(Violet's Pov)
-Six Years Later-
Clementine and I were currently in the kitchen as we helped the cooks with the food preparations. Clementine and I were working on the cake, and I smirked as Clementine smacked my hand a bit as I tried to taste some of it, and she smiled back to me, and I laughed at this, and I cleaned my hands up as we finished up decorating the cake. When we were done, we walked to the dining area and saw some of the decorations we had out and then we headed outside to see some kids playing in the back yard and I look to see Mary trying to grab the twins and I smiled as I come over and pick up the twins as they struggled to get out of my grip.
"Papa put us down." Our daughter Chloe says and I chuckled as I looked to her.
"We were fighting the evil dragon." Mia says and I chuckled a bit more.
"Evil dragon hu?" I asked as they struggled more, and I look to Clementine who was laughing just a bit at this.
"Yea we are going to be Knights one day just like you were Papa." Chloe says and I set them down and I look to them.
"Well, you two are Princesses, so you don't need to be Knights." I tell them and Clementine comes over to us and Mary sighed a bit.
"Besides, we will be busy being princesses we can still help people just like Papa." Mary explained and I see AJ come over to us and I smiled as I rubbed his head a bit and he swats my hand a bit and I smiled at him.
"Come on don't be that way AJ." I say to him, and he looked to me.
"Well, if they can be Knights, I want to be one too." He says and I rubbed my head a bit at this.
"You all don't need to be knights, you all can help the people when you take over for Clementine and I, plus we don't want any of you getting hurt." I try to explain to them.
"But being a Knight is so cool, we can fight dragons, and Witches, and bad people, we want to be brave like you Papa." Mia says and I rubbed my neck a bit and look to Clementine.
"Your Papa is a bit different, and you can be brave like her even when you aren't a knight, us Kings and Queens have problems to deal with like Knights do." Clementine tells them.
"But-."
"Hey, you guys, and happy birthday Chloe and Mia." We hear and I turn to see Hayley as the kids run up to her.
"GRANDMA!" They yell as they give her a hug and she laughed at this, and I smile a bit at this.
"Well at least we got off the topic." I mutter as we all walk over to Hayley.
"And how are my grandchildren?" She asked as she gave all of them a hug and I go and give her a hug too.
"We were telling Papa that we want to be Knights like her." Chloe says and I look to Hayley as she looked back to me.
"Have we told you how Violet got her scars?" Hayley says and I look to her and they shook their head as they turn to me, and I rubbed my arm a bit.
"Well, after I became king, I had to deal with many bad people, I wasn't the type of King to just sit and let others do based on my orders while I sat comfortable in the castle…. I got hurt trying to save your brother and sister." I tell the twins as I point to AJ and Mary.
"I don't remember this." AJ says and I nod a bit.
"You were so young, just and infant still and well Mary." I say and she nods.
"I don't remember much other than I was scared and that some bad men took us away from Mama and Papa." She tells the twins and AJ and I nod at this.
"I fought another king who had a magic Metallic hand, and it fried my skin… that's why parts of me are so scared up, and this cut on by my eye… that was when I left for a year." I explained as we all took a seat at the table away from the other kids as they kept playing.
"I just don't want any of you getting hurt like I have, it's painful and I ended up hurting your mother as well." I say as I look to the table a bit.
"How did you hurt Mama?" Mia asked as she got curios.
"Hmm, I hurt her feelings… I made her scared or worried about me, I never physically hurt her. But I hurt her none the less." I explained.
"Had to knock some sense in this hardheaded brat." Clem says as she tapped my head with her fist a bit and I look to her then I take her hand in mine gently and I kiss her head.
"But you married this hardheaded brat." I joke and she laughed at this, and I look to the kids.
"We can talk about you all training with the knights, but you will not become Knights… you can learn to defend yourselves at least." I say to them.
"Why can't you teach us?" Mia asked and I look to Clem and Hayley as they look to me a bit worried and I look back to the children.
"I uh, I have my reasons, plus I am a bit rusty, instead of training I was helping your mom with you little devils." I say and Hayley hits my shoulder.
