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

Chapter 44 - Regina Moreno's Story

*Ruth Watson POV*

Raquel led me to the kitchen, a very serious look on her face, before suddenly stopping and turning to me.
"Look, I'm sorry, ok? I didn't mean t-"
"Can Hunter's mother come with us?" She asked, seriously.
I gaped at her, shocked that she would ask such a thing.
"Er, I-I don't think she-"
"She has to! I will not leave her behind!" Raquel insisted, gripping my shoulder with an anxious look on her face. "Hunter is joining FREE, and so am I, we can't leave her here!"
"Well... I know Beccs won't approve of it." I told her truthfully. "FREE HQ is just as dangerous as here, because the Order know where we all are! It's not a care home, Raquel."
Raquel started to get tearful. "Please? Will you speak to Rebecca for me?" She begged. "I can't leave her behind. She needs us!"
I breathed out a long sigh. "We will do it together, but I really doubt Rebecca will allow it." I admitted, deflatedly.
Raquel nodded. "We have to try. But I may have to bring her with us regardless. I love my new Naraz."
She gave me such a longing, heartbroken look, I groaned and rubbed my cheek, with my mouth hanging open as I tried to think of a way to convince Rebecca. Raquel giggled at me.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Hunter does that, too." She giggled, copying me.
I rolled my eyes. "Right, well. Let's face the music, shall we?" I told her, pulling her back into the hall towards the dining room.
When we reached the dining room, everyone was standing, looking like they were about to move into a different room.
"Well, this was good timing." I hissed to Raquel.
"We're about to go into the garden for the sharing of memories." Regina explained to us. "Come on, let's go."
We all piled out into the garden. My mum and Steve sat in the patio chairs next to Alex and Fiona Hodgson. I couldn't see Danielle, but I really couldn't care less where she had gone right now. I wanted to get this thing that Raquel wanted to ask Rebecca about over and done with. Before I could get to her, Regina stood and addressed everyone.
"Alright, everyone. I know a lot of you are itching to hear how you all came into being, so let me tell you my story."
I forgot about Hunter's mum joining FREE immediately and plonked myself down on the floor with Darren, who was sitting with Dean, Hewitt, Clara, and Xavier. Rhianna and Harry joined us, with Harry sitting beside me. Raquel and Hunter sat at the table beside Darren's parents with Hunter's mum. Raquel had a tight grip on her hand as they watched Regina closely, waiting for her to share her story.
Regina looked around at everyone, smiling slightly. She then took a deep breath in as if to calm her nerves.

"My name is Regina Moreno. My husband, Clive, and I were born in Jinguston in Uiestea. Clive in eighteen forty two, me in eighteen forty seven. Before I was even born, I was destined to be married to Clive, as that was how things were done on Uiestea. Fathers would choose the families their daughters would marry into. Clive and I grew up together, and were married as soon as I turned fifteen. We were then kicked out of the family home, with nothing but the clothes on our back. We chose a little field and built ourselves a small house from the materials of the forests around us. I began making jewellery from Shrine Violets, intending to sell them as a source of income. Thing is, as soon as the Shrines were picked and moulded into shape, the beautiful purple colour would change to a white colour, making my bracelets look like they were made from bone."
She paused to sit in the chair behind her. She cast a brief glance at Rebecca who was giving her her full attention, leaning back in her seat, with her arms crossed and her eyes narrow as she took in every word.
"I didn't sell a single one. One evening, after four months of marriage, I was standing outside our tiny house, gazing up at the stars, wondering if there were other worlds like ours out there. My wish came true and I was suddenly spinning through a Portal. It transported me to Astrovia, in the middle of a forest. I looked around in amazement, wondering where I was, when a growling came from among the trees. Coffinhounds emerged from between the trees, very threatening and very hungry. I took one look and wished myself back home, where it was safe. Thankfully, it took me back before they attacked."
She looked at Clive, with a small, knowing smile. "Clive didn't believe me at first. I tried to show him that I was transported, but when I tried to use my bracelet again, it wouldn't work. I noticed that the white Shrines were now tarnished, as if it had been burnt. I pulled out two new bracelets, both with two Shrines beautifully entwined together and gave one to Clive. I encouraged him to take his weapons this time, so we were able to defend ourselves from the beasts of this new world. But we were taken somewhere different. Somewhere very... grey and... organised."
"Neonia." Rebecca said, leaning forward to lean on her knees.
Regina nodded, smiling at her slightly. "Yes. We appeared in front of a massive group of people in the middle of a festival. They called it the 'Xi Aca Goaxaw'. Which means, Rebecca?"
"The Holy Father." Rebecca replied, raising an eyebrow. "That must have been the last festival before the Order arrived. It only happens once every fifty years."
Regina's smile widened and nodded again. "Eighteen sixty three, the year was. We were arrested for interrupting the ceremony, would you believe." She let out a short laugh. "When we tried to explain where we had come from, they didn't believe us, until we disappeared in front of their eyes, that is." Regina let out another giggle, and Clive belted out a mighty laugh. "We transported back to our tiny house, ecstatic that we had found something that would make our marriage life more exciting."
"Sex wasn't that good then..." Harry hissed, quietly to me, making me snort loudly.
"Yes, Ruth?" Rebecca scowled at me for interrupting.
"Oh, nothing." I blushed, punching Harry in the ribs as soon as Rebecca looked away.
"We spent three months preparing for our exploration. We had a friend make us new swords, may he find solace in the afterlife. Clive harvested food and made clothes while I set about making countless more Portal Bracelets. As I now knew that one Shrine meant one trip, I had to figure out a way of getting the most Shrines made into a comfortable Bracelet so we didn't have to carry hundreds upon thousands more bracelets with us. I created what I called the Portal Greave. Only Clive and I were the only ones to have these."
She lifted up her sleeve to show a thick, massive, twisted mass of reeds that covered her entire forearm from the heel of her hand right up to the crook of her elbow.
"Whoa... How many reeds are there?" Darren breathed in awe.
"I have no idea. I never actually counted, but I think there's over two hundred, give or take? Thing is, this is now just a simple, plain bracelet. All the Shrines are burnt out and used from years of use. Lasted us until about... Nineteen.. nineties?" Regina thought aloud, looking to Clive.
