"Bold" -Eugene
"Bold Italics" - Artemis
"Bold Italics underlined" -Both Eugene and Artemis
So I am happy to announce that this chapter is the end...of season 2! and I will release the beginning of season 3 later on today or tomorrow...it is 3:45 a.m as I type this and I am officially on SPRING BREAK! so I can do a lot of writing in the week I have off if time permits.
We finally got Artemis' lineage into the story, yes, she is the princess mentioned in the Keeper of the Spire chapter, and if you did not read that chapter it had a huge hint, also Yes, she and Eugene are half siblings, but they are still siblings. in the next chapter or two we'll see the return of our favorite alchemist, Varian, and I am so excited. his character brings a lot to the show as a whole and I cannot wait to get back inside his weaselly little mind. lol
Also, the return of Hubert...and if you've forgotten who that is...go back ad read the day of hearts chapter, oh yes, Artemis hasn't forgotten his real name.
Onto the chapter!
"Father…?" he'd completely forgotten abut the girl across the way "You're my…our father?" the man merely nodded and after a moment of deliberation and disbelief, Eugene burst out laughing,
"Well of course, of course you are." He stood, "I don't know why I didn't see it before, the dark soulless eyes, the unbridled aggression that drives on to attack total strangers!" the dark-haired man frowned and walked past Eugene who took the opportunity to check on Artemis,
"Kid, wake up." The man had taken a hold of Adira's sword, slicing one of the rocks in half.
"I am your father." Eugene looked down at the unconscious teen in his arms, "But then that means…" He looked at her face, he hadn't noticed any similarities until now, her eyes may be different colors, but the shared eye shapes and even their mouth were the same shape,
"But…if she's my sister…" he felt a pang of guilt as the man offered him a hand up, he could have been there for her the day her mother died…if only he'd known. "she'll be fine, but I need to show you something." Eugene shifted her onto his back and followed his "Father" into the caves leading into the Castle.
"Don't worry, it's actually quite an interesting story and it starts with the moon. Once upon a time a single drop of moonlight fell from the heavens and from this small drop of moonlight formed a single, seductive, opal stone. It had the ability to destroy any and all who would seek to possess it. Centuries passed and this opal's defenses spread and from that grew a kingdom, a Kingdom founded by our ancestors. Generation after Generation of our bloodline stood guard here, helping to protect the world from the opal's limitless power. In the fall out, I commanded my subjects to leave and never return…even my own son. I sent my most trusted soldiers into the world to ensure this power be kept a secret. For if it ever fell into the wrong hands it would mean certain doom. These knights called themselves the brotherhood."
"But if you sent everyone away, then how…"
"Your sister wasn't planned, but when she came…I couldn't bare to send her away as I had you. I thought I could have a second chance, a chance to do things right…but in the end..."
"You gave her to Hector to give her her best chance."
"Correct." Eugene felt her shift, "Eugene?"
"Morning, Kid." He carefully let her down onto the ground as she rubbed her eyes, "Where…?"
"Welcome Home."
"Home?" The room they were in was an eerie blue, "Yeah, it's uh…wow you really went all in with the whole dark theme, didn't you…" Artemis blinked, "I…remember this room."
"At least one of you likes it." The two followed the man, "Wait…" Artemis got a good look at the mans face and her eyes widened with shock, "Grandpa Edmond?!"
"Grandpa?!" Eugene looked between the two, "Tell me this, old, brooding, armored guy, what makes you think the three of us are related, anyway?"
"Wait…the three of us are…what?"
"It's your eyes, I can tell a lot by looking into a man's eyes." Eugene looked terrified and Artemis just looked confused, "Also…my raven's have been following you ever since you left." He pressed something into Eugene's arms, "These don't do your nose any justice."
"That's what I've been screaming …"
"Ooh, I think this reunion is off to a great start."
"Yeah, but that doesn't explain the kid." Edmond turned around, "She looks just like her mother, except for the eye thing, I've got nothing for that. But remember those knights I told you about? I gave her to Hector to keep her safe, I never dreamed he would abandon her and Delilah…or that she would meet Quirin and his boy."
