A New Mistake

Connection

He sat near the cliff, just under the cherry tree, waiting. Deep down, he knew she wasn't coming back, and yet that tiny seed of hope refused to die, despite that it had been a month since he saw her last.
But he waited nonetheless. Just staring out, past the cliff, past the horizon, past the stars, he gazed so far out at nothing that he somehow did a loop, and ended up in his own head.
A month. It felt longer and shorter than it seemed. It had been roughly two months since he had left. Nothing had changed, or rather, nothing had gotten better. It somehow got worse.

He thought that the worst thing about living in the wild would be running out of food, or water, or running into someone. But no. The worst part was being alone.
He thought he liked being alone, but this alone was different. Before when he was alone, he still had people he could go see, whenever he decided he wanted to, or whenever they came to see him. Even when he was in jail, he still had the Queen. That kind of alone was warm, and comforting, and gentle.
But out here, where the rain soaked him to the skin despite his armour, where the wind cut him to the bone, where the trees provided no shade when sun glared down maliciously each day, where Rudigger would run off for hours at a time, leaving him truly alone, it was cold, and bleak, and broken, and depressing. He had no one to turn to, no one to be held by, no one to comfort him. It hurt more than anything he'd felt before.
But he had felt it before, a time that seemed such a long time ago, where he had almost forgotten he'd felt it at all. When his father got trapped, when he didn't sleep for days, when he was planning gruesome revenge. He had felt just as alone then.
At least back then he had something to drive towards. Freeing his father, freeing his father, freeing his father. But out here, he had nothing to do, no one to help, nothing but his thoughts.

How he hated his thoughts, the way they mocked him, laughed at him, tried to break him. He had refused, but could never stop them anyways.
"VARIAN!"
The sound of his father's scream for help echoed constantly. They replayed it, that horrible, heart snapping memory, the one that had haunted him each night since the first time he had it.
But it had changed, ever so slightly. Instead of Rapunzel, it was the Queen trapped in her place, in chains of blue and grey. And as they all sunk to their dooms, Rapunzel stood separate, laughing at his weak attempts of trying to help them.

He didn't even notice how his eyes were streaming down his cheeks. Didn't even notice how his hair glowed brighter than it had before, didn't even notice the moonstone twitch with power. He was too busy being buried alive in his own mind.

***

Out of nowhere, the rocks began to glow. The guard outside his post peeled in the door, slightly worried at this new development. His worry wasn't exaggerated enough.
A path of rocks suddenly sprang through the castle, branching off into two streams. One raced down the corridor, sending maids shrieking to the sides of the walls as it coursed by. It made its destination, and grew a cage, snapping shut around the Queen as she was moving to leave the throne room.
"ARIANA!" Fredrick shouted out, lunging to her. But his fists of terror for her couldn't break those bars.

***

He was sinking deeper and deeper into his own head again, some day there would be no way out. He grabbed at his own ears, shaking the tears off his face as he begged and begged himself to be left alone.
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" He screamed into the night.
And they did. Because someone else had shown up.

"Varian?"
He drew a sharp and sudden panicked breath in, jumping out of his own thoughts. That was Rapunzel. He looked hastily around him, but saw no one.
"Varian is that you?"
Her again.
"Rapunzel?" He questioned, nervous.
"Oh my god, it's you. How are you doing this?"
"Me? How are you talking to me?"
"What? I'm not talking about, well talking to you, I'm talking about how you trapped my mother!"
"What?! Is she okay?!"
"Yeah, she's fine, but some of your rocks formed like a cage around her..."
"No. No. Nononono no! Is anyone else trapped?"
"I don't know, let me check."
Silence filled his head, an empty kind that let him know she wasn't there anymore.
"Varian, are you still there?" Her coming back scared him again, and he jumped again slightly.
"Yeah."
"Eugene and Cass are trapped too."
"Shit!"
"Language!"
"Sorry, sorry, sorry. Just, argh, let me think... Wait can you hear my thoughts?" He said her name over and over in his head again.
"Are you thinking right now?"
"Yeah."
"Then no."
"Okay, give me a second."
Deep breathes, in and out. Just like Eugene said. He slowly forced himself to calm down, reassuring over and over that they were fine, they were safe. They're fine, they're safe.
"Varian? What ever you just did worked."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah- OOF, Eugene! You're okay?"
He didn't here his response, but assumed it was something smart, because he did hear her giggle.
There was silence on her end for a second, but he could tell she was still there. His head didn't feel as empty when she was there.
"Varian-" But he recognised that tone of voice, she was going to be soft and ask him something along the lines of 'are you okay?'
"No." He spoke coldly out loud, then her connection was cut off. He shivered at the emptiness that filled his mind, only for it to be filled with his own thoughts again.
He lifted his head to gaze at where the castle stood, high and mighty against the night.
He sighed, rolled his eyes, and knew he was going to regret this.

***

"Okay, I'm going to ask it, because I'm not entirely sure what just happened; Blondie, can you talk to Varian through the rocks?"
"Yeah. Cass remember I did it with you once? When you made those red ones?"
"Oh yeah!" The solider snapped her fingers. "That was really weird, it was like I could hear you in my head."

A large black rock sprouted up, only one, in the middle of the room. After a hesitant glance to her friends, she placed a hand on it.
"Varian?"
"Rapunzel, I have a question. And a statement now as well, actually."
"Go on."
"I'm assuming this rock is in the throne room right now?"
"Yes."
"Okay. If I ever need to talk to you, or talk to anyone through you, I'll make this rock in the throne room. Got it?"
"...Okay."
"Now for my question: what colour were the rocks?"
"What?"
"Don't play dumb with my Princess, what colour were the rocks?"
"Uh, blue, grey, purple and green?"
"Okay, thank you."
"Varian, wait!-"
"Goodbye."

The rock disappeared into the ground again.
"What was that about?"
"He wanted to know what colour the rocks were."
"Ah yes, that means something to him."
"And if he ever wanted to talk to us, he'd form a crystal like that here again."
"Oo, fancy." Cass came back through the door, she had gone to do a quick round, make sure everyone was safe while Rapunzel talked to Varian.

***

He wasn't even safe from his own thoughts. He was just worried for them, and suddenly they're trapped in cages?
That wasn't good.