Clive tipped his hand from side to side before nodding.
"The other bracelets I made were going to be sold so we were able to keep ourselves going on our journey. Once we were ready, we made our first prepared trip through the Portal, arriving in Cristis. At first, we thought it was a Dead Realm. Until we noticed there was an opening in the side of a mountain. Upon entering, we discovered that Cristis spent their entire lives underground. It was incredible and exhilarating to witness their people flashing past us with such amazing speed and they were so quiet. We quickly became well known on the Realm. We were loud, preferred to be outside in the fresh air, and we weren't exactly... secretive. If anything, we came across as quite boisterous. We soon realised why they lived underground though. A terrific lightening storm struck the Realm within our first week. According to the locals, that was a timid one." Regina smiled, cynically, and shook her head. "After a few months on the Realm, we decided to move on. We had sold a few Bracelets, but not a great deal, and most were one way trip ones.
"We started looking for other populated Realms, but discovered Lisorix. We stayed in that wonderfully magical Realm for a week before moving on again and discovering the atrocity, called Deathea. We couldn't stand the dryness and heat. Even in the first five minutes of being there, we glimpsed a terrifyingly huge lizard coming towards us at a ridiculously quick pace so we just had to get out.
"Our escape took us to Secrunerth. A very social Realm that used to be. Everyone knew everyone else, so when we arrived, they immediately knew we didn't belong there. They loved the idea of having Portal Bracelets, but most who bought them, mostly kept them as decorations with no intention of using them. We actually sold out! It was amazing!" Regina beamed at her memories of the Realm. "They used to love living in high rise towers, keep themselves close to one another and helped each other out immensly. It was inspiring..." She trailed off and her face morphed into sadness. "After seeing how their families came together, I began to miss our own family back in Uiestea. Although they had kicked us out and forced us to get married, they were still a loving family." She hung her head down, trying to keep in her emotions.
Clive looked at her, sadly, and took over telling their story. "When we arrived back in Uiestea, we had been gone for about a year. Regina's father had become sick and was dying, so we remained on Uiestea until he passed away, surrounded by his family." Clive took a deep breath in as his face started to change into a scowl. "That's when we met them, at the funeral. Olessa and Ichabod LaCroix. They were the Royal family of Uiestea at the time, who would soon become known better as the Order of Verdicts."
"SHUT UP!" Dean cried out in shock.
Everyone gaped at them both in disbelief and shock.
"The Order of Verdicts originated in Uiestea?!" Rebecca exclaimed.
Clive nodded. "That's why the Order of Verdicts crest is a dragons head. Uiestea had dragons. Lots of them. They were used for farming, carrying heavy loads. The guards of the Royal Family would use them as transport. They died out in the late eighteen hundreds though. Tiana took them to Deathea, but they couldn't handle the heat, so were fed to the monstrosities of the Realm as food." His scowl deepened. "She killed every single one of them and made them extinct!" He shook his head, sorrowfully before continuing. "No one on the Realm got on with the LaCroix's. They were known for their cruel and savage ways and had only a handful of followers. In the capital, Vorqaid, Ichabod would have every unmarried girl, who had turned fifteen in the past six months, sent to him for a gathering. He stole their innocence from them, before sending them back to their families, ashamed and damaged beyond repair. He basically forced the residents to start rushing into wedding off their daughters before they got disfigured by the king. Olessa was no better. She was known for taking pleasure in torturing any who opposed their reign. Any who resisted, were tortured to death by her, personally, and she loved every single second of it. It was rumoured that she would stand outside Ichabod's door, listening out for any girls who desperately tried to keep themselves pure, and take them away."
He spat on the ground with fury. Regina had her fists clenched and she was shaking with rage.
"When we arrived at the funeral to say goodbye to my father, they were there." Regina told us through clenched teeth. "It was because they had heard we had been away, travelling, and wanted to find out some more information." She launched to her feet and started pacing in anger.
"Why do you all do that? It's creepy enough that you all look like each other." Darren whispered, watching Regina go back and forth in front of us.
"Olessa tried to play the sweet card." Regina spat, angrily. "The first thing she said was, 'oh I hear you have been travelling. What wonders have you discovered so far?' It was so fucking annoying that she was wearing that bastard RING!" Regina suddenly picked up a chair and threw it away from us in fury. It flew impressively far.
I frowned. "What ring?" I asked.
Clive stood up and explained as he walked over to try and calm Regina down. "The Royal family owned a Verity Ring. No one could lie when they were within two metres from them." He snarled, putting a comforting arm around Regina. "That fucking bitch forced us to tell her everything thanks to her precious jewellery. She then arrested the both of us and tortured us countless of times. Regina was almost drowned to death on numerous occasions, I had every bone on the right hand side of my body broken so my entire side swelled to ten times it's size. When my wounds got infected, she took great pleasure in forcing me to drink the pus from my very own wounds!" He shouted, angrily.
Regina was still shaking, her eyes closed in a desperate attempt to calm herself.
"I was also sent to Ichabod on countless occassions as his 'evening entertainment'. They enjoyed every single minute of our suffering." She muttered, venomously. "The good thing was I managed to... convince Olessa that the greaves on our arms were merely jewellery. When she asked me if they were Portal Bracelets, I told her no. Because they were Portal Greaves, not bracelets. Thanks to that little loophole, she was none the wiser. She warned us that if we were ever to escape from them, they would kill our entire family, so we didn't dare try to leave to keep our families alive. She wouldn't kill us either, as we were the only ones who knew how to make the Bracelets in a certain way to make them work. If anyone tried, they would just end up with a simple plain bracelet with no Portal properties.
"We endured four horrific years of being used for their amusement, when I had finally had enough. We escaped from the prison she kept us in, and we fled to another Realm. This time, we arrived in Atania."
Natalia, Raquel, Clemency and the other Atanian's sat bolt upright when they heard their Realm mentioned, bouncing where they were sitting in antiscipation.
"It was a completely different Realm from where we were used to. The Atanians took us in, gave us a hut in their village, Alzicante, and gave us the potions we needed to heal our wounds. When we were well enough to explore, we discovered they also had Shrine Violets, but they called them Chreek Reeds."
Clemency let out a little squeak and her bouncing intensified, smiling at her great great grandmother excitedly. Regina smiled at her, and shook her head, mockingly.