Artemis blushed at the mention of Varian, if he knew they were friends, what else did he know about?
"We're finding common ground, exchanging stories, I just might win them over yet."
"I think he's lost his mind…" Artemis whispered worriedly, "You know, we can hear what you're saying."
"Oh…uh huh…I'm sorry, I must be speaking my thoughts out loud. I have been along a long time." Edmond cleared his throat, "How's this, you are unaware of what I'm thinking right now, yes?"
"Yeah, no. you're saying everything that you're thinking out loud and we can still hear all of it." Artemis looked at the two with a slightly scared expression, her eyes shifting between the two men before her and the door to the dining room.
"Drat! I will work on this skill." He carried on towards the table, "Over time my raven's lost track of you." Artemis watched the raven on the table, disturbed as it fell over the side, "Oi, you see what I have to work with?." Eugene pushed away from the table, "Right, look. Uh, we've got to find our friends, you see, I need to make sure Rapunzel is okay."
"So long as she stays away from the Moonstone she will be."
"But she can't"
"The moonstone is actually why we're here, Grandpa." Edmond almost choked on his drink at the term, as if he'd forgotten that's what she had used to call him.
"She's the sun drop."
"You don't know that she is, son." He turned his gaze to Artemis, "And don't call me Grandpa, young lady. I'm your father." Artemis sat still for a second before she started to laugh…"No. no, no, no…that is not possible. Hector told me I….was…adopt—" her words trailed off as Eugene slammed his hands down on the table, "You do not get to call me son, or her your daughter."
"All right, listen. I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Here comes, the glower." Artemis had been stunned into silence at the news, "Okay, wow, yeah you can stop that…"
"This is kind of an off day for me, this doesn't usually happen." He pushed away from the table, "A quarter of a century ago I had you taken as far away as possible. Yet after all that time and all those miles you wind up here, in front of me, with this. A weapon that could actually have the power to destroy the moonstone." Edmond pulled out Adira's sword as Artemis seemed to finally snap out of her stupor and pushed herself away from the table, "So you sent him away 25 years ago…but then just decided to have another kid and screw up her life too?" there was ice in her tone,
"Watch your tone, young lady." She laughed, her expression darkening, "No, no. you don't get to treat me like you've done anything for me, Like you gave a damn about what would happen to me out there in the real world, Hector, he left mom and I when I was 3 and I spent YEARS thinking it was my fault, only to find out a few months back he's gone mad and has been out there doing work for you?!"
"I understand you're upset, but hear me out—"
"I don't want to 'hear you out.' I've been on the road with Eugene and the others for the last year thinking I had no one but your god dan knight as a father, only to find out that my supposedly real father didn't want me!"
"With this sword, the three of us can destroy the moonstone, together."
"I don't care about the stupid moonstone!"
"Artemis, calm down." Eugene and Edmond both looked at the teenager before them, taking note of her glowing blue eye,
"Listen," Eugene looked to Edmond, "The black rocks made a path for Rapunzel, leading her here. And secondly, Artemis can control them, so I'd put the sword down."
"Leading the two of you here, to put an end to the moonstone. It can get into your head." Artemis felt her frustrations grow as Edmond placed a hand on both of their shoulders, she slapped it off, "Don't touch me!"
"It fills it with thoughts, that's what it's doing to your friends, to your sister…just look at her, that's what it did to me, and I nearly destroyed my own kingdom." Having had enough, Artemis launched a bramble of rocks at Edmond full force, but her merely cut them down, staring at her with a mixture of fear and anger,
"I barely survived, but not everyone was so fortunate. Your mother—" He looked to Eugene as Artemis balled her fists by her side, Eugene looked at the portrait over the fireplace, "Perhaps it isn't Rapunzel's destiny to grab the moonstone, but yours. To save her from her from doing so. Don't allow the same fate to befall the love of your life."
