"VARIAN!!!! VARIAN!!!"

The yelling woke Varian from his nap. He lifted his head off his desk, blinking rapidly as his eyes readjusted to the light. "Wha...?"

Lance was running up to Varian, Kiera and Catalina trailing behind him. "Sorry to ask this, but would you happen to be up for some babysitting?"

Varian started at him blankly. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I know it's a lot to ask, but Rapunzel and Eugene are on their way to the spire right now, and I have something important to attend to." Lance stated. "So can you please watch the girls?"

Varian groaned. First he has to finish the balloon early for Eugene and Rapunzel, and now this? "Lance, if this is another outing to the Snuggly Duckling, I SWEAR-"

"Come on, Atilla wants to arm wrestle, and I plan on winning!"

"You are SO irresponsible. Why can't you get someone else to watch them?" Varian asked. "A lab like this is no place for children!"

"Varian, YOU'RE a child." Lance pointed out.

"I'm FIFTEEN! I'm a teenager!" Varian protested.

"Still a child. Anyway, can you PLEASE watch them? Just for a little bit?"

Varian sighed. "You know what? Fine. But don't blame me if they get into my chemicals or something!"

"I will blame you, because babysitting means actually WATCHING them." Lance stated. "Anyway, I have to go. I'm five minutes late already!" Lance ran off, leaving Kiera and Catalina behind.

After Lance was gone, Varian addressed the girls. "Soooo... you two try not to get into any trouble, I'm going back to my alchemy."

"But Lance said you needed to watch us!" Catalina said.

Kiera huffed. "Catalina, we don't NEED to be babysat! We're ten!"

"Yeah, listen to your sister!" Varian told Catalina, patting her on the shoulder before going back to his desk.

Varian sat down and looked at his research again. He hadn't told anyone else, but he was trying to invent a device that could detect the moonstone's frequencies. That way, the kingdom could be warned when a certain somebody was approaching.

A piece of a black rock laid on the right side of Varian's desk. Shortly after Andrew broke him out of prison, he had found it laying on the ground outside, as if it had been sliced off. Knowing that the rocks were usually unbreakable, Varian had no idea how it had been cut. Since he was unlikely to find another rock that was able to be moved, he had picked it up and kept it with him to study. He hadn't told anyone about it, since they probably wouldn't be happy that Varian was messing with the rocks.

"Why do you have one of those weird rocks?" Kiera asked, coming up behind Varian and poking the tip of the rock, wincing a bit at how sharp it was.

"It's for my experiments." Varian answered. "Don't touch it. Actually, don't touch ANYTHING!"

"What experiments are you doing?" Catalina asked.

"It's not your business. Now don't bother me, I'm working."

The girls stood back, just staring over Varian's shoulder. After a few minutes, Varian had enough of that. "Okay, you two are weirding me out. Can't you keep yourselves occupied?"

"You told us not to touch anything." Kiera reminded him.

"Can we PLEEEEASE help, Varian?" Catalina begged.

Varian, wanting the girls to stop pestering him, decided to give them something to do. He reached across his desk to grab a stack of his old notes. "Alright, you two can help by sorting this. They're all disorganized now, but I colour-coded them. Put the ones written in blue ink together, and the ones written in red ink together, and so on."

Catalina grinned, taking the stack of papers. "Thank you, Varian!" She grabbed Kiera's hand and the two of them ran to the other side of the room. Catalina sat down on the floor and happily started sorting the papers, while Kiera pouted beside her, clearly bored. Varian paid no mind to this, quickly going back to his work.

After half an hour of working on his notes, he reached for the black rock, only to realize that it wasn't there. In a panic, he got up and shouted, "KIERA! CATALINA! Where is my rock?!"

Kiera had the rock next to her, and she had grabbed a few bottles of random chemicals from the shelves, now playing around with them. Varian stomped up to her. "I told you not to touch anything!" He scolded.

Kiera poured a beaker of chemicals on the rock. Thankfully, this solution didn't react with the rock at all. "I wanted to experiment too! Sorting papers is boring!"

"This lab isn't safe for kids like you!" Varian exclaimed. "Some of these chemicals are really dangerous!"

"I tried to tell her that!" Catalina chimed in, moving the newly sorted papers aside. "But she doesn't listen to me!"

"I just want to see what happens!" Kiera insisted, grabbing a beaker of neon yellow liquid, preparing to pour it onto the rock.

"STOP!!" Varian gasped, grabbing the serum out of Kiera's hand before anything got on the rock. "DON'T pour that one!!!"

"Why not?!" Kiera whined.

"If that makes contact with the rock, it'll start to form amber that could trap us all!" Varian explained.

"Woah, cool!" Kiera exclaimed, attempting to grab the beaker back.

"NO, NOT COOL!!!" Varian snapped, holding it out of her reach.

Kiera kept reaching for the beaker, and Varian kept pulling it away. Catalina was pleading with them both to stop. "Guys, you're being dangerous!!"

"SHE'S being dangerous!" Varian protested. He finally ripped the beaker away from her, but not before a drop of its contents spilled onto the rock. Varian paled. "Crap!"

Catalina stared at the slowly growing amber in awe. "It's so pretty!"

Varian grabbed her and Kiera's hands, pulling them back. "It won't be pretty when you're encased in it!"

Varian ran to grab some of his research before it was too late, Kiera and Catalina helping him grab some of it. He lead the girls out the door quickly as the amber started spreading at a rapid rate. He looked back in horror to see the amber catching up to them, consuming everything in its path.

His new laboratory was on the top of a hill in Old Corona, and the downward slope gave them the advantage of speed. They ran as fast as they could, tripping and falling at the bottom of the hill, but otherwise being unharmed.

Varian groaned as he got up from the ground, staring up at the top of the hill. The amber had stopped spreading, but the entire building was covered in it. Varian's heart pounded, as memories came rushing back to him, but he tried to keep calm in front of the girls. "A-are you two okay?!"

"Yeah, we're fine!" Kiera answered as she helped Catalina up. "I'm sorry for messing with your potions..."

"They're not called POTIONS, they're not mag-" Varian stopped when he noticed Kiera rolling her eyes at him. "I mean, it's fine. You were curious. Just please, for the love of god, don't mess with things you don't understand!"

Kiera nodded. "Okay... do you need me to help clean this up?"

"Thanks for the offer, but this stuff can't be cleaned up that easily." Varian groaned. "Dad's going to kill me."