"We stayed there for a time, making replacement Bracelets that the LaCroix's had stolen from us, and rebuilding our stock. After a few months, I told Clive that I wanted to get revenge on the LaCroix's for treating us like that. He agreed to train me." Regina smirked and looked at Rebecca. "Looks like you and 'your' doppelgängers still ended up taking after the both of us." She laughed. "All were trained in Astrovia. Even Rosalie, here."
Rosalie gave Clive and Regina a small smile and hung her head back down again. Raquel looked as though she was about to get up and run to her, but Veronica didn't want to let her hand go, giving Raquel an anxious, pleading look, so Raquel sat back down.
Regina sniffed and sat back down again. "I trained for a year and a half on Astrovia. But I really couldn't get along with my long sword that Clive had forced me to learn. Too long, too heavy, and far too restricting for me. I wanted to be lethal on the battlefield, so we returned to Cristis for some inspiration. Most of them had rapier type swords, thin and tapered, much like Ruby's." She nodded at Ruby, who gave a small smile back. "But there was one person who had taken being lethal to a whole new level. He fought with two swords. This was practically unheard of back then, but has become a much more popular fighting technique since then. I started to take lessons from him, but unknown to us at the time... I was pregnant."
Clive took her hand and kissed it, lovingly, supporting and consoling her at the same time.
"I lost the baby halfway through the pregnancy. Heartbroken, we returned to Atania to stick to what I did best, making bracelets. I blamed my determination of wanting to be the most lethal swordswoman the Realms have ever known, as the cause for my miscarriage. The year was eighteen seventy one. After two months of being back in Atania, a friend of ours from the neighbouring village came to visit us and gave us a pair of statues that they usually give couples just after they marry." Regina suddenly stared at Natalia, thoughtfully. "The GeeNaraz that you were named after, Natalia Breenio."
Natalia screamed and put her hands to her mouth while Rebecca leaned back in her chair and let out a short laugh of amazement.
Regina smiled at them both, warmly, before carrying on. "Our son, Benny, was born in eighteen seventy two, almost a year after my miscarriage. We decided to raise him on Atania until he was old enough to join us in Realm Jumping. He had a lot of friends and took part in their traditions with them over the years. We didn't bother teaching him the Uistean traditions as they mostly involved dragons or attending the festivals. Thing is, when he was told who his soulmate was by the Alzicante Elder, that's when he suddenly became more interested in bedding his love interest than exploring the Realms. When we tried to convince him to come with us, Crystal just had to get involved!"
Regina looked sour at the thought, let alone the mention, of her daughter in law. I felt somewhat glad I had just had a psycho sister in law to deal with.
"It became a tug of war. I wanted Benny to come with us, to learn to fight and carry out my promise to destroy the LaCroix's if I was ever to fail. Crystal was a stubborn little bitch, though, and refused to let him go, stating they were going to be starting a family as soon as possible and that she would never let him fight, because he was of 'pure Aura'." She scowled. "When Clive got involved, Crystal decided to approach the Elders, causing them to ban us from ever returning to the Realm!"
Clive huffed, rolling his eyes at his memories.
"Unknown to us, during our first year travelling, Olessa and Ichabod had had twins. Tiana and Zain. While we were raising our son, the both of them weren't happy with just having Uiestea to rule over, they wanted more. Using the Portal Bracelet their parents had stolen from us, they started Realm Jumping. They discovered Deathea first and made it their first Realm of rule because no one was there to take it. But, having a Realm with no one to order about got pretty boring, so they started travelling and gathering an army. They got very successful in Rulid. Quite a few power hungry individuals lived there, and they loved the idea of ruling Realms rather than just mere continents..."
She stopped and looked at Clive, who was looking furious again.
Clive sucked his teeth. "When those vile siblings had managed to catch enough minions, that's when they returned to Uiestea to take the dragons. They were planning to use them as an intimidation method on the other Realms. Fly in on them, send the towns and cities they attacked into a panic and strike them down that way." He looked thoroughly upset for the dragons extinction, and I was too. They sounded awesome!
"How do you know all this though?" Rebecca asked them. "Sounds to me like you were watching them closely."
"Oh, we were. Unknown to them, we had managed to slot a spy in with them. Vanessa Mortchek, from Rulid. She was actually a pure Rulidian, but was more passionate about putting an end to all the wars and protecting people. Last we heard of her was that she was attending a gathering in nineteen twenty six that she never returned from." Clive explained.
"Didn't you take on the name Vanessa to escape Deathea, Rebecca?" Hewitt asked, curiously.
Rebecca seemed to gulp. "Uh, yeah. I did..." She admitted, guiltily. "My apologies. I think I took your friends identity to get off the Realm."
Regina blinked at Rebecca. "If you had told us that back then, we would have killed you. But after seeing what you've become, I think Vanessa would have been proud to give her life for the future Leader of FREE." She gave Rebecca a somewhat grave smile.
"After Benny and Crystal cut us off, I was adament that I was going to create a family that would help me defeat the LaCroix's once and for all!" She showed us her hand, and there was a long scar across the palm. "I set about creating you. My Doppelgängers. My personal warriors, who would grow to become the deadliest army of all the Realms. I needed Seven Protectors for the Seven Realms. I already had Uiestea, so I returned to Neonia."
Regina made a sly smile at her doppelgängers. "The secret was the Shrine Violets themselves. Spilling my blood over the plants created a bond with the nature of the Realm, meaning that the Realm would automatically recreate another version of me to keep me alive. A preservation thing you could call it. Every Realm has their own version of them. Neonia call them Gibbik a Koa. Cristis call them Crasiz Rolqir. Rulid call them Bwurp Poka. Earth call them Purple Majesty Millet. Atania, Chreek Reeds, and Secrunerth, Rhafz Noi."
I spun my head round to look at my mum. "Don't we have them in the garden?!" I asked, shocked.
Mum bit her lip. "We did, but the bloody thing grew like crazy so Steve cut it all back and it died."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, way to go, Steve." I drawled out his name. "Now, I have no fucking way of using it to get back!"
"Actually, they only have Portal properties on Atania, Uiestea and Secrunerth." Regina told me.
"GET ASUNA ON THE PHONE NOW!" Rebecca bellowed at Natalia, urgently.
