About a week passed and Aquaria went to see Varian. She saw Maximus and Fidella stuck in Varian's purple goo.

"What are you two doing here?" She asked curiously and Max whinnied at her.

"I'll get you out of this. Just give me a minute," Aqua said before running up to Varian's lab. She went inside and saw Rapunzel in one of Varian's machines.

"Umm... what's going on here?"

"Aquaria! Hey! What are you doing here?" Rapunzel asked curiously. "I thought you said you were gonna go hang out with your boyfriend today."

Aqua blushed and replied, "Varian's not my boyfriend."

Varian was bright red from Rapunzel basically saying that he was dating Aqua.

"Varian is your friend?!" Rapunzel smiled brightly, having wanted to meet her sister's mystery friend. She hadn't even thought to ask their parents if they knew who it was.

"That I am!" Varian said proudly.

"Aqua talks about you all the time!" Rapunzel smiled and Aqua smiled as well.

"Anyways, what are you doing here, sis?" Aqua asked, wanting to know why Rapunzel and Cassandra had come.

"I wanted answers about my hair and Cassandra took me here. She told me he was a wizard," Rapunzel said and Aqua grinned.

"Don't call him a wizard, sis. He gets very defensive of his alchemy," she teased and Varian stuck his tongue out at her.

"Children," Cass muttered under her breath.

"Now let's do this!" Rapunzel said and Aqua stood beside Cass.

"Okay! Now, um, this may get a little-"

"Exciting?!" Rapunzel cut Varian off.

"Um, sure, yeah! That's a good word for it!" Varian said quickly before turning on the machine.

Pascal jumped off Rapunzel's shoulder quickly. Aquaria watched as Rapunzel was spun, flipped, and shaken around by the machine. Soon it stopped and the bell dinged.

"And there we are! Done!" Varian said and Aqua snorted, knowing that they were only done with the first test since he had literally made the machine to figure out what had happened to her hair to make it change color.

"Alright, not super fun, but it's over," Rapunzel laughed a little.

"Heh, oh sorry," Varian started, rubbing his neck. "Yeah, I-I meant done with the first test. But uh, d-don't worry! Only eighty-six more to go!" He pulled the lever again and Aqua giggled a little.

"Are we even sure this is safe?" Cassandra asked Aquaria and she nodded.

"I've been through it twice," Aqua assured with a nod.

"Amazing!" Varian exclaimed before dodging the circular saw that went flying. "You were right it's absolutely unbreakable!"

"But I'm betting you're not!" Eugene burst in. "Let her go!" He demanded.

"Eugene! Hey!" Rapunzel looked at him sheepishly.

"Blondie! You're okay! You wanna tell me what's going on here? You know what, I don't care. I'm getting you out of there." Eugene ran up to Rapunzel and Aqua saw Varian's eyes widen.

"Hey! You're Flynn Rider!" Varian gushed excitedly.

"No. You don't know what you're talking about. I've never seen you before in my life. You can't prove anything!" Eugene had his arms crossed.

Varian was so excited and Aqua giggled.

"I'm your biggest fan!" He ran over and opened his curtain to show all his Flynn Rider books and posters. "See!"

"Hey now! Flynn Rider, nice to be met!" Eugene grinned.

"I used to see your wanted posters all the time! You're my hero!" Varian gushed.

Eugene laughed a little. "Oh, well, hero is a bit much."

"I've read every single book about you!" Varian accidentally bumped into Eugene causing the books he was carrying to fly out of his arms.

Aqua giggled as Varian fanboyed over Eugene being Flynn Rider and she walked to Varian's desk. She saw the picture she had drawn of them on top of his work and it made her smile.

"Would someone please explain to me who this child is?" Eugene looked at them. "And why is Aquaria here? I thought you were spending the day with your boyfriend."

"Why does everyone think he's my boyfriend?!" Aqua blushed and Rapunzel gave a sheepish laugh.

"Rapunzel told me you were going to see your boyfriend." Eugene shrugged.

"Rapunzel!" Aqua looked at her sister and Rapunzel smiled.

"Sorry." Rapunzel giggled sheepishly.

"Varian is not my boyfriend," Aquaria said to Eugene.