Despite having calmed down Artemis still felt the odd warm sensation, "Hey, is something wrong with your eye?" Edmond took a closer look and she leaned away from him, "It does that whenever she's in close proximity to the black rocks, didn't it do this when she was little?"
"No…it didn't start until I was 13…the day I met Rapunzel, actually…the day of the birthday ball Varian insisted on throwing."
"Maybe it's a response to the Opal?"
"I mean, it's possible. But there's no way of telling for sure unless I can get close to it."
Eugene and Artemis waited on the other side of the door, leading to the moonstone chamber. there was a definite air of awkwardness between the two of them.
"So…siblings. Who would have thought?" Eugene looked at her dejectedly, "Look, Kid…If I had known…" She smiled up at him, "Don't do that."
"Don't do what?"
"Don't get all sappy on me, we've spent the last year on the road together, we've been through the fire and we came out all right, so don't do that, don't act like we haven't made up for lost time."
"But I'm your brother, I should have been there more than I was."
"You didn't know, neither of us did." The door to leading out opened, revealing Rapunzel., "Eugene, Artemis! Oh thank goodness, you're all okay. I was so…Eugene, Artemis…is something wrong?"
"I'm sorry, Rapunzel…" it killed the teen to watch the scene before her unfold, "we can't let you in." Edmond cut the chain to the door mechanism, closing the rest of the group out.
"Eugene, Artemis!" they could hear here pounding on the other side of the door, 'Let me in! Eugene…" Artemis moved to the side, it hurt her to see him in pain, after all, he and Rapunzel had plans to marry one another sometimes in the future…
A sudden sharp pain ran through Artemis' head as some of the rocks sprouted through he floor, "If I know Rapunzel, she's gonna find a way in here."
"The we must get to the moonstone first." Eugene turned to look at Artemis, "You okay, Kid?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a light headache." She followed after him into a hall full of statues, "Did we do the right thing?"
"I…I hope so." Edmond circled back, standing behind his children, "These statues…are these my…our—"
"They're our Ancestors. Generation after generation have sacrificed to keep this stone from the world, and now you're here to help me destroy it once and for all and take your rightful place among them." Edmond opened the door to the moonstone's chamber and her eye once again started to glow in response,
"There it is, the moonstone." He drew Adira's sword and stepped towards it, "No longer shall it's burden fall upon us. For all that stands between us and our destiny is this bridge." Black rocks shot up, blocking their path,
"Kid?" the two looked back at the teen who remained by the door, "I…I can't…I can't stop them!" there was a fear Eugene had never seen before and the sound of the bridge crumbling echoed in the space behind him,
"I'll go get a rope." Edmond left the two, newly found, sibling alone as he went to find a way to get across the new chasm.
"Come on, maybe it's best if you stay away from the Moonstone, hmm?" he guided her out of the chamber and back into the ancestral hall.
The two stared down at all the old wanted posters for Eugene,
"I thought I was an outcast." He looked at the teen next to him, "I thought I stood alone."As they turned to look at the Statues, Artemis could almost envision them when they were alive,
"A rogue, a thief, a joker…"
"No place to call my own." He threw a crumbled poster on the ground as Artemis eyed her reflection in the black rocks,
"I thought no one could love me." She came to stand in front of him, offering a sympathetic smile,
"And how could we have known we were wrong?" he returned her smile with a sad one,
"And then I thought I found it…" she watched her older brother walk away and turned once again to the watchful eyes of those who came before them,
"A dream that e could share" she let her mind wander back to Corona, To Varian and all the moments they had spent together before everything had gone so wrong, the day they met in the outskirts of the village, her helping him with his alchemy formula's…the Kiss at the day of hearts festival.
"I thought I was so lucky."
"It almost wasn't fair." Artemis watched as the scenes flashed by in her mind, would Varian still be the same when all of this was over? Bitter and Angry at the world for turning it's back on him…would he hate her for leaving?
"I thought I knew my purpose."
"I thought that I knew where I belonged…" the two turned to face each other, they both wore similar expression of sorrow,
"But we were wrong…"Artemis took a seat on the stone platform
"Everything we ever thought we knew, where we've been, where we're going. Everything we counted on turned out to be untrue could've guessed, should've know…now we do."
