efforts to shove it down. "Hugo, please, we've been over this almost a hundred times now! We have to do this--"

"I'm not going to let you risk your life over some stupid rock!"

Eugene took a step forward, Cassandra did as well. "What do you mean...risk his life?"

"We've been translating the scroll. If the sundrop and moonstone reunite, it's going to kill them."

"You don't know that!" Varian yelled, ignoring the way his hair started to glow again. "We can't risk dooming the entire fucking planet because you're scared it might hurt me!"

"What? You think it's selfish of me to be against you dying?"

"I'm not saying you're being selfish I just--"

"Wait--" Eugene took Rapunzel's hand. "If...if this could kill her, both of you, I...I don't think you should do it."

"Finally! Someone who sees sense!" Hugo groaned. "I don't care what this stupid rock, or that stupid girl, or that stupid monkey wants you to do! I don't want you to die!"

"You've all been risking your lives this entire trip." Adira spoke firmly. "This is just one of many risks, and it will save thousands of people if we do."

"Enough people have died already." Hector stepped closer to him. "Do you really want to doom everyone else?"

"I seriously doubt he'd want to doom everyone to die." Cassandra stepped in front of him. "They shouldn't go, not yet. We need to find another way to do this."

Rapunzel let go of Varian's hand and turned to her. "It's not your decision to make! It's not any of your's! We've already decided we're going to do this!"

"So you didn't tell us about this?" Cassandra shoved her shoulder. "You were just going to walk on in there knowing you might die and leave us all in the dark?!"

"I-- I didn't think it was--"

"Blondie, you should have said something." Eugene didn't look angry, not the same way Cassandra was, he looked disappointed. "None of us would have come here if we knew."

"That's exactly why I couldn't tell you!" She groaned. "Look, I know you want to protect us both, and I appreciate that, really, I do, but we can't afford to worry about the possibilities right now! Corona is that much closer to being destroyed each second we waste time like this! The rocks were already at the capital, who knows how bad they are now!"

"You both have some level of control over the rocks!" Hugo yelled. "We'll-- we'll figure something else out! But we're not going to--"

"Guys!" Lance said finally, making them all go quiet. "Where's Varian?"

"Varian?" Hugo turned around, his eyes going wide when he saw Varian run over to where the moonstone was. "Varian!"

Sprinting, echoing steps bounced back to the group, a thunderous noise despite how light they were. Hugo barely took a step before Varian managed to take it, one swift swipe and the responding blast sent them all flying back several feet. Lightning shot out from it, the same loud thunderous echoes bouncing off the walls and pounding pounding in their heads, the lightning itself shooting out wherever it could.

Varian stood at the center of the wreckage, the moonstone melting into a soft glowing goop and forcing itself onto the surface of his skin, burning itself into his veins, invading up to his elbows. It felt like fire, cold as ice yet burning at the same time, the rocks that forced their way out from the inside making the burning sensation almost searing in nature.

The moment the light dimmed, the moment the blast faded, the moment Varian’s screams of agony turned to quiet, hiccuped sobs, he sprinted over, falling to his knees and sliding across the floor to gently take his hands. Varian winced, though he didn’t pull away.

"What did you-- why did you do that?!"

"I--" Varian hissed. "I don't know I just-- I'm sorry."

"That could have killed you."

"It didn't."

Hugo looked down at his hands, shaking, the blood pouring down a mix of red and blue. "This isn't much better."

"Varian!" Rapunzel was the second person to run over to him, she gasped when looking at his hands. "Oh, Varian I'm-- that doesn't look good."

"I'm--" He balled his hands into shaking fists, ignoring the hot tears that fell down his face. "I'm fine."

"Kid, we need to fix that up." Eugene knelt down and looked him over. "Does anyone still have medical supplies? There was some in the caravan but--"

"I have some!" Lance ran over and handed his bag over to Eugene. "I've started keeping a whole kit in my bag, you idiots always seem to get yourselves hurt."

"I'm sorry."

Eugene sighed and took a cloth out from the bag, cleaning the blood from his hands "Don't apologize, I know you thought you were doing the right thing."

"I just-- I just thought that--" Varian squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth when the cloth made contact. "I never-- I didn’t get to make up for what I’ve done to you. I thought--"
,
"Varian..." Rapunzel knelt down in front of him, Hugo moving so that he was holding Varian up from behind. "You didn't have to do that. We've already forgiven you."

"I-- I know I just...I..."

"That should be good." Eugene said quietly, once his arms had been bandaged up. "Let's head back to the caravan. Well, what's left of it. We'll fix it up again and head back. Hopefully this'll be the last time that happens."

"Here," Hugo helped him stand up and followed the group out of the moonstone's chamber. "I'll help you."

Varian opened his mouth to say something, to thank him, to apologize, he couldn't manage to get anything out, instead he leaned his head against Hugo's shoulder, and let him help.

Hugo sat Varian down and leaned him up against a tree, sitting down next to him and holding his hands in his own, watching as the rest of the group started rebuilding the wreckage. Adira and Hector both walked up to them at one point. They came to say goodbye, as well as apologize.

Hugo seemed more visibly angry than Varian, they'd expected that. The two said their goodbyes, promising to visit often and help them on their journey back. They'd sworn themselves to the moonstone, that wasn't going to change now that it had a human vessel.

"Hugo, I'm sorry." Varian said finally, voice so quiet he could barely hear it. "I should have listened to you."

"Yeah, you should've." Hugo huffed, he noticed the way Varian winced at it. "Look I...don't beat yourself up about it. We'll figure it out."

"But-- but you told me I shouldn't take the moonstone, and I did and now-- I don't even know if this did anything!"

"It's ok." Hugo brushed Varian's hair back and kissed his forehead. "I mean, you could have died, and this is… it's not good, but… this-- this is just...it's a new kind of science for us to research. It could be fun."

"I--" Varian snorted. "You just want me to be your test subject, don't you?"

"Maybe," Hugo glanced to the side. "Just a smidge."

Varian rolled his eyes and kissed him. "Dork."

"Yeah but you love me."

"Yeah, I do."