Hello one and all of fanfiction! (after a bit of a break,) I bring you another part of To Hell and Back! This should be the final chapter about introductions, should be…

Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.

Arc 2 pt 4 final

Eve slowly made her way down to the kitchen which was more like a cafeteria, and lazily grabbed an apple buttered toast and scrambled eggs. She was sure that she would die today, so she tried to taste what could be her last meal, bland… though she could taste the food and smell it, her senses were dulled by her mind, running on overdrive. was I ever really worth the trouble to them, she thought sadly as she looked to her mother in the kitchen, is it worth what's left of my pride and life to run? I could never show my face here again without them trying to kill me. The thoughts were rushing through her mind faster than a river, crushing her demeanor like a waterfall. She looked to the clock, 11… only one hour, one hour to think. She decided she would occupy herself while going to the arena, the tester of strength. As she walked towards her doom, her life flashed before her eyes.

I wasn't worth the trouble, he should have just killed me when he had the chance. An image of her father, came to her eyes. But why? Why did you keep me? "Because we saw potential," eve was snapped out of her thoughts, and she whipped her head to see who had the gumption to follow her, she was surprised to see a serious, but sad look on her father's face. "And we still do!" he finished with an uplifting tone.

Eve's father walked alongside her, and told her about what could happen if she wasn't careful. Along with what they were going to do, "eve, I know this is a cowardly thing, but we need to leave." Eve looked to her father, not caring about the family pride and rules, and said "where will you guys be?" her father replied evilly, "a Stonetumbler safe haven." Eve looked mildly surprised and satisfied: the Ares clan was otherwise known as the Blackwater clan, and the Stonetumbler clan were their mortal enemies. But the Stonetumbler clan knew some things about the Blackwater clan that gave them the upper hand, family members who were cast out, were never allowed to come back or they risked death. Eve's father knew about this and had a plan to visit a safe haven he knew about. The Blackwater clan would not come near one of those. "Sweet!" eve replied, but her downcast and worried mood, crept back into her. "What about me?" eve's father looked serious as he stated, "you have to be there, or they will seek and kill immediately, me and mom are working out how to get off of the grid, and change our identities, so they can't ever, find us. But no matter what happens, or whatever you do, I will always be proud to have been your father." He stated as he hugged her. Then his ears registered something, and he stopped. "Do you hear flapping?" eve looked behind her to see that her crow was flying towards her cawing happily. Her father looked on in worry as the bird flew towards eve, but was relieved and highly surprised when eve held out her hand and the crow landed on it and nuzzled her face, glad to see her, "hehe, good to see you too bud!" her father was astonished "wha… how… eve… crows are the hardest birds to tame… how did you get it to be your pet?" he asked as he looked at her in awe. "Long story…" eve replied hastily, not wanting to go into details of her graveyard adventures.

"So what will you do, eve?" eve's father asked. Eve replied from her thoughts "I will evaluate my circumstances, and take action." Eve's father looked to her skeptically. "Run if I need to, fight if I can, I'm probably going to run, I can't stand this hole anyway." Her father laughed heartily, "that's what I like to hear!" eve's father thought of something, and pulled up a sleeve on his black shirt, "dang, eve I have to go, I made a meeting with one of the clan members." Eve nodded, "I understand," she paused before turning to him and hugged him "thank you, I couldn't have made it here without you." Her father smiled and hugged back, "I love you eve, that is why we kept you, we did not care about strength, we cared about you." Eve's father broke away, "but now you must be strong for us ok?" eve nodded and ran off to the arena.

The arena was a tall circular building, offset to the left of the field that eve had traversed the previous night, it was made of beige colored stone. On the outside it looked almost inviting, but on the inside where there was not a public walkway that everyone used was covered in dried coats of blood, really only the arena was cleaned itself. Eve walked into the main hall of the arena, already people were gathering, which made her nervous. But what made her nervous was not the amount of family members that were present, but what she saw they had: Many had sheathes for swords of all sizes, some were plainly brandishing their weapon of choice, she saw a knife here, a mace there. What worried her the most was the master's box, a large balcony connected to a roofed room that held all of the highly ranked viewers. She saw Ares up high in the center a sword on his back that was taller and almost wider than him, to his right was his daughter Shadow, and to his left was his son Chris or "Crimson." For obvious reasons. Shadow wielded a black metal bow and razor sharp arrows with hooks on the bottom of the head, and Chris wielded a gruesome sword that bore many protruding spikes pointed towards his hand. Nervousness picked at her mind as she evaluated her circumstances, things were not looking good.

