*The Chronicles of F.R.E.E. Atania's Knight - Raquel Festow* Part 1

Chapter 7 - The Story of Rhianna Wessex

*Watson POV - Secrunerth*

My conciousness came back and I groaned. I felt like I had been run over. I tried to sit up but didn't have the energy. I opened my eyes and realised I was laying in a bed in the infirmary.
I turned my head and saw Ruby laying in the bed next to me, staring back at me.
"What happened?" She said, weakly.
"I have no fucking clue." I croaked back, again trying to get up.
I managed to lean myself up on my elbows slightly and looked at the beds opposite us. Rhianna was there, looking around and Rebecca still seemed to be asleep.
"Bianca?" I called out as loud as I could.
Bianca came in immediately, closely followed by a worried looking Asuna and Darren along with a sobbing Natalia.
She saw Rebecca still asleep and rushed to her side, gripping her hand, overcome by another fresh wave of tears.
Darren audibly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw me sitting up slightly. He ran over and engulfed me in a tight embrace, kissing my cheek and whispering in my ear how much he had been so worried about me.
Asuna looked over Ruby and Rhianna to make sure they were ok.
"What happened?" Rhianna asked, looking at me suspiciously.
"Don't look at me!" I started to argue with her. "I didn't do anything. I was with Natalia and Rebecca."
"The last time this happened was because of you! You're always getting into trouble because you're so fucking weak!" She spat at me.
"Don't you fucking start on me!" I roared, trying to get out of the bed.
"Will you both just stop?" Natalia begged, thoroughly upset and sniffing. "Something's wrong with Rebecca, Bianca. She's not waking up."
Bianca rushed over to them and I threw the covers off me, trying to get to them. Darren pulled my arm over his shoulders and hoisted me against him so we could walk over.
Rebecca was laying very still and she didn't seem to be breathing. Bianca checked her pulse and nodded.
"Her pulse is there, Natalia. She just seems to be taking longer to wake up. Don't worry." She said, placing a reassuring hand on Natalia's trembling shoulder.
Natalia nodded and looked at me. I avoided her gaze by looking down at Rebecca and taking her other hand. Darren lowered me into a chair and knelt beside me, one hand on mine as I held Rebecca's hand and the other linked to my free hand, planting a kiss on my cheek before gazing at Rebecca with concern.
"Well? What happened?" Rhianna repeated at Bianca flatly.
"It was the same as what happened last time. You all experienced what one of you had been feeling at that moment in time. We assume it was Raquel's pain you were experiencing at that certain moment because none of you were showing any signs of trauma."
"Did we say anything this time?" Ruby asked.
"You were all muttering two names. Xavier and Clara." Bianca nodded.
I glanced at Darren and he tried to give me an encouraging smile but it came out as a crooked, stretched line instead. I hung my head. I didn't remember anything.
"Nat...ali...aa" Came Rebecca's broken voice, and her eyes cracked open slightly.
We all breathed out, thankful that she was now awake at least.
"I'm here, my love." Natalia said ever so softly to her, cupping her cheek and stroking it with her thumb.
"You're crying, darling." Rebecca's brow creased together as she lifted her hand out of mine and cupped her cheek, wiping away her tears.
"Because I'm so pleased you're awake." Natalia smiled through her tears and snuggled her face into Rebecca's hand.
"I'm going to go throw up somewhere." Rhianna groaned, getting out of her bed and picking up Spineripper before leaving the room.
I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Drama queen." I said to Darren under my breath.
"What happened?" Rebecca asked, turning her head and seeing me.
Her eyes widened and I could tell she was worried something had happened relating to her dementia. I made the smallest of shakes with my head.
"We all passed out. We all felt the pain that Raquel must have been experiencing at the same time." I said to her.
Her eyes closed and I knew she was slightly relieved it wasn't anything to do with her, but her face turned full of anguish.
"She's hurt and we don't know where she is." She whispered.
"We'll find her, Beccs." Darren said, confidently. "It might take us a while, but we've already been sending people out between calls to search for her."
Rebecca grunted as she tried to sit up. Natalia placed a hand behind her back and helped her.
