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

Chapter 40 - Protectors of the Realms

*Ruth Watson POV*

I had been sitting there on the hard, plastic mattress, waiting for over three hours for someone to come and get me and tell me what was happening.
Was I worried about getting arrested? Fuck no! I was more worried that they had recognised me, and they were bound to call my mum to come and get me.
I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, hugging them to me.
I had worked out who that bitch was that attacked me, and it was Gerri, Hunter's ex girlfriend. She had obviously thought I was Raquel. No wonder Raquel got beaten up by her, she was fucking crazy. What had Hunter seen in her?
The little window of my cell door was opened and a pair of eyes looked inside, locking on me. I sighed and lowered my legs to the floor, hoisting myself up off the bed as the door was cluncked open.
Before I could work out what was happening, someone came running into the cell, knocking me back onto the bed, screaming and sobbing at the same time.
"What the-"
"RUTH! OH MY GOD! MY BABY!" Came a very familiar voice I hadn't heard in years.
"Mum?!" I gasped. My heart quickened to such a fast pace, I thought I was about to have a heart attack from the shock.
My mum pulled away, her eyes swimming with tears of happiness and relief, beaming and nodding at me.
Her mousey brown hair was lank and thin, she had very dark circles under her eyes, lines across her face and she had lost a lot of weight since I last saw her, almost twelve years ago.
"I'm here, my angel. I'm here." She hushed me, gently, and pulled my head back to her shoulder.
Now that I realised who it was, I threw my arms back around her, desperately holding onto her so very tightly, as if I was about to be taken away from her again. Tears of so many emotions, so many years of missing her embrace, drowned my eyes and my face scrunched up, attempting to hold back screaming sobs of my own. Mum rubbed my back with one hand, while the other dug itself into my hair to hold me ever closer to her. I could hear her heart beating just as fast as mine.
We stayed that way for a while, neither of us wanting to break the silence or part from each other after so many years of being apart.
"I can't believe you're here." Mum whispered. Her voice oh-so soft and comforting.
"Neither can I." I whispered back. "I've missed you so much, mum."
Mum pulled back and cupped my cheek, taking in my face as if she was seeing it for the first time.
"You haven't changed at all." She mumbled, bringing up her other hand to move the hair away from my face. "How can that be? You still look fifteen."
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against her hand, taking in her soft touch on my cheek. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Mum took a deep, shaky breath in and seemed to hold it before getting up and sitting beside me.
"Will you tell me?" She asked, gently. "Will you tell me where you've been?"
I opened my eyes and looked deep into her pleading ones. Her brow was furrowed, and her lips frowning slightly. The guilt I felt was overwhelming but I felt that I owed it to my own mother to be upfront and honest with her after all these years.
"I will..." I said, quietly. "But for you to understand it, you need to understand who I have now become."
My mum was taken aback by my reply. "O-ok." She looked away for a second before looking at me and nodding once. "Who have you become?"
"I can't tell you here." I said, very quietly, looking at the door to my cell. "I will as soon as we get out of here."
Mum frowned but nodded and stood up. "Let's go home, angel." She said, holding out her hand.
I took her hand, gingerly, feeling like I would break her if I gripped too hard. She looked so fragile now she was standing, she was a mere shadow of her former self that I remembered. I got up and we approached the cell door together, when I realised I needed to let Raquel know where I was going so they could be ready to help me when I needed it.
'Raquel, it's Ruth.' I thought, sticking to the spot with my eyes closed.
"Ruthie? Come on, Angel." I heard my mum speak, but I needed to do this first.
'Ruth? Oh, Watson. Relxa.' Came Raquel's response in my mind.
'My mum's here. We're heading home.' I told her simply. 'I will let you know more as I go.'
'Calfibeezix!' Raquel's voice squealed in my head. 'I'll just let Rebecca know.'
"Ruth, are you ok?" Mum's voice asked me.
My eyes shot open and stared back at her. I faked a smile.
"Yeah, course. Just a headache." I lied. "It's the lighting in here." I cleared my throat and pulled mum out of the cell, before letting her take over what way to go.
The policeman that had arrested me was standing beside the door and looked over at me as my mum and I emerged from the cell.
"You've been released with a caution. However, you are to attend an interview in the next seven days to explain what happened to you on the fifteenth of January twenty tweny." He paused, looking me up and down before a smile broke across his face. "At least you were found alive. Follow me, we'll give you your things back."
He led us to the desk where I had been signed in this morning. The same woman was sitting at the desk and looked up as we approached. Her face cracked into a broad, toothy smile and her grey eyes sparkled with happiness.
"Congratulations, Ms. Monty." She said to my mum.
