Chapter summary: Varian finds a way out.

It is cold and dark here, but that is not the reason Varian hates his stay in the dungeon. No, he hates it here because he didn't deserve to be here, no matter what some prissy pink princess and her gaggle of friends might say.

Varian pulled up his knees and leaned against the wall, the uneven cobbles of the floor digging into him uncomfortably. He felt Rudiger shift in his spot next to him and felt a slight tickle from the brush of the raccoon's fur. The moonlight cut through the window in corner and cast the room in a silvery glow, but it was still dark enough that he could barely see the wooden cot hanging on the opposite wall.

He should be sleeping – though he had lost track of the days weeks ago, he had heard from the guards one of the therapists that had decided they could help him was going to be coming down. He had uncovered that they don't like when he's grump and irritable from lack of sleep.

Joke's on them. He's always grumpy and irritable these days.

But sleep – as usual – was evading him. Sleep before his time here in the dungeon had been an elusive item to hold anyway, and in the after had became almost a luxury from how rare he got to have it. It wasn't because it was noisy – oh no, Frederic (he refused to call him King when he didn't act like it) had said that Varian was far too dangerous to be left near the other prisoners, so he had been left on this particular cell block by himself save the two guards at end of the hall and the raccoon next to him.

His eyes stung from being open so long, but his head refused to let them have the reprieve they desired. His mind was spinning wildly as it could as it ran over every possible way that he could get out of this room.

It was small – barely larger than six feet across and wide. The personal cells were smaller than the ones made for two, he had seen a couple of them when he had been escorted down here. Those cells weren't exactly all that sparse in terms of room either; the other prisoners had seemed crowded in the one or two extra feet of space they shared with their cellmates.

The size wasn't what mattered, no this could be large or small for all he cared, his problem was that he had nothing to help him. No pins to pick a lock or glass to use – nothing. Just him, his raccoon, and wooden bench he was supposed to sleep on. Just about the only thing he had that could be counted as extra was the pillow. Not that it was useful in an escape attempt – what was he going to do? Knock at the door with it until it opened?

It wasn't even good for it's usual use. It was lumpy inside and scratchy on the surface; the cold feeling of the floor was more comfortable than that forsaken pillow. From that fact alone, he had abdicated any pretense of using the cot. His whole life was now this dungeon floor.

Rudiger moved again, mouth tittering quickly as he made a noise. Rudiger had been just about the only thing keeping him from going insane in this hell – the eye of the hurricane in a way. The calm center in between the harshness that the wind and rain all around was threatening to inflict. He had been through one half of the storm, and the other half was coming because he was going to get out of here, mark his words.

Varian reached over to pet the animal softly, a silent thank you for staying. Rudiger was naturally nocturnal, every instinct in him was probably telling him to get out of this cell through that window and search for food. But instead, he had elected to stay here with Varian. Rudiger – unlike everyone else on this green Earth, it seemed – actually seemed to care about others.

Varian shut his eyes for a moment and leaned his head back against the stone wall completely. His eyes lost some of their sting from the motion, but his head felt just alive as it had a moment before.

He had to get out of here. He had to get out of here now.

His eyes popped open and he shifted again. Sleep wasn't as simple as shutting his eyes and letting it over take him, no, he couldn't ever have it that easy. When they had clamped those chains on his arms and took him from his home, somehow, they had inexplicably taken his ability to sleep. They have already taken his home, his father, even his freedom, so why shouldn't they take away this away too?

He snarled under his breath and hugged his knees closer to his chest. God, what would Dad say if he could see him now? He could almost see Dad's disappointed look, that same dull and sad light in his eyes that he had every time Varian messed something up, and he felt a pang in his heart. He wouldn't see that look ever again, not if he was stuck here forever.

A disappointed Dad was better than one he would never see again, a lesson he was now learning the hard way because of what Rapunzel did.

"Look….at…..me..."

Varian felt himself come more alive at the sound of the voice – well, at the sound of any voice. No one talked to him. Not the guards at the end of the hall for certain, the only contact he had with anyone were the rotating roster of professionals that paraded through here to "reform" him and the raccoon at his side. And the only one he listened anyway was Rudiger and Rudiger technically wasn't even speaking to him.