Regina shook her head at her. "You won't find it on Secrunerth now. The Order burnt it all in nineteen thirty five when they started the war." She said, sadly.
Rebecca groaned and threw her head back. "Bollocks." She sighed.
"There's none on Atania anymore, either." Natalia said to Regina, solomnly. "They burnt it all when we arrived."
Regina nodded. "They were likely hoping to keep you there, like they were doing in Secrunerth."
"Are there any Shrine Violets still left in Uiestea?" Rebecca asked, hopefully.
Regina shook her head. "After I had finished with Secrunerth, I came back to Uiestea to destroy it all and cut their supply." She bit her lip. "But... I have kept a stash of seeds with me from when I made my collection on Atania before I was banned. So, don't worry, when we get back, we can plant the Shrine Violets there as our supply. There's a good trick to make them grow quickly too, which I'll show you as soon as we get there."
She gave Rebecca a knowing wink before carrying on with her story. "By nineteen hundred, I was finished with my tasks, and we both met up in Secrunerth. It was then that I heard about the Secrenuthian Phoenix's. They were said to control the skies, the lands, and they could heal, just by singing their songs. I know some of you have already heard the tale, but I will repeat it once again. They were rare, but powerful. One day in their history, a king became convinced that the Phoenix's would usurp his throne, so he ordered them all executed. Out of fear, the Phoenix's tried to harness their power within themselves, but it marked them. The mark on Rosalie's neck means that she is the last surviving Secrenuthian Phoenix. I am hoping that Raquel, the hereditary Aura Reader, can help her break free from her prison and give her life back again." She looked at Raquel, who gave her a small, determined smile back.
"We stayed on Secrunerth until nineteen twenty, when we... received word that the Order had come to Atania. We rushed back, but it was too late. Benny and Crystal had already been sent to Deathea and had likely perished within moments of being there." Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke. "It was the first time we met our Grandson and his saltazeeb, Neville and Penelope Moreno. They were not happy to see us, as their mother had brainwashed them into thinking us as the enemy and thought we were responsible for taking them away. We told them both the story so far, and said that Tiana and Zain had done this because they had found out I had burnt out their Shrine Violets on Uiestea. They had basically done it to send us a warning not to mess with them. Penelope tried to retract our daughter in laws ban, and asked us to remain and protect their family. We refused. It was still too raw for us and we didn't really want to move in with them. This would give the Order an easy target and more likely to attack the Realm.
"This made me all the more determined to succeed in killing off the LaCroix family. Clive and I worked together to create the first defenses against the Order. We started searching everywhere for members, then Clive returned to Neonia and saw how damaged it had become under the Realms rule." Regina looked at Clive, who hung his head.
"It was horrific. Even though Neonia wasn't the most exciting Realm, the Order had completely sucked the life out of it's citizens. Even their songs and hymns had been banned. They were forced to pray in secret, hide any shrines they had to their beliefs, they had to fucking queue up for food, for fuck sake!" Clive cried out, incredulously. "But, there was signs that they had attempted to fight back. When I asked them what had happened, they said a girl from the village tried to lead a rebellion with a few followers, but they were savagely beaten and the leader was sent to Deathea. They were so frightened of being punished, they didn't even tell me any names."
"I called up my army, which was a lot more difficult back then." Regina continued. "We only usually met once a month to share the information we had managed to get hold of. We started searching through the Realms for signs of where the Order would strike next. In nineteen thirty, we were given news that, apparently I had told Cristis they were going to be at war with the Order the following year. Upon arrival, I head to our usual bunker, while Clive started rallying men and women up, who wanted to fight-"
"And who should I bump into, but none other, than Miss Donton!" Clive grinned at Rebecca. "That was one hell of a training session, wouldn't you say?"
Rebecca snorted and shook her head. "It did the job, alright." She replied, nonchalantly.
"When Clive told me, I couldn't believe it. This was the first time I had heard of my Doppelgänger and to say I was excited, would be a huge understatement. I was determined to find Rebecca and let her join my forces. To work along side me and take over when I had passed on. I was already eighty four years old by then, so I knew my time was going to run out soon. After the war on Cristis was won, I was desperately searching for Rebecca but she had disappeared into thin air!" Regina scowled at Rebecca who chuckled back and shrugged.
"Anyway, Clive and I head for Rulid. Now we knew about Rebecca, I started searching for my other Doppelgängers, as well as her, wanting to get to them as quickly as possible before the Order, to keep them safe and train them up. We returned to our home on Secrunerth just before the Order arrived to try and take the Realm. Using the Secrunerthian armour to hide our identities, we fought with every last ounce of strength we had to keep the Realm from falling to them. We kept going for two years, when a particularly bad day led to almost everyone we knew and held dear being sent to Deathea. We were feeling defeated. Our friends didn't have the strength to keep fighting anymore, they wanted it all to end. I was leading one final resistance when a huge army appeared from the Portal in nineteen thirty seven, led by two female warriors in silver armour. Because we had become so weak and tired, the Order numbers present on the Realm had dropped significantly. Some had also been removed to be sent to Neonia, to fight a resistance there."
"I'll never forget it!" Clive said, leaning forward to address us all. "I was crossing the plains between Buckstee and Mafstwaa to get to where the Order had their base, when we saw a group of fighters already there. It was crazy! There were bodies of the Order fucking everywhere, we had to climb over them. When we reached the main fight, the war was won and there stood Rebecca, speaking with the Royal's of Secrunerth about the damage and loss of life to the Realm. I immediately spun around and ran back towards the other battlefield to find Regina. She was speaking with the Council of Secrunerth. I told her you were there," he nodded his head to Rebecca, "but Regina said that everyone was about to be sent off the Realm to live elsewhere, so we would have to find you on another Realm."
"Yes." Regina narrowed her eyes at Rebecca. "You were meant to leave the Realm, not stay behind and keep it as your own!"
"The Realm was empty, and the royal's allowed me to stay to use it as our headquarters. We still live there to this day." Rebecca told her innocently.
Regina hummed, cynically. "Yes, well. We decided to try and catch you on another Realm. We were even making frequent searches of Astrovia to try and find you. We came back every few months, as much as possible, in the hope you would come back, but I then got distracted. Clive and I attended the first celebration of 'Xi Aca Goaxaw', thinking that you would attend. Did you?"
