Elizabeth's POV:

It started out like any normal day.

Minus the weird red rocks popping up.

I was walking through town when i heard a familiar voice.

"Ruddiger!? Ru-Ruddiger where are you?"

I turned around the corner to see Varian.

"Hi Varian" i said.

"Oh! Hey Ellie, hey, you haven't seen Ruddiger anywhere have you?" He asked.

"No sorry, but it'd be happy to help you look" i said.

He smiled before going back to looking for Ruddiger.

He kept calling his name.

Suddenly Varian grabbed my arm and pulled me into an ally.

"Where are we going!?" I asked.

"I saw something!" He answered.

Suddenly we bumped into some village people.

"Oh, uh, sorry, hi!" Varian said.

"Don't you have a kingdom to overthrow or something!?" One of the villagers asked.

I glared at him and balled my hands into fists.

"Oh..uh...yeah, hey you haven't seen a raccoon around have you?" Varian asked them.

They ignored him.

"We'll just keep looking, comon" i said pulling Varian away.

I hated how all the village people were treating him.

"Ruddiger!" We kept calling out.

We weren't having much luck until I turned around and saw him.

I tapped Varian's shoulder to get his attention.

He turned around and i guess he noticed too.

He ran over to where Ruddiger was.

"Hey buddy! I was looking for ya, hello?"

Ruddiger wasn't moving and he was all red.

Varian waved his hand infront of his face.

"W-what's wrong?"

He picked him up.

"Huh..."

"What happened?" I asked.

"I'm not sure...i think it has something to do with these rocks" Varian said.

"Maybe Rapunzel will know what's going on." I suggested.

"Maybe"

So we went to look for Rapunzel.

The entire town seemed to be going crazy now.

We eventually found Rapunzel and Eugene who were startled when they noticed us.

"Hi, sorry, just us" Varian said placing Ruddiger down on a barrel.

"What happened to Ruddiger?" Rapunzel asked.

"We're not sure" i said.

"But we think it has something to do with these new rocks, i mean i've only been able to study them for a couple of hours but their effects appear to be...extremely dangerous" Varian explained.

"More dangerous than bringing people's worst fears to life?!" Eugene asked, messing with his hair.

"Yes well, if people remain under that fear spell for to long it looks like they'll become frozen...in terror....permenently!" Varian said.

"Well it sounds like we need to find a way to turn those fearful frowns upside down!" Rapunzel said, moving Ruddiger's mouth so he'd be smiling.

"Oh! No, sorry! That just ended up making him look creepier" she said.

Later

Varian and i were examining the rocks while Rapunzel and Eugene talked about the sign she had made.

We overheard them talking about how for some reason Rapunzel wasn't seeing anything, but i wasn't either!

Not yet anyway...

"Hey guys? I might have an idea!" Varian said.

"So if we sever this chain of rocks, using one of my alchemical solutions,  then we should be able to cut off their fear power" he explained.

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

"We just need a cavern that runs deep enough"

"Deep cavern...i know just the place!" Rapunzel said.

Then one of the maids ran by and turned red just like Ruddiger.

It was getting worse.

So we were quick to get started.

A few minutes later (in the tunnels)

"No problem...we got this, no problem we got this..." Varian kept saying to himself.

"Are you ok Varian? Because you've said 'no problem we got this' twenty-three times now! Look, i'm actually keeping track" Rapunzel asked, holding up a book with tally marks in it.

"I'm fine really" Varian said "you know just trying not to set of the three thousand traps down here!"

"Relax...we've been through these tunnels to many times for that to-" Rapunzel was cut off by Pascal accidentally triggering one of the traps.

Great....

The ground below us opened up and i probably would have fallen in if Varian hadn't grabbed my arm in time.

Suddenly his bag fell and stuff started falling out.

"My supplies!" He yelled.

I grabbed his bag for him.

"Got it!"

Then Varian started slipping and we started to fall.

Rapunzel threw down her hair and Varian grabbed onto it.

We were both very clearly shaken up by it.

"Are you guys ok?" Rapunzel asked.

I nodded.

"We're fine" Varian said reaching into his bag "oh, but we've only got one vial of my solution left"

"Then we'll just have to make it count" Rapunzel said.

We continued walked and Varian was silent for a while.

I looked over at him.

"Hey..." i put my hand on his shoulder "you ok?"

We stopped walking and Rapunzel turned back to us.

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

"But they are...do you know what this is?" Varian asked holding up the solution.

"It's what's going to help us sever the red rocks power" Rapunzel said.

"Yes, but its also the same compound that incased my father" Varian said.

"you know the red rocks make everybody else see hallucinations, but what is see..is something...that really happened!"

"Because of this i-i did terrible-" Varian started to explain before he dropped the vial.

Then...something...weird happened.

It was like i lost my balance.

I fell to the ground.

I had closed my eyes but when i opened them again i wasn't in the tunnels anymore.

We were all back at Varian's house...

Back during the battle with his automaton...

I knew it wasn't real but i couldn't stop thinking about the fact that it had been...once....

The automaton turned towards me and i backed up towards the house slowly.

Varian's POV:

Just as i dropped the vial Pascal grabbed it.

"Oh! Great snag buddy!" Rapunzel said.