Mum beamed back. "Thank you all so much for finding her safe."
The police man held up his hand, dismissing her. "Don't mention it."
I looked around the room behind us as my mum continued chatting to the Police. There were a few arrested men sitting on the benches in hand cuffs with a police officer beside them. There was a man in an orange shirt, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, but the officer sitting next to him was staring at me. Not in a 'that's the missing girl that was on the news' kind of way. He had a sinister smile on his face and his stare was more of a predatory glare if anything.
I snapped my head round to the desk.
"Ruth? Are you ok?" The lady behind the desk asked me.
My heart was pounding and my mind was racing.
'That's right, love. We're not all who we seem.' Came the voice of the policeman who had stabbed me in the chin when Rebecca and I had been ambushed in London.
He must be with the Order. He wouldn't attack here, would he? Shit! I need help. We need help! My mum's here, and I'm unarmed! Oh fuck!!
"Ruth? Are you ok?" The lady asked again, standing up.
I looked at her. I couldn't ask for their help, they would die too. I slowly nodded my head, but she didn't look convinced. She picked up a grey, shallow tray that held my few belongings. My wallet with my slips of memorable information I needed to keep and my cigarettes and lighter.
"Alright, just sign here and you can go home." The lady smiled at me kindly.
I nodded again and picked up the pen, but in my mind I was frantically thinking of what I needed to do. I needed to get a message to Raquel and get everyone gathered somewhere as they were sure to ambush as soon as I was out of the public eye. Then I had an idea.
'Raquel!' I thought as clearly as I could while signing my name, a little too slowly to give me time.
'Watson? Are you ok? We're just leaving now.' Came Raquel's voice.
'Final call! Meet at Harry's car!' I thought desperately.
I finished signing and took a deep, shaky breath to try and calm myself. I was actually feeling terrified right now. Not because I was unarmed and sure to face the Order as soon as we left here, but because my mum was with me and she was going to get hurt, or worse, killed! I couldn't let that happen!
Mum took my hand, and I looked at her fragile state, her innocent smile as she gazed upon her missing daughter for the first time in almost twelve years. I felt my heart wrench in fear at what was about to happen.
Together we turned towards the exit and I glanced back at the sinister man and his prisoner. He wasn't there anymore. My grip on my mums hand tightened, protectively. As soon as we left the station, mum took a deep breath in through her nose.
"Would you like to get some dinner before we go home to see Maria and Steve?" She asked me, cheerfully.
I looked back at her, forcing myself to smile and nod, when in actual fact I was planning to get her to the multistorey car park as soon as possible. We walked side by side in tangible silence. Mum was probably unsure what to talk to me about, or figuring out how best to bring up where I've been since that day I left to meet Lizzie at Asda. I, however, was scanning our surroundings for any sign of danger. A car parked suspiciously, men grouped together in deep discussion, a lone person on their phone staring at me.
"How did you get here, mum?" I asked quietly as we walked down the steps to the path along the main road.
'Please say you drove, please say you drove...' I was thinking in my mind as I waited for her to answer.
"I had to get the train over here today. I-I crashed the car when I thought I saw you a few months ago. It was written off." Mum said, sadly.
I frowned. A few months ago?
"Oh, well, that couldn't have been me. I wasn't here then." I told her, sheepishly.
"So where have you been?" Mum asked me, as we waited to cross the road towards the shops so we could get lunch.
I bit my lip. "All over the place." I replied, cryptically. "There hasn't been many places that I haven't been, really. Well, apart from here and somewhere else."
Mum scrutinised me, suspiciously but my eyes were busy searching everywhere for a direction sign telling me where the carpark was. I finally found one as we started to cross the road and it was to our right. I grabbed mum's hand and pulled her in that direction. Mum gave a small "hey" in surprise but didn't argue, she just followed me along in suspicious silence.
"Well, you're not giving much away are you?" Mum said, with a small chuckle.
That's when I noticed them. Two men, flanking the corner, one wearing a cloak. I pulled mum quickly across the road as soon as there was a big enough break in the traffic and pulled her close to my side, with my arm around her protectively, as soon as we were on the other path. I didn't look at them directly, but kept a close watch on the men from the corner of my eye. They were watching mum and I closely, before reaching for their phones.
"Ruth? What has-"
"Mum, you need to listen to me very carefully." I murmured to her, urgently, picking up pace and speed walking away. "I said to you that in order to understand where I've been, you need to understand what I have become." I glanced back and the men were walking in our direction on the other side of the road. "The truth is mum, right now? You weren't the only one looking for me." I told her.
Mum stammered in confusion as I forced her along the path as quickly as I could, following the signs to the car park.
