Journey to the End of the Earth (with one unwilling hostage) | a Tangled the Series AU
Chapter 1 - misstep

Varian was running on the pavement of Corona, his loyal raccoon on his shoulders. He couldn’t believe it! He escaped on the short journey to prison (in this journey, he managed to meet a weird Saporian with a man bun called Andrew) and now was free… practically.
He stopped to take a breath. Surely, he lost the guards by now? He looked around… and couldn’t believe his luck. There was a caravan, standing right there, on the road! He could hide out in this! (With his usual tendency to overlook, not notice or think things through, he, in fact, did not see how close the caravan was standing to the castle, or how familiar the style of the decorations were, showing that the caravan belongs to the Princess.) He found a hiding place in a kind of food trunk - it seemed to be a big one (suited for a long trip - something Varian, once again, did not think about). Varian thought that maybe a short teenager and a half of one could fit inside, and maybe a raccoon.
So, he hid himself inside the food trunk. It was small and he found that it was hard to breathe, but at least he was hidden.
A few hours later, someone else climbed inside - a really old drunk that Varian sometimes saw around the castle. He was called Shorty, Varian remembered. Now, he was stuck in a food trunk with him (luckily, the drunk didn't notice him). Just great.
In a minute - or ten minutes? It was hard to tell - the caravan was moving. During that time, Varian… Well, Varian didn’t do anything. Every day, he ate some bread to sustain himself and somehow managed to get out his journal to write in it, but that was about all of his activity during the journey. He hoped that the caravan would finally come to a stop so that he would be able to escape, but that kept, well, not happening.
Then, one day, Shorty was rudely yanked out of the food trunk. The teenager hoped the people in the caravan might not notice him, and once they were gone, he would get out. But no.
You know about that luck I was talking about earlier?
It seemed to have disappeared.
Suddenly, and just as rudely, Varian followed. Someone yanked him out by the collar of his jumper.
Squinting at the sudden light and wincing at his body aching from not moving for days, Varian looked up to see who were the owners of the caravan.
His jaw dropped.
No. No way.
The owners of the caravan were the people who he fought and nearly killed just a few days ago.
For a few seconds, Varian stared at them and they stared at him, seemingly feeling just as surprised, if not more, as him. Then, the teenager threw a smoke bomb and wriggled out of Cassandra’s grip and ran away.
Although, between his legs nearly giving out from not moving and Cassandra throwing her sword, thus pinning him down to a tree, he didn't make it that far.
The group gathered around him, expressions ranging from shocked to frustrated.
“What are you doing here?” Cassandra asked (she was one of the frustrated ones).
“Yeah, you should’ve been halfway to prison by now,” Eugene added, hands on hips (he was somewhere in-between).
Varian rolled his eyes, trying very hard to not appear terrified. “I escaped… genius,” he added snarkily.
Cassandra turned to her friend (or girlfriend? Varian wasn't quite sure). “Raps, what should we do with him?”
Rapunzel's face changed from uncertain anxiety to determination in the fraction of a second.
“We drop him off in the nearest prison.”
Well, that seemed to be it for Varian's ‘genius plan’ if another man that Varian didn’t know didn't say the following:
“Uh… Vardaros’s prison was never that… secure…”
“Yeah, we broke out of there hundreds of times,” Eugene added, ignoring the look that Cassandra shot at him.
“Well, in that case… we will… keep him hostage in here until we find a more secure one,” Rapunzel decided.
“Won't he just run away again?” the man asked.
Varian watched the exchange between the group, slowly calming down. Perhaps they weren't going to put him in prison again? Or, y'know, execute him? (Then again, he thought, Rapunzel probably wouldn't allow it.) They all seemed pretty distracted… he tried to escape Cassandra's grip again, but ultimately failed.
“Then… we will keep him here, with us, so he can’t run away. In chains.”
“Sunshine… we don’t have chains.”
Varian smiled triumphantly. But then again, he was still in Cassandra's grip. He attempted to charm her (despite being no longer attracted to her) but she just facepalmed and looked away.
“So? Are we taking us with us or keeping him here?” the man asked.
“Taking him with us would be the smart thing to do,” Cassandra said. “Otherwise, he might run away. Again.” She glared at Varian.
Rapunzel turned to her, “Do we have a rope?”
“Yes. Please go get it, he is extremely annoying.”
“Hey!”
At that moment, Ruddiger ran out of the food trunk and, climbing up to his shoulders, chittered to his owner that this was a bad idea. Varian scoffed. As though he needed reminding.