"They are little angels." She says and I chuckled.
"You haven't been around them a lot." I chuckled more and I take a breath as I look to the children and then back to our kids.
"I think we should all go inside for some food." I suggest and we all agreed as we got everyone inside. They all sat down at the long table, and I helped the cooks bring the food out and set them on the table. I took a seat next to Clem and the girls Along with Mary sitting next to me and AJ next to Clementine. We all ate our food and chatted a bit and I looked to Chloe and Mia as they talked in their own little language, and I couldn't help but smile at this. When we found out that we were having twins I had honestly fainted, I never thought we could have more than one child with that potion Minerva gave us, but I am happy that we got our daughters, the day they were born was the best day of my life, and I suppose the funniest to others. Clementine was swearing like a sailor saying we are not having any more children after all that, she crushed my hand a bit as well and I was honestly in pain from how hard she was gripping it, almost breaking my hand in the process. But she was calm and a bit happy when the twins were finally born, as she held them both she cried talking about how cute they were and she even hit me when I made a comment saying they looked weird, I mean they were just born so they did look a little weird. But we laughed it off and I got to hold them. They felt so small in my arms, and I promised them that I would protect them from that day on. Now here they are turning six, wanting to be Knights, and playing with her siblings, something I wish I had as a child, but I am happy now.
"Papa?" I hear and look to Chloe and the others.
"Hm?" I asked.
"Are you ok?" Mary asked and I nod.
"Yea just remembering how your mom almost broke my hand on this day six years ago." I say and Clem looked to me and she giggled a bit.
"Oh god, I said I was sorry." She says and I smiled at her.
"It's no big deal I mean you were giving birth to these two." I say as I look to the twins.
"Ewww can we not talk about this?" Chloe says and I laughed.
"Come on, you two laughed at this." I say to them.
"Well… yea." Chloe muttered and I smiled as I look to them.
"I remember that both of you were so small as I held you for the first time, you two were very quiet babies, we were worried that something was wrong, but we were blessed to have two quiet children…. Till it was early in the morning, then you two would cry our ears off." I say and I felt a kick to the shin, and I chuckled as I look to Clementine.
"Come on you know it's true." I say to her.
"They are little angels." She says and I nod and chuckled. We all finished our food and then Clementine and I went to the kitchen to get the cake and I slowly pulled her to me, and I kissed her on the lips, and she looked to me.
"Are you ok?" She asked as she felt my head and I nodded.
"Yes, I'm just happy." I tell her and she nods and kisses me, and I kiss her back.
"And what is making you happy today?" She asked and I smirk at her.
"Well… today is the day that our twins were born for one thing… I am alive here with you…. We haven't had any issues since… well you know." I list off a few things and she nods.
"Have you heard anything from Minerva?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yea she sent a letter saying she was sorry if she doesn't make it to the girls birthday party, but when she comes back, she has a gift for them, she also hasn't found anything new on the New Frontier but that we don't have to worry since nothing new has really happened, and that she wanted to congratulate you again for dealing with me and the little spawns I gave you." I laughed at the last part and Clementine gives me a kiss on the cheek and I smile at her.
"Well, they are your daughters, they have your determination." She says and I sighed a bit at that.
"That is what I am afraid of." I tell her as I lean back on the counter, and I look to her.
"It was bound to be a topic we would have to explain to them… I honestly wouldn't mind if they became Knights, but I know and I understand your reasoning on why you don't want them to be Knights and I really want to agree with that, but we can't stop them as they get older." She says and I sighed a bit.
"I don't know if there are any other Witches though, and I don't want them to deal with the same issue I had while I was a Walker… I don't know if Minerva's spell worked and I can't fight again, afraid that… that it didn't work." I muttered and looked to Clementine.
"Your heart is beating, you are alive, and you are no longer a Walker, you will not hurt them or any of us, you know this." Clem says as she holds my face in her hands as I look to her.
"I… I know but I'm still so scared." I tell her and she nods and kisses me again and I kissed her back. She then kisses my cheek and I look to her as she looked to me.
"I understand." She says and I nod a bit.