"Wh-who else is loo-"
"I am a knight, mum." I blurted out, quietly, wanting to cram as much information into her as possible before we arrived. "I'm the fourth knight of FREE. Ruth Watson, representing the Realm of Earth. There are four others just like me. Our job is to protect the ten Realms from the corrupt rule of the Order of Verdicts."
"Ruth, you're not making any sense." Mum told me in a panic.
I was scaring her, but I didn't know how else to explain how much danger we were in. I saw the entrance to the carpark and broke into a jog, pushing my mum along, forcefully.
"That's where I've been. I was taken away from Earth to Astrovia and started my training to become a Knight of FREE. For the past ten years, I have been protecting the Realms from the Order along with my Doppelgängers. Rebecca, Rhianna, and Ruby. There's also my fiance, Darren. We've been together for eleven-"
"Doppelgängers?" Mum stopped walking and lifted my arm off her. "Doppelgängers?" She repeated, looking at me with an accusing stare mixed with realisation.
"Yes, mum. Doppelgängers. There's five of us." I said, putting my arm back around her and pulling her along again. We were very close to the entrance of the car park now, I looked around us to try and seek out more signs of danger, or even catch a glimpse of the others. "We got stuck here when we came to rescue our fifth Knight, Raquel who's from Atania."
We got inside the carpark and I desperately jabbed my finger at the lifts call button, nervously looking around when, finally I saw Darren and Rebecca running towards us as quickly as they could.
"Beccs! Darren!" I called out to them in overwhelming relief, pushing my mum behind me.
Darren reached me first and engulfed me in a tight hug, kissing me deeply.
"Thank god you're ok!" He said, holding me closer to him.
"Are you ok, Ruth? Why did you tell Raquel there was a final call?" Rebecca asked me, quickly.
I pulled away from Darren and grabbed my mum's hand. Mum was staring at Rebecca with very wide eyes, her mouth slightly open and was making bizarre squeaking noises as if she couldn't speak.
"We were being watched at the police station." I told her as the lift arrived. I turned around and yanked mum inside with me along with Darren and Rebecca close behind me. "When I signed my release, a suspicious male, who had been watching me, had gone. Along the way, I saw two more men on a corner, one with a sword. They were following us here, Beccs. They're going to ambush us again."
Rebecca was about to answer, but my mum had stepped forward, studying her closely.
"She is exactly like you..." Mum whispered in amazement, lifting a hand to move Rebecca's hair to look at the scar on her jawline.
Rebecca grabbed her hand and looked at her, sternly. "Madam, please. We are currently in a very dangerous position where your safety is under threat. I would appreciate if you would refrain from distracting or talking to us until we are safe."
My mum gasped and stepped back to me. I took her hand and gave her a rueful smile. "Told you." I said.
The lift dinged as we reached the third floor and we ran out towards Harry's car, me leading them. Harry was standing there with Hunter, Raquel, Rhianna and Ruby.
"We have back up coming. My girls should be here within half hour. You better be telling the truth, Watson." Rhianna snapped, accusingly.
"Wouldn't want to give you false hope, would I, Rhianna?" I sneered at her, approaching Harry, "Phone, please."
"HARRY GOLLOGHY?!" My mum screeched in disbelief. "I asked you two days ago if you had seen her and you-"
"Mum!" I yelled. "Not now. Please? We are in a very tight situation right now!" I said as I raised my phone to my ear, calling Meta to call up arms.
"Then why didn't we just stay at the police station?" Mum cried out. "You better be calling them right-"
"It's alright, madam. Police are already in attendance." Came a deep, drawling voice.
We all spun round to face the man who spoke. Rhianna, Rebecca, Ruby, Darren and Hunter stood in front, protecting the rest of us, with their swords drawn, ready for an attack.
It was the policeman and his 'prisoner' from the waiting room. He sneered at us, coldly, as he cast his eyes over us all.
"Lookie, here, boys! When the five stand together, they will fall!" He jeered.
Dark chuckles came from all around us. Men started appearing from their hiding places behind the cars. There were loads of them and they all had swords. Some had cloaks on, others were wearing armour but a majority were wearing normal Earth clothing. They all had matching evil grins pasted to their faces as they encroached upon us, we were badly outnumbered once again.
My mum whimpered, backing into Harry's car. Raquel ran to her and gripped her shoulders.
"It's ok. There's more back up coming." She whispered, encouragingly to her.
"Ruth, you're going to need this." Rebecca hissed at me, suddenly and threw me her bag.
I caught it and yanked it open. Dragonwrath was inside. I pulled it out and put on the baldric, unsheathing my large blade as I went. My mum cried out.
"Ruth! What are you doing?!"