So, that was how he ended up walking on the slightly rancid pavement of Vardaros with Hookfoot, Eugene, Shorty and the man who he didn’t know, whose name was apparently Lance, with his hands tied up behind his back. Eugene’s three friends (friends, right?) were teasing him about how he was going to propose to Rapunzel. At one point, Varian actually laughed.
That was also when a girl with black hair tied up in braids yelled at them:
“Hey, you! You guys are friends with that annoying girl with the long hair, right?”
“Hey, hey, hey, easy! That just happens to be the woman I love!” Eugene replied at the same time as Varian yelled,
“No!”
“And she’s not annoying! We like to use the term ‘irrepressible,’” Lance smiled teasingly.
“No!” yelled the girl, “She’s in trouble. You better come with me.”
Varian attempted to make a run for it but Eugene grabbed him and dragged him with them.
Later, the teenager said that Eugene literally dragged him down with them.
As it turned out, the girl with braids scammed them and they all, save for Hookfoot, got kidnapped by the person who was actually Eugene and Lance’s long-standing enemy, called the Baron (or, rather, they were his enemy). Also, Eugene now had to get married to the aforementioned enemy’s daughter since he poisoned Lance and the enemy had an antidote to give to him as a wedding gift. You know. Typical.
Much to the teenager’s annoyance, Eugene kept asking Varian if he could just make the antidote, even though he literally took his chemicals off of him with his own hands. Even if he had the chemicals and the will to save Lance, he might have needed the original antidote, the spider itself and he would definitely need lots and lots of time.
So, Eugene went to a wedding that wasn’t meant to be his, and that was when his actual fiance appeared, along with Cassandra, Hookfoot and the girl with braids. In his hiding spot in the wings, Varian heard them fight the Baron’s men. For the fifth time this day, he made his escape, running away into the fight, but one of the guards pushed him back, blocking the narrow exit. Varian fell, hands stinging lightly against the stone, and glared at the guard in annoyance. Unfortunately, he still didn’t have his chemicals (well, the toxic, harmful ones used in fighting, that is), and he wasn’t a fighter, so by now his chances of escaping were drastically low.
That was when Eugene shoved the guard away and yelled at the teenager:
“Get out! Come on, go!”
Even though he was completely and utterly shocked at the fact that Eugene - someone whose soulmate was endangered by him - was helping him, Varian didn’t need to get told twice. He ran out, hardly believing his luck.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eugene running back to Lance and getting captured by the Baron’s daughter, Stalyan, and Rapunzel trying to push him back to her using her hair.
Maybe he should return the favour?
Half-surprising himself, Varian took a sharp turn and pushed into Rapunzel’s hair on Stalyan’s end, making her let go, which allowed the Princess to pull her boyfriend to her side.
The rest of the fight was a blur. Pascal allowed the poisonous spider that previously bit Lance to bite the Baron and a mysterious woman with white hair showed up to explain why Rapunzel's plan did not work (she looked somewhat familiar to Varian, but how, he wouldn’t find out until much later).
If you’re feeling confused, trust me, Varian felt the same way.
How did he get here again?

Journey to the End of the Earth (with one unwilling hostage) | a Tangled the Series AU
Chapter 2 - attempt to correct the misstep

{trigger warning for: mentions of execution, some ketchup, a phobia-induced panic attack and fainting as a result of said panic attack in the same scene. This is all mostly towards the end of the chapter.}

During the fight, Varian was pretty much useless, so for the sixth time that day, he attempted to slip away. Unfortunately, during the fight, the Baron’s men stopped him from doing so Once the fight was over, Varian thought that he would actually run away now, but no. Lance stopped him at the gateway. Varian decided that the Princess’ group wouldn’t let him leave, seeing as he was still their hostage, which is why for the next few days he remained in Vardaros.
Not wanting to get beaten up in a fight again, he spent his time looking for anything that could be useful for him and to re-make his chemicals. The only one he had left after getting disarmed and sentenced was a smoke bomb that he managed to sneak in, and let’s see, where was it now? Ah yes. He used it in his first ten seconds out of the food trunk. The only other chemical he had was his “medicine,” which was really a chemical that changed his voice and body into more masculine ones rather than the ones he was born with, and after saying it was medicine Eugene allowed him to keep it. Luckily enough, he found some glue and cyanide (what kind of city was this?) and hydrochloric acid, as well as some equipment (the question about what kind of city this was still stood). To his surprise, Eugene actually got him money to buy everything, but that was probably because he didn’t want the group’s hostage to be useless again. (He was a hostage, wasn’t he?)