"Have you still been having those dreams?" She asked and I nodded. Once the twins were born, I have been having nightmares of me hurting them, this was before I had been turned into a human again, it scared me half to death when I had these dreams that I stayed away from them at night, I couldn't sleep in the same room as Clementine and the twins along with AJ. I made sure to sleep on the opposite side of the castle just to calm my nerves a bit but even then, I still had those nightmares, and even when Minerva turned me back to a mortal, I still had those dreams but since I was human again, I knew I couldn't harm them like in my dreams. But it was still frightening to me.
"Yea but it's not as bad." I lied and she looked at my eyes and she sighed at this.
"I know you are lying; you have dark rings under your eyes." She says to me, and I sighed at this.
"They aren't really that bad I mean they are but not as bad as before because I know I can't really hurt them." I explained and I she looked to me worried.
"Tonight, you should drink some of that tea Ruby brought over, you said that helped you one night, correct?" She asked and I nodded.
"I will… come on let's bring the girls their cake." I say and she nods as I grabbed the cake, and she opened the door for me, and I came into the dining hall and set the cake near the girls, and I lit the candles on the cake, and we all sang to them. When we were done singing the girls blew out their candles and I smiled at them as everyone clapped and I pulled the candles out and Clementine cut the cake and gave the girls the first two slices and then we handed the other party members a piece of cake as well. Once we were all done the guests left the castle and I waved them off and I go over and see Chloe and Mia playing with their dolls and I go and sit next to them.
"You two have a good birthday?" I asked and they nodded at the same time.
"Best birthday ever." Chloe says and they come up and give me a hug and I smiled a bit as I hugged them back. They both stayed on my lap as they played with their toys, and I look to the fire a bit. I hear it crackling as it was basically eating the wood and I just kept watching it. I then heard the door open, and I look to see Clementine as she looked to us and she takes a seat next to us.
"Well, you two should be heading to bed right now." She says and I nod as I help take them to bed.
"Aww can't we just stay up a bit longer?" Mia asked and Clementine and I look at each other than to them.
"Not tonight, we have to go to Papa's family tomorrow and you don't want to be tired when you see your aunt and grandparents do you?" Clementine asked and they shook their heads as we laid them in their beds. We each gave them a kiss on their heads as we tucked them in, and they closed their eyes as they yawned a bit. I smile as we leave the room, and we head to AJ, and he was asleep and then we head to Mary who was still up.
"Time for bed Mary." I say and she looked to me.
"Can we talk for a bit?" She asked and I look to Clementine and then back to Mary.
"Just papa and I?" She asked and Clem nods as she kissed Mary on the cheek and then me as she leaves the room and I take a seat next to Mary as Clementine closes the door to the room. I look to Mary as she held her hands together.
"I uh… I talked to Marlon and asked if I could trin to be a knight." She says and I look to her.
"And I know you don't want us to be Knights and I know I just told the twins about us being princess and stuff but I just… I don't want to stay here my entire life I want to travel around, and I know I could get hurt I mean… it happened to you so I know it can happen but I just… want to do something good, you know?" She asked and I take a breath and I think a bit.
"Papa?" She asked and I look at her and I looked to the floor a bit as I get up.
"You are Twelve years old Mary; you shouldn't have to think about any of this stuff yet." I tell her.
"I know but Marlon said-."
"Mary… I know you want to help people; I know you want to travel around to see more of the lands that just this, I really do… when I joined the knights I had to leave behind your mother, and she was so scared that there was a chance that I would never come back." I explain to her.
"But you did." She says and I sighed as I look to her.
"I almost didn't… many people died when I was the Grand Cross, I watched the people I could call a family cry out for their mothers as they died… I just don't want that happen to you." I tell her.
"But it won't, not if you train-."
"No… Mary, it doesn't matter how much you train with the best Knights, there will always be someone better than you, you can never let your guard down, no second guessing and you will have to kill others, they don't care if you have a family waiting for you back home, they have families to get back home to as well… do you think you can take another life? Have that blood on your hands? To hear men and women and even children being slaughtered?" I asked her and she kept quiet, and I think a bit.
