All right, I'm back after what feels like weeks of no motivation but in reality is maybe only a few days to a week, and I put a lot of work into this chapter and with it came some revelations (And a very cute, honest and sincere confession) but things are going to get rocky in the next few chapters (we only have 6 until the series finale :( ) but I do have some very special things planned and some alternate pathway chapters i'll post that I wanted to work into this story, but they just didn't fit what I was working with, some Happy, some sad, some idea's I had planned to work with but scrapped in the finalization of this story, so i hope you all enjoy those when I get to it,

ALSO! I have started hashing out details for potential chapters that take place AFTER Plus est en vous, though those updates may be slower as custome chapters take me some time to work out and piece together. I will take suggestions when I post Plus Est en vous VIA Private Message Only! to spare my email from blowing up my phone with review notifications.

Now, Onto our story!


"I can't control it." Cassandra sank to the ground, "You will, Cassandra. In time." A blue opalescent girl floated next to the short haired warrior, "I thought by Taking the moonstone my destiny would become clear. But what if I don't even have a destiny?"

"Of course you do, it is to destroy Rapunzel."

"Destroy Rapunzel? But I…I couldn't—" Some red rocks shot forward in Cassandra's hesitation.

"What's happening?"

"You are connected to the rocks. They respond to your feelings, even fear."

"Maybe…"

"Maybe what, Cassandra?"

"Artemis." The blue ghost girl seemed intrigued, "Ah yes, the other girl who can control the rocks, she could be useful to you in learning to control the moonstone's power."

"But there's no way she'll come willingly. She watched me betray my friends, and getting even a little bit close to her…it's not possible."


"No!" Varian felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, whipping around he thought the mob from his nightmare had actually come for him, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't I didn't Mean—!" Seeing a familiar head of blonde hair he froze, she looked terrified, but not for herself.

"A-Artemis, wh-why are you here? Shouldn't you be back at the palace?"

"I…needed some air. Are you okay?"

"Yes…No…No, not really. I had another nightmare." She offered a sympathetic look, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was dreaming that my dad was trapped in the Amber again, and all of Corona was after me. I just…I screwed up and I don't know if they will ever forgive me." Artemis pushed him back down onto his work bench,

"Well, what's important is the people who matter have forgiven you. who cares if the rest of the Corona is skeptical?" Rudiger hopped up into Varian's lap, "See, Even Rudiger is worried about you. The Demanitus scroll can wait, Varian. Go get some fresh air, it'll help, I pro—" She stopped, remembering his feelings about Promises, He gave her a reassuring smile, "It's fine, I'm working past it."

"Good, now let's go for a walk."

Once outside Rudiger chittered, looking towards something.

"What is it buddy?"

"Well, this is new. Red rocks?" Varian turned to look at her, "Did you do this?" Artemis looked down at her hands, "No, At least…I don't think so."


"Rudiger…Rudiger!?" the Raccoon had made a mad dash as they got to the Corona Bridge, "Rudiger, wh-where are you?" Artemis pointed to something running along the rooftops, "Hey, Rudiger, buddy, where ya headed?" the two chased after the feisty little animal, coming to a halt before Varian could slide right into Feldspar.

"Oh! Sorry, Hi…" Feldspar and some lady just looked at him with absent expressions, "Don't you have a kingdom to overthrow or something?"

"Ha ha…ha, yeah."

"Feldspar!" If the Cobbler heard her, he made no indication.

"Um, you haven't seen a raccoon around, have you?"

"Hmph." Irritated, Artemis took Varian's hand and led him a way, "By the way, Feldspar. I'll be filing a report on this. The Princess will be disappointed." The ginger Shoemaker looked slightly troubled by the news when the woman piped up, "You have no authority in this Kingdom, young lady."

"No, but my father has close ties with Corona and as a guest in this kingdom I've been given duties by the royal family to report on what goes on in this kingdom, think of me as a…Political Ambassador, if you will." The woman looked stunned, "Now, I suggest you carry on with your business and stop badgering my friend and I, we're trying to find a lost pet." With that, she turned her back on the two Coronan's and drug Varian away.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Oh, but I did. People need to know their actions have consequences or they'll walk all over you." She turned them down an alley way when the two of them heard the familiar chittering of the Raccoon.

"Rudiger, hey!" Varian suddenly yanked her forward as he gave chase to what he thought was his animal companion. "Hey, come back here." But when the rounded the corner it was just a stray cat.