Rebecca shook her head. "I haven't gone back to Neonia for any of the festivals since I led the rebellion that set them free. Instead, I always prefer to do it in my own company."
"Hey, you don't 'always' do it in your own company." Jarod told her, throwing a tea towel at her. "I come to yours sometimes when the festivals are poorly timed with everything going on with FREE!"
Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Like I said, I prefer to do it in my own company. You go back when there's nothing else going on. That's why I gave you the role of a cook, as most of the festivals took place when I was leading wars or defending."
Regina cocked an eyebrow. "God I wish I had known that. We went to every single one of those fucking festivals thinking you would go!" Regina groaned and rubbed her forehead. "How dull their celebrations are!"
Rebecca found that funny. "Seems I was swaying a little too far away from the norm for you, Regina." She taunted.
Regina raised an eyebrow. "Well, it was a good thing you didn't go back then. Otherwise you would have met Rosalie before me."
Rebecca blanched and stared at Rosalie, who was playing with the split ends in her hair.
"She was sitting on the steps of an orphange, watching the festival on her own, away from the other children. I thought she was you, so went to sit beside her with Clive, but Clive noticed that she was missing the scars that you had." Regina looked sadly at Rosalie, before going to her side and placing a hand on her shoulder. "We still don't know exactly what happened, because she's unable to tell us. All we know from research was that her parents and her infant sibling were sent to Deathea at the start of the war." Regina told us. "She would have only been five or six years old, at the time. Rosalie had just turned thirteen when we found her. We spent a couple of years on Neonia, going through the paper work so we would be allowed to adopt her as our own."
I got distracted in that moment. I noticed that Rhianna had a strange look on her face from the corner of my eye. She was staring at Rosalie with a sympathetic, knowing look, her fists clenched so much, her nails were almost piercing her skin. I reached around Harry and took her hand. She jumped and looked at me.
"You ok?" I mouthed to her.
She nodded, and looked at Harry, who was staring at her, very worried. She gave him a small smile and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"In nineteen forty five, Rosalie was officially classed as our daughter. We let her keep her family name, Daniels, and she came to stay with us for a couple more years in a small house we were staying in on Neonia while we told her about everything we had learnt and experienced so far. In nineteen forty seven, Clive went back to Astrovia with her for her training, while I continued searching for the rest of you. Once again, my search ended, fruitless, and so I met up with Rosalie and Clive in Astrovia. We travelled the Realm for a good many years, training hard, and bringing other members of our resistance to join us. The six of us stayed in your little house, Rebecca. I hope you don't mind."
Rebecca smirked and shook her head. "It definitely didn't go to waste then. It has been the home of all seven of us. Feeling fucking proud of myself to be honest."
Darren suddenly went to get up. "I'll be right back." He whispered to me, kissing my cheek. "I love you."
I frowned, but when I watched him walk into the kitchen, I saw Danielle waiting to speak to him. I looked at Dean and Hewitt, who were both scowling at her.
"Anyway." Regina resumed her story, chuckling at our mucking around. "The three of us continued searching the Realms for our Doppelgängers. But, when it got to nineteen seventy, I was spent. I had desperately tried to find the rest of you, but I felt myself starting to slip further and further into... hopelessness as time dragged on. I was getting impatient. Wanting this all to be over, and Rebecca had once again disappeared into the abyss as far as we knew. Clive took Rosalie and I here, to Earth, to take our minds off it. We saw our first ever 'film', but got kicked out when these flying houses kept soaring towards us."
"What film were you watching?" Maria asked.
I glanced over at her, and she was immersed into Regina's story completely, as were Darren's and my parents.
"Star wars?"
Harry and I burst out laughing.
"You got scared when the spaceships were coming towards the screen?" I squeaked, holding my belly and leaning back, laughing hard towards the sky.
"You forget it was the first time we had ever experienced this type of thing. We hadn't been to Earth since the late eighteen hundreds, and it had changed beyond recognition. We stayed here for twenty years, living in a small, derelict house in Scotland. It was perfect for us, because we had the space and privacy to keep up our practising. When nineteen eighty seven came, I wanted to head back to Astrovia for some real practise. We found things had changed a lot since we had last been there."
Rebecca froze. "You went back to Astrovia?"
Regina smiled, knowingly, at her and nodded. "Loved the new additions to the Realm, Rebecca. And I was very interested to find out you had put Repellent Beacons in the halls." She smirked. "How did you find out about those?"
Rebecca shuffled in her seat, Natalia got up and sat back down in her own seat.
"Um, Asuna." Rebecca mumbled, quietly.
"Asuna?" Regina pushed for more information.
"Asuna Sugo from Uiestea." Rebecca said.
"Holy shit! A Sugo?!" Clive blanched. He stared at Rebecca in disbelief before staring at Regina and back again. "Has she been given the thorough checks? You've checked her credentials and history, right?"
"We have known Asuna since she was seven. She joined FREE when she had just turned twenty years old." Natalia told him.
Regina and Clive exchanged concerned glances. Rebecca narrowed her eyes at them.
"What?" Rebecca asked, suspiciously.
Regina hesitated before looking Rebecca in the eye. "The Sugo family has a bad reputation. They were tied in very closely with the LaCroix's." She explained, slowly. "They used to be the only true supporters in the LaCroix's council."
Natalia gasped and covered her mouth with her hands while Rebecca scowled.
"I'm sorry, but Asuna isn't like the Sugo's you knew." I told Regina, confidently. "She has proven herself to be loyal and trustworthy."
Rebecca looked at me, her face softening. "Ruth's right. Even though she has been a right pain in my side the past seventy years, she has certainly proven herself and has tried her best to make up for any mistakes she has made." She told Regina.
Regina nodded. "As long as she has proven herself." She still didn't look convinced, though. She took a deep breath before continuing. "So, we arrived in Astrovia and noticed that it was looking to become a populated Realm. I got my excitement back, wanting to find you all, and left pretty much straight away. We never found anyone until nineteen ninety nine. The day before the millenium, we came to Rulid to continue our search there. Upon arriving, we noticed a small gathering of girls outside an orphange. Turns out one of the girls, there, had decided to pick a fight. Rosalie wasn't happy with that and started to march over when we noticed who was the victim."