The voice seemed to be coming from the window, but the voice had disappeared just as quickly as it had come. It was replaced only by the sound of the wind blowing against the bushes lining the small garden outside. Varian shook his head to clear his thoughts. It was probably just a trick. He was exhausted, and he was no stranger to the effects of little sleep.

"Look….at…...me!"

The voice was back and louder now, so loud that it sparked Rudiger up into alertness. Rudiger blinked wildly and rushed across the expanse of the room, tailing shaking wildly in fear as he searched for the source of the sound.

"Whoa, Rudiger, it's okay," Varian said, reaching out to take him in his arms. Rudiger stiffened slightly under his touch, but gave no fight when Varian pulled him close to his chest. "Nothing's going to hurt you, I'm here."

Now he heard another sound, this time the clanking of metal. He peeked over his shoulder to see the two guards blinking and rising back to full posture. He rolled his eyes and turned back around. Apparently, Varian's quiet stubbornness was boring them.

Rudiger seemed to be calming now, burrowing his head into the folds of Varian's blue shirt. His apron had long since been confiscated – Frederic had been worried he might use the fold of fabric for "nefarious" purposes.

Fool.

Varian looked down at Rudiger for a moment, patting his head softly as he tried to calm him down.

"Look at me now!"

Varian snapped up into the direction of the window. The voice was much louder now – impossible to be ignored or dismissed as a trick of the wind. Rudiger didn't go off at the sound now, much calmer now that he was in Varian's arms. Varian cut his glance over to the guards, who were still positioned at the end of the hall.

His brow furrowed. How were they not hearing this? Someone had been yelling almost three times now.

Varian shook his head and went over to the window, slipping Rudiger onto his shoulders. Rudiger found his usual resting place with ease, his tail and head wrapping around Varian's shoulder without protest from the boy.

"Hell-hello?" he whispered into the world outside the window. His voice was soft, much quieter than one getting him to look outside had been. Though he hated it here, he would hate even more to alert the guards for even the simplest of things. That was the last thing he wanted.

No answer came for a long moment, and he was just about ready to accept that he was hallucinating after all when the voice called back out to him.

"Check…your pocket," the voice said.

Varian felt a faint string of curiosity. The voice wasn't the concerning part – no, compared to having an ex-friend with magic golden hair, hearing a voice out a window wasn't all that upsetting to his psyche. But why would it tell him to look in his pocket? His pocket was empty –

In time with that thought, he felt pressure in the left pocket of his pants. His eyes widened at the revelation and he reached deep inside his pocket, finding that in fact something was there.

He pulled out what it was to discover a thin, golden line that was wrapped in a white paper. He recognized it as a chain and he pulled at it so that the paper was no longer encircling it.

He crinkled his noise at the sight of what was at the end – it wasn't disgusting, but boy was it gaudy. Thin black beads threaded down a fourth of the chain until it reached a circle, which in itself was almost oval-shaped, made of a much thicker ring of gold lined with light gray beads. At the base of the oval was thin strips of clothes that closed off with more lines of the same color of black beads.

Rudiger reached out to touch it, paw hitting the strips with a kind of wonder. Varian smiled at the sight before returning his attention to the paper in his other hand. He handed the necklace off to Rudiger, who was took it and pawed it over and over again in hands as he looked it over.

Varian unrolled the sheet.

With this necklace, you might find your place will change. Just think of where you wish to go when you wear it, and then you'll see the things you'll need.

Use wisely.

*A friend

This note, and necklace, was more than a little unsettling. Where had it come from? How it had gotten in his pocket in the first place? He wasn't that naïve to believe no magic existed – not anymore, not after everything that had happened. But what magic was this necklace connected to, and why was it choosing now to reveal itself?

And what did it mean? Just think of where you wish to go when you wear it, and then you'll see the things you'll need? Varian considered himself fairly intelligent – one does not become enemy number one of an entire country without a fair bit of brains – but he was finding it hard to understand what this meant.

He checked over the note again, reaching over to take the necklace back from Rudiger with an apologetic look.

"Sorry, buddy," Varian said. Rudiger's bottom lip jutted out some but didn't fight Varian. He burrowed his head back down into Varian's shoulder and Varian sighed once. He didn't like making Rudiger upset.

"What do you think it means?" Varian asked Rudiger softly. Rudiger gave no answer, just nudging his nose into Varian's shoulder. The wet feeling of Rudiger's nose wasn't an answer, but it felt at least nice to know that he was responding. He swore that sometimes he would go crazy without Rudiger to talk to, a line he was fairly certain he was tittering close to.