"I wasn't always truthful with you but… I did die… before I met you, I was dead in Crawford." I tell her and she looked up at me shock in her eyes.
"But… you're here… how could you have been dead?" She asked and I look to her.
"I was forced to be brought back to life… I was what people called a Walker I was dead, but I could still talk and eat like any normal person, I was a pawn in someone else's game, and I hated it… I don't want that to happen to you I don't want you to deal with the same problems as I did." I tell her and she looked to me.
"I have nightmares because of it, I went crazy at one point, you grandfather wanted me to… eat people…. After I told him I wouldn't, because it was wrong, and they have no clue how I felt on the topic… I was forced to do things I didn't want to do… and I just don't want this to happen to you, I'm scared it would happen to you or the others…. Please understand that I am not doing it just to be a… paranoid parent, I do want you to help others and to travel but not as a Knight, not when there are Witches out there working for the enemy that could cause you so much pain… pain that I couldn't even deal with… not on my own and I felt so bad when people even your mother tried to help me and I hated that I got her involved in it… had you and AJ basically involved." I tell her and she looked to me and I sighed.
"I uh… I don't know what to say on that." She says and I look to her.
"Your mother and I just want you kids safe; we always want you safe I just… I'm just a bit more…"
"Paranoid?" She asked and I nod sadly at this.
"Yea." I chuckled as I look to her.
"I understand." She says and looks to the floor, and I sit back down as I look to her.
"I am sorry Mary I just… I'm still trying to adjust to all of this, I don't want you to be trapped here, but for now… can you just hold off on this? You will be queen one day and you can help people just like I do right now." I tell her and she nods, and I pat her shoulder gently as I get back up and head to the door.
"Papa?"
"Yes?" I turn to look at her.
"I'm sorry… for what happened to you… and for making you worry." She says.
"Don't be sorry… just… give me some time on this… hell maybe I'll let you be a knight, but I can still worry." I tell her and she nods. I then leave the room and I head to mine and Clem's room. I open the door and I see Clementine laying in the bed and I close the door as I go and change into my night clothes. I then go to the opposite side of the bed, and I lay down next to Clementine who looked to me and I look at the ceiling.
"Something on your mind?" She asked and I look to her and then back to the ceiling.
"Nothing bad just… noticing that Mary is growing up and is planning her future out a bit to early." I say and I look back to Clem who looked at me.
"Well, you kind of did the same thing… she's been watching you a lot since she was little, she just wants to make you proud." She says and I sighed at this.
"They don't need to, I'm already proud of them, they're the best kids we could ever ask for, they are kind and respectful… I'm already proud of her, she goes and helps the kingdom because she has a kind heart." I tell Clementine.
"But she wants to do more I'm guessing?" Clem asked and I nodded.
"She wants to be a knight…. I told her about me being a Walker and how I am terrified that the same issues can happen to her like it happened to me and I just… I don't want that to happen to her because I would do anything I can to hurt the people that do that to my child…. To put her through that type of pain?" I say and look to Clementine as she looked to me.
"I get it, she's like me, or wants to make me proud but I already am proud…. I'm just… a very scared parent." I say to Clem as she pulls me to her, and I sighed.
"I am scared too… after what you went through, I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone else, but our kids are growing up." She says and I nod.
"Why can't they stay kids forever?" I asked and Clementine laughed a bit at this.
"Because we all have to grow up at some point, have families, jobs, homes, and so on… I don't want them to grow up either." She says and we stay quiet for a bit. We decided to go to bed but I couldn't fall asleep. I looked over to Clementine as she slept, and I moved some hair out of her face. I sighed quietly as I get up and head to my study, as I get there, I open the door and I head to my desk to grab a vile and I drink the contents inside.
"You need to stop drinking that stuff." I hear and look to see Minerva and I sighed.
"I don't want to sleep is all." I tell her as she comes over to me and takes the vile.
"You'll be so sleep deprived you'll have to sleep for a year." She says and I shake my head.
"I will sleep when I am dead." I muttered and looked to her.
"You should at least take a nap; you have to see your parents' tomorrow." She says and I look to her and I just shake my head.