Artemis couldn't pull her eyes away from the statue of their shared father figure, it was ominous, and it carried so much weight now, knowing her lineage…would she have to leave everything behind? Eugene and Artemis shared a look,
"Everything I yearned for."
"Everything I planned." She saw images of a future in Corona, spending her days with Varian, with the others, getting older and getting married…maybe a family of her own someday, but this changed all of that
"All my sweetest memories were castle's made of sand—"
"—were days spent in his lab…"
"Now that they're all crumbling, help us understand. If none of it was really—"
"Me—"
"Me—"
"Then who are we supposed to be?!"
Images seemed to dance across the rocks reflective surface as she felt the tears pool in her eyes, watching all of her happiest memories fade away like a dream,
"Everything I ever thought I knew."
"Every hope, every feeling."
"Love and trust and happiness."
"They're done, they're gone, they're through…" The two came to a stop in front of one another,
"And what's left?" Blue and gold eyes met brown, "Us alone."
"Once again, should've known…now we do." Eugene pulled her in close, almost protectively as they sat back down on the stone slab,
"I guess our lives meant nothing."
"I guess they were a sham."
"I guess we're someone else now…"
"I wonder—"
"Who I am…"
"Everything's gonna be okay, I promise." Artemis smiled and leaned into him, "I know…we'll always have each other's backs from now on."
"Hey, both your eyes are glowing again." They could feel the ground shake a bit, and all of a sudden her eyes returned to normal,
"You know, no matter how many times that happens, it still freaks me out…" a familiar creaking alerted the two to one of the doors opening,
"Pascal?" Artemis smiled at seeing the little green Chameleon, "Hey, little buddy!"
"What are you doing here?" he stopped in front of Eugene and turned red, "Are you okay, frog?"
"I think he's mad that we locked Rapunzel out…"
"Yeah, Yeah, I know he's mad at me, but I didn't have a choice—We didn't have a choice." Artemis scooped the Chameleon up and put him on her shoulder, "Look, this is gonna sound crazy, but this place is—"
"Where we come from." Pascal let the red color fade from his scales as he looked at the two, "I know we brought Rapunzel here to grab the stone but everything—everything is different now. Look, the last time someone tried to destroy the moonstone, I lost my mother." Pascal gave Eugene a sympathetic look, patting his hand with his little paw,
"And what if we lost Rapunzel, Pascal?" the little reptile crawled down to Eugene's satchel and fished out the paper from Demanitus."
"One of her company will turn against her…"
"Eugene, Rapunzel probably thinks you're turning your back on her…imagine how she must feel right now?" Artemis took the paper from him,
"It's me. I'm the one who turned against Rapunzel. I should have known better."
"We both should have, but you know…we can still fix this." His usual smile returned, "All right Pascal, Kid, let's go find Rapunzel."
"No one may enter that room."
"I'm going in and you don't want to get in my way!"
"You're not getting past me."
"Yes. She. Is!" Artemis and Eugene charged into the room, the blonde could see the eerie glow from her eye dance in the shadowed area, "Let her in, she's the sun drop."
"Eugene!" Artemis smiled briefly at the reunion,
"Rapunzel, I am so sorry. I just thought—"
"Look, there's no time for that, we have to get to that stone. This place is coming down around us."
"But the moonstone must be destroyed, son." Artemis rose her hands, ready to summon the rocks if she had to,
"You heard my brother, open the door." Almost as if the moment wasn't dire, Rapunzel smiled, "Son? Brother?"
"You finally got adopted."
"Eugene is your brother?" Artemis narrowed her eyes, unimpressed, "Is now really the time?!"
Look, I'll fill you all in later." He pulled Edmond away, "Thumbnail, I'm a prince, she's a princess…probably…" Rapunzel took the moment of distraction to get to the door.
Upon her approach the door lit with an eerie glow and the Palace began to shake, "What's going on?"
