Forget-Me-Not (Varian x Reader)

Chapter 44- The Truth Will Set You Free

^^Best Varian screenshot ever. Just try and change my mind

"I give you..." Rapunzel begins, guiding us through an archway in the underground tunnels. "The Demanitus Chamber." She reveals.

Varian and my jaws drop as we look inside the massive underground chamber. A circular room lined with stones several stories tall, The Demanitus Chamber is a wonder of ancient technology. I can tell that there used to be an astounding metal structure in the center of the room, but thanks to the number of gigantic red rocks, it's nearly eradicated. "This is incredible!" I exclaim.

I glance over to Varian, whose eyes are all aglow. "Woah...it's-it's amazing."

I adore how joyful and wonderstruck Varian looks as he stares at the machine. His face resembles the face of a child on Christmas morning; shocked and astonished.

"You should've seen it before all these red rocks," Rapunzel says, her complexion slightly tinted red from the red rocks.

"You-You've actually seen this before?" Varian asks, unquestionably flabbergasted.

"You could say that," Rapunzel replies, scratching the top of Pascal's head.

"You've known about this insane artifact of ancient Coronian technology and history and you never told me?!" I gasp.

My big sister giggles. "It never came up."

"Man...I would've loved to have met Demanitus..." Varian gently says, his eyes never leaving the machine. His blue eyes practically sparkle, and his mouth curves into an adorable buck-toothed smile as he talks about his idol.

"I did." Rapunzel grins.

Varian's eyes widen like saucers as he shifts his eyes to look at the blonde.

"Nice guy..." She continues. "...he was a monkey."

Varian glances at me with an extremely muddled expression, but I simply shrug my shoulders, feeling just as confused as he is.

"Long story," Rapunzel says, reading our bewildered looks. She heads towards the stairs that lead to the bottom of the cavern and gestures for us to follow her.

As we amble down the old and narrow steps, I keep my eyes fixated on the ceiling, and old bits of rock crumbling around us. "Keep an eye out for these rocks, you guys," I warn. "They're falling everywhere."

Varian jumps to the side right as a stone drops to the floor from above. "G-Good call." He quickly stutters, nervousness lacing his voice from his sudden scare. As we reach the bottom of the flight of stairs, Varian points to a cluster of red rocks. "Oh, okay, here's the base. Encasing it in the amber should stop the fear-"

Suddenly the entire room begins to tremble, and I quickly grab onto Varian out of habit. New red rocks emerge from the base of the rock, and I feel my anxiousness amplify. To be fair, however, part of that worry could just be coming from the rocks' fear power. "We'd better stop these rocks from spreading any further!" I say with worry.

"Agreed." Rapunzel nods as she quickly wraps her hair around Varian's waist, creating a makeshift harness.

Varian slowly walks to the edge of the stone wall and extends his arm out towards a red rock. As he does so, however, I notice fear growing more and more evident on his face. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the red rocks' fear power was starting to cause Varian to see illusions.

I quickly stride over to him and take his free hand in my own. "You've got this Var! I believe in you." I give him a reassuring smile. I begin to feel my stomach twist into knots as the rocks begin to make me see hallucinations of my deepest fear, but I attempt to block them out and only keep my eyes on Varian's face. I can't let my fear get the better of me. Not now. Varian needs me.