Also, Varian managed to acquire (buy, not steal) a black trench coat, a belt, and a leather sash with small holders on it! This was great. He was able to finally somewhat change his outfit, as his current one was dirty from being stuck in a food trunk with Shorty for three days - his sweater and apron were both stained, though not so much the sweater as the apron (but that’s the reason an apron exists, right?). He cut down the apron and attached it to the belt (in the same way as he would then go on to wear another apron upon his return to Corona), put test tubes in the sash and gelatine bubbles in the trench coat’s pocket and put it on to hide the stains. Looking in the mirror, he noticed that he looked a lot like the gender envy-inducing fictional character who he named himself after. The news was a surprise; a welcome one.
(One might argue that Varian didn’t change into a new outfit as he was still wearing the same clothes, save for some accessories. For that ‘one,’ in this particular situation that ‘one’ being Cassandra, Varian had two words - “shut up.”)
Soon enough, they were on the road again. For a few days, the group lived out in the wilderness (unless you count their caravan). Varian spent most of his time replenishing his stock. His plan was to get just enough chemicals - mainly glue and explosions - so that he could escape without any trouble. And whatever came after… well, he’d cross that bridge once he got to it.
Escaping was the important bit. His freedom wasn’t the only thing depending on it - he hurt these people so much, they were likely to hurt him the same way, if not more. They would probably, you know, kill him, he reasoned, drumming his fingers on his desk while making his glue.
He couldn’t believe that once upon a time, they had a positive relationship.
He decided to escape during the night, when only one person was keeping watch. The group followed a strict rotation schedule of who kept watch, giving Varian the opportunity of choosing who to potentially fight against. Eugene and Lance would probably be able to easily knock him out, seeing as thievery involves fighting and they were thieves for most of their lives. Same thing goes for Cassandra - as the daughter of the captain of the guard, she had experience, lots of it. Rapunzel, on the other hand… He beat before - her main advantage was her hair; sticking it to the ground would mean being able to leave.
So, he waited until it was her turn to keep watch. That night, he decided to not wear his coat as it may get in the way of running. When it was finally nightfall, he stayed up under the excuse of alchemy (something he already did frequently enough for them to believe him - Eugene, Cassandra and Rapunzel met him while he was in a tired, got-only-three-hours-of-sleep state countless times before everything happened) and simply went to the other side of the caravan, into the woods. Didn’t seem that hard, Varian thought as he flexed his fingers and shivered against the cold. That fact didn’t stop nervous energy from thrumming against his skin, as though he was about to explode with it.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Varian froze. It was Rapunzel. He sucked in breath.
“Uhh…” he chuckled nervously, all thoughts of his plan gone from his head, brain going blank. Then he took off.
He ran through the woods, nearly tripping on branches scattered through the floor and getting stung by vines’ thorns, as his sleeves were still rolled up. The aerobic respiration didn’t kick in yet so Varian was left with anaerobic, which meant aching legs and a stitch, yet he ran as fast as he could, as though his life depended on it - which, let’s face it, it probably did.
There were footsteps behind him. It took him a second to realise that meant he was being followed.
Varian’s heart pounded so loudly, he could hear it. Through the darkness, branches and adrenaline, the teenager remembered that he was planning to use his glue, so he pulled it out of his belt and threw the tube behind him blindly, not turning around to see if it hit its target or waiting to hear the glass smash.
Suddenly, a rope tied around him. No, not a rope - hair. This was it. He got caught. They would kill him. He was dead.
He was pulled up over a branch and turned to face a scowling (half-frowning) Rapunzel, with her chameleon on her shoulder. Behind her, Cassandra was holding a sword, (wiping away sleep from her eyes and yawning) poised to behead him if she wished to.
“If you’re going to kill me, get it over with quickly,” he muttered softly and closed his eyes, waiting for the blow… but it never came.
Instead, he heard Rapunzel let out a surprised chuckle. “Why would we kill you?” Slowly, he opened his eyes, to find the Princess standing before him, one eyebrow cocked and arms on hips.
Cassandra frowned, unimpressed, and gestured at Rapunzel as if to say, ‘This is who you’re dealing with.’
She was right, Varian realised.
He was dealing with the Sundrop herself - not just any Sundrop but Princess Rapunzel. She wouldn’t kill him, she wouldn’t be able to. Varian exhaled with relief but that didn’t stop him shaking in his bindings. He was shaking? He didn’t realise he was shaking.