"Thank you, darling." Rebecca said, lifting the hand that already held Natalia's hand and kissing it. She took a deep breathe before looking at Darren. "Where have you searched so far?"
"Currently, we spent a month in Neonia and we've just moved into Cristis."
"A MONTH?!" Rebecca, Ruby and I all shouted at the same time.
"Fuck! How long were we out for?!" Rebecca breathed, panicking.
"Two months. It was like you had all gone into a coma or something." Darren said, looking at me and leaning his forehead against mine.
I pecked his cheek and leaned my head on his shoulder just as my phone pinged. I groaned and rolled my eyes, getting up to get my phone.
"You were all laying so still and looked so peaceful, like you were sleeping. Asuna kept having to remind me you weren't..." Natalia was saying but trailed off towards the end as she broke down sobbing again.
I reached my phone and saw I had just received an email from Perkins. I tapped to open it up.
"Oh, darling. It's going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me." Rebecca told her, pulling her into a tight hug and rubbing her back.
"Problem solved!" I said, turning round to face them, grinning from ear to ear.
Everyone had their eyes on me.
"What do you mean, Ruth?" Rebecca asked me slowly.
"I know where she is." I said, my already wide grin getting wider.
"What?! Where?" Rebecca threw the covers off her and swung her legs out of the bed. Darren stood along with Natalia to help her.
"Looks like we have to go and visit some old friends of ours." I replied, cryptically. "Pack your bags, guys. We're going to Earth."

No words could express how unbelievably happy I was when I saw Perkins email saying that he had found Raquel in a hospital. He had been sent to interview her after three people had been found beaten half to death in an alleyway in Maidstone. She was ok, the other two, Xavier and Clara, were on the mend too and they were getting Dean to go to the hospital to take them some Health and Energy potions and get them out of there.
I had desperately tried to call Perkins, but because his phone wasn't capable of taking calls from other Realms, it wouldn't connect. Same with the others, so we had no choice but to pack and get ready to head to Earth to collect her.
Darren was over the moon. He was like a kid in a sweet shop, running around like a mad thing, collecting everything we'd need to take with us. His reaction to my announcement of needing to go to Earth had been to throw his head back and literally howl at the ceiling before jumping up and down.
It was only going to be Rebecca, Natalia, Darren and I going to Earth and, to say Rhianna was upset about that, was the understatement of the century. She was furious that we were going with Rebecca and Natalia but she was absolutely livid when she found out that our friends had gone back to their Realms with their memories of Astrovia. Rebecca and Rhianna had even had a physical fight because of it, ending with Rhianna having to be put in a headlock by Ruby and myself. She had originally tried to go for me, but Rebecca had stepped in and stopped her. The canteen was off limits for us, at the moment, until Rebecca had managed to talk sense into Rhianna and calm her down. Rebecca couldn't leave Rhianna in this mood and she was selfishly wasting our time while we waited for her to cool down so we could leave her and Ruby in control safely.
Darren was currently in Lisorix, doing a last minute training regime with those that had been badly affected by the war on Atania, so it was only me in the apartment. I was fresh out of the shower and drying my hair when I heard a knock on the door.
I rose to my feet, quickly wrapped my hair in a towel and strode over to answer the door. It was Rhianna.
"H-Hey, Rhianna. Wasn't expecting it to be you-"
"Shut the fuck up!" She snapped and pushed past me into the apartment. "We need to talk."
"As long as talking is all that we do. I'm not armed right now." I joked.
"Don't tempt me then." She warned, Spineripper glowing red by her side. She stormed into the living room before coming to a complete standstill.
I closed the door and walked to join her, wondering why she had stopped.
She was looking around the room in surprise. I knew why, too.
"Remind you of somewhere?" I smirked.
She turned her face to me and widened her eyes. "It's exactly like it. How did you get it so similar?"
I shrugged and motioned for her to sit down. She plonked herself down on the sofa, looking at the fireplace, the weapon hooks, the cabinets. Her expression betrayed her, showing her feelings of nostalgia as she took everything in.
"It's just like we're back in Astrovia..." She murmured.
"I had a hard time leaving it behind, too. Especially when I got engaged to Darren. But... I know you had it worse, Rhi." I said, pulling out a bottle of Astrovia wine and two glasses before making my way over to join her.