"Uh, Varian…" The Alchemist looked disturbed by the patchy furred cat but turned his attention to what she was trying to show him.

"Hey, buddy. I was looking for you…Wh-What are you…Hello?" Artemis looked at the rocks, they were just like the one's on Old Corona.

"Wh-What's wrong?" He picked up the frozen Raccoon,


"Somebody wake me form this fresh misery!"

"It's okay, Eugene. These rocks are messing with our heads." The two turned to come face to face with a frozen Raccoon, "Whoa!"

"Sorry, sorry, just us. Hi, and Rudiger…kind of."

"Varian, is he ok, what happened to him?" Rapunzel's eyes drifted to Artemis for a split second, "I don't know anymore about these rocks than you do, Rapunzel."

"Uh, I'm not quite sure. But I think it has something to do with these new rocks. I mean I've only been able to study them for a few hours but th-their effects appear to be extremely dangerous."

"O-Oh yeah, more dangerous than bringing people's greatest fears to life?!" Artemis deadpanned before walking forward and slapping her brother, "Get it together, Eugene!"

"Ow!" he rubbed his cheek, "You are—"

"A good sister and you don't want to make me angry because we have bigger things to deal with? I know." She smiled sweetly.

"If people remain under that fear spell for too long then it look's they'll…become frozen with terror. Permanently."

"Well, gang, then it sounds to me like we need to find a way to turn these fearful frowns upside down!" Artemis and Eugene both flinched at the new expression Rudiger's face,

"Yup, okay…that just sound up…making him look creepier."


"Think this will keep people away from the rocks?"

"I don't know, don't you think you could have made us look a little more…brave?" Artemis looked at the painting and laughed, "N-No, I think she's got you pegged, Bro." Eugene narrowed his eyes, "No one asked your opinion, Amaris."

"You can make fun of my birth name all you want, but it's still better than Horace OR Eugene. Face it, the only name you had going for you was Flynn, but you gave it up for Rapunzel."

"That's enough you two, I…wanted to get the point across. Besides, you're so cute when you're screaming in terror."

"Ha ha, well that is true." Varian quirked a brow.

"Horace?" Artemis grinned, "Yeah, that's his real name, and it's somehow worse than what he goes by now."

"Hey, sunshine, how come you're not affected by these rocks, I mean, why aren't you screaming your head off at some vision of your worst fear."

"Because…as long as I have Pascal with me, I'm not afraid of anything."

"And what about you, kid?"

"I couldn't tell you. Maybe with everything we've been through I'm just…empty." It was weird for her to admit, but she had been feeling apathetic towards certain things since they had gotten back to Corona,

"Empty?" Eugene and Rapunzel shared a look of worry, "How long have you been feeling like this?"

"Since we got back from the Dark kingdom. I chalked it up to everything we were put through on the road, but I think it might be more than that. I still feel certain things…but I don't feel other things, so I've been faking certain emotions to feel like I'm complete, and it's worked so far."

"You've been faking emotions?"

"Yeah, things like sadness, or Anger, it's like part of my soul is missing."

"Guys, I think I might have an idea." The four of them made quick work of getting back to the castle,

"Now, theoretically, if we sever this chain of rocks, using one of my alchemical solutions, then we can cut off the red rocks' fear power"

"Oh, we can so cut off their power."

"You just need a cavern that runs deep enough."

"Deep…cavern."

"What about—" A shrill scream from the halls snapped them away from their conversation,

One of the Hand maidens had bumped into the rocks and was now frozen like Rudiger, "Oh no. it's getting worse. We can't let this happen to anybody else, your plan starts now."


"Is that the mixture?" Varian looked up startled, she had seen his father encased in the amber but not the compound he had used, "Yeah, this is what made the amber that encased my dad."

"Hey, nothing bad will happen." Rapunzel turned to Lance and Eugene, "It's up to you two to keep the people's spirit's up. Remember, you can't let fear take hold of anyone for too long or—"

" Don't worry Sunshine, we'll think of something."

"Yeah, with us two putting our heads together—AH!"

"Get away….Ah, spider!" Lance threw the frozen Rudiger into the air before running off.

"Wow…all the things he survived, and Spiders are still his worst fear? You'd think after the Baron poisoned him, he'd be afraid of death rather than an arachnid."

"Or I'll be thinking of something…at the very least."


"No problem…we got this. No problem, we got this." Rapunzel led them through Herz de Sonne's tunnels,

"You okay, Varian? Because you said no problem, we've got this, twenty three times now. Look, I'm actually keeping track." Artemis quirked a brow at her drawing, "Ah ha ha ha, that's fine…really. uh, you know, just trying not to set off the three thousand traps down here."

