"I'll Do It Myself!"

Prologue: Outside of Closed Doors

Courage. The one stupid thing no one had right now. Not Yong, not Nuru, not Ruddiger, not Olivia, not stupid Hugo, and certainly not Varian. Or at least right now he wasn't. Despite being pinned to the ground with a dagger at his neck, Varian had never felt so emotionless. There were so many feelings that he had kept bottled up in there, just waiting to come out. 

"No...H-hugo would never do that. R-right?" He stammered to Donella in disbelief.

"Varian-I...I need to tell you something-" Hugo yelled, panic washing over him. But the sounds of his "friend" were washed out and replaced with a whisper to his ear. "The first stage of grief is denial." Donella hissed, like poison traveling through his veins. 

Denial? What was he even supposed to feel? Anger? Confusion? Sadness? He had worked for months to get to this portal, to free his Mom. Yet here he was, tears rolling down his cheeks as he realized that he'd been tricked by his own...crush? Varian could remember all the moments he had had together, the way his heart beated whenever he was around him. Varian could feel himself spill raindrops on his cheeks, hoping nothing was true. Maybe this was a dream, maybe he would wake up and laugh about it with the team. 

But this was real. So what else was real? Were the memories they made also fake? Hugo must have been pretending, to ever be friends with a guy like him. The thought hurt of course, he had just realized his feelings towards Hugo a few days ago. Obviously, he would have never thought for things to turn out that way. But did it really matter? Varian had already suspected Hugo from the start, so why did he feel so much pain? And he knew, if he were to ask himself that over and over again, Varian would soon learn to forget about the heart snatching thief. 

It almost felt like one of Eugene's missions. Varian could almost imagine him saying: "Hey, officer! That's the thief that stole my heart!"

Still, what was even left of his heart anyways. It had been broken too many times, and the "glue" that he thought would always work didn't. He never thought he could love again, or anyone loving him again. So why did stupid, stupid, stupid Hugo have to change that. Varian closed his eyes and pretended he was being emitted into eternal darkness. In the past, it had usually helped him calm down. 

Crap. Nothing was working. 

"I suppose you want your payment now, am I right Hugh? I mean, you were my employee for over a year now, that deserves a well payed price." Donella smirked, not lifting any pressure from where she had restrained the crying alchemist.

Nuru looked like a bomb about to explode; as if she was going to start raining down her own set of meteors on the goon who was holding her. Her golden eye's glimmered dangerously, like a bon-pit fire. Although she was the most skeptical of Hugo throughout their journey, Varian figured that she had done the same thing as he had: they had accepted them as family. 

Yong had tears welling up in his own eyes. "Over a year...?" he silently muttered. Unlike Nuru, Yong didn't ever bother trying to struggle against the guards. He looked up solemnly in  defeat at Hugo, hoping for a different response. "Over a year?" He asked again, a little louder but his voice trembled with every syllable.  

Even though he was going through a mental break down, Varian still felt sympathy for the kid. Yong had probably never felt betrayal before. Of course, the royal engineer had. Rapunzel had left him when he needed help, so why did he let himself be so gullible afterwards. Did he trust anyone, did anyone even trust him? He wouldn't be able to blame them if they did, after all, Varian understood he had done horrible things in the past.

He also knew that this situation wasn't his fault. Yet somehow, he felt a crushing pain in his stomach as if it was. He always hated that feeling where you felt like the ground had been swept under your feet.