"Accept me for who I have become." I begged her from over my shoulder.
"GET THEM!" The fake policeman cried out.
The men lurched forward all at once. My doppelgängers, Darren, Hunter and myself gathered ourselves around the others to protect them and met the charging army head on.
It was chaos. I could hear my mum screaming, Harry was shouting too. Raquel was trying to change some of the men's Auras to green, while staying behind us and keeping mum and Harry in check.
I swung my blade forward with all the strength I could muster and sliced one of our enemies clean in half, while stopping halfway into the second. I twisted my blade round, feeling it churn his insides and snap his ribs, before picking him up and flinging him into some more approaching foes. I managed to gain some space between those I was protecting and my fighting circle before the next round attacked.
Rhianna was taking on five men at once, throwing them to the ground and wrenching them open one by one in quick succession of each other. With every kill, she would bellow out a mighty roar of triumph as she turned her attention to the next one.
Rebecca was in front of us all, spinning her blade around, taking on numerous opponents with a defiant smirk on her face as she slashed them down, her arm kept straight and strong with every strike just as deadly as the last. She was more focusing on slicing them and letting them collapse, bleeding to death quickly in agony.
Ruby was leaping and flying all over the place, confusing her foes with her speed and agility. She was moving on to the next opponent before the one before even realised what had happened. Arms, legs, heads were flying everywhere from where she was, her rapier a barely visible blur.
Suddenly, an excrutiating pain in my side made me fall to my knees, my arm wrapping around myself in a vain attempt to stop it and carry on, but it was no use. One of us was hurt, and badly.
The men backed off a little, triumphantly as the five doppelgängers fell to the floor. Blood crept over from my right and I followed it in horror to see Rebecca on her front with a blade sticking out of the left side of her stomach, pinning her to the floor. Darren and Hunter were grabbed and held back by the men they had been fighting with.
"Rebecca..." I gasped through the pain, crawling towards her desperately. A foot came out of no where and harshly flattened me against the cold, hard floor.
"No!" I heard my mum shriek behind me.
"This is it, boys! We will be victorious!" Said a man with a hoodie over his New York cap. He yanked his sword out of Rebecca's side, causing us all to cry out. Holding the blade high above his head, there came a deafening roar from his fellow army in celebration of our defeat.
He spun his sword around in his hand before dangling it above Rebecca's head, looking around with a smug smirk on his face at his comrades, who were egging him on to do it. Rebecca weakly glared up at him, mouthing silent curses at him.
He looked down on her with pure hatred and let his sword go.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion. I watched, mortified, as the sword fell towards Rebecca's head, trying to fight against the pain and men who were holding me down to the floor, as I screamed, helplessly. Rhianna and Ruby were frozen to the spot, unable to tear their eyes away from the horrific sight nor fight against the men that held them back from the shock. Darren and Hunter both struggling to get away from their captors to help her.
At the very last minute, the sword was knocked away from Rebecca by an unseen blade, that split the bastard trying to kill Rebecca clean in two from the crotch up to the top of his head.
As he peeled apart to the sides, he revealed a sixth Doppelgänger. Her hair was pulled back into a very neat bun, her face determined and cold towards our enemies. She wore a black armour, much like mine, which even had the same Celtic patterns as Dragonwrath.
"THE TIME IS NOW! SHEATH YOUR WEAPONS OR YOU SHALL ALL DIE!" She bellowed out, holding one of the two blades up in the air, pointing skyward.
Behind her stood many more men and women, all wearing protective, purple armour from head to foot and armed with swords, axes, maces and hammers.
The men who were holding us, threw us to the floor as they charged forwards at their new opponents. Shouts rose up over the clashing of the swords as our crew gathered around Rebecca.
Rebecca was very pale and her eyes were barely staying open. She was losing too much blood and was weak from the pain. Rhianna quickly reached into the satchel of her belt and pulled out a green potion, tipping it into Rebecca's gaping mouth. I clamped my hand down over her mouth so that she would swallow it all and the colour started flooding back into her cheeks almost straight away. She desperately needed a red potion to continue fighting, though, and none of us had one.
The fight was raging all around us as Darren lifted Rebecca up and moved her between Harry's and another car for better protection.
"Beccs." I cried out as soon as we were clear. "Are you ok?"
"Fine." Rebecca grunted, trying to sit up but being held to the floor by Ruby and I.
"You need a rest, Rebecca." Ruby said.
"What happened?" Rebecca mumbled, thickly.
I looked up at our new Doppelgänger, behind her, who was on fire with her two swords slicing through the air as she fought her opponents with such ease.
"Regina is here." I told her, smiling down.
Rebecca's eyes widened and she craned her neck around to look for herself.