Varian's Tangled Trials

Faith

A/N: A huge thank you to anyone who has shown this fic love and support and thank you for your patience in waiting for this next chapter. I'm excited to put this story into existence but my brain and body are not always cooperative. However, as I've said before, my promise is to finish and unlike Rapunzel, I plan to follow through on that promise ;)

So while I don't know when the next chapter will be posted I can guarantee it will happen. We have so many exciting things coming up. The Dark Kingdom! The Iron Kingdom! Love! Betrayal! So stay tuned, and keep being amazing!

Varian looked up from the mopping machine he had just been performing maintenance on. He leaned on it, wrench in hand and incredulity plastered across his face.

"He didn't," he said.

Rapunzel leaned forward, her brown hair bouncing as she nodded. "He did! Eugene refused to put a coin in the well, so this big giant self-driving machine-"

"Automaton?" asked Varian excitedly.

"Automaton," Rapunzel corrected, "Chased us all through the labyrinth. All because Eugene didn't have faith."

Varian chuckled, going back to work on his machine. "You know Rapunzel, when you told me Demanitus was a monkey, I knew this was going to be a crazy story, but I didn't know it would be bonkers. The idea that Demanitus of all people was talking about faith..."

"Why is that strange?" asked Rapunzel.

"Because Demanitus is a man of science, like me!" said Varian, looking up again to argue his points. "Logic. Facts. Reason. The mathematical principles of alchemy. Those are the things I believe in. Faith has nothing to do with that."

"But don't you see, that's exactly what Demanitus was trying to say to Eugene," said Rapunzel, kneeling down to Varian's level. "He didn't mean blind faith in abstract ideas. He meant to find the faith you already have. For you, it's science. For Eugene, it was me. And I believe that everyone could use a little faith in themselves."

Varian's smile faltered. "Easy to say when you're the princess who saved her entire kingdom from Zhan Tiri."

"You helped, Varian," said Rapunzel. "You can't change what happened in your past, but look at what you've done since. It's incredible. You should absolutely have faith in yourself."

Varian's smile returned. "Thanks, Rapunzel." He went back to work as she started to walk away.

"Varian?!" shouted Rapunzel, her voice suddenly alarmed.

Varian turned, and the first thing he noticed was Rapunzel's long golden hair was back. It laid across the floor, glowing brightly. "What?" gasped Varian. When he looked back down, he was inside his mechanized suit, the controls in his hands. He was heading straight for Rapunzel, her face full of fear and anger as he bared down on her. "No... no wait." Varian tried to stop the mech but just kept going. "No! This isn't me. I'm not this person anymore!"

"Varian, please! Stop!" shouted Yong's voice.

"I'm trying!" Varian shouted back. "I, I can't!"

"Varian, how could you?" said Nuru's voice.

Suddenly, Varian was no longer in the mech. He was standing in front of Hugo, Nuru, and Yong. They stared at him, completely terrified.

"Guys!" Varian tried to reach towards them, but they recoiled.

"How could you?" repeated Nuru.

"I- I didn't mean any of it!" said Varian.

"You nearly hurt me," said Yong.