The Alchemist's Princess | Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

Chapter XXVI

Aqua was trembling as she held on tight to her necklace.

"I know it hurts, darling. It's gonna hurt for a while, but it'll be okay. We will make sure he gets help after this," Arianna tried to soothe her youngest daughter.

"I failed him though... I should've done more... I don't deserve his forgiveness... I just... I love him so much... he means so much to me..." Aquaria sobbed before the curtain was opened.

"Mom! Aquaria!" Rapunzel shouted, but Aqua didn't look over, keeping her head buried in her mother's neck.

"We're okay, Rapunzel," Arianna assured her daughter.

"Let them go, Varian! Please!" Rapunzel begged desperately.

"First, you're going to do something for me." Varian grinned as he stood in front of Aqua and Arianna.

"What do you want?!" King Frederic asked harshly.

"Oh, so now you care about what I want. All it took was threatening the things you love," Varian sneered as he grabbed Arianna's shoulders. He looked down at Aquaria who looked up at him with tears streaming down her cheeks. He pushed down his feelings before grinning at Rapunzel and Frederic.

Varian rolled one of his machines over to the amber.

"What are you going to do, Varian?" The king was terrified for his family.

"Yeah, I'll spare you the details about the sundrop and darkness, blah, blah, blah, and get to the good stuff," Varian said as he unveiled his drill. He then walked over to some black rocks in his lab.

"Unbreakable," he said, knocking on the rocks a few times before walking over to Rapunzel and he grabbed her hair before repeating, "unbreakable."

Aquaria was so afraid and she felt so guilty. She wanted it all to go away and she wanted to be Varian's partner again. She wanted to be his girlfriend. She wanted this nightmare to be over with.

"To put it plainly, with assistance from my drill, Rapunzel's hair should be able to shatter the amber and free my father," Varian explained as he let go of Rapunzel's hair and walked over to the amber.

"What do you mean 'should'?" Frederic asked quickly.

"Oh, I suppose it's just as likely the amber shatters Rapunzel. I mean, the properties-"

"Absolutely not!" The king drew his sword as he glared at Varian.

"It's not your choice, dad," Rapunzel said as she held her hair.

Varian walked over and rested his arm on Frederic's chest. "She's right, dad."

Aquaria frowned and looked at the ground.

"Oh! And I almost forgot, we're, uh, kinda on a time crunch here, so, I'm gonna need to speed things along," Varian said with a smirk as he walked over to Aquaria and Arianna. He opened a vial and poured the contents onto the black rocks next to the two royals.

The alchemist smirked as amber started to sprout from the rocks, spreading towards Aquaria and Arianna.

"Varian! Stop!" Rapunzel begged and Varian looked over.

"Well..." He walked to Rapunzel and used an orb to make the pink goo around her feed dissolve. He looked up at the princess with a grin. "Shall we get started?"

Aquaria breathed heavily as the amber inched closer to her and her mother.

Rapunzel sighed and looked at her family as they backed away from the amber as far they could. She let her hair down and Varian smirked before he set up Rapunzel's hair on the tip of his drill.