"Definitely not! I'm just her best friend! We're partners!" Varian beamed, hiding the fact that he secretly did want to be her boyfriend.

Suddenly the ground shook a little.

"What was that trembling?" Eugene looked around.

"Trembling? I didn't notice any trembling," Varian brushed it off before remembering part of the machine that he needed to read Rapunzel's test results. "Oh! I almost forgot to get the spectrum metric press. It's the only way I can read the results of the test. Flynn Rider, wanna come with?"

"Ooo... no," Eugene declined.

"Hey, if-if-if you come, I can show you something really special. But um, you've got to keep it a secret," Varian said and Eugene perked up.

"You want to tell me a secret? Did you hear that, everyone? Varitas- Va- Var-"

"Varian!" Varian corrected.

"A complete stranger wants to tell me a secret!" Eugene said proudly.

Eugene followed Varian, running a little to catch up to him.

"Listen, buddy. I need you to tell me everything that the princess told you?"

"Aquaria? Well-" Varian started with a dreamy smile before he was cut off.

"No, Rapunzel," Eugene specified.

"Oh yeah, well okay. First, she said, we're looking for Varian! And then I said, I am Varian," he lowered his voice dramatically and let out a little laugh. "And then she said, uh hi, sorry to bother you, sir, but I wanna ask you about my hair." He flipped his bangs a little.

Eugene walked closer to him, really wanting to know why his girlfriend had come to this kid.

"Wait, I'm sorry, let me back up. I forgot to tell you about the raccoon trap. So there was-" Varian was cut off again.

"Yes, that's great." He cut Varian off and facepalmed. "But what I meant is tell me all the important stuff she said," he clarified.

"Mr. Rider, when the princess of Corona who is your crush's older sister, speaks directly to you, every word is important," Varian said and Eugene raised an eyebrow.

"Crush's older sister? You have a crush on Aquaria?" Eugene grinned and Varian blushed.

"Uh, no... did I say crush's older sister? I-I meant best friend's older sister." Varian cleared his throat.

"Aww, you have a thing for the princess!" Eugene gushed at how cute it was.

"N-no... maybe... yes..." Varian admitted as his face turned into a tomato.

"Good luck, buddy. I believe in you, Varitas!"

"It's Varian!" He squeaked before running back to his house to get the spectrum metric press.

💧

Aquaria sat down at Varian's desk as the tests continued for Rapunzel.

"Hey, Squirt, what's wrong?" Cassandra asked when she saw that Aqua looked unhappy.

"Hm? Oh, nothing. Nothing's wrong. Why would anything be wrong?" Aqua brushed it off with a disheartened laugh.

"It's Varian, isn't it? You like him," Cassandra said with a little huff. She had heard about the dangerous situation Varian had put Aquaria in and just assumed he was dangerous.

"Of course I like him. He's my best friend," Aqua said softly with a small smile.

"I mean you like him more than a friend," Cass clarified.

"I-I... I guess I like him a little more than a friend... but he doesn't like me like that and I don't want things to be awkward between us if he ever found out." Aquaria rubbed her arm.

"Don't worry, Squirt. You've got plenty of time. You're still a child," Cassandra said with a chuckle.

"I am not a child! I'm fourteen!" Aqua pouted as she crossed her arms.

"You know, I had my first boyfriend when I was fourteen."

"Really? What was he like? How long were you together?" Aqua asked curiously.

"A few minutes and I don't really remember him. It was just a game of truth or dare." Cassandra shrugged. "Give it time, princess. You are both still young."

Aqua nodded with a smile as she looked at the picture on his desk. She picked it up and looked at Varian's face drawn out in colored pencil with as much detail as she could put. Suddenly the door opened and Aqua sprung out of the chair, setting the picture down.

"Team Awesome is baaaack!" Varian announced and Aqua looked over at him. "Now, Rapunzel, I know my tests been a pain in the-" Varian murmured a swear through his teeth.

"Oh, I wouldn't say pain," Rapunzel said before she was electrocuted. "Now I would..."

"In a moment, this little guy, it'll give us all the answers we want," Varian said as he set up the spectrum metric press. Aqua went over to see if he needed help.

