/i will follow you way down, wherever you may go/ i'll follow you way down to your deepest low/ i'll always be around/ wherever life takes you/
-follow you, imagine dragons
Rapunzel had fallen for it- hook, line and sinker. In her "grief", she had agreed to sneak the two into the royal vaults.
However, she didn't seem to realize just how fast she was- For the love of alchemy, slow down!
Rapunzel had taken Varian and Y/n's hands and was pulling them behind her as she sprinted through the palace and the teens scrambled to keep up.
She pulled them over to a door as they ran past guards and pressed her back to it, Y/n and Varian quickly following suit.
"Princess, what are we doing here?" asked Varian nervously. "The flower would most likely be in the royal vault, and that is on the other side-"
"Other side of the castle." Rapunzel finished. "I know. But, if we want to get past the vault security, our best bet is to use the underground tunnels, and Herz de Sonne's journal has a complete map of them."
Y/n's eyes sparkled with interest. The underground tunnels were the only secret passageways she knew of that she didn't have access to- and here her sister was, practically showing her to the door.
Rapunzel pushed the door open with a creak, revealing a dark room with a podium on one end that held the journal.
The three walked inside, and the staff Y/n held bathed the room in an ethereal glow as Rapunzel walked to the podium, Y/n and Varian waiting in the doorway.
Her sister sighed regretfully, but took the journal, turning back to Varian and Y/n.
Rapunzel looked up at a large portrait of their father that hung on the wall, looking regretful and ashamed.
Y/n had a very different reaction. Since Rapunzel's return, Y/n's feelings towards her father had gone very negative, very quickly. And, although her parents hadn't been directly involved with the amber- if Y/n was going to let out some of her anger, she was going to let out all of it.
Rapunzel sighed. "What am I doing?" she murmured as Varian and Y/n moved from the doorway.
"Rapunzel, you got what we came for." said Varian, walking over to her. "Come on, let's go!" He gestured with his hands waving her over, and Rapunzel looked down with remorse.
"Taking the journal, stealing the flower..." Rapunzel hesitated again. "Varian, Y/n, these are all acts of treason."
"This may be my dad's only hope!" exclaimed Varian fearfully. Y/n stepped up next to him, lowering the staff in front of her.
Y/n knew exactly what she needed to say to convince her sister- the thing she'd always be weak to. "This may be Corona's only hope." she said, building off of Varian's statement. "Rapunzel, Corona needs our help."
With a sigh, Rapunzel returned Y/n's gaze. "For Corona."
Leave it to Rapunzel to care more about a kingdom than a person.
Rapunzel gave one more dejected look to the portrait. "Come on."
And with that, she hurried from the room, Y/n and Varian rushing to keep up.
They had barely gotten a few feet, however, when Eugene suddenly emerged from behind a corner. Rapunzel skidded to a stop, and Varian crashed into her, before subsequently being crashed into by Y/n. The noise was tremendous- Y/n was shocked Eugene didn't notice the obvious clumsy teenagers standing literally right behind his girlfriend.
But then again, he was never the most observant of people.
"Blondie!" exclaimed Eugene as Varian and Y/n flattened themselves against the wall, Y/n trying to hide the glow of Varian's staff in her coat.
"I told you we should have left it outside!" he whisper-yelled in a panic as Y/n scrambled to cover the light.
"I'm trying my best!" responded Y/n in an equally frantic whisper.
"What-cha doing?" continued Eugene in a smug voice.
Oh no.
The one flaw in their plan- the one thing Y/n hadn't remembered and factored into their plans.
Rapunzel can't lie.
"Doing?" Rapunzel stuttered with a nervous laugh. The gesture reminded Y/n of Varian- but without any of his dorky charm, like a cheap knock-off. "Uh, I wasn't doing anything!" Rapunzel leaned on the corner of the wall, keeping one hand behind her back and holding the journal with it.
"What do you got there?" asked Eugene hesitantly, trying to peer around Rapunzel.
"What?"
Varian grunted as Rapunzel quickly shoved the journal into his chest, before showing Eugene her other hand.
"Nothing... heh! Nothing!" she said, and the lack of subtlety in her voice made Y/n cringe. Pascal squeaked on her shoulder, seemingly sharing Y/n's sentiment.
"Right... okay." responded Eugene, bouncing back quickly. "I know you want to be alone, but Cass and I, we-" Have they found out about the serum yet?
Eugene paused, and Y/n saw Rapunzel giving him an awkward expression, caught in the act of trying to glance back at the teens following her. She laughed nervously, and Y/n had an overwhelming urge to hit someone in the head with the staff, if only to break the uncomfortable moment. Rapunzel? Eugene? Herself?
"You okay?" asked Eugene questioningly.
Rapunzel nodded enthusiastically. "Mm-hmm!"
"Rapunzel?" Eugene repeated, and she sighed.
"Eugene... how far would you go to find the truth?"
