/he wakes up early today/ throws on a mask that will alter his face/ nobody knows his real name/ but now he just uses one he saw on a grave/
-trapdoor, twenty one pilots
"Uh... Varian?" called Rapunzel, staring up in fear as the robotic creature loomed over her.
"Fascinating!" cried Varian in excitement, and Y/n was tempted to smile. She knew he had been faking his nervous and excited demeanor all throughout the tunnels, but this seemed genuine. She was glad that it made him happy- although, considering the hostility of the automaton, now might not be the best time.
"I believe this is an automaton." he exclaimed, spinning back around to face Y/n and Rapunzel in excitement. Called it. "A-a marvel of ancient technology, really-"
The automaton raised its massive fist over Varian's head, but he didn't seem to notice as he continued to rant. "I've heard about them, but to see one in person-"
"Varian, look out!" Y/n cried. She lunged forwards and grabbed Varian's shoulders, pulling him out of the way as the metal crashed into where he was standing mere seconds ago.
He looked at her as she ran, and she didn't miss the admiration in his gaze, but she had no time to feel flustered- they needed to survive this, and they needed to fool Rapunzel.
Y/n let go of Varian's hand as they reached a safe distance from the automaton, and he turned back to her with a smirk.
"Don't worry, Y/n," he said with a smug smile, pulling two vials from his satchel and holding them together in his hand. "I've got this."
Varian ran at the automaton, staff in one hand and chemicals in the other. He skidded to a stop and let out a shout as he threw the chemicals at the plating of the automaton. They combusted on impact, creating a spectacular fiery explosion that knocked the automaton backwards. He threw another, and the machine stumbled, crashing into one of the marble pillars.
As she watched him defend the group, Y/n felt a tinge of admiration- but also jealousy. Not towards Varian specifically, but towards all of them. Even the ones that weren't here. Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassandra... all of them could defend themselves. If they were in this situation, every single one of them had some way to fight back.
But Y/n? She had nothing. Sure, she knew how to use a weapon, but in no world would she ever be permitted to be in possession of one. She had no magic, no chemicals, no tools- just her wits and a vial of Flynnoleum that couldn't even trigger by itself.
Being powerless disgusted her. While she was flattered that Varian would rush to defend her, she was the one who was supposed to protect the people she cared for- not the other way around. She despised having to sit here and do nothing, making useless observations while the only person by her side risked his life for her.
"See?" Varian called confidently. "I told ya! I got this!"
"Uh... Varian?" Rapunzel tried to warn him as the automaton raised its arm behind Varian. He turned around, but too late- the metal limb crashed into the alchemist, sending him flying across the room and into a pillar.
"Varian!" Y/n shouted, running over to where he had crumpled on the floor, kneeling next to him.
"Oh..." he groaned, pushing himself up by his arms. "Despite the excruciating pain, and the fact that I am about to pass out..." His face brightened. "The science at work here is spellbinding!"
Varian took Y/n's arm, stumbling as she pulled him to his feet. Rapunzel shouted to them from the side of the room.
"We're gonna need some kind of a plan if we're gonna defeat that thing." Rapunzel declared. Wow, think so?
Rapunzel ran over in front of a pillar and began to shout. "Uh, hey, you! Um... metal-head!"
"Automaton!" corrected Varian, but Rapunzel didn't seem to be listening.
"Come and get it!" she finished. The mechanical beast turned its head to her and began to run, the floor shaking beneath its footsteps.
Y/n saw Rapunzel's plan mere seconds before it worked. Rapunzel ducked out of the way of the automaton's fist- would it really be so bad if it hit her?- and the metal crashed into the pillar Rapunzel now hid behind. The pillar shook, and the ceiling above it began to give.
Chunks of debris fell from the ceiling, and Rapunzel looked back to Varian and Y/n. "Distract him and draw him towards you!" called Rapunzel, pointing towards the pillar they stood next to, and beginning to take out her hair. Wait, why is it a him now? Where is she getting this information?
With one last smile in Y/n's direction, Varian pulled another set of vials from his satchel and threw them at the automaton. They hit their mark perfectly, exploding on impact. The automaton stumbled back, but still seemed undamaged.
