Thanks again for your comments ! This is a short chapter, but it's Varian angst week on Tumblr, so here you go ! It's also important for this story that we go deeper in his mind (and don't we love it !).

Inside Varian's head

Something strange happened to Varian in the dungeons. As he was lying there, unable to move anymore after being beaten up repeatedly by the two brutes, his mind escaped out of the cell and out of time.

When he realized he was stuck with these men, he knew he would not get help from anyone. He wasn't counting on anyone in Corona, of course. They never took action when the people were in need, or they just broke their promises. They would not help him any more now. But he also knew – and that's when panic really settled in- that he had no hope of seeing his father come to rescue him.

His father was gone, or almost, stuck in amber, and Varian didn't even know if he was dead or still alive, nor if he would be saved one day. He, Varian, was the one to free him. He could do it, couldn't he ? He had to. Because he was the one who…

His Dad wasn't here, he had no one to save him from this terrible fate, and there was nothing he could do to escape. His life was at stake, but strangely, that was actually the least of his worries.

His Dad would never come. He would never run to him with a desperate look on his face, hoping he would arrive in time and that his son was safe and unharmed. He would never take him by the shoulders and check his whole body to make sure his son was still in one piece. He would never be there to scold him for performing alchemy that his son sometimes (well, most of the times) couldn't control.

And that's just was happened that time again. Varian had carried on the experiments on the black rocks, despite his father's warnings. He never knew what exactly, but it was clear that his father knew more than he let on. He never knew why it had to be a secret either. He never knew why his Dad lied to the King. Rapunzel's father. She had broken her promise, and never came to check on him, even after the storm when her Dad came back like she said. And there was Cassandra. He had done so much to help her with her chores on the Science Expo day. Yet, she turned her back on him, when she decided to take that stupid guard duty over helping Varian with his presentation. Of course, afterwards, she did come back to him, but that moment when Varian was deceived still hurt. Was there no adult he could trust at all ?

All those events kept popping up to Varian's mind, like they were showing him all the times he had been let down. And now there he was, in a dark cell, being the plaything of two men who were too happy to have some distraction. There he was, alone.

And his Dad wouldn't come. He knew it.

Because it was his fault.

It was like there was a huge, stone door inside Varian's mind, and it was slightly ajar. And behind this door was the truth, the one he desperately didn't want to see. The truth he had covered up with rage and anger, with hatred and revenge. But it was showing now, as he was on the edge of unconsciousness. He had nothing to hide anymore, there was no use for faking or pretending. He was the one who started the reaction that encased his father. There was nothing more to say.

"Maybe… maybe after all… I deserve it"… he thought as he welcomed the darkness that took him over. At least, that door would be closed again.