Don't snitch don't snitch don't snitch don't snitch don't snitch don't-
"Personally..." Eugene replied, "not very far." Oh thank Demanitus. "Frankly, the truth's not all it's cracked up to be." He paused. "Blondie, you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah, sorry." responded Rapunzel. "I've just... I've had a lot to process lately. I promise I'll talk when I'm ready, okay?"
She promised.
"Okay." Eugene agreed, still sounding unsure. "Just let me know if you need anything."
He began to walk down the hallway in the opposite direction, and Rapunzel quickly grabbed Varian and Y/n's hand, pulling them down the corridor behind her.
"Uh, Blondie..." Y/n could hear Eugene begin as he turned back around- but they were already gone.
─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───
"I found the entrance!" Varian called in a whisper, straining to move a metal cover to the side. "Down here!"
Y/n walked over to where Varian had uncovered a hole in the ground, leading down into a dark cavern. She passed him his staff back, which he took gratefully, and jumped down into the hole.
It was near pitch-black for a moment, before she looked back up at Varian, who hopped down into the hole as well, Ruddiger close on his heels.
Y/n caught him in her arms as he jumped down, and as he landed with his staff, he gazed up at Y/n in the multicolored light. Rapunzel jumped down after them.
"Can you, uh..." Y/n thought that Varian might be blushing, but it was hard to tell in the prismatic glow from the staff's compounds. "Can you put me down?"
Y/n smirked. "No, actually, I was planning to carry you like this." she replied, her voice laced with sarcasm.
Varian snorted, and she set him down as Rapunzel began to walk away. He gently bonked her on the head with his staff, and she feigned an indignant expression, before they both noticed the older princess's progress and scrambled to catch up.
"We have to go this way." Rapunzel said confidently, taking the lead as she stared down at Herz de Sonne's journal in her hands.
Y/n gazed up at the tunnels as they walked, now illuminated by the staff in Varian's hands. They were circular in shape, and made out of a yellow-green stone that cast a foreboding air across the area. The very essence of the tunnels seemed to shout "do not enter!"
So, obviously, Y/n loved it.
She had always felt more at home in the dark. Maybe it was because of how often Rapunzel was associated with light, maybe it was the darkness of the castle's secret passageways, or maybe it was just her, but she loved dark spaces, and the tunnels felt like home.
Rapunzel, however, did not seem to share this sentiment. Her body language radiated nervousness as she stared down at the journal, rerouting the three every few steps. Wow. It's almost like she's never been in a secret passage before.
"Um..." Rapunzel trailed off, unsure. "That way?" She pointed down a tunnel, and Y/n plastered on a smile to hide just how much hatred was bubbling up inside her as she followed.
Varian took the lead as they began to walk down this branch of the tunnels. "Wow..." he murmured, his eyes lighting up as he held his staff to illuminate the way.
"Oh, oh!" he exclaimed as he looked up at the ceiling, Y/n close behind him, smiling. Despite what's been done to him, and what we're about to do, deep down, he's still the same dork.
Varian continued, not looking where he was going. "These tunnels depict an ancient technology of pre-Corona era-" Varian stopped abruptly and screamed, throwing his staff up in front of him like a shield and stumbling backwards, bumping into Y/n.
She peered around him curiously, and instantly wished that she hadn't, biting back a shout herself. What he had screamed at was a skeleton- a human skeleton, impaled on a row of spikes.
Varian turned his head to look at Y/n with a terrified expression. "Uh... yeah, this way." With his free hand, he took Y/n's, fearfully pulling her away from the remains.
He stopped as Rapunzel began to speak, and the two looked back at her. "We've got to be careful." she warned. "Herz de Sonne's tunnels may have long been forgotten, but that doesn't mean that they're not dangerous. They are lined with deadly booby traps."
Varian scoffed, dropping Y/n's hand as he walked forwards. "As you can recall, I know a thing or two about booby traps."
"Varian, watch out!" cried Rapunzel as Varian stepped on some kind of raised stone in the floor- a trigger.
"Huh?" he asked, turning to look at them. Y/n rushed over to him, but she was too late- a set of darts fired from the wall, straight towards his head.
Y/n felt her heart stop for a moment, convinced that the darts would meet their target. He's going to die. He's going to die. He's going to die-
These panicked thoughts were cut off, however, as the darts lodged in the rope of Varian's staff. "Oh! Woah!" He blinked at the projectiles for a moment, processing, before laughing nervously and grinning at the two princesses.
"Well, that's one down."
Varian took the lead again, leading the group through a small doorway and into the next chamber, which was rectangular, compared to the cylindrical shape of the previous tunnels, with bones littering the floor.
As they entered, Y/n noticed the detailing on the left and right walls of the chamber. They were metal, not stone, and looked almost... mechanical?
Distracted by the walls, Y/n jumped, startled, as a metal cover slammed down over the next doorway, blocking their path.
Y/n whipped around in alarm to the other door just in time to see a cover slam over it as well.
"Uh-oh." said Rapunzel nervously as the room began to quake slightly.
"The walls!" Y/n shouted, less than a second before the walls in question began to move towards each other, pushed by an unseen engine.
You're going to be crushed.