Y/n gazed at the machine in wonder. Obviously, this one would have to be disposed of, but still, it was just so powerful. She wondered if the automaton could be replicated... and if so, all the things she could do with that kind of power behind her.
Well, now that would be fun, wouldn't it?
Y/n was snapped from these thoughts, however, as Varian grabbed her hand and pulled her to the other side of the room where Rapunzel waited, the automaton's lifeless emerald eyes tracking their movement.
Rapunzel quickly looped her hair around the pillars to their left and right, creating a tripwire that the automaton walked into without a second glance.
Awful as Rapunzel may be, she can sure take down a massive killer robot.
The automaton staggered as it tripped over Rapunzel's hair, trying to right itself, but it didn't get the chance- both pillars tipped, disconnecting from their supports and crashing down onto the machine, bringing it to the ground.
The whirr of the mechanisms slowly faded out, and its green eyes blinked into nothing. Rapunzel stepped over the mechanical corpse without a second thought. "Come on, let's go!"
Varian and Y/n followed, clambering over the fresh debris in their wake. Rapunzel tossed her hair upwards and wrapped it around the ladder, pulling it down to their level before returning her hair to its usual style.
Y/n was about to follow, but a glint of bronze in the rubble caught her eye. She shook Varian's shoulder as she realized what it was, a wicked smile growing on her face.
Varian turned curiously as Y/n got his attention, and she pointed towards what she had noticed- the timing cylinder that had seemed to operate the automaton, lying abandoned in the dust.
"Hmm..." Varian smirked at Y/n, and leaned down to snatch the cylinder from the rubble, tucking it into his satchel.
Y/n looked up, and saw that Rapunzel had already ascended the ladder. She turned back to see Varian with a grin on his face, and she smiled- she couldn't wait to see what Rapunzel was going to do, now that their secrets were going to come out. She's going to hurt.
"Shall we?" asked Varian with a one last smirk, and Y/n grinned back at him, before ascending the ladder, out of the darkness and into what lay beyond.
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Y/n was the first to reach the top, after Rapunzel, and took Varian's hand beneath her, pulling him out of the trapdoor and into the room ahead.
All that lay before them was a small table, which the three approached hesitantly.
Upon further inspection, Y/n could see a stone, several small tools, and a box of matches. Along with these was a spherical paper lantern, emblazoned with the Corona symbol. Y/n couldn't help but feel another rush of hatred that she had to push down in order to maintain her facade- while it was technically her symbol too, the golden sun reminded Y/n far too much of her sister.
Varian and Y/n peered down as Rapunzel struck a match, holding it up between the three of them, before lighting the lantern.
The fire caught in an instant, so quickly that Y/n wondered if it was chemically fueled. Seconds later, matching fires caught in the lamps on the walls, revealing a chamber far larger than Y/n's initial assumption.
The final thing to illuminate was a stunningly large carved sun in the wall, which shone its light down onto a single object, resting on a stand that stood on the dais in the end of the room.
The Sundrop.
"There it is!" Rapunzel gasped, approaching the dais. Y/n and Varian looked at each other and nodded, both of them looking a bit hesitant to go through with this- what if they were caught?
"The flower!" Rapunzel continued in awe, crouching before the stand to peer into the glass holding the Sundrop flower.
It was rotten and decaying. Its yellow petals curled in brittle, brown tendrils, like the legs of a dying spider. The stem was curling upwards in a final declaration of death as the blossom shed its petals. It smelled of rot, something that had been forgotten once it wasn't needed anymore.
Honestly? Y/n empathized.
Next to her, Varian's expression solidified into one of grim determination, and Y/n did the same as they approached the flower together.
In one quick movement, Varian reached out with a gloved hand and snatched the flower from where it lay, leaving nothing behind but rotting yellow-brown petals.
"Varian!" Rapunzel scolded as he tucked the flower into his satchel. Y/n took a step forwards, putting herself between Varian and Rapunzel protectively.
Rapunzel reached around Y/n and grabbed the strap of Varian's satchel. "Wait, wait, wait! You said... you said you were just gonna take one petal!"
"But what if one petal's not enough to harvest what we need!" he protested angrily, tugging on his satchel in an attempt to reclaim it.
"Varian." Rapunzel said, firmer this time.