"Relax. We've been through these tunnels too many times for that to…Look out!" the floor beneath the three of them fell inwards,

"My Supplies!" Varian's grip was slipping and before long he was falling into the abyss below but Rapunzel caught him.

"Oh, thank you."

"Are you okay?" He gave Artemis a reassuring smile, "What about you?" her skin had brushed against the abrasive stone flooring during the fall, "I've…been through worse."

"Artemis." He gave her a serious look, "Don't go getting all overprotective, we have work to do." Rapunzel and Varian both looked at her with concern, "Fine, we'll let it slide for now, but once this is all over, we're going to have a real conversation about what's going on."

"What's going on? I think the secret is pretty much out, Rapunzel. I don't feel things I should be feeling and there's nothing we can do about it, so let's just move on and stop these rocks before anyone else get's frozen."

"We've only got one vial of my solution left."

"Well then, I guess we'll just have to make it count." The carried on through the tunnels,

"Not much further now, we're almost there, Varian. Have that solution of yours ready." He stopped walking,

"Varian, whatever the red rocks are showing you, they're just visions. They're not real."

"But they are. Do you know what this is?" he held the beaker up to Rapunzel, "It's what's gonna help us sever the red rocks power."

"Yes, but it's also the same compound that encased my father. You know the red rocks may make everybody else see hallucinations, but what I see…is something that really happened. This stuff ruined my life. Because of this I did terrible things." The beaker slipped from his grasp but Artemis caught it.

"Easy. It could be Apocalypse now if this hits the ground."

"Great catch!"

"Varian, you can't be so hard on yourself."

"That's easy for you to say, you're the embodiment of the Sun Drop, you know…the wonderous, magical Sun Drop." He turned to Artemis, "And you, you can control these rocks, you're fearless despite everything you've been through." Artemis tilted her head,

"Ah, you hear that Pascal, he called me wonderous and magical."

"No, what I'm saying is, for ordinary people, like me, fear is just a little bit…more debilitating." Rapunzel took his hand in her's, "Varian, there is nothing ordinary about you."

"She's right, you know. So what if this compound encased your dad, you've made other compounds with similar effects and now you have Rudiger, even if he is frozen in fear right now."


"There must be another way." Cassandra stared at her reflection in the red rocks, "you once questioned why you had no destiny, now that you have one, don't question it. You must wield the power of the Moonstone and the Sun Drop, but you cannot do that without destroying Rapunzel. You need the girl who controls the rocks."

Cassandra felt a pang in her chest, would she be able to kill Rapunzel and Kidnap Artemis, what would happen if she did?


"Rapunzel, we…really gotta hurry. How much farther is it?"

"Um, we're here. You wanted a big underground cavern, I give you, the Demanitus chamber."

"Whoa… it-it's Amazing."

"You should have seen it before all these red rocks." Varian looked between her and the gigantic machine, "You've actually seen this before?"

"You could say that…" Varian looked at the machine like he was in love, "Man, I would have loved to have met Demanitus."

"You know, he really liked to monkey around with his inventions." Rapunzel cracked a smile at Artemis' pun,

"Did I miss something."

"No, you had to be there."

"He was a nice guy, he was a monkey, but that's a long story." The three walked down the stairs, leading to the chasm beneath the device, "Oh, there's the base. Encasing it in amber should stop the fear—" The three of them steadied themselves as the chamber shook,

"Okay, less explaining, more pouring." Rapunzel let down her hair and wrapped it around Varian's waist, but as he walked to the edge he hesitated, finally he poured it onto the rocks but nothing happened,

"What? I don't understand, this solution should have encased the red rocks, I don't…of course. So dumb, Varian. Whatever turned these rocks red must have also changed their internal chemistry."

"So that solution only works on black rocks?"

"Yes, well…" Artemis looked at the beaker, " What's left of it. But I don't even see any black rocks."

"I do." Rapunzel pointed upwards, there was one lone black rocks stick out of the side of the chamber wall, "Okay, this just got a lot harder."

"Not really." He turned to Artemis, if we can get up high enough, I should be able to extend one of the rocks upwards so you can reach that one." There was uncertainty in his eyes, "You're telling me I gotta climb all the way up there. Nobody in their right mind would climb—"

"Race you to the top!"

"Come on, slow poke." Artemis was already a few feet up when Rapunzel started her ascent.

