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

Chapter 35 - Hopelessness

Rebecca dashed straight back up the stairs and I exchanged concerned looks with Natalia before running after her. Everyone was now in the kitchen apart from Darren.
"Nats, can you call Darren and tell him to come home? Rhianna, go and get Ruby down here! Raquel, stay close." I gave the orders while Rebecca started talking to Asuna.
"What's up?" She asked, shortly. As Asuna spoke, her eyes widened further and further and her mouth dropped open. "Oh shit..." She whimpered.
"What?" I said, taking Raquel's hand to reassure her.
Rebecca turned to me, her face thunderstruck and pained. "Cristis has fallen."
"WHAT?!" Jarod and I blanched.
"They've practically killed half their population!" Rebecca's eyes started to tear up with all the different emotions. They were overflowing from the anger, hatred, resentment, guilt, helplessness, longing, and sorrow along with many other emotions too.
Raquel clamped her hand to her mouth, Natalia screamed, Micha and Oren looked furious and Hunter was aghast. Rebecca started to cry and shake from the frustrations of not being able to help the Realm when they needed us most.
Darren burst into the room along with Ruby and Rhianna. All three froze when they saw us all in pieces.
I felt numb. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding. This couldn't have happened... could it?
Rebecca wasn't able to speak through her crying so I took the phone.
"Asuna, it's Watson. What's the casulties?"
"Watson," Asuna sounded just how we were all feeling, completely lost and heartbroken. "They were all dead before we got word. We didn't receive any calls for them or anything. It was only when a member of the team went to Cristis did we realise what had happened. By then, the Realm was overrun. I sent Felicity to Cristis to call up arms and... and she..."
Hearing Asuna break down over the phone did it for me. I fell to my knees, in an uncontrollable sobbing fit, screaming in overwhelming grief at the thought of so many people dead and in danger and we were powerless, marooned in this Realm, with no way of getting back.
Rhianna and Ruby stood motionless, their mouths open in a silent scream. Rhianna was staring at the phone in my hand in disbelief, while Ruby had both her hands covering her eyes, sobbing silently.
Rebecca was worse than everyone though. She started screaming and throwing things everywhere in her anger, yet sobbing and falling apart because of the pain and sorrow.
Darren took the phone from my hands and spoke to Asuna.
"Asuna, can you let everyone know we are trying everything to get back to them? We're all just as heartbroken by this news, but assure them that the Order will pay for this! We will get our own back! We will take back Cristis and we're starting to look at it right now!" He said, his voice dripping with anger, defiance and encouragment. "Send over the report when you can on how things are fixing up in Uistea. Give everyone our condolences and reassure them, we will return soon!"
He nodded and took the phone away from his ear, looking down at me with a conflicted expression. He was also on the verge of breaking down like the rest of us, but was desperately trying to hold it together for everyone else.
Micha and Oren were speaking to each other in low, serious voices, both their faces were livid.
Rebecca crawled over to Natalia and held tight to her, both of them rocking back and forth to comfort themselves. Jarod knelt down and put his arms around both of them. Raquel ran to Hunter and flung herself into his arms, wailing and shaking uncontrollably. Fabian put a hand on Hunter's shoulder, his face showing his torment.
Rebecca held out a hand to Darren.
"My phone please, Darren." She said through her sobs.
Darren handed the phone back to Rebecca and she immediately called someone.
"Ben, release Clemency and Penelope Moreno." She sniffed down the phone in a weak voice. "There's no point keeping them there while everything else is going on. Tell them I will speak with them when I return and have everything back under control." She put the phone down and muttered, defeatedly, "if I ever do make it back..."
"Rebecca, don't you dare!" Darren suddenly shouted at her. Everyone snapped their heads round to look at him.
"Darren, what are you-" I started to speak but he cut across me as he pulled Rebecca up by her shoulders.
"You are the Leader of FREE! You can't talk like that! Like you're giving up. Because, you know you're not! You have brought Realms back from their grip before and you will do it again, and this time, you'll have all of us with you." He shook Rebecca's shoulders as he spoke. Rebecca was shocked at his behaviour. "We have always managed to be on the defense straight away, but there was bound to be an incident like this happen sooner or later. Many lives may have been lost now, but there will be more to save when we get back up on our feet again! You just have to realise that you have this, you've always had this!"
