AN: Hi, it's been over a month, sorry, but expect this to be the normal update rate.

Also, I think I'll insert a chapter before this later (I'm trying to type it up right now) because Varian's behavior, like, changed a lot from chapter one, and it doesn't really make sense.

And a note to anyone who hates reading ANs because they're annoying but doesn't want to miss crucial info: From now on, all the ANs on the top will be important, while the ones on the bottom will just be me blabbering about stuff.

I realized I didn't do a disclaimer. Well, this is so kiiiinda obvious, but I do not own any characters or the setting. I only own my own twist (coming later) and a slight remodeling of the prison.

"I don't get the point of all this patrolling," an iron-clad guard complained to his partner, who was, at the moment, snoring his long white beard off face-down on the floor.

"I mean," continued the guard, so obsessed in his reasoning that he didn't see Shorty (for of course it was Shorty, who else could it be?) sleeping on the job. "The cells are completely escape-proof, unless the prisoners have something sharp enough to cut through metal, and they don't, because we searched them."

As the guard continued rattling off, absorbed only in his own voice, a small girl, about seven years old, tiptoed past him and Shorty, her small fingers closed around something.

She excitedly looked around, then her face fell when she realized that barely any of the cells were full. In fact, she only saw a single cell that actually looked like it had anyone in it. And these cells were nothing like in her storybooks - she had expected spikes poking through the ceiling, maybe a bunch of fierce dragons keeping the prisoners from escaping.

A disappointed sigh left the girl's lips. She had even brought a slice of honey cake - which, in her book, made the dragon sleepy so the hero could sneak out - but apparently, she wouldn't be needing it.

Still, decided the young girl, as long as she was here, she would at least take a look around.

The girl crept forward, peering in through each cell as she passed it. By the time she had reached cell 5, with no people inside any of the cells prior, she started becoming bored. She turned back around, deciding that this was enough, when she heard an odd noise from behind her. Something like a… chitter.

Curious, the girl turned back around, starting towards the noise. As she reached cell 9, the chittering became distinct, and a small grey shape bounded towards the cell door, chattering insistently.

She gasped, kneeling in front of the metal bars. A raccoon! A real, live, raccoon! Her excitement soon turned to confusion, however. Why did they lock up a raccoon? Did he commit a crime? Maybe the small creature had accidently come in and couldn't go out again? Yes, that was probably it.

It didn't occur to the seven-year-old to look into the cell to see if anyone else was in there. It also didn't occur to her that raccoons didn't live in Corona. No, she was certain that the poor raccoon was stuck in this cell by accident, and she was going to save him.

Determined, the girl stepped forward, then realized that she didn't know how to free the furry mammal. Maybe if she had brought a key, she could have opened the door. But she hadn't.

The girl was just coming to the conclusion that she should tell the guards, who had plenty of keys to choose from, and ask them to free the raccoon, when she realized that the said creature was still chattering, his nose pointing at the sticky glob of squished honey cake in her fingers.

A smile spreading across her face, she waved the cake and whispered, "Hey, boy. Want some yummy yummy honey cake?"

The raccoon's eyes followed the gateau, and his chattering increased excitedly - an obvious yes, even for someone who hadn't spent over a year with the animal.

Giggling, she started to poke the cake through the bars, when a sudden voice, a little hoarse, growled, "What are you doing?"

The girl looked up. Her brown eyes widened in surprise, and she staggered backwards a few steps as she saw a boy, thirteen or so, standing on the other side of the bars. He had messy black hair that dangled down his forehead, with a streak of blue, or maybe green or grey, it was hard to tell under the light. A neon orange vest was firmly covering his chest.

"What are you doing?" The boy asked again, though this time with less accusation and more genuine curiosity. He leaned down and picked up the raccoon, who clambered onto his shoulders and chittered happily.

Finding her voice, the girl replied in a still-surprised tone, "Saving the raccoon."

The boy cocked an amused eyebrow, and sat down on the floor in front of her. In front of her, through the metal bars, of course. "Saving Ruddiger?"

"Yup! I just need a key, to open the door, because he came in here by accident and couldn't go out and needs saving. His name is Ruddiger?"

"Yes. What's your name?"

"Elea," the girl responded. "And who are you?"

"Varian," he replied half heartedly. The girl was named after the Greek goddess of pity, which he wasn't particularly fond of. The last thing he needed right now was pity.

"Why're you here?"

"What do you think?" He tugged on the orange vest irritably, causing the raccoon - Ruddiger - to shift.

"You're... a prisoner?

"Uh, yeah. Obviously. Why else would I be in prison?"

"What'd you do?"

Varian rolled his eyes. His tone took on a sarcastic edge. "Oh, let's see, I attacked Corona, kidnapped the queen, threatened the entire - mostly entire - royal family and tried to kill them… Oh, and I stole the Sundrop flower after tricking the princess. Lots of treason and all that. I'm Corona's number one enemy, didn't you know?"

Elea dutifully shook her head. He definitely didn't look like a bad guy, not that she ever saw one before. But she expected a villain to be bigger and stronger and older and powerful looking, maybe with a set of knives and swords and throwing stars.