Regina looked at Rhianna. "You really have a hot temper on you sometimes. It was amazing to watch you take on those girls and I was extremely proud to see you hold your own against them all. May I ask what happened?"
Rhianna rolled her eyes. "Apparently, I stole someone's crown." She spat, angrily.
I flinched. Of course, the orphanges were full of girls there. With them all rejected from royal families, the girls would have been princesses, and some would have been older when put up for adoption than Rhianna would have been.
Regina hummed. "Thanks to your... conflict, we knew you existed. We started seeking out someone from our resistance to help us arrange your adoption-"
Rhianna's eyes went wide. "You-You were going to adopt me?" She stammered.
Regina smiled at her, softly. "Of course we were. We wanted to keep you with us, safe and secure. Thing is, many of our members from Rulid didn't want to stick around in their home Realm. They joined as a kind of scapegoat. They wanted to be away from all the fighting."
"Just like Benjamin." Rebecca murmured to Natalia, solomnly, making my heart shrink.
She was talking about Benjamin Needham. The original leader of Narthwich. The leader who died to protect me from Atkinson and Collins... I mentally shook myself, but it didn't work. The guilt and remorse started to resurface from earlier.
He had died trying to save me. He had stood there with the others from the Narthwich Guard, trying to defend me from Atkinson and his crones. They had been killed because of me, in the most horrendous and cruel ways imaginable.
"That little piggy needed to be taken to the slaughter house." Collins snide voice came into my head. "So we dealt with those little tin soldiers first. We ran into their barracks and killed them right there, one by one. I had to admit, I decided to let myself get inventive. Like, how many times can you stab a person before their flesh and bones are just like mushy peas? How long does it take for someone to bleed out after their throat is slit? How long is a humans intestine? Can a person feel their insides being jumped on when it's been pulled-"
Reginas voice pulled back back to the present.
"We were looking around for someone to stand in for me. Of course if I went in wanting to adopt you, it would raise some very suspicious questions. Especially with a sister that looked just like you too, and that was something I'd have preferred to avoid. Thing is, it took us six years to find someone who agreed to come back to their Realm to agree to do the adoption papers for us. By the time we had signed everything, you had disappeared. Two hundred teenagers across the town disappeared over three days through Portals. A majority came from the orphanages, but some heirs to the thrones went missing and the Realm fell into a war zone... more so than it was before. All the continents that had their heirs missing declared war against the continents whose families remained intact." Regina rolled her eyes.
Clive leaned forwards with his elbows on his knees, studying everyone closely. "Because Rhianna had been one of the ones taken, we set off to find who would be responsible. Our first stop was, of course, Deathea."
Everyone froze and gave him their full attention.
Clive's face was hard and his lips were in a very thin line. "We called up arms and our entire army prepared for Deathea. The problem was, even though we left with numerous water pouches, and fresh food, the heat evaporated the water within a few hours, and the food spoiled too." He scowled and looked at his hands, tapping his fingertips together. "Every four hours we were having to retreat to Earth to stock up on food and water. The other issue was that we needed our armour in case we were to have a fight, but that conducted the heat something terrible. It also made our swords far too hot to hold, we couldn't do it without burning ourselves."
Regina nodded as Clive spoke. "After three days of searching the Realm, we had no choice but to retreat and call the search off. No person could survive longer than a day in that heat with no water or food, and with nothing to protect them. We came across numerous different monstrosities in that Realm, and all were far too huge to physically kill." She shook her head, dejectedly. "How you managed ten years on that Realm is beyond me!" She said, in awe, to Rebecca.
Rebecca sighed, solomnly. "It was tough. There was water, but you had to dig down very deep for it, and even then, it was boiling and full of dirt." She explained, nonchalantly. "If you stuck to the mountain side, you would find shade, although it didn't make much of a difference as it was far from cool enough. If you used the lava from the rivers and lakes, you would have been able to fashion yourself a sword made of rock, but it takes a fucking age to get used to, and you do get very burnt. Those bastard creatures can be killed. They have a main artery vein just beside their ankle that, if you hit deep, you would make them bleed to death. Because they are already rotten, they don't tend to heal quick enough to stem the bleeding. This would, in turn, provide you with enough food to last a few days and some shelter, if you were brave."
"Ewww." Maria cringed in her seat, staring at Rebecca in disgust.
Rebecca smirked, enjoying that she was freaking my sister out. "Oh, you would also find the odd body to feast on that would have been out long enough to be cooked."
"Now that's just gross!" Came Danielle's snide voice.
Everyone's heads turned towards where she was standing by the back door with Darren. Darren rolled his eyes at her and came to sit beside me, smiling at me as he sat down and taking my hand to kiss it.
"That's how you survive, sweetheart." Regina told Danielle in a cold voice. "Rebecca survived ten years in that hell when we could only bear three days! She had no way off that Realm when she was sent there, but if she had, she wouldn't have stayed there longer than a minute."
"Exactly." Rebecca responded, curtly. "The fact that I even had to resort to drinking the blood of the creatures when I had no energy to dig for the water, should give you a slight idea of how desperate I was to make it out of there!" She steadily got more and more angry as she spoke.
Natalia put a hand on her knee. "And thank the lands, that you did, my love. Otherwise we would never have met."
Rebecca softened and calmed down immediately, smiling, warmly, at Natalia.
Danielle bowed her head, submissively, as Darren gave her a very dirty look. She sat beside Fiona who put her arm around her, as well as a very stern look, silently asking for no more drama. Darren plonked himself down on the ground, next to me, and took my hand, kissing it and smiling at me.
"With Deathea now off the list of possibilities, we searched Lisorix next." Regina continued. "Lisorix is a favourite of many because of it's beautiful landscapes and peaceful surroundings, but for me? Sheer boredom if you stay there too long!"
Rhianna snorted. "I completely agree. Whenever Rebecca tells us to go training there, I wish I was back in Astrovia. I need to kill something, not run around!" She complained to Rebecca, cynically.
Regina snapped her fingers and pointed at Rhianna in agreement. "Thank you!" She cried. "That's what I say! I definitely wouldn't be using that Realm as a place to train! I would be back in Astrovia going bat shit crazy!" She chuckled, shaking her head at herself. "Anyway, we spent a year and a half searching there, before heading to Astrovia."