"What difference does it make?" Y/n shouted, raising her voice as she took a hold of the satchel as well. The mask she had been wearing since they entered the tunnels crumbled away, giving way to an angry expression that seemed to shock Rapunzel as she continued, as if she hadn't realized that Y/n knew what was going on. "It's just sitting here, rotting, anyway!"
With one more sharp tug from Y/n, the satchel flew from Rapunzel's hand, swinging back to Varian. As Y/n let go, something small tumbled from the pockets to the floor of the chamber. Oh, son of a...
Rapunzel gasped, and Y/n felt panicked, but also... satisfied. She wondered how this would make her sister feel. Would she feel upset? Angry? Betrayed? After a bit of deliberation, Y/n realized that all of those options filled her with that strange, malicious happiness she had felt ever since she and Varian had begun this mission.
"That flacon..." Rapunzel said with concern, bending down to pick it up and hold it before them. "That had Xavier's mood potion in it."
Y/n darted forwards and snatched the vial from Rapunzel's hands, passing it to Varian, who quickly placed it in his satchel.
"Kids, that potion is dangerous!" Rapunzel exclaimed with concern. She hasn't caught on yet, has she? Y/n thought with a wicked grin as Rapunzel became increasingly worried. "You shouldn't be fooling with it!"
Varian smirked, and Y/n watched with a smile as he began to lead Rapunzel to the conclusion she couldn't wait for her to reach. "There was just one drop left," he began, his smile fading into a cold expression, "but it was enough for us to replicate... and modify." His hand clenched into a fist as he spoke, before lowering it.
"We had to be sure the flower was here." Y/n finished with a stony gaze.
Rapunzel seemed to be catching on, and Y/n's eyes lit up with cruel delight as her sister began to speak. "So... you made a truth serum and gave it to everyone?"
"Heh." Varian laughed smugly, and took a step closer to Rapunzel with a grin. "You'd be surprised what people will tell you for a cookie."
Rapunzel gasped in horror, and Y/n's smile grew. Her sister's distress invigorated her, filled her with a kind of happiness that she wasn't familiar with- but certainly didn't dislike.
"Pete? Stan?" Rapunzel asked with dismay, before her expression turned accusatory towards Varian and Y/n. "How could you?"
Y/n scoffed. "Oh, do you honestly expect us to be concerned about the welfare of Corona?" she asked incredulously.
Rapunzel looked confused, betrayed, upset, as Varian and Y/n's actions slowly dawned on her. She deserves it all. "But you said you-"
"Rapunzel!" shouted Varian in exasperation. "We used you. I begged you and this kingdom for help. Everyone turned their back on me!"
"Y/n..." pleaded Rapunzel desperately, and if she was about to try and tell Y/n to "look for the good deep inside her heart", she was actually going to vomit.
"Rapunzel, they all abandoned me. They forgot about me." Her voice hardened. "They forgot about me for you."
She paused, feeling the oh-so-familiar hurt at those words, but her expression solidified a moment later, any momentary weakness crushed into dust. "And then you left him when he needed you most. You did this to both of us. It has to be this way."
Rapunzel turned around in disbelief like she couldn't bear to look, before spinning to face them again. "I defied a direct order from my father, the king, because I trusted you two! We broke the law!"
If what she wanted was an apology, she wasn't getting it.
"Give me the flower." Varian looked down at his satchel with an unimpressed expression, before flicking his eyes back up to Y/n as Rapunzel continued. "We can find a way to fix all of this. The rocks, Varian's dad, Y/n, everything, I promise you. I promise."
Rapunzel was pleading, and yet she didn't realize that those two words had sealed her fate- that Varian would never hear those words again without an aftertaste of bitterness, an echo of regret, all because of what she'd done.
"Just... this is not the way. Please." she begged.
Y/n's expression was unfaltering and icy, Rapunzel's phony speech having stirred nothing in her. For a moment, Varian, on the other hand, almost looked like he was considering it...
Before they heard the doors begin to shake, a key clicking in the lock.
Varian's expression instantly darkened, matching Y/n's to perfection.
"Sorry, Princess." he spat, the phrase filled with more bitterness than ever before. "But we know firsthand just how well you keep promises."
The doors rattled once more, and the pair turned around just in time to see Cassandra, Eugene and a squad of guards waiting behind.