"If that had smashed, then Corona would have been done for, and everyone would hate me even more then they do now not that i would blame them-" i started explaining.

"Hey, Ellie are you ok?"

What?

I looked over at her and she looked like she was about to fall over.

"Ellie!" I yelled.

I wasn't fast enough to reach her before she fell though.

"Are you ok?" I asked her.

She didn't answer, like she couldn't even hear me.

She started backing away from me slowly.

She was getting dangerously close to the rocks.

That was when i noticed how scared she looked.

"Ellie!" I grabbed her shoulders.

"It's not real! Snap out of it!" I yelled.

Her feet started to turn red, and it was spreading.

"No! No no no!" I cried.

Then i got an idea.

I hope this works.

I leaned in and kissed her.

When i pulled away i noticed that the red was going away and she stopped trying to back away from me.

"Are you ok?" I asked her.

"Varian" her voice was shakey and she was clearly about to cry.

I pulled her into a hug "hey...hey It's ok..." i said.

"Y-you..your house...Ra-rapunzel...the automatons" was all i could make out of what she was saying as she was crying.

But it was enough to be able to tell what she saw.

"Hey, hey, look at me" i said looking her in the eyes.

I wiped her tears.

"Look around...no automatons...Rapunzel is fine...i'm fine....there's nothing to worry about...i will never let that happen again" i told her.

She seemed to calm down alot after that.

"Lets go deal with these rocks ok?" I said.

She nodded.

I helped her up and we kept walking.

Elizabeth's POV:

Well...so much for the rocks not effecting me.

"Rapunzel we've really gotta hurry, how much further is it?" Varian asked.

"Uh, we're here!" Rapunzel said "you wanted a big underground cavern, i give you...The Demanitus Chamber" Rapunzel said.

Demanitus?

Oh boy, i knew what was coming.

"Woah i-it's amazing" Varian said.

"You should have seen it before all these red rocks." Rapunzel said.

"Y-you've actually seen this before!?" Varian asked.

"You could say that" Rapunzel said.

"Man, i would have loved to have met Demanitus" Varian said.

I think he has a bit of an obsession.

"I did, nice guy, he was a monkey, long story"

Varian and i were both confused now.

"Ok, there's the base! Incasing it in amber should stop the fear from-"

The ground started shaking.

"Less explaining more pouring!" Rapunzel said.

Varian went towards the edge, looking down for a minute with a sad look on his face.

He was seeing something down there.

Then he poured the solution onto the rocks but it didn't do anything.

It just disappeared.

"What!? I don't understand, this solution should incase the red rocks i- uh, oh, of course! Ugh! So dumb Varian! Whatever turned these rocks red must have also changed their internal chemistry" Varian said.

"So that solution only works on black rocks?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yes well, what's left of it anyway" Varian said tapping the vial that had only a few drops of the solution left "but i don't even see any black rocks"

"I do" Rapunzel said pointing up.

We looked in the direction she was pointing.

"This just got alot harder"

Varian laughed nervously.

"You're telling me that i gotta climb all the way up there? Nobody in their right mind would climb-"

"Race you to the top!" Rapunzel said.

"Oh, comon..."

We all started climbing to the top.

Suddenly rocks came falling down.

"Watch out!" Rapunzel yelled.

Both me and Varian started to fall.

"Guys!" Rapunzel yelled, throwing down her hair.

Varian grabbed it then grabbed my arm.

Rapunzel then pulled us back up.

Varian quickly moved his arm to be around my waist to make sure i wouldn't fall.

"It's no use Rapunzel! W-we can't do this!" Varian said.

I nodded.

This was getting dangerous.

"Guys, you cannot let fear run your lives" Rapunzel said "look, i'm afraid too"

"Yeah you said that, princess, but you don't see the same things we see" Varian said.

"That's true, i don't" Rapunzel said "but that doesn't mean i'm not seeing...other things"

We both looked at her.

She sighed.

"I see Corona, it's covered in black rocks, and i see...Cassandra...she's concurred the kingdom, destroyed it forever, and you know what the weird part is? What i'm most afraid of...is loosing Cassandra as a friend"

"We had no idea" Varian said.

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

Rocks started falling again.

"We can do this!" Varian said "Just give us a lift"

Rapunzel launched us up onto a ledge near the black rock.

As Varian approached the group of red rocks he had to climb, it started to seem like every time i blinked it went back and fourth between reality and hallucinations.

Half the times i opened my eyes everything was normal.

The other half we were back in Varian's lab and Quirin trapped in amber was in place of the red rocks.

It was like i couldn't control it.

It wasn't until Varian turned to face me and i saw the concern and worry in his eyes that i stopped seeing the hallucinations.

He started climbing up, as he got closer i noticed he was starting to turn red.

Varian!

"It's not real" he started telling himself.

He was just about to pour the solution when he dropped the vial.

"The vial! No!" He yelled.

I caught it and threw it back to him.

He held it over the rock again.

He was almost completely frozen now.

"Fight it...Varian...fight it..."

Suddenly the amber appeared and started spreading.

"It's working!" Varian laughed as he jumped down.

He stopped on the ledge i was on.

"Comon!" He yelled as he picked me up and jumped down the rest of the way.

"You did it guys!" Rapunzel said coming to hug us.

"You conquered your fears! I knew you had it in you!"