“Trust me, I want to,” Cassandra muttered, loud enough for him to hear her. He swallowed, eyes darting.
Rapunzel began to untie her hair but Cassandra stopped her halfway.
“What if he escapes again?” she whispered.
The princess looked at the shaking teenager and back at her friend. “Are you sure he’d be able to do that right now?” she asked, eyebrow raised.
Said shaking teenager was somewhat calming down. He was fine. He was still alive, thank the Gods. His heart still raced, but he was fine. He was fine…
And in slight pain.
His arms stung and legs ached, and he felt like all air was knocked out of his lungs. Varian looked over himself, and noticed that he had scabs all over his arms.
But he was fine. He was alive.
Slowly but surely, he calmed down enough to see that the two women were still staring at him and began to walk away, feeling slightly self-conscious, readjusting his goggles and wiping away a trickle of sweat from his arm. He automatically looked at his (gloved) hand to look at the sweat (a beginner mistake)…
It wasn’t sweat.
Varian’s eyes widened at the dark-red liquid on his glove, he felt he couldn’t breathe and it felt like everything hurt; was he dying all over again? He was very wrong to have thought he was fine, he wasn’t fine, he wasn’t fine at all-

Journey to the End of the Earth (with one unwilling hostage) | a Tangled the Series AU
Chapter 3 - chances to correct the misstep are fading rapidly

{TW: some self-dislike, mentions of murder.}

Varian woke up inside the caravan.
What happened? he wondered sleepily, but, as his consciousness started up, he worked it out a moment later. He must’ve blacked out after seeing… you know what? He decided to not dwell on it (wow, that’s a thing he could do? He had no idea!) and stood up from the small pile of spare blankets on the floor. (He put them there when he found out he was going to be held hostage here - ironic, isn’t it? - and since he was staying, he could be at least somewhat comfortable, right?)
He didn’t even make three shaky steps when he dropped back down due to the caravan turning sharply.
“What was that?” came Eugene’s voice.
“Your worst enemy,” Varian called back, getting back up. Over the past few days, Eugene and Varian’s conversations have all consisted mostly of sarcastic quips. Out of all the residents of the caravan (minus Ruddiger), Varian was probably most close to Eugene - well, as close as he could be after kidnapping his girlfriend’s mother.
“Oh. You’re awake?”
“No, I am simply able to react to your voice and respond while being unconscious,” the teenager deadpanned, walking over a stool. He knew that standing on a stool was usually a bad idea, especially when the caravan was moving so quickly, but he was too short to reach the trapdoor that opened to the roof when he was just standing on his feet. Varian pushed himself up and out of the trapdoor, struggling to stay on the roof as each turn made him sway and nearly fall back into the caravan.
From his place on the roof, where he finally climbed onto, he could see that Cassandra was driving and Eugene sat next to her, seemingly having just paused their conversation.
“There goes the hope that you got over your sassy villain phase,” Eugene sighed.
“Ha! Never,” said Varian, before nearly rolling off of the roof. “Why is the caravan going so fast anyway?”
“We need to make progress,” Cassandra said. “Although, we will camp out soon enough.”
“Cassandra just found out how far away we are from the Dark Kingdom,” Eugene explained.
“Oh. Wait, you're going to the Dark Kingdom?”
“Apparently,” Eugene sighed.
“At least, Adira - a total stranger that may have ulterior motives - said so,” Cassandra added.
“I can't believe I'm agreeing with you,” the man muttered. Varian couldn’t believe it either.
“You mean that tall woman with white hair?”
“Yes, her,” Cass replied. “She also beat me up.”
Varian's eyes widened. “She what?”
“Well, we had a fight, but basically yes, she took down both me and Raps. She also had a sword out of moonstone.”
“She- she what? But- that's impossible! I tried to cut a piece of one many times and it didn't work!” Varian rambled. “I literally used acid and explosions when physical force failed, and the only time it showed any kind of reaction was when the…” he trailed off and went quiet. It took a moment for Eugene and Cassandra to catch on.
“Oh.”
Rapunzel's head popped out of a door on the side of the caravan. “Hey, have you two seen Vari- oh. Nevermind.”
Snapped out of his thoughts, Varian cocked one eyebrow. “You were looking for me?”
“Uh, it’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Rapunzel said quickly and disappeared once again.
You see, after you attempt to kill someone, there’s this awkwardness left between the two of you.
“We can camp out here,” Cassandra said, stopping the horses and the caravan.