Rhianna stared at me as I poured the wine into the glasses, only very small amounts, and handed a glass to her.
"How do you know about that?" She asked me, lowly.
"Everyone knows, Rhianna. When you come back from Rulid, we all try to comfort and support you, but you just push everyone away." I told her. "Look, I know you're upset because our friends went back with their memories, but it was because I had heard about the others from your Realms being sent back home without their memories that I fought to keep theirs. After being around you for the past eleven years, and seeing how heartbroken you become when you come back, I'm glad I did."
Rhianna blinked. She hadn't been expecting that, I thought. She looked down at her wine before looking into the fire.
"You have no idea." She whispered, her features hard.
"You're right, I don't." I nodded, feeling like my little speech hadn't done the trick of softening her. "But I know that you love him, like I love Darren and-"
"Stop right there!" She raised a hand to me, her eyes closed. "It is not, not ever, that kind of love!"
I frowned. What kind of love was it then if she felt the need to keep going to see him every year?
Rhianna took a deep sniff before opening her eyes at me. "He was never my boyfriend."
"He-He wasn't?" I stammered, shocked.
Rhianna shook her head. "He's my brother."
"You're BROTHER?!" I blanched, my mouth hanging open.
"Will you keep it down, you stupid bitch!" She whisper-yelled at me, her sword flaring red again.
"I-I'm sorry. I really wasn't expecting that..." I was thunderstruck. That completely blew me away.
"Rebecca thinks I fell in love and find it hard to let him go. But he's my brother. I found out when we were in Astrovia. That's why I wanted to keep him by my side. That's why I took so long. I didn't want to lose him when he went back to Rulid and I would come to Secrunerth and our family ties, that I had longed for for so fucking long, would be severed again." She ranted, tears brimming her eyes.
"How did you find out?" I asked.
She didn't say anything for a while then took a very deep breath in and looked up at me. "Growing up in Rulid is all about being an heir and having status. Girls are seen as weak and unworthy of ruling continents. My family actually rule over several continents. My mother and father had me first, then my brother a year later. I was put up for adoption. Or rather, I was put into an orphanage and then left there to rot, I was never adopted. I was just two years old when they abandoned me." A few tears escaped and she quickly wiped them away, jumping to her feet and pacing, speaking with such a venomous tone, I felt myself unconciously sinking into the armchairs cushions from fear. "I spent years not knowing who my family were. Orphanage's are full of girls just like me. Abandoned because they were the first borns and rightful heirs to the thrones, but then a son had been born so they were shunted and kicked out. It's not uncommon at all.
"I would see some girls whose parents were proudly showing them off as future queens and I wanted that for myself. So much, I could almost taste it. I hated my parents and desperately tried to find out who they were, to kill them and my brother and take the throne... But I truthfully just wanted to have a family. A proper family. One that accepted me. I started to try and find out about who I was and discovered my real surname was Wessex. I was able to find the continents under their rule easily, and was all ready to approach them, but then I got sent to Astrovia. I spent the first two years there growing stronger with every day that passed. I was the best warrior of the whole entire Realm. I liked being out there and killing the beasts because every single one I killed made me forget about who I was back in Rulid. Then I met Lawrence. Lawrence Wessex. Son of Henry and Victoria Wessex. My parents. I thought it was coincidence at first, but then I heard him bragging about his parents being the Rulers of Eoceth, Feisora and Agria in a bar in Ozryn. He seemed to think that because he had status and a reputation, he was therefore untouchable. I confronted him, threatened to take him down unless he told me the truth but he confirmed it when he showed me his mark."
She handed me her untouched glass of wine and lifted her left trouser leg to show a mark on her leg. It was a tiny W with a type of ring around it.
"Is that a tattoo?" I asked, squinting at it from the armchair, not daring to get up for a closer look.
She nodded. "When a child is born as the heir to a throne they're marked with the family symbol. That's why I was able to find my surname so easily. Just search for my name under W. So easy it's fucking stupid. Anyway, we showed each other the mark, and realised we were blood related. I opened up and told him about being left in an orphanage at two years old and he told me about the time he found a box of photos that my mother had hidden in her bedside cabinet safe. He told me that when he asked her about it, she apparently broke down and said that our father had forced her to give me up so the continents would be kept safe.