"So what was the special secret you showed Eugene?" Aquaria asked Varian curiously.

Before he could say anything, the ground shook again.

"Look, Raps, I think it's time to go now," Eugene said quickly.

"Now? You're kidding, right? This is almost finished!" Rapunzel frowned at her boyfriend.

Eugene walked over to Varian and Aquaria.

"Can we talk?" Eugene asked Varian behind his teeth.

"Of course, that's what team awesome does- woah!"

Eugene grabbed Varian and ran outside.

Aquaria frowned, wondering what was going on. She wanted to know what Varian was keeping from her.

She carefully picked up the photo on Varian's desk. She drew it a year ago and she knew that she could draw it even better then she had, but when she offered to redraw it, Varian told her he didn't want her to.

After a few minutes of her studying the drawing, Eugene came back in and looked at the machine.

"Alright, six more tests, then we can leave, right? Go someplace far away? Really, really far away?" He walked over and Cassandra huffed.

"Why do you want us to leave so bad?" Cass asked him.

"Oh no, you can stay! In fact, it'd be great if you stayed! That way when these things blow u-uh, oh boy, nevermind!" Eugene slipped up.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Cass stopped him, now worried.

"Varian!" Aquaria worried about her best friend, knowing something was going on and Varian was in danger. She ran out of the laboratory to find Varian.

She was still holding the drawing, but wasn't paying attention to what she was doing with it. She slipped the frame into her dress pocket. She was only clearing her hands out of instinct so she hadn't made sure that the picture was all the way in her pocket.

The picture frame flew out of her pocket and landed on the path as Aqua ran to find her best friend.

Maximus saw something fly out of her pocket and he neighed loudly to get the princess's attention, but she was too focused on finding Varian.

He tried to reach his neck out to grab whatever it was, but he couldn't move his hooves so he was stuck. The raccoon that had been teasing Max scampered down the tree and grabbed the item. Max saw that it was a picture frame with what seemed to be the youngest princess and a boy. He glared at the raccoon and neighed angrily. The raccoon just took the frame in his mouth and ran off.

💧

"Varian! Where are you! Oh stars! Varian!" Aquaria ran, her heart racing with fear. She saw him running so she chased him.

He looked back when he saw her and only slowed for a moment before continuing, but Aqua managed to catch up.

"Varian! What is going on?!" She asked frantically.

"Aqua! I-I messed up again! I need to shut my machines down!" Varian yelled as they ran side by side. "You need to get out of here! I can't let you get hurt because of me again!"

Cassandra caught up to them and grabbed them both.

"Listen, kids. We gotta get out of here," Cass said urgently.

"No no! No, I got three pumps to shut off and I can't let this happen again!" Varian panicked as he tried to pull away from Cassandra. "Take Aqua and get out of here!"

"No! I'm not leaving you to get hurt, Varian!" Aqua shook her head as she looked into his eyes.

There was an explosion near them and a chimneypiece flew up and came at them. Cassandra pulled both teenagers close to her and ducked her head as it fell on them, by some miracle landing with them in the hollowed center.

Cassandra helped them up and Varian hugged Aqua close to him protectively before hearing his father's voice.

"Varian?! Varian!" Quirin ran towards them as soon as he saw his son and the youngest princess.

"Uh oh... it's my dad..." Varian said as they got out of the chimney.

Quirin knelt down and held his son's shoulders gently.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Quirin asked with worry.

"Dad... I'm sorry..." Varian looked down sadly.

"Not again, Varian," Quirin sighed softly before standing up.

"But, dad..." Varian's voice quivered as Quirin turned around. Aqua hugged Varian tightly, not wanting to see him upset.

"Is everybody okay?" Quirin asked the people.

"Quirin, what do we do? It was terrible!" One man spoke up and Quirin frowned.

"We will rebuild. Old Corona has been in need of renovations anyways. Varian, go home. We will talk about this later," Quirin said sternly and Varian felt tears in his eyes. He pulled away from Aqua and ran to his home that was falling apart now.

"Cass, tell my sister that I'm staying with Varian," Aqua said to her sister's friend.

"Are you sure that-"

"I'm sure. Goodbye, Cassandra," Aqua said before she ran after Varian.