He then looked around at the other doppelgängers, sternly.
"Come on, girls! You are the Knights of FREE! So what you've had one fail? Do you see Tiana giving up after a failure?"
That struck a core with all of us. We immediately stood up tall, our chests puffed up and our faces filled with determination. Even Raquel was spurred on by his words. She bravely took a step towards us, letting Hunter go, and holding her head up high.
"I want to train." she said defiantly.
Rebecca grinned at her and strode over, slapping her hand down on her shoulder. "Let's get you trained up. You'll have to borrow one of our swords for the time being. I think we'll start you training against Ruby then you'll go up the ranks."
Ruby looked incredulously at Rebecca. "What's that suppose to mean?" She snapped.
Rebecca smirked at her. "You can teach her the agility and speed that she needs before taking on Ruth with her power attacks, me with my slyness and Rhianna with her murderous instincts." She mused.
Ruby thought for a moment and nodded. "Ok. When do we start?"
"Now." Rebecca said, eagerly. She turned to Darren and put a hand on his shoulder. "Best trainer there ever was, you'll be building up her stamina and strength first before she faces any of us."
Darren nodded his head, smiling proudly. "I'm on it like a car bonnet." He grinned. Rebecca grimaced and he realised what he just said. "Shit! Sorry!" He turned to face Raquel. "It's going to be tough, but we will make you a Knight of FREE in no time. First, we need to build up your strength and stamina. Let's get you running the grounds and see how quickly you can complete it."
Raquel nodded enthusiastically and started bouncing on the spot with excitement.
"Can I go too?" Clara asked, eagerly. "I want to be a part of FREE!"
"Me too!" Xavier exclaimed, holding up his hand and jumping up and down.
Rebecca opened her mouth to dismiss them but Natalia cut across them.
"Of course, you can, fazeebs!" She cried, pulling them into a hug.
Rebecca cast a slightly surprised look at Natalia for a second before smiling widely. "You will be the one to train them, darling. Tommy? You will join Raquel, training under Darren. I want to see reports on their progress, you two." She gave Darren and Natalia a false stern look then laughed. "How about we hold a competition and make it more interesting? Who's training is the best? The first team who's two trainees defeat all of us Doppelgängers, wins."
I smirked, knowing that Darren already had the upper hand as Hunter had had previous sword fighting knowledge.
"Deal." Natalia and Darren agreed, nodding and shaking hands.
"Alright." Rebecca turned away from them and heading to the hall. "You have six days. That should give you a good amount of time to get those sword skills up to scratch."
Natalia and Darren wasted no time on taking their new trainees away to begin their briefing. Ruby, Rhianna and I stood together along with Micha, Oren, Fabian and Jarod.
"Who do you think will win?" Ruby asked us.
"I think Darren." I said, nodding my head in confidence.
"Same." Rhianna said. "Natalia is going to be too soft on Clara and Xavier for sure."
"I disagree." Micha said. "I remember mother telling us about Natalia's training when she first told us about FREE. She used to be the one to put all the new members through their paces when they first started because mother was too busy. So I say Natalia."
Oren and Jarod nodded in agreement with Micha. Fabian was busy thinking.
"I don't know actually. I think Natalia will have a more tactical approach, and her Aura is very confident with her abilities. But Darren's Aura is gleaming with pride, and his determination is a lot more than Natalia's. My biqirez and ezerez saltazeeb Auras are a lot more driven than Clara and Xavier. I'm just not sure."
"What do you think, Ruby?" Micha asked, curiously.
"I think Darren. Only because I have a funny feeling that Raquel will cheat and use her Aura changing ability." Ruby mumbled, thoughtfully.
"Ok, bets have been placed. It's split fifty, fifty. Only time will tell." I smirked, before looking over at Darren, my face fell when I noticed he was struggling to stop Raquel from jumping around excitedly. Maybe my bet was wrong.