The minutes were ticking by like hours, and eve still hadn't come up with an escape plan. I cannot escape if I don't have a plan! Focus, focus, focus… eve looked around; observing nothing out of the ordinary at first but with some careful observation and recall of knowledge of the event she remembered something… weapons, anything in the arena. Her eyes drift towards a long wooden plank off to the side, probably left from the last fight. Use your surroundings to your advantage, the left and right sides of the arena were lower than the front and back. A small round rock protruded from the ground, YES! THAT'S IT! She thought as she cracked the smallest smile.

Eve's attention was snapped when a voice rang in through the intercom "ladies and gentlemen of the Ares clan, Welcome to the arena! Today we are here to witness eve battle for her right of passage as a permanent member of the Blackwater clan!" most of the clan cheered while she notices some of them were shaking their heads, with evil grins. "Her opponent is a volunteer, who has completed his rite of passage but two weeks ago. Give it up for Samson!" Eve felt her hope dashed, shredded to a million pieces. Samson was her brother, he was the kindest of all of her siblings, and he cared about her the most. She couldn't believe her eyes, Samson was standing at the other end of the arena, dressed in his trademark black hoodie, dark red headband, and grey jeans. Samson bore an evil smile, she was sure that he had wanted to kill her ever since she was born, but he must have hidden his bloodlust rather well. "Competitors! Ready?" Samson took an offensive stance, eve did the same. Suspense hangs thick in the air as the siblings take battle stances, a gong thunders in the background, and the brother and sister charge at each other. Anger, in eve's eyes, determination concentration and regret in Samson's.

Samson charged without yelling and threw a light fist forward, eve dodged easily. And returned with a quick jab to his stomach, he took the blow and continued to throw weak punches at her. Eve perceived the fact that he was being light with his attacks and did not block any of hers, which made her suspicious but not detoured, she continued to deliver blows until she thought he was weak, which was oddly much earlier than usual, but she continued nonetheless. He was panting and was being lighter and lighter on his attacks, until eve landed a kick to the stomach, he stumbled backward and grabbed at his stomach. Eve seeing an opportunity she sprinted towards Samson knowing the blow could end the battle, and threw a punch forward. She was shocked to see that Samson got up and dodged the blow like it was nothing, leaving her wide open. Samson put his right arm around his neck and pulled …very lightly... Eve wasn't sure what she was more stunned about: the fact that he had made his exhaustion look so real, Or the fact that she had let herself go defenseless in the attack she made, but what surprised her the most, was the fact that her brother hadn't killed her yet. Was he toying with her? Was he seeking the attention of the crowd? As soon as he got his arm around her neck she was eager to struggle, but he slyly brought his head towards her ear "pretend you're chocking and listen to me…" he stated quick enough for her to register. Eve pretended to grasp and cut at his arm while he whispered swiftly, and softly, "I know your plan, seesaw with plank and stone, I'm sorry and I love you, now trip me."

For a split second she could not have been happier in her life and wanted to hug her brother and say thank you, but thanks to sheer willpower she remained in her panicked looking state, and carried out the plan without anyone being the wiser. You don't have to tell me twice… she swiftly brought her foot behind Samson's and brought it forward tripping Samson. She managed to back a few feet away from Samson, who got up in the meantime. Samson charged and eve picked up the wooden plank, and swung at his head, he ducked then stood, only to be tripped as she brought it around a second time, she placed the board on the rock so that it was balanced and tried to get up. Samson had already stood and as soon as eve was on her feet, Samson landed a light, but powerful punch, not causing much pain but sending her to the ground, her head rested on the wooden plank, Samson cracked a smile and leaped high into the air doing a flip before coming down feet first, eve grinned evilly, seeing the opportunity he had created: she brought her legs to her body while pushing down on the ground causing her to roll too the other side of the seesaw, and when she felt herself rolling to the other side she brought her feet towards the wooden plank the next chance she got and shot her legs down starting a jump, swinging her arms out to the side. The moment she started rising, Samson's feet hit the board, and he faked a shocked face as eve shot into the air with her arms extended out to her sides, making it look like she was flying, as she twisted in midair and her and her brother's eyes made contact he had on a sly smile only she could see and mouthed the words 'I love you.' While eve mouthed the words 'thank you!' and eve landed lightly in a thick bush.

