Hello again, hope you're ready for more. This is going to do a little more of an episode time skip, going right before the series final, third to last episode to be exact. This won't be showing what happened during that episode but the aftermath of it, I won't say anymore but I hope you enjoy it. : )

Chapter 43-Not your fault:

Varian sat quietly in the back room of the Snuggly Duckling, trying to stay away from the princess and the other citizens of Corona. Today was suppose to be a great day, the Goodwill festival, but then Cassandra showed herself and just when it seemed like she would come back and be their friend again, his stupid invention had to malfunction and encase her in the amber. Varian knew the risks when he started working on Project Obsidian, but he was willing to do what he had too in order to keep Corona safe, but using the amber still struck a chord in his heart. It had been terrifying to see an old friend in the same position as his father had been. The look on Cassandra's face was one burned into his memories, the look of shock and horror. The same look had been engraved on that of his sister. Now because of him, Cassandra had taken over the Corona capital with black rocks and had driven everyone out and into hiding. The guilt from before came back again and this time he knew he had no one to blame but himself yet again.

He couldn't get it out of his head. The look of pure terror and pain upon his sister's face. This was the first time she had seen how the amber worked and it easy to tell she was horrified of the results. He wouldn't blame her she never spoke to him again. Suddenly the door to the back room opened and Varian heard gentle footsteps coming towards him. He pulled his knees close to his chest, dreading the thought of whoever it was.

"Hey ,"Alice's sweet voice said, sitting down next to him.

Oh great, it just had to be his sister. Granted Rapunzel or Eugene would have been a lot worse. His father would have been a bad choice as well, but with Alice being as close to this situation as him and the others were, he knew he was in for an earful.

"What are you doing back here ?"Alice asked.

Varian didn't respond, but silently begged for her to get on with the lecture.

"Staying away from the prying eyes of the people ?"Alice asked, looking down at her little brother and Varian gave a tiny nod, still not speaking.

"Understandable, I need to do that from time to time as well ,"Alice said, casually.

Varian gave a skeptical look at his sister, wondering what she could possibly mean by that. After all, it wasn't like she had done real damage like this, even if she had it been away from the public eye. Seeing her brother's questioning look, Alice just laughed.

"It's true, being a diamond means your practically royalty back at my old school. There were times I had to tell people not to call me by my gem title and call me Alice, and every once in a while I had to take a break from them, so I found I quiet place, surround with nothing but something for comfort, in this situation food and drinks, and I would sit and wait till I felt better ,"Alice explained.

"I don't think eating or drinking is going to fix this ,"Varian said, looking away from his sister.

"You're right, it's not, but how do you know if you don't try ?"Alice asked, taking an apple from the shelf behind them and handing it to Varian.

"No thanks sis ,"Varian said, ignoring the apple.

Alice gave a little frown and placed the apple back, taking a deep breath before getting to her feet. Varian thought she was leaving, but instead she walked around him, sitting down in front of him so that she could look into his eyes. She even put her hands on his shoulders to keep him from leaving.

"Hey, it's going to be alright. Rapunzel's fine, everyone's safe, and we will get our home back ,"Alice told him.

"That's not what I'm worried about ,"Varian told her, looking away.

"Then what is bothering you. Vary, you've been so quiet since what happened at the festival, I'm worried about you. Come on Varian, what's wrong ?"Alice asked.

"I don't want to talk about it ,"he told her.

"Charm power ,"Alice said, holding up her necklace causing Varian to glare at his sister, before looking down at his feet.

"Curses ,"he said, quietly.

"I'm not leaving you all alone Varian, please talk to me ,"Alice begged.

Varian sighed and looked away from his sister, before speaking.

"Rapunzel is never going to forgive me for this. It's all my fault that all of this happened. Cass was listening and she wanted to change, if I didn't shot her with the amber then she would have….i'm such an idiot, it's all my fault Corona's like this, we'll never get Cass back now ,"Varian said, finally letting the tears he had been holding back fall down his face.

Varian sobbed as Alice gently pulled him to her chest, resting his head on her shoulder as she rubbed small circles into his back. She had known that this conversation would be anything but pleasant, be she knew it was a conversation that they needed to have.

"Varian this is not your fault honey, Eugene told me your finger wasn't even close to the trigger on that weapon, he knows you didn't fire at Cass on purpose. This is not your fault, it was an accident ,"Alice assured him.

"No it's not! I had the idea for Project Obsidian, I built the stupid thing! It hurt so much to see Cass encased in the amber. How could I have subjected someone to the same pain our father went through? How could anyone ever look at me the same after what I just did ?"Varian asked.

"Varian, sweetheart….did you fire the amber at Cassandra on purpose ?"Alice asked.

"No…...I didn't want to hurt her, especially not while she and Rapunzel were talking...but…,"Varian started.

"Then there you go. Rapunzel will understand, just like Eugene and I do, and if anyone thinks you're at fault for this then they're wrong. You're a good kid Varian and you did nothing wrong. You just did what you thought was right. Being an alchemist you should know what to do next ,"Alice told him.

"I'm honestly not sure what I can do ,"Varian told her.

"Well….when using the scientific method, what happens when your experiments don't give idle results ?"Alice asked.

"You…...you…..you try again ?"Varian asked, looking up at her.

"Exactly, all you need to do is try something else. You want to protect Corona, to get Cass back, then that's what you gotta do. You just need to use that big brain of yours and work out a new solution, look for a new angle, and try again ,"Alice told him.

Varian stayed quiet for a few moments, pondering his sister's words.

"I'll…..I'll try my best Al,"he told her.

"That's all I could ask of you, and we'll be with you. Me, Dad, Rapunzel, Eugene, and everyone else will be with you, every step of the way ,"Alice assured him.

"Thanks sis ,"Varian told her, finally hugging his sister back.

"Anytime little bro. Are you ready to head back out there ?"Alice asked.

"Not yet…...stay with me awhile….please ,"Varian begged quietly.

"Of course, I'm not leaving you in darkness, not now, not ever ,"Alice promised him, holding her little brother close as she felt more tears dampening her shoulder.

I little short and sweet chapter of sibling fluff. This will lead into something in the next chapter, and actually these next few chapters are ones that I'm very excited for, I hope you're looking forward to them as well. Until then, stay happy, stay safe and have a good day.

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