So they did. Like usual, the group split apart: Cassandra trained around with her sword and Rapunzel drew something and Eugene, Lance and Hook Foot just talked with each other and Shorty was, well, Shorty was Shorty. This left Varian and Ruddiger alone, as they usually were during break time. That was how Varian was left looking through his backpack to see what he could attempt to perfect to kill time.
There was some glue and some Flynollium and empty gelatine bubbles. He felt for anything else until he found a test tube with some purple liquid inside.
Ruddiger climbed onto his shoulder and chittered in his ear.
“I- of course I feel guilty!” Varian exclaimed. “I made it because I thought I might need it. Using it months ago doesn’t render it useless now, does it?”
The racoon chittered, unconvinced.
“Believe me, I know that I shouldn’t have done it. But I had a motive and reason.” The racoon glared back. “I- are you seriously blaming me?” Varian scoffed, gesturing quickly. “It was all her fault and in no way mine. Other than when… I lashed out, I suppose. And I may not have needed to kidnap her mother, I guess.” As he continued, his voice got slower and quieter. “And… maybe I should’ve realised that the Sundrop is powerless from the beginning… and it was my fault that he got encased in the first place…” The last one hurt the most. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, it was true, unfortunately. If he never knocked down that beaker of liquid amber, it wouldn’t have reacted and his dad would have still been fine… well, as fine as one can be when one’s village is destroyed by black rocks.
Maybe, he should’ve just asked for help again, instead of deciding that the whole world turned its back on him. But then again, it did turn its back on him, didn’t it? He was always alone, a black sheep among his village. The only people that were ever kind to him were… well, they were the very people that he hurt the most.
Varian fell to the ground in defeat. Maybe he was guilty. Maybe he did deserve whatever punishment was coming to him.
“At least you’re still here,” he sighed at the racoon.
A few moments passed. Then, a scream came.

Journey to the End of the Earth (with one unwilling hostage) | a Tangled the Series AU
Chapter 4 - great, nature /s

{TW: some violence}

“WOLVES! RUN!”
It was Lance.
Varian came up with a jolt and grabbed Ruddiger and ran as fast as he could. Soon enough, he saw the rest of the group and joined them.
“They’re gaining on us!”
“What are these things?”
“Don’t worry, it’s just a pack of slayer wolves,” Eugene called.
Just a pack of slayer wolves? the teenager wanted to yell, but he was nearly out of breath.
“Come on! This way!”
They speeded straight into a dead end, and sharply stopped. Varian even heard someone kindly point out that it was one. Wow, really, he had no idea.
“Aw, please don’t eat me, I’m so chewy!” Lance wailed. “Oh, who am I kidding? I’m probably moist and delicious.”
The group was surrounded by slayer wolves who Varian could easily imagine eating them. The only one who seemed to keep a level head was Eugene. In fact, he looked confident. A bit idiotic, if you asked Varian.
“It’s not a dead end, Lance,” he said, almost condescendingly. “It’s just got great acoustics.”
He acted fast - quickly took out an empty flask and some coins, put them into the flask and shook it, creating a loud, echoing sound. The wolves whimpered and quickly ran away.
For a second, the group was silent, taking in what just happened. The first one to speak was Rapunzel.
“That was incredible, Eugene!” She smiled at her boyfriend.
“Oh, man, Eugene's back and better than ever!” Hook Foot cheered.
“Yeah!” Lance agreed, as Varian applauded. “You're the king of the wild!”
“Eh, anybody who's spent time in the woods knows that Slayer Wolves have extremely sensitive hearing,” Eugene said, pretending to be modest. “Now, let's hit the road.”
“See that teamwork? I distract them by pretending to cry while you chase them off.” Lance chuckled as the group walked off. “Thank you,” he whispered to his best friend as though no-one else could hear him.
“Lance,” Varian sighed, “you were crying.”
“See?” Lance smiled proudly. “My acting even worked on this little guy!” Varian rolled his eyes.
“I just did what had to be done,” Eugene continued. “Now come on, I'll show you how to extract drinking water from a tree trunk!”
A few hours later, Varian was back on the rooftop of the caravan, flipping through his journal, partially zoned out. Eugene's voice suddenly snapped him back to reality.
“Okay, so the black rocks have led us to a swamp,” he sighed. “But on the bright side…” Varian examined his surroundings. The surroundings in question were slimy, sludge-like, grey and generally disgusting, and this was coming from someone who worked with slime and sludge his whole life. There was nothing bright about this situation. Eugene mumbled: “I was hoping someone would finish this sentence for me, this place is terrible.”