Ok! So according to the barbarian family rules, I should run like hell now, right? Her answer was confirmed by angry battle cries growing from the arena. YEP! RUN LIKE HELL! She burst from the bush at top speed, and ran towards the one place she thought she could hide, when her dream came back to her, and the memory of the trapdoor hanging in her mind. This place is crawling with more clan members than an fps, so leaving towards town isn't safe, period… she glanced behind her to see that there was a crowd of clan members following her. "runrunrunrunRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!" she told herself as she heard something wiz by her head, she glanced back again: Shadow was far behind shooting arrows from her bow, Chris was leading the pack with his saw-like sword in hand, there was no way she wanted to be caught, by him. She hit the treeline, and the cries for blood receded. Sure they were fast but the forest was her second home, and she navigated it like the back of her hand.

The heavy fog of the cemetery came into sight,the only place of death she was actually happy to see. She sprinted in and found the pavilion quickly, and her crow was oddly already there, hopping anxiously atop the hidden escape. Please let this work, please let this work! She repeated to herself as she pushed on the sarcophagus lid, with some effort the lid screeched against metal wheels but it slid right off, and stopped just before it would normally slide off with a thud, eve looked in to see a trapdoor, she needed no more words, she knew what she needed to do, with battle cries nearing she pried open the trapdoor loudly and looked into the unknown for a second. A whizzing sound snapped her out of her thoughts, and a searing pain shot down her left arm, she looked to her and found a deep cut in her skin towards the shoulder, she hesitated no longer and jumped down the hole at first she felt a square opening sliding into the unknown, wind fleeing past in a few seconds the slide lost its hard corners and became a circular smooth stone slide, about thirty seconds pass traveling I an unknown direction when her eyes are greeted with light and the slide opens up and she is sitting many feet before a torch-lit door. She grasps at her left arm, pain still searing through it, and walks into the unknown.

Eve walked into the doorway not knowing what to expect, but was on guard. In the room was plain with beige walls and two other doorways, one with gold and the other, like the one she had just entered through. A singular corpse lay in the center of the room, what the… the corpse groans and gets to its feet. Oh great. "CAW!" eve's crow lunges from her shoulder and flies to the top of the room, before descending at a breakneck pace to crash into the zombie like creature. The crow starts pecking and jabbing relentlessly, the pacer flails around on the floor as the crow kills it slowly. Guess I have to join in. eve picks up the zombie by the arms and stands it up before firing a kick to its ribcage. The pacer falls to the ground motionless, and doors are heard opening, the doors had closed when eve entered.

Eve looks to the golden door and shrugs where else can I go. She looks to the beige door and walks towards it slowly, upon entering she notices four stone pillars in each of the four corners of the room, emitting a bright blue fire, and in the middle of the room a singular stone pedestal stood among the flat of the room. Eve approached the stone pedestal, the item floating above it was cloaked in red mist. Upon approaching the pedestal the red mist cleared and the item was clearly visible: it was a floating emblem made of black metal surrounded by red energy, a five pointed star inside a crescent moon. Should I take it? I have no other weapons to fight these creatures. I don't know what lies ahead. I may need this… eve reluctantly puts her hand to it, and picks it up. Immediately the red aura vanishes into her hand, worrying her slightly. She continues to observe the metal in her hands when it slowly rises into the air and glows red, eve attempts to back up but is frozen in place, the metal seems to become molten, and all that remains visible is a red sphere of swirling energy. She continues to struggle against the invisible restraints when the red orb starts moving towards her, it stops 3 feet before her, suspended in midair, before it shoots towards her heart. The moment it hits her she felt like her very soul was being burnt. Red arcs of energy were leaping across her body as she remain trapped kneeling in pain. The red arcs stopped, but her body was engulfed in red flame, and she watched as reminders of failure and weakness flow through her mind while her skin seems to burn into a dark grey color, her fingers grow small claws at the ends. The red fire disappeared and she was able to move around. She looked at herself, all of her skin was blackened to a dark grey, she felt two protrusions on her head, she put her hand to the strange protrusions and felt horns, and so is this me? She thought dismally, am I going to be stuck as this monster for the rest of my life. She sat against a wall hugging her legs, crying. Finally she remembered "no matter what happens, I will always be proud to have been your father" she remembered why she needed to escape in the first place, I need to remain strong, or I will truly fail. I will have failed my family my parents, and myself. She looked at her self, no matter what happens. She walked towards the door. Unsure if her new form would ever be reverted, and continued unto the unknown.

I think I did a little bit better on this chapter than some of the others, tell me what you think. I am pretty excited to write the rest of this arc, this… folks, is where it, gets, interesting!

Until next time!