"We headed straight to the house." Clive carried on, watching Rhianna, carefully. "We saw you on the green in front of the house, duelling some boy with the same sword you have today, but it was glowing bright red. Someone was putting doppelgänger blood in the metal as they were forging, weren't they, Miss Donton?" He sneered at Rebecca.
Rebecca laughed. "I did, indeed. Until Raquel noticed that it had my Aura attached to it and removed it."
Regina rolled her eyes. "We can get them back to the way they were. All we need to do is-"
"NO!!" Raquel screamed, furiously. "I will not allow you to remove Rebecca's Aura again. It severely damaged it the first time, and it's still recovering now!"
Regina put a hand up to calm her. "That's because Rebecca did the process several times. If she had only done the one sword, then she would have been fine. Because she did it multiple times, it soaked her Aura up, and would have ended up making her void the more she used it as a latch."
My eyes widened in amazement.
"So we can get our swords back to how they were originally?" Ruby asked, excitedly.
"Yes!" Rhianna punched the air.
"You can, but it would mean forging them again." Regina told us.
"Oh bollocks!" Rhianna spat. "Rebecca, you're remaking this beauty as soon as we step on Secrenurthian soil!"
Rebecca nodded. "Agreed. I would do anything for my sword to tell people how I felt about them, without actually having to say the words, again." She made a sideways glance at Danielle.
Regina nodded. "I must admit, I have always regretted not doing one for myself, but I don't have any knowledge about forging." She shook her head at herself, regretfully, before carrying on, looking at Rhianna with a warm smile. "It was great to see you actively training someone. That boy was sure hanging on to your every word."
"Loverboy." Rebecca muttered quietly to Natalia, rolling her eyes, earning a scowl from Rhianna.
Regina heard her too and gave her a confused look. "Loverboy?"
Rebecca sighed and sat up straight. "I know you go back to see him every year, Rhianna." She looked at Regina. "That was her boyfriend during the time at Astrovia." She explained.
My heart started pounding in my throat as Rhianna got to her feet, angrily. Regina frowned at Rebecca before turning to Rhianna.
"I understand that you loved him, but to have that bond with your own brother?"
"BROTHER?!" Rhianna and Rebecca blanched at the same time, but for different reasons.
Rhianna was shell shocked that Regina knew she had a brother, Rebecca was flabbergasted to find out the boy she had been visiting for the past twenty five years was her brother.
"You never told me he was your brother!" Rebecca shouted at her, as if blaming the memory loss on her.
Rhianna looked furious. "You never told me you needed to know that information!" She roared, withdrawing SpineRipper and stepping towards her. "You removed his fucking memories of our time together! You just asked him to choose FREE or home, then took me to Secrunerth without giving me a chance to say goodbye. We were going to be ruling Eoceth, Feisora, and Agria as a team, a family, while I led the resistance against Tiana and the Order."
Rebecca gaped at her, then pinched the bridge of her nose, clenching her eyes shut. Natalia stood up, looking sympathetically at Rhianna.
"Rhianna, we didn't know. We will correct everything when we get back. We can give him the potion that will return his memories."
"No fucking point now! He will still remember banning me from the Continents. The guards won't ever let me back in!" Rhianna spat, angrily.
Harry got to his feet and put his arms around Rhianna's waist, pulling her to him. "But they don't know me, and will let me in. If I can get close enough, I can give him this potion and get your brother back for you." His voice sounded strained and I knew he was thinking of Chris.
Rhianna looked up at him in surprise. "You'd do that for me?" She asked in a small voice.
Harry chuckled and drew her in ever closer. "For you, I'd do anything." He gave her an affectionate smile before looking back at me, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry, Ruthie. You'll have to take a back seat."
"Well, fuck you, then." I flipped a finger at him while pretending to pout, before laughing. "Nah, mate. You look after your Saltazeeb."
"Don't call it that!" Rhianna snarled, grinding her teeth. "We're not in Atania!"
Rebecca had been watching us, her eyes narrowed in thought. "Rhianna, a word after this please?" She told her, sternly.
"I'm going armed!" Rhianna warned her. "God, I wish there wasn't the Doppelgänger latch right now!" She scowled, looking at me.
I put my hands up. "Why did you look at me when you said that?!" I asked, feeling slightly worried.
Rhianna shrugged. "Was hoping you'd agree with me." She said, nonchalantly.
I made a high pitched, thoughtful noise, putting my finger to my chin. "If you had asked me earlier, then yeah. I would have agreed with you. But now, you've all shown how much you love me, and consider me your sister, so nahhh. I'm good with the latch again. For the time being at least."
Regina smiled widely then looked at Rebecca. "I understand why you removed their memories. It would have been too dangerous and would have easily leaked to the Order, but you really should get to know them before just going ahead and taking their memories away."
"Yeah." Darren chipped in. "If Hunter hadn't had known that Booker still had her memories, you would have likely died from that car incident."
Natalia stared at him with wide eyes. "You said that the doctors wouldn't have allowed it..." She whimpered, looking scared now.
Darren grimaced and I put a hand on his shoulder. "They would have still fought hard to keep her alive, but by the sounds of it, and by how it felt, that was one hell of a-"
"YES! THANK YOU!" Rebecca snapped, wincing at the memory. "That's enough of that. I'd rather forget that happened." She physically shook herself and turned to Regina. "You better not have made your appearance known to the subjects." She snarled.
Regina gave her an annoyed look before shaking her head. "No. We realised that she was there for training so, instead, decided to stalk you out. We had heard of FREE, but didn't know anything about the leaders, so started to find out more information about them. We realised that we couldn't use the Portal to Secrunerth anymore."
Rebecca looked smug at that. "Good, the Blocker does work. See? Asuna created that. Stops any intruders coming into Secrunerth without the correct watches." She folded her arms, proudly.
Regina nodded, looking impressed. "Very impressive. But it does give away where you are. If they're able to get hold of any of your watches, then-"
"Way ahead of you!" Rebecca retorted, puffing herself up. "The watches and phones are linked to our DNA, or whatever Asuna calls it. Basically, when a new member starts, they have something put in their mouth and it links to the watches and phones so, if they were stolen, they wouldn't work."
