𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕥 {𝕍𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕟 𝕩 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣}

-Chapter Seven- Gone, Gone, Gone

/if you need help, if you need help/ your hope dangling by a string/ i'll share in your suffering/ to make you well/

-gone, gone, gone, phillip phillips

"You're gonna need an assistant."

Varian laughed, with a mix of disbelief and excitement, but his expression quickly went panicked as he began to be lifted off of the ground by the vortex. "Whoaaa! Y/n! Help!"

Y/n reached up and grabbed his ankle, straining to keep herself on the ground. Varian looked up at the machine, but Y/n could see that he wasn't close enough to reach the brake.

"I can't get close enough!" he shouted over the howling wind. "The vortex has gotten too strong! We need an equally powerful wind source to counteract it!"

Y/n suddenly remembered Rapunzel's invention from earlier, and turned to her sister, who was standing next to Eugene. "Rapunzel! What was that thing you made?"

Rapunzel smiled. "The Mega Dry!" she cried, and Y/n winced at her choice of name. "The Mega Dry can make that kind of wind speed and blow against the vortex!"

"Yes!" exclaimed Eugene as a group of people joined them, pulling Rapunzel's dryer over to the vortex.

"He needs to create a counterpole to the vortex's critical velocity!" cried Varian, who Y/n was still struggling to hold on to.

"What?" asked Rapunzel, confused. Y/n rolled her eyes. "Max has to run backwards!" she shouted over the vortex.

Max began running backwards, generating a speed of wind pulling away from the machine. "It's working!" said Varian, straining to reach the machine, and Y/n held onto him as tightly as she could. "Hold on, Y/n!" he shouted as his hand found the lever. With a grunt, Varian's hand gripped the lever and pulled, instantly stopping the vortex.

The machine fell to the stage, landing on its feet. Varian fell straight down, and Y/n caught him in her arms. Varian was blushing slightly, looking up at Y/n, before the two of them grinned at each other and she set him back down on his feet. In that moment, Y/n thought that she'd always be willing to catch him when he fell, if his smile made her feel like this.

"We did it!" exclaimed Rapunzel as the group cheered. She shot a sly smile at Y/n and Varian before turning to Eugene, who took her hand in hers. "Blondie, hands down, your best invention yet."

Y/n averted her eyes as Eugene leaned down to kiss Rapunzel's hand. As she looked at- well, anything else, she noticed the first-prize ribbon from earlier lying in the dust.

Y/n walked over to it, picking the ribbon up off of the ground and brushing the dirt off of it. She looked at Cassandra, who had been noticeably absent throughout this endeavor and was now looking regretfully at St. Croix, who was being carried away on a stretcher. His eyes locked on Y/n, and he tried to sit up furiously. "You!" he let out a pained noise, leaning back down. "Neck... hurts." Cassandra looked down dejectedly as the woman from earlier rushed after the stretcher, shouting. "Master St. Croix, this still counts as a win, right? No take back-sies?"

With a tremendous eye roll, Y/n walked over to Varian, who was holding something in his hands. She cleared her throat to announce her presence, and Varian turned to her with a faint blush on his face. Why is he still acting strange? He just wanted to impress you so that you could be friends, and you've cleared the air. Y/n brushed this off, and leaned forwards, pinning the ribbon to Varian's chest. He froze up, looking down at her hands as she fastened the ribbon to one of the straps of his apron. "I believe this was meant for you." she said softly, taking a step back once the ribbon was in place.