"Think of where you wish to go," Varian whispered under his breath, thumb tracing over the side of the gray beads. He raised an eyebrow at Rudiger. "Teleportation, maybe?"

In his early days as an alchemist, he had quickly dismissed the idea of teleportation of ever being possible. But then Rapunzel and her friends had waltzed in with magic hair and a horse dangerously close to being human-like. Nothing seemed impossible anymore, so why couldn't this necklace be something like that?

Worth a shot, he decided with a shrug, pulling the necklace over his head. Rudiger moved quickly to not be caught in the chain, falling down to rest in his arms.

Varian had half-expected something to happen the second he had put on the item, but all that happened was that he now was the wearer of an ugly necklace. He pursued his lips and reached to hold the circle and strings in his hand.

Think of where you wish to go.

Was it really that simple?

He looked to Rudiger, who just gave him a cursory glance in return. He sighed and held onto the beads tighter so that they started to dig into his palms.

"I want to go home," he whispered. At first nothing happened.

But then there was flash of white light around, and he felt his heart drop to his stomach and his stomach drop to his knees. His surroundings disappeared, replaced by strings of colored light. Blue, green, red, pink, all rushing past him at speeds he didn't know was possible. He felt like he was flying but, yet he was still standing upright.

He could still feel Rudiger on his shoulders, as well as his sounds of distress from this sudden change. He wanted to reach out to calm his friend, but it felt like he was pinned in the same position – hands holding the paper and the necklace, feet pressing against whatever was beneath him.

Just as quickly as it began, it stopped. The colors stopping spinning and disappeared, revealing to him a new location. Rudiger nuzzled against him in fright and while Varian did reach up a hand to pet him comfortingly, his eyes were trailing over the familiar room.

The wall color was blue, just like it had been for years, an unmade bed shoved in the corner of the room. A pillow was thrown across the floor, books open next to it. Scratched out wanted posters of the infamous Flynn Ryder almost completely eclipsed the paint on the far wall, sketches of Rapunzel and her hair hung close to the nightstand.

It was his room.

He felt his body lurch forward automatically, calm flooding him as tears drew into his eyes.

The necklace had brought him home, just like he had asked it too. The tears didn't come fast like he had expected but lobbied in his eyes for a moment before they fell. He was actually home – not just a vision from exhaustion or part of a nightmare during his brief respites in the dungeon.

Rudiger clamored done from his place on his shoulders once he too realized what they were, finding his usual spot at the edge of Varian's bed to sleep. Rudiger seemed content as he settled down in the familiar spot on the mattress, the closest thing he could manage to a smile on his face.

Meanwhile Varian remained motionless for another moment. He was home, for the first time in what felt like ages. What was he supposed to do now? He had just wanted to go home, and while he knew what he wanted to do next, he couldn't really think.

He was tried, dear God was he tired, but he also felt alive because he finally had an advantage Corona didn't. He didn't know where this necklace came from or why it did what it did, but all he knew was that he wasn't going to give it up anytime soon.

He walked towards the bed, collecting the pillow off the floor and dusting off the fabric. He needed sleep – sleep, yes, for right now, he needed to sleep.

He settled into the mattress and felt some of the ache of his joints disappear. Months ago, he had thought his bed too harsh to sleep in, head too full of fantasies and questions to consider. But he had been wrong, because this bed now felt like a gift. He curled the blanket around him.

His last thought before sleeping was of the guards that had been down there with him.

He smiled.

Someone was going to get fired.

I'M FINALLY WRITING THIS AU! I'M SO EXCITED!

Just so you guys know, I wrote this before (and published this chapter at least) before I saw "Vigor the Visionary", so we're going to say everything past "Freebird" is non-canon in this fic, that way Season 2 won't have to rewoven into the story. Also, because Red and Angry apparently came back, since I've got my own plans for them.

And what do you guys think? I've wanted to write this fic forever, but I could never figure out an opening because since Varian is the main character and I could never figure exactly what the teleportation thing was, I was at a stand-still– but then I saw my mom's God awful ugly necklace and I was like "yep, Varian used thatas a magical thing". That necklace is real and it's just as ugly in real life, just without the magical rewards.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!