Regina looked at Clive, who grinned back at her.
"You got to give it to her. She has everything planned out." Clive told her.
"Almost everything. Of course, she got stuck here like us, so..." Regina shrugged. "How are you planning to get back?" She asked, curiously
Natalia smiled at her, kindly. "After the Vollang party tomorrow, we will be leaving the next day around three in the afternoon by the Mass Portal Transmittor on Uiestea. Asuna has been fixing it for us, since Rebecca destroyed it after Ruth returned from Astrovia. We were planning to stop doing the training on Astrovia and so, Rebecca destroyed the machine so the Order couldn't use it. We never thought that this could happen."
Rebecca looked thoughtful. "I better call Asuna now, actually. If Regina, Clive, Rosalie and the others are joining us, we will need new watches."
"And we need replacement ones too, Beccs." I told her.
She nodded at me. "Good point. I'll call her now and let her know. You finished your story?" She asked Regina.
Regina shrugged. "Pretty much. After we left Rhianna to complete her training, we discovered that Secrunerth was barred, so started trying to gather more information on why that could be. We learnt all about you, and discovered the new doppelgänger, Raquel, was born in twenty fifteen, so kept a close eye on her. When we got wind that the Order was planning to attack her there, I set up the plan to move her and her parents to safety here on Earth, but you know how that ended up." She sent a small scowl at Clara for a moment before smiling around. "You go and call Asuna, then, Rebecca. If it's ok, I would like to join you when we return."
Rebecca beamed at that. "Absolutely. We are a formidable team together, I think." She pulled out her phone and head indoors with Regina and Natalia in close pursuit.

I stood up and started stretching. "God, it's like primary school assembly here." I chuckled, looking at my friends all sitting on the floor.
Dean laughed and got up too. "Yeah, I have a dead leg right now."
Darren got up and put his arms around my waist. I gave him a suspicious look.
"Where have you been, young man?" I drawled, narrowing my eyes.
He laughed. "Just some... family business to take care of." He told me, his eyes looking behind me at Danielle. "She was trying to bribe me into getting the others to delete the video."
I glanced back at her, too. She was on her phone, a hand covering half of her face, looking traumatised. I looked back at Darren.
"I think Rebecca's plan might have been the better option, now. Much less dragged out." I said, feeling bad for her.
"Why are you worried about her? She deserved it like this. Lasts longer, and gets the message across better." Darren quipped, looking concerned at me. "I will never forgive her for hurting and upsetting you."
I looked him in the eye. "I would prefer that she didn't see me as the bad guy, because I'm not the bad guy. True, I murdered someone-"
"Because of what he did to Green!" Darren blurted out, pulling me closer. "Watson, everything you did was for someone else. No one see's you as the bad guy!"
"But they do, Darren." I said, distantly. "I will always be seen as the person who murdered Stainton, the person who got everyone sent to Astrovia. I want to be liked for who I am as a person, I am fed up with having to prove people wrong all the time." I admitted, surprising myself with my own words.
"Is that why you've gone red?" Raquel's voice came from behind me, making me jump and grip my sword.
"Seriously, one day you're going to make me jump so much, I am literally going to slice your fucking head off by accident."
"I'm sorry." Raquel said, sadly, looking down. "I got worried about you, that's all."
I sighed, and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine."
She shook her head. "But you're not. You're very upset and worried about something. Is it because of earlier? You did turn very dark then."
"I'm sorry, what's she on about?" My mum asked, coming over and putting an arm around my shoulder, protectively.
"My Aura's turned red. I'm usually gold, but now it's gone red again." I told mum.
"You've completely lost me too, Ruthie." Harry said from behind me.
Before I could answer, my phone started ringing. It was Sawyer.
"I need to take this. It's Sawyer. Raquel, explain to them how Aura's work will you?" I said, heading towards the house. Darren started to follow me, but got called back by his parents.
"I won't be long." I told him, answering the call. "Alright, Sawyer?"
"Alright, Watson?" Came Sawyer's voice. "Listen, Jane and I were wondering if it was alright to come round tonight instead of tomorrow? That way we can help set everything up."
"Yeah, why not? Dean and Hewitt are already here. Heads up, though. There's a lot more in this house than before. My parents are here and my sister along with Hodgson's parents and sister and Hunter's mum."
"Whoa. Y-you told them?" Sawyer breathed. "How did they take it?"
"Well, mum had to be told because we got attacked after I got released from prison, then-"
"PRISON?!" Sawyer bellowed down the phone. "The fuck happened?!"
I laughed. "Gerri attacked me and we started fighting. Um, might be best to tell you what happened when you get here." I rubbed the back of my neck, awkwardly. "It's a long story."
"Ahh, ok. Well, don't tell Perkins you got arrested. He will go ape shit at you." Sawyer laughed.
I laughed along. "Thanks for the heads up. I'll see you soon."
"Yeah, we will be there in an hour." He grunted.
I was about to put the phone down when I heard him continue talking. I put the phone back to my ear and listened to what he was saying.
"Watson said it was fine. She got arrested because she was fighting with Gerri." I heard him say.
"Oh god. Don't tell Perkins." I heard Ashdown reply, laughing slightly, then... "Did you tell her that we want to go with them?"
I stared at the phone in my hand, thunderstruck. They wanted to join too? Why?"
"No I didn't. I was going to leave that until we got there."
"I CAN STILL HEAR YOU!" I bellowed through the phone, wondering if they could hear me.
"What the-?" I heard Sawyer say, then the phone shuffled again. "Watson? You still there?"
I smirked. "I am, indeed. So want to join FREE huh?" I asked him.
I heard him take a sharp intake of breath then clear his throat. "Er... y-yeah we were p-planning to.." He stammered.
I laughed. "Well, if you think you can handle it. I'll speak to Beccs when you get here and see what she says. Dean and Hewitt have joined along with my mate, Harry." I told him.
"Great!" Sawyer cried out. "We'll see you soon. I'll make sure I put the phone down this time."
I put the phone down on him, to make a point, grinning from ear to ear. All of my friends were wanting to join FREE, this was amazing! I have almost all my friends coming back with me to Secrunerth. I was so excited, yet I couldn't help feeling apprehensive that something could happen to them. I hoped, to all of the Realms, that my friends would be safe.