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

Epilogue

*Asuna Sugo POV - Uiestea*

"The machine's practically up and running, Asuna. We will definitely be ready to transmit the Portal over the location at three tomorrow afternoon." My best colleague, Feng, told me.
"Excellent! It will be a relief to get Rebecca and the others back to Secrunerth. I just hope they'll be able to get everything back to normal quickly..." I looked at the huge machine that had taken us a week to repair.
Thankfully, Rebecca hadn't damaged it as much as we thought. A vast portion of the middle of the machine, which held all the Chreek Reed plates and wiring, had remained intact. It was just fixing the remainder of the machine, such as the monitor and location dials, that had needed our attention.
Rebecca had been thrilled to hear they would be returning back soon and she had requested more watches to be made as there had been a fair few new recruits wanting to join from Earth, along with Watson's friend, Hunter. I gave a huge sigh of relief when she told me that.
The war on Cristis had cut our numbers in half on Secrunerth, therefore I had had no choice but to recall all members from their positions and get them back to base. This meant we were unaware of what was happening on the other Realms, nor the Orders movements. The whole of FREE had come to a complete standstill without our leading doppelgängers.
"I have just put in the location, now. Have you updated Rebecca on our progress today?" Feng asked, double checking the coordinates we had been given.
"I've been trying all morning but she's not answering. Neither is Natalia, saying that. Last I spoke to her, was last night when she was telling me to have new watches made for quite a few recruits. She's asked for fifteen to be made, along with plenty of Chreek plates, so that's promising."
"You don't think anything's happened to them, do you?" Feng asked, looking extremely worried.
I was about to answer when there came three, slow bangs on the barricaded door followed by a chilling, falsely sweet female voice I had only ever heard once in my life. The woman who murdered my parents in front of me. Tiana!
"Come out, Sugo! You broke your promise, pumpkin. We need to have a little chat." Tiana sang through the door.
"Feng! Get back to base now! The rest of you, protect the machine with your lives! We can't let them have it!" I cried, withdrawing the only sword I had ever owned.
I had never taken to sword fighting. Even when Rebecca had sent me to get trained up with the other Overseers. I was more kept back from the fights because I was the only one who knew how to make the potions. Now, I wish I Could turn back time and forced myself to fight in the front lines.
Feng disappeared in a flash of light, while the other members of my team gathered together, defensively, in front of me. They got into position just as the barricaded door was forced open with a terrifying CRASH.
Four brutes, armed with huge hammers and swords, slowly entered the room. They dwarfed my team, making them look like they were merely children compared to how large they were. We outnumbered them four to one, but their strength, alone, will be our biggest threat. The men let out spine chilling, evil chuckles with matching grins pasted on their faces, as they parted to allow Tiana inside the room.
Tiana tutted and shook her head at me. "Oh, Sugo. I thought I could trust you. You had one simple task and you blew it!" Her face morphed from fake disappointment to savage hatred in milliseconds. "All I wanted was the information on how Regina and Rebecca replicated themselves, but you couldn't even do that. Instead, you joined them. Made a mockery of me! You saw what happens when someone upsets me." She jutted out her bottom lip in a disappointed pout complete with pathetic, puppy dog eyes, before giggling. "Not to worry. My team on Earth will soon be making another move on them. They're on their way to them now. I've heard they have a few... family members visiting." She sneers at me.
"You're wasting your time!" I spat, trying to keep my voice sounding confident and brave.
Tiana hummed, looking at the machine behind us. "Why do I get the feeling you're protecting something from us, Sugo?"
I took a step back, involuntarily, out of fear. Tiana smirked and narrowed her eyes.
"Get them, boys!" She cried, flinging her arm towards us, carelessly.
The four men ran at us, blowing the first row away with their monstrous hammers and swinging at the second with their swords. The others moved forwards to protect the machine and take on the beastly men, but left a path open for Tiana to get through.
As quickly as I could I whacked the Transmitter button and ran around the machine towards the door that allowed me to get inside the machine. Tiana caught me though.
An excruciatingly agonising pain across my stomach and I screamed out as I fell to the floor, wrapping my arm around my wound. I clenched my teeth together against the pain and grimaced as I looked up to Tiana.
"I am sick of you all! You're all vermin!" She spat at me before driving her blade into my shoulder.
"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!" I screamed like I had never screamed before. The pain was so much, spots were dancing in my line of sight and Tiana's face was starting to swim in and out of focus.
Tiana smirked, yanked her sword out of my shoulder and grabbed a handful of my hair, twisting it round, painfully, towards where the others were losing their fight against the men. She placed her weapon against my throat, pushing the razor sharp edge into the skin and drawing blood.
"You see?" She hissed in my ear, shaking my head by my hair. "You will lose! No matter what Rebecca does, no matter how many of you there are, you will never defeat us! We will be around forever and every Realm will be ours for the taking!"
With a flash of silver, I felt her blade slice my throat and she threw me to the floor.
Spluttering and desperately gasping for air, I scrambled myself up so I was on all fours. My energy and consciousness was fading fast and I knew I only had a few seconds to break the machine again so Tiana couldn't use it before my life ended. Slipping and sliding in my own blood as it flooded the floor, I reached over, almost blindly because of the pain and faintness I was feeling. I found the door to the inside of the machine, fumbled it open and drove my sword, with all the remaining strength I could muster, into the heart of the machine, rendering it useless.
My final task complete, I slumped to the floor, waiting for death to take me, no longer able to breathe and my own heartbeat gradually growing fainter and fainter.
'Forgive me, Rebecca. I only wanted to keep you all safe...' was my last thought before I succumbed to the pain and fell into my everlasting sleep.