"My kids want to be knights." I say.
"Is that a bad thing?" She says and I look to her.
"To me… yes, but that's because I am putting my own situation at place of them just being normal and winning…. I mean I still won but I don't want them to be injured or hurt, but that is just me being a worried, paranoid parent." I explained.
"I get it, you are allowed to be worried but you and I both know along with Clementine that your kids are as hardheaded as you are… they're going to try everything they can to be what you were." She says and I nod.
"And to be honest that scares me to no extent… they'll probably get it out of their systems by the time they reach proper age though, so I have a few more years…. So, anything new with you?" I asked her and we sat and talked till she finally convinced me to take a short nap. I wasn't able to dream due to the potion I had drank earlier so it felt as if I never slept in the first place, but my body seems to think it has been well rested as I wake up and look around my study a bit as I get up and rubbed my head a bit. I walked out the room and headed to the bedroom where I saw Clementine getting dressed and I smiled at her as I come up from behind her and kissed her cheek.
"You didn't sleep again, did you?" She asked and I could hear the worry in her voice.
"I took a short nap trust me I am fine." I tell her and she nods at this. We both then went and got the kids ready as they grabbed their things and we all headed to the carriage as I tied the supplies to the top of it. When done I got to the front and stopped when I remembered that I couldn't drive the carriage and I rubbed my head as I looked to Clementine who grabbed my hand and brought me to the inside with the kids. Marlon had gotten to the front and took his seat as the driver. The carriage jerked a bit and I look to Clementine as she rubbed my arm a bit and Chloe decided to sit in my lap so I held her so she wouldn't fall off.
"So are dragons real?" Mia asked me and I look to her.
"No Dragons aren't real." AJ says and I chuckled at him a bit.
"I have seen some really big lizards, but none that breath fire or hoard treasures." I explained to her.
"What about Witches?" Chloe asked and I look to her as she leaned her head back a bit to look at me and I sighed.
"Yes, they are, some are good though… like your great, great Grandmother, she was a really good Witch." I tell them.
"Does that mean we could be Witches too?" Mia asked amazed at this.
"Uh I don't think so… I mean I am certainly not a Witch, and neither was my father, or grandfather, though I don't think they would be witches." I chuckled at this.
"What about Aunt Iris?" Chloe asked.
"Well, uh, she's a bit young and I don't think she is… uh let's go on a different topic?" I asked.
"Yes, like what do you think Grandma and Grandpa have planned for you all today?" Clementine asked and they talked about that till we were able to reach my parents' home. They live a little closer to us now due to them wanting to at least be a bit closer to their grandchildren, it was a nice in all honesty. When Marlon parked the carriage the kids all ran out and my parents opened the door to their home and hugged them as Clem and I sat in the carriage for a bit.
"You, ok?" Clem asked and I nod at this.
"Yea I am fine thank you for asking." I say as I get out and grab our things. The kids were talking to my mom and my sister runs out and goes to play with AJ and the others. I look to my parents as my mom ushered us in and she hands us some tea and I take a drink as we all sat down to talk just for a bit.
"So how have the twins been?" My mother asked.
"Oh, they are a handful, but they are good kids." I tell her.
"That's good, you know you were a bit of a handful as a child, always running around with your little wooden sword." She says and I nod at this. We talked for a good while before the kids came into the house yelling about something.
"Woah calm down what's going on?" I asked and they looked at me.
"There was a woman out there she was wearing the symbol of the New Frontier on her clothing." Mary says and I get up quickly as I went out the door and looked around not seeing anyone out there.
"Are you sure that is what you all saw?" I hear Clementine ask as I walked out more still not seeing anything. But something felt off, I took one more look around before I turned to look at my family, I then heard a scream as I felt something strike me through my back and I looked down to see a sword protruding from my chest and I slowly turn to see a masked person, but I saw the New Frontier crest on their chest. Memories from my battle in Crawford came back before I finally dropped to my knees, and I felt the blood on my chest and from my mouth as I felt my heart start to slowly beat.
"VIOLET!" I hear my family yell before I dropped to the ground.