Meanwhile, Shorty climbed out of the caravan and scooped up some of the water in a bowl.
“Uh, I don't think you want to drink that, Shorty,” Eugene said, quickly following him out.
“Ah, you know what they say: One man's swamp water is another man's ‘I'll drink it!’” Varian added a few more notes to the double-page spread in his journal dedicated to the long-term effects of alcohol on the brain as he jumped off the roof of the caravan.
Cassandra climbed out of her driver’s seat and walked up to Eugene, hands crossed. “So, ‘king of the wild’, any suggestions on how to cross this thing?” she asked, sarcasm souring her voice.
Eugene looked the swamp over, face scrunched up in thought. Then, he shrugged. “Looks like it's too deep! Hah! So, I think we're going to have to backtrack to get through this. It'll add a day to our journey, but it's the only way.”
“I had no idea people from Corona were such quitters.” The unfamiliar voice made Varian jump. Turning around, he noticed it was the strange, white-haired woman before. “You know, I always say, if you can't go through something, go over it.”
“Wow! I guess chivalry's not dead!” Eugene sighed.
“I told you I'd be around if trouble came your way,” the woman said. “And, well, here I am. Your new guide.”
The group had differing reactions to that information.
Rapunzel seemed to be fine with it. Lance was more than fine with it. Eugene and Cass were annoyed. Varian was confused and slightly suspicious - he didn’t even know her name, and now she was going to guide them?
“Yeah, you were a real help with those Slayer Wolves back there,” Eugene mumbled.
Lance shoved him. “You be quiet.”
Clearing her throat, Cassandra pulled the group into a huddle.
“Rapunzel, we talked about this. I don't trust this woman,” she hissed. “She keeps popping up out of nowhere, and I don't like it.” Varian agreed with Cassandra, though didn’t comment on her words.
“Yes, yes,” Eugene quickly agreed as well - a rare phenomenon, “I second that, plus, we don't need her. Another person will just slow us down, particularly with all h-”
“Oh, I don’t know, you’re gonna need her. She’s the only person who can get you through the Forest of No Return.” Everyone turned to Adira, who pushed into the huddle and was now smirking at Eugene.
Brows furrowed in confusion, the teenager muttered, “Who even are you?”
Adira went on as though she hasn’t heard him (to be fair, she probably hasn’t). “Few have made it to the other side of the forest alive, and I'm one of them,” she told them. “The first time I crossed, I had nothing but a dagger and a handful of nuts. And I had bronchitis,” she added.
“You’re amazing,” Lance whispered in awe.
“I know,” Adira responded in kind.
Didn’t Adira beat up Cassandra when they first met? How did they know she wasn’t tricking the group? It wasn’t that much of a hard thing to do.
Eugene cleared his throat and Varian sharply turned back to him.
“So, lookie here, Adira,” he began, “I appreciate the bridge assist, but I'm pretty sure I can lead us through a forest-”
“Forest of No-”
“Yes, I’m familiar with its name, thank you,” said Eugene, seemingly trying not to groan.
Despite the chance of the group listening was very low, Varian decided to voice his thoughts anyway. “I- ahem.” Well, now all eyes were turned on him… okay. “I second that. Who is she? She just came out of nowhere!” he said, voice getting quicker and gesturing as he spoke, “That is very suspicious, she might stab you guys in the bac-”
“For a villain and a traitor, you talk too much about people being suspicious and back-stabbing,” Lance interrupted, hands crossed.
Eh. That was fair enough. But, however much by force, they were on the same side now - why would he back-stab them?
…
Actually, don’t answer that. However, he didn’t really want them to get harmed, because… Well… Since that… Because that also, in a way, harmed him. In some way… Anyway…
Oh, he zoned out again. This realisation fazed him back into reality.
“-know you grew up in the wilderness, and I have complete faith in you, I really do,” Rapunzel smiled at her boyfriend, holding his hand, “But can it hurt anything to have another expert along?”
Really? She trusted Adira too? Varian looked over the group to see if anyone shared this sentiment and noticed Cassandra roll her eyes.
“Oh, goodie,” Eugene sighed, “another expert. Fine.”
“You've made the only decision there is,” Adira announced. “The right one.”
As they were walking back to the caravan, Varian heard Rapunzel reassure her boyfriend, “This doesn't change anything, Eugene. You are still the go-to guy out here.”
If you combine Lance’s crush / worshipping of Adira with most of the group already trusting her, plus her obvious skills, probably not for long.