"There they are!" cried Eugene. "Get them!"
Well! Y/n thought with a smirk. Now they remember you exist! All it took was drugging half the kingdom and stealing their most precious artifact.
It took less than a second for the two to react. Y/n grabbed Varian's arm and pulled him close to her, and at the same time, he took out one of the smoke bombs they had prepared from his satchel.
He threw the bomb before anyone in the room could say anything, flooding the space with thick pink vapor and obscuring everyone's vision- but Y/n was already prepared, and she pulled Varian over to the trapdoor, which she had purposely neglected to close on their way out.
As coughs and shouts echoed throughout the vault, Y/n and Varian leapt into the trapdoor, Ruddiger waiting below, diving down into the darkness as the hatch shut behind them.
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Fleeing the palace was far easier than expected. Y/n even left (H/n) behind- she didn't want to be followed, and the horse was a dead giveaway.
The sun still hadn't risen as Varian and Y/n took the long walk back to Old Corona, shrouded in darkness, hand in hand.
Neither one spoke as they had returned to the lab, Ruddiger walking solemnly at their heels.
Y/n's hair illuminated the room in a soft golden glow. It worked through the amber, too- she would have been interested in the effects if the situation weren't so tense.
Varian got to work. Y/n had offered to help prepare the flower, but he wanted to do it alone, and though she was hesitant, she stepped back. It was his father, after all.
She watched from the side of the lab as Varian delicately plucked a petal from the Sundrop flower with a pair of tweezers, placing it into a mortar on his desk. The desk was littered with papers and books from the two's frantic search for an answer.
Varian picked up a pestle and began to grind the petal into a paste. Goggles lowered, he carried the mortar over to their drill without a word and began to spread the remnants of the flower onto the tip of the drill.
Y/n stepped from her place on the side of the room and up to the control panel of the drill, placing her foot on the pedal.
As she pressed her foot down on the pedal, the drill began to whirr, and Varian guided it towards the amber from the other side of the panel.
The drill let out a screech, the tip spinning as it hit the surface of the amber. Y/n pressed down harder on the petal to increase the speed.
"Work!" Varian whispered desperately, illuminated in red and gold light as the drill tried to penetrate the stone surface. "Work, please, work!"
Suddenly, the drill flew backwards with a clang and away from the amber, smoking. Its tip had burst open, and it hadn't even made a dent in the amber.
"No..." murmured Varian in dismay, before his expression turned furious. "No, no no!" he shouted, and Y/n stepped away from the drill as he shoved it, sending it flying across the room.
"No!" he cried, running to his desk and sweeping the papers and books off of it in a fit of rage as he pulled up his goggles and slammed his fist on the wooden surface. "This is useless!"
He gestured angrily to the Sundrop. "It's like it-it no longer holds the Sundrop's power!"
Y/n walked over to Varian. She did not hesitate. Varian was furious, but it did not scare her- she shared everything he was feeling.
She stared down at the Sundrop analytically as Varian looked down at his desk, leaning on his gloved hands in anguish.
Alright. So it didn't work. Why?
Y/n's mind raced, looking for any reason that the flower wouldn't have worked- if the Sundrop was guaranteed to, then why would the actual flower have failed?
She tried to think. Sure, she had never read the books on the Sundrop, but she knew enough about it. What had people said? What did other people know?
There was a solution here. She just had to find it.
You mean the flower? The one that healed Mom and gave me my hair?
The rocks are demonstrating an actual physical response... to you.
Y/n snapped her head up as she came to a realization. Varian looked up at the same time, and, looking in his eyes, Y/n could tell that he knew.
"The Sundrop isn't the flower anymore..." Y/n began, picking up the flower in question and crushing it in her hand. It brought her satisfaction, in a way- destroying that which created her sister.
She let the crumbled dust of the flower fall onto a paper beneath her, and Varian swept it away with one gloved hand, revealing an illustration beneath. They both spoke at the same time, voices joined as they realized what they would have to do-
"It's Rapunzel."
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thanks for reading! we cannot express how excited we are for Secret of the Sundrop :D
also, thank you all so much for 5k! we did not expect this many people to enjoy what we're writing, but we're so glad that you do :] you guys are the best!
-leviathan and yuki