A New Mistake

Can't Hide That

Rapunzel sat on the uppermost steps of the courtyard, staring endlessly at the mountains.
"Hey sunshine, what's up? You've been out here for a while, and haven't really moved much." Eugene came bearing cupcakes, which Rapunzel gladly took one of, but only held it in her lap.
"I'm worried about Varian." She said absentmindedly.
"Oh. Why?"
"I haven't seen him in town, or in the castle, or even just, outside his lab, for a month now."
"A month?!"
"Yeah, Cass left just over a month ago, and I haven't seen him since that day I went to visit after she left. He seemed, mm, not himself, when I went to see him that day too." Her head hung down a bit.
"Blondie, I'm sure it has something to do with Cass leaving. Maybe he doesn't want to leave his lab because he knows he won't see Cass? I mean, even when we were fighting her, we still saw her, you know? And who knows where she is right now!" He opened his arms wide to the world.
"I know. She sends me letters." She turned to Eugene.
"She does what now?"
"Yeah, you know that wall in my room, with all the letters on it? She said I used to draw my adventures, and that she writes her instead."
"I never noticed any wall sunshine." He raised an eyebrow in a nonchalant way, and paired it with a shoulder shrug.
"Hm, it's okay." Her gazed shifted back towards the mountains. "I'm still worried about him. I know he tends to stay hold up in his lab until he finishes an experiment, but this is excessive."
"Well, why don't we go visit him? I'm sure he'll be glad to have us." Eugene put a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder. She leant into it, and closed her eyes.
"I don't know, I don't think he wants me to visit him. I think he's trying to keep something from me. And I figured that he would come up to see us in his own time."
"Rapunzel, I'm gonna lay this out for you: Varian can't lie. He can avoid the truth, no problem, but lying is not a strong suit. He's too nervous all the time to get away with it."
She giggled. "I guess you're right. Besides, he did say he was working on a solution to get rid of the amber in his lab, so we should see how that's going!" She stood up and pulled Eugene with her.
"Yeah that's right. Actually come to think of it, we should probably check on the kid more often. I know he's a genius and what not, and it's not like I don't trust him, but, yeah I don't trust him."

"VARIAN!"
"Oh shoot." Varian grabbed his arms, still hidden under his new gloves, but the edge of the black armour had started to creep up higher. "Uhh, Rudigger what should I do?"
The raccoon just stood there with a blank expression.
"Ah, you're no help!"
Rudigger chattered angrily.
"Oh, you know what I mean!" He threw his hands down by his side.
"Varian?"
"Aha, Princess, and Eugene, heyyyy, how's it going?" He was wringing his fingers around each other.
"Um, well we came for check on you."
"Check on me? Why would you need to check on me?"
"Varian, you, you haven't left this lab in a month." Her face had concern written all over it.
"Aha, well y- you know me! Never like to leave in the- the - the middle of an experiment! Aha..."
"Yeah I get that, but this is excessive, don't you think?"
"Have you been eating? Eugene butt in.
"Yeah don't, don't worry, Rudigger gets me food. And seriously I'm fine, don't worry about me." He waved it off with his hands.
The royal couple shared a look. "Uh, okay. You said you were working on a solution for the amber?"
"Oh that! Yeah I- I- I finally got it finished, took longer that I expected it to."
"How can melting amber take longer than you expected?" Eugene was unconvinced.
"Ah, well, even without the- the umm, the rocks, amber is still very, very strong. So I devised a formula that can melt it down, but not destroy it, so you can, you can use it for other things like jewellery or glass windows or whatever!" He smiled.
"Varian that is so smart wow!" Rapunzel's comment made him blush a bit.
"I'll get it now, hold on." He turned towards his mess of a desk, slamming a book shut hastily.

Hey Kid." Eugene shuffled over to Varian. "Look you know I trust you, but I'm, well Rapunzel thinks your hiding something from her." He purses his lips inwards as his finished his statement.
"Haha, what? Wh- why you I have to hide something from Rapunzel? She- she's the queen, and anyways, we both know that I can't lie Eugene. Trust me, there's nothing to hide, what would I hide? Alchemy? That's, that's kinda all I got really."
"Uh huh. Okay, sure."
"FOUND IT!"

The group moved over to the amber spike, and waited.
"Varian?"
"Huh?"
"You gonna, do it?"
"Oh uh, yeah. Just the amber brings up bad memories for me, like the black rocks-" he held his own wrist tighter. "-the amber encasing my father, the fact that I couldn't do anything about it, and- everything else that happened because of it." He turned away from Rapunzel.
"There was nothing you could do about them, they were magic." She tried to reassure him.
"I don't like magic. It's chaotic and unruly and awkward, and science is logical, it's easier."
"What about Clementine?" Eugene had that voice he used when he teased people.
"CLEMENTINE WAS A-" He paused, he could feel the armour climbing up his arms, it happened whenever he got mad. "She was...unique. Yeah. Anyways."
He poured the solution onto the amber, and the trio watched as it melted away.
"I've barrels and pipes at the bottom to catch it all." He noted.

A large cracking sound shattered out from the ceiling above them, as rubble started to fall.
"Uhh, Varian?!"
"Oh, that, that is an unforeseen consequence that I should have seen coming."

"WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Eugene had already steered Rapunzel's body towards the exit.
"You guys go, I'll be fine!" A large rock crashed beside him, like it wanted to prove him wrong.
"KID I HAVE NO DOUBT IN YOUR CAPABILITIES BUT THIS IS A WHOLE MOUNTAIN!"
"But my research, my lab, my- Where's Rudigger? RUDIGGER?!"
"VARIAN IM SURE HE'S HIDING SOMEWHERE SAFE, WE NEED TO GO!"
"No I need to find him!" Varian frantically looked around, it was hard to focus when so much was happening at once.
"VARIAN!"
"NO! I NEED TO MAKE SURE HE'S SAFE! WHEN EVERYONE ELSE ABANDONED ME AT LEAST I STILL HAD HIM!"
The couple had frozen.
"What?"
"Varian... what's happening to your arm?" Rapunzel pointed a shaky finger at him, and he looked down. The black was climbing again.
"Nonononono not again, not again." He grabbed his elbow, and shook off as much panic as he could. "It's nothing okay, just go, I'll find Rudigger and meet you outside!"
A chittering behind him grabbed his attention. His raccoon was trapped, his tail caught under some pre rubble.
"RUDIGGER!"
"VARIAN NO, THE CEILING IS ABOUT TO FALL IN!"
"IM NOT LEAVING HIM!"
He watched in horror as another large boulder fell, ready to strike where Rudigger sat.
"NOO!" He reached out an arm, desperate to maybe do something to save his friend. But something thunked him in the head, and it all went black.