"Seriously? You didn't see the automaton?" He sighed at her confused look. "Well, whatever. I guess I'm not that well known." Then he frowned at her. "Wait, how'd you get in here?"

Elea pointed. "There's a big window. I climbed through it."

Varian smirked. A window. A flaw. Such an obvious one, too. Why did anyone decide to put a window in the deep dungeons anyways? "That's nice. And the guards?"

"I walked past them."

The boy grinned now, but it was a kind of scary grin. "You walked past them?"

Elea nodded, starting to get a little bit nervous, rightfully so. "Why?'

"Nothing. Just… Nice bribery information." Before she could ask what that meant, Varian said, "What do you want?"

Elea thought for a moment, then displayed her right hand, which held an orange cake of some sort. "Honey cake," she explained sheepishly at his questioning gaze. "I brought it to put the evil dragons to sleep, but do you know? There weren't any dragons."

Elea pouted for a moment, and Varian blurted out, "Dragons aren't real."

The girl blinked. "Of course they're real! Dragons and magpies and magic and unicorns."

"Magpies are a species of smart birds," Varian informed her. "Dragons and unicorns are just myths, and magic is…" he trailed off, wanting to say 'is fake', but realizing that he couldn't believe that anymore. So many years he had spent, absolutely certain that magic wasn't real. But the thing Rapunzel had done, to cause the black rocks - blue rocks? - to go crazy, spiking up everywhere and impaling all his automatons… that had to be magic, right? And the way her hair glowed.

No, said the stubborn part of him. There is definitely a scientific explanation for everything. But it was a hollow argument. Varian had relied on magic to free his father. The princess's hair… it should have worked. It should have freed his father.

Elea blinked as the boy suddenly scowled. It made him look a lot meaner. She pressed, "Magic is…?"

"Useless and unreliable and stupid," Varian snapped.

"But… Princess Rapunzel has super useful magic hai-"

"SHUT UP ABOUT THE PRINCESS'S HAIR!" Varian yelled, jumping to his feet and scaring Ruddiger, who scampered away to the corner of the cell (which wasn't very far away); surprising Elea, who jumped backward; and alerting the guards, who came running (at least, three of them did. The other looked up, drowsily muttered, "Hey, look, the prisoner is threatening a tiny girl," and promptly fell back asleep).

Varian glared at the girl in front of him, who was blinking in confusion. His breath came out in short, angry bursts. 'Princess Rapunzel'... how could she say that name with such warmth, such affection, such trust? It was clear that Elea loved the princess, along with the rest of this stupid kingdom.

A part of him wanted to scream, to yell, to shout out to the world that the princess wasn't a warm, kind, loving person like everyone thought she was. No, it was all a façade. Inside, she was… she was…

A person nobody can trust. A person who breaks their promises… A person who… who…

Varian sat down with a gasp, not noticing Ruddiger's worried chittering and the guards' scolding. It all faded in the back of his mind. He could feel his heart pounding, loudly, as if his insides were hollow. What had happened? For a second, he had felt a horrible emptiness, a chasm.

He didn't know he could feel so empty. Like the anger that had fueled him for months was gone. There really was nothing now. Nothing left to fight for, nothing left to defend against.

Nothing left to shield him from the truth.

One of the guards looked up from the girl long enough to see the prisoner collapse onto the floor and curl up, head in hands and whole frame trembling. Concern creased the guard's brow for a second, but only a short second, before he remembered what this boy had done.

He figured that this would be report-worthy. Evidently, the prisoner was unstable. One second, he was yelling at a girl who had - somehow - managed to get in, and then he was dropping to the floor and sobbing. Definitely unstable.

As he watched one of the other guards lead the girl out, he realized that reporting this would mean telling the king that someone had snuck past them. He swallowed. Definitely not good for his career.

He glanced at the other guard (the one who was actually doing his job, sort of, and not slumbering), and they reached a silent agreement.

Maybe this one case could go unreported.

Guyyyys, thanks so much for 1 follow, 1 favorite, and 1 review, all from different people! Now I know that at least three people had read my fanfic and liked it!

Also, I've heard authors say stuff like "Your comments made my day", but I never truly experienced it until now. I literally just randomly started smiling a lot (my family asked me what was so funny multiple times) because I would suddenly think of PearlM21's comment. So, thanks, you have no idea how happy you made me.

And on a different note, I am struggling a lot with the the second chapter (I ended up completing this chapter and a another chapter while trying to write it). But I did make a (kind of lame) plot chart, so yay for that.

Now for not-story-related stuff...

I fell hard into Modern AUs. Which there are not enough of. There's this awesome person called who made a pretty cool modern!Varian design which I enjoyed a lot. I found an awesome fanfiction called Corona City on Wattpad (it's really good, guys, and has a lot of chapters, you should check it out). There were a couple good ones on Ao3, though most were Varigo (which I don't understand AT ALL, by the way).

So please tell me if you find a good modern!au with Varian in it.