"Oh come on…" as they continued to climb the chamber became less and less table, "Watch out!" Artemis dodged out of the way of some falling debris as Varian lost his grip.

"Varian!" Rapunzel let go of her hand holds and dove after him, Catching him before he was impaled on the rocks below, "It's no use Rapunzel, I-I can't do this."

"Varian, you cannot let fear run your life. Look, I'm afraid too."

"Yeah, you said that, Princess, but you don't see what I see.."

"That's true, I don't. but that doesn't mean I'm not seeing…other things. I see Corona, it's covered in black rocks, and I see Cassandra. She's conquered the kingdom, destroyed it, forever. And you know what the weird part is? What I'm most afraid of, is losing Cassandra as a friend, forever."

"I had no idea." Varian gave her a compassionate look, as he swung closer.

"I guess we both have trouble talking about what scares us."

"I'll do it. Just, uh…give me a lift." Artemis looked down at them, Pushing one of the rocks from below upwards, "Use that to gain some leverage!"

"Thanks!" Rapunzel gained her bearings on the provided platform before launching him back onto a higher ledge,

"Hurry, Varian!" Artemis slid down, "Need a lift?" He smiled, "That'd be great." She smiled, "Hang on." She summoned up one of the black rocks, lifting him higher into the air,

"Uh, Varian." The red substance was encasing him, "Hey, it's not real, look at me." Varian looked at her, "It's not real." He steeled his resolve as they continued to grow, she pushed him onto another rock platform as the previous one turned red.

Once they were in close proximity she stopped the platform and they hopped off, "We got this." He nodded, giving her hand a quick squeeze and going to pour the last drop of the amber compound onto the black rock.

"Come on." He dropped the beaker again, "Gah! The vial, no!" Artemis dove over the side, catching the vial before it got too far, "I've got it!" she quickly rose herself back up to his level, handing it back to him,

"Fight the fear, fight it! All right…come on…" the last drop of the compound hit the black rock at just the right time as the Amber began to spread.

"It's working!" he jumped away from the ledge to avoid getting caught up, "Hop on!" Artemis lowered another rock platform for him as they rode back down to the ground level,

"Oh!" Rapunzel pulled them both in for a hug, "You tackled your fears, Varian. I knew you had it in you." for the first time in a while the young Alchemist didn't feel resentment, but fondness for the Princess.


Cassandra struggled to get the red rocks to reform but sank down to the ground again in defeat when even the black rock cluster sank back into the ground,

"Do you see now? Rapunzel can strip you of your power, Cassandra. If you do not destroy her, she will destroy you."


"If it weren't for Rapunzel I'd be—" The little Raccoon came bounding up to them, "Rudiger! H-Hey, it's good to see you, buddy."
"Ooh, nice job with those rocks, Varian. Rapunzel says you're a real hero, so…yes." Quirin looked at his son with confusion,

"Just…doing my part. Artemis helped, if it hadn't been for her being able to control the rocks—"

"Wait…you can Control them?" Quirin turned to her and Artemis froze, "Um…"

"If you can control them, why didn't you use your power to get rid of the rocks in old Corona?"

"Dad it doesn't work that way, at least…I don't think it does." A few people overheard the conversation, "She controls the rocks?"

"I knew there was something off about her, I mean just look at her, everything about her looks otherworldly."

"And her eyes…" Memories of her childhood flashed through her mind as she backed away,

"Witch!"

"Look at her, she has two different colored eyes, Freak!"

"No…"

"Artemis?" she backed away from him, "No, I can't go through that again." It was hard to see, but it was there, fear. Artemis turned on her heel and took off down the cobblestone streets,

"Artemis, come back!" Quirin stopped his son, "No, Varian. She's a danger." Varian slapped his father's hand way, glaring at him and the other Coronan's,

"You said the same thing about me, Dad. All of Corona thought I was a danger, until today. Artemis hasn't given anyone a reason to be afraid of her, and you treated her with respect until you found out she was different. You're all just going to look at her like she's a monster now, after everything she's done for Corona? After everything she's lost and sacrificed for this kingdom?"

"Varian!"

"No, Dad. You taught me to—to stand up for what I believe in, well I believe in her, she's the answer, not the problem. Take a good look at yourselves, and if you like what you see in the mirror, then you can judge her." He turned back to his dad, who was giving him a stern look,

"Son—"

"No! Say what you want, but I love her!" With that he turned and took off after the girl, his father was shocked at the sudden confession as he watched the teens disappear.