"I was shocked. My mother did want me, but couldn't stop my father. It was my fathers fault. He was so ready to give up his only daughter to ensure the continents he ruled over were safe. I was also now torn. I had found my brother, my family, but I no longer wanted revenge. I wanted to experience the love and support a family is supposed to give each other. Lawrence promised me that, if we ever got home, he would convince my family to take me back and I would become a part of it all again. We grew close, very close. We had similar interests, but he was really shit with a sword. I taught him how to fight and defend. I showed him what it took to become a great leader, because if you didn't know how to fight for what you believed in, you were nothing. He took everything on board, we became the best of friends too. He would sing the songs our mother used to sing to get him to sleep, tell me about our servants and maids, describe our house to the finest details. I loved it.
"We spents four years together, living in the house by Narthwich. Then we decided we would go out for another exploring expedition. A year later was when everything changed. An Amica Ignis possessed one of our group. I killed him easily, but while I was distracted, it took Lawrence instead. I couldn't kill my brother. The only member of my family that had accepted me and stayed with me. Instead, I left him to fight the others and I went to kill the Amica Ignis by getting another friend to stab my eyes out. I fought it blind and killed it. It was the most thrilling experience I had ever witnessed. But it didn't do what I thought it would, Lawrence was still possessed even after the slug was killed. I had no choice but to fight him myself after taking a Visual Remedy potion, and defend my friends against his attacks. He had become strong during the years fighting alongside me, and it was actually quite difficult to keep up with him. I held on for hours before Rebecca turned up and forced the potion down his throat. That was then she told me everything about FREE and why I had been taken there. It was a dream come true. I was going to become the leader I had always wanted to be and my friends were all by my side..."
She stopped for a moment, her face hard again as she stared into the fire before she broke down.
"Lawrence didn't want to come with me, he wanted me to come with him." She slumped back down on the sofa, tears streaming down her face, sobbing uncontrollably. "I promised him... I actually promised him, that I would go to FREE and he would go back to rule after our father and we would see each other every year. He was sent back and it wasn't until I returned to Rulid a year later that I found out he had had his memories removed. He looked at me like I was a complete stranger. The sister he had spent five years with in Astrovia didn't exist. He threw me out of the continents. Banning me from ever returning."
She hung her head down and let it all out, her body jolting as she was crying so hard. I finally found the courage to move again and moved to sit beside her and comfort her. I put my arms around her and held her to me tightly, stroking her hair and telling her it was alright over and over again. Rhianna leaned into me and started screaming into my shoulder, gripping at the shirt I was wearing. Tears of my own slid down my cheeks and silently fell onto her back.
I allowed her to let herself go completely, without interuption, and only moved when she had started to quietened down a couple of hours later.
I put my hand on her cheek and lifted her face, forcing her to look me in the eye.
"I want you to listen to me very carefully. We may be doppelgangers, and at the end of this, we are only colleagues. But we are blood, if you remember, and that, in my eyes, makes you our sister. You may be pining for a family that doesn't know you, but you have a family here right in front of you that cares for you because you are one of us."
Rhianna stared at me, her lip trembling and taking uncontrollable sharp intakes of breath after sobbing for so long.
"Thank you..." She whispered.
I pulled her back into another hug, fresh floods of tears flowing from the both of us, before I stood up.
"Cor, fucking hell, Rhianna." I chuckled, trying to ease the tension. "You can really pull on the heartstrings."
She let out a small chuckle and wiped her eyes, slumped forwards and leaning on her knees. I stepped back to my armchair and picked up our two untouched glasses of wine and handed hers back to her.
"Cheers." I said, lifting my glass before downing the small mouthful of wine.
"To family," she sniffed and copied me.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve and sighed. "I won't tell anyone. You don't have to worry."
Rhianna looked up at me and gave me the first genuine smile she had ever done. "Thank you, Ruth. I have to admit, this was not how I was expecting our chat to turn out like. I was all prepared to have to threaten you."
I noticed her sword, Spineripper, glowing silver for the first time. "Maybe another day, you can." I joked.