"It can't be…"
"What is it?" Rapunzel stepped away from the door, "For centuries my ancestors have sworn to protect this threshold and now their spirits have arisen to uphold that oath."
"Not necessarily how I imagined meeting your family…" one of the spirits snatched Lance by the ankle and drug him off,
"Okay…Whoever grandfather you are…let me friend go!" The ghost stopped, staring at the small teen who'd given him a command, shrugging he did as she asked, Adira, catch me!" The white-haired woman looked like she was going to try but then decided not to last minute, Artemis flinched as Lance hit the marble floor.
"Love…hurts."
"So, you have a dad and Artemis is your sister?"
"Yeah, turns out you weren't the only one who had a destiny waiting here."
"This moment is touching, really it is…but is now the time to be making kissy faces?" Artemis stabbed through one of the spirits with the rocks,
As the fight carried on Rapunzel made another run for the door and Edmond tried to run interference only to be tackled by Eugene and trapped by Artemis in a cage of black rocks.
"Stay down, father."
"Listen, your majesty, father, I-I don't know what to call you but you have to stop these spirits."
"Even if I could." He tried to break the rocks, "She must never enter that room." Artemis fished something out from behind her, "You'll have a hard time getting out of there without this." She flashed Adira's sword.
"You know, maybe you're right. Maybe us coming back here is fulfilling our destiny, but what if our destiny is not to join you in this place but rather it is to rescue you from it?"
"You don't have to fight anymore, Raps has come to put an end to all of this, trust us…"
"How, how can you both be sure?"
"You said you can tell a lot by looking into somebody's eyes, right? Well then look into mine."
"We have faith in Rapunzel, and you should, too." Edmond gave up, conceding to his children, Eugene ran to help Rapunzel and Artemis lowered the rock cage.
No matter how many times they cut the ghosts down they kept coming back until Lance destroyed them with the Adira's black rock sword,
"If we can't get rid of them by normal means…" Artemis grinned, shooting rock after rock to destroy the statues, helping Lance get the job done faster,
"Lance, you're a genius and that's the first and last time you'll ever say that!" Artemis rolled her eyes, "Oh sure, praise the brawny guy…like I didn't help."
"Our family is just…awful." Artemis bit back laughter as Edmond sat on the shoulder of a now decapitated statue.
Lance and the others slowly lifted on of the statues heads out of the way of the chamber doors, "It's all up to you now."
"No." Rapunzel looked at her group of friends, "It's up to us." Cass, Artemis and Eugene followed Rapunzel into the Moonstone chamber.
"We made it, guys." Artemis' eye started to glow once again, "Nope, never gonna get used to it." Artemis cast an unamused sideways glance to Eugene as Rapunzel's hair started to glow,
As she took a step forward the black rocks formed a new path for her to the stone. The three followed behind her, ensuring nothing bad happened. And as they got closer Rapunzel stopped, turning back to Cass,
"Look, I know these last few months haven't been easy for us, I want to thank you, for everything." Cass didn't return the hug, though it didn't seem to bother the Princess any. As she turned away, Eugene grabbed her hand,
"This is it, Rapunzel. Now go get your destiny."
"I love you." She looked at all of her friends before stepping towards the stone and as she got closer the enclosure around it opened up, letting the opal float freely. Just as Rapunzel was about to grab it, Cass snatched the stone.
"Cassandra, what are you doing?"
"I'm fulfilling my destiny." Something was wrong, the pain in her head was worse than it was earlier,
"Cass, No!" As Cassandra crushed the Opal Artemis' whole sclera glowed with gold and blue, "Kid?"
The gale-force of the stones power blew them all backwards, but Artemis, who stayed eerily still. Eugene and Rapunzel watched in horror as Cassandra seemed to metamorphosize, her clothes and hair changing. When it was over the two watched as Artemis fell to the floor in a heap.
"Ha ha ha. I tried to warn you, Rapunzel." Cassandra looked at the girl on the floor and frowned, sending her flying back to Rapunzel and Eugene,
"Artemis!"
"You have to be careful about who. You. Trust."