The three of them ran for the walls, Varian's staff clattering to the floor as Rapunzel let out a scream. They threw all of their body weight against the walls, but it did nothing to stop their progression.
"We're gonna get squished!" cried Varian, panicked. He looked up and met Y/n's eyes, and in his face, she saw a bit of regret behind all of the sheer terror.
He's not dying today. You won't let him.
Y/n looked up, searching for some kind of uncovered mechanism. Her eyes locked on a spinning axle above the doorframe. There.
Her feet bumped against a bone on the ground, and the wheels began to spin in her head as she formulated a plan.
Y/n ran from her spot on the wall and dashed for Varian's staff, picking it off of the ground. "Pascal!" she shouted. "Get over here!"
The chameleon in question jumped off of Rapunzel and ran over, and Y/n picked him up in one hand, placing him atop the staff. She leaned down and snatched the bone from the ground and handed it to him.
"Wedge this into the axle to stop it from turning." she said firmly. Y/n knew that this tone didn't match the "nervous, helpless" act she had been putting on, but she didn't care. She would do whatever it took to keep herself and Varian alive- and Rapunzel was probably too distracted to notice anyway.
"Hurry!" she shouted angrily, lifting the staff. Pascal looked down at her before he dealt with the mechanism, looking almost... afraid. And not of the machine.
Still, he jammed the bone into the space between the axle and the wall, the gears slowing to a stop. The walls stopped moving, and Y/n looked at Varian, who looked impressed, a relieved smile on his face.
Pascal looked down at Y/n nervously, and Rapunzel sighed from the other side of the chamber.
"Oh, good." Rapunzel called. Y/n, however, was still on edge. The mechanism could trigger again at any moment, and she refused to relax until she and Varian were safely out of the room.
"Pascal." Y/n addressed the chameleon, but tried to make her voice slightly softer- Rapunzel was less panicked, and therefore more likely to notice any cracks in Y/n's false demeanor. "Go behind the wall to find some sort of release mechanism."
The chameleon crawled forwards, staring up at the space he was to crawl into fearfully- but he glanced back at Y/n, as if he could not decide which of the two he feared more.
Suddenly, spiderwebs of cracks grew on the bone as it shook, beginning to splinter under the pressure. Pascal gasped and scampered into the gears as the bone shattered, and Y/n could feel her heart drop into her stomach.
"Pascal!" Rapunzel cried as the walls began to approach each other again, throwing herself against them in a futile attempt to slow their progress.
"Y/n!" She turned from her spot by the door to see Varian, his face a mask of pure terror. Despite Y/n knowing that it would probably do nothing, she couldn't just sit here idly. Y/n ran over to the wall next to Varian, pushing as hard as she could, to no avail. At their feet, Ruddiger did the same, despite the obvious lack of progress they were making.
"Pascal, do something!" Rapunzel screamed in a panic. "Hurry!"
Y/n looked up and met Varian's eyes, and she was overcome by a sudden wave of guilt.
They were going to die here. This was it- and it was Y/n's fault. She encouraged this, heck, she planned some of this- and even if it were Rapunzel's fault, at the end of the day, Y/n could have done better. She should have done better.
You could have saved him... but you weren't enough, were you? You never were.
Y/n took Varian's hand and pulled him into a hug, squeezing her eyes shut. Varian quickly hugged her back as the space between the walls became frighteningly tight.
You weren't enough... but if you have to die, at least it's here with him.
Rapunzel screamed one last time, and Y/n felt the wall begin to press against her back, pushing her closer to Varian. The other wall was doing the same, and the space between the two disappeared as they were pushed together by the mechanism. Y/n closed her eyes as tightly as she could as she waited for the pain that was sure to come.
But it never came. Y/n felt the wall stop moving behind her, and hesitantly opened one eyelid, trying to verify what exactly was happening. Did Pascal find the mechanism?
Her question was answered a moment later as she felt the chameleon run along her head, before dropping and landing in Rapunzel's palm.
"Pascal, you did it!" Rapunzel exclaimed, and the walls slowly began to recede from their position.
Y/n watched Rapunzel as she walked away, and then opened her other eye, still processing the shock from her near-death experience.
She blushed as she realized that she and Varian hadn't moved from where they had been pushed by the walls, and were still standing incredibly close with their arms around each other.
Y/n looked back in front of her to Varian, who was staring at her with wide blue eyes.
"Y/n?" he asked softly, his voice barely a whisper.
"Yes?" she responded in an equally quiet voice, her mind running through every possible scenario. Does he regret coming here? Is he backing out of the plan? Is he scared? Angry? Excited? Does he want to tell you that he loves you- wait, what?!?!
Y/n was startled by the thought that had popped into her head with no warning. Sure, she strongly suspected that Varian felt the same way about her that she did about him, but they were both- well, neither of them had said anything, and Y/n certainly did not want to be the first.
Lost in her overthinking, Y/n had to snap herself out of it to catch Varian's next words, waiting nervously.
"I think I'm going to be sick."
─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───
thank you all for reading!
we're sorry for our... unnecessarily cruel April Fool's joke. hope this makes it up to you!
-leviathan and yuki