A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 295: Freya, my baby

(... Continued)

The colors of the world bled together...the violent blue of Autumn’s fire, the oily black of Karl’s shadow, and the bruised violet of the Rift...all swirling into something too bright to even look at.

Time didn’t move anymore. It crawled...each second dragging through the air like thick syrup.

A sound like the universe exhaling tore through the battlefield.

And the Rift burst open.

Not shattered. It bloomed.

A wave of light and shadow, molten and crystalline all at once, poured outward...and from that impossible brilliance, figures began to emerge.

One. Then another. Then seven.

Mango stepped forward first. But her eyes held sorrow, sadness...Autumn couldn’t find the familiar compassion that always inhabited there. Behind her, the other Guardians followed, silent as the dawn after war.

Their feet didn’t touch the ground...they seemed to hover.

Ash and embers that erupted from Autumn and Karl’s crash, froze mid air.

Autumn’s flames flickered but did not fall. Even Karl’s shadow paused, wavering like a startled breath... even if for a few seconds.

Karl turned first. A broken, blood-streaked grin slashed across his face. "Oh," he drawled as more blood dripped down his forehead. "So finally the watch dogs arrive."

Mango’s gaze landed on him, then on Autumn, then on the cocoon behind her...where Freya’s faint glow pulsed weakly in the swirling air.

Autumn’s knees trembled as she pushed herself up from the glassed earth. Her body was shaking...half from exhaustion, half from disbelief. The sight of the Guardians felt like waking up in a dream she had begged for, screamed for... and now wasn’t sure how to face it.

Her lips parted. "Mango..."

She didn’t respond. The stillness around her was monolithic. Every motion of her...the narrowing of her eyes, the faint tightening of her jaw...happened in agonizing slow motion. There was a strange stillness around her. Her aura, her expression, lacked her usual warmth.

Autumn took one uncertain step forward, blue fire wavering around her ankles. "You came..." she whispered. "You actually...thank the Moon...Freya is saved...Oh Goddess..." She half heaved a deep sigh, half laughed...hurrying forward.

But before she could take her next step, Mango extended her hand.

Not to help Autumn forward but to stop her. Firm.

"Stay right where you are."

The words struck like weight...but Autumn was too confused. They pressed against her chest like gravity itself had spoken.

Autumn froze mid-step. The flicker of her fire faltered. Her eyes went wide. "Huh...what?"

Mango’s voice was slow as she spoke the next words...Each syllable hung between them like a blade caught in time.

"Don’t. Move."

Autumn blinked. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. The hope...the relief...the ’almost smile’ that had been forming on her face cracked, fell apart.

Karl, blood dripping from his chin now, gave a low, delighted chuckle. "Ahh... there it is. The betrayal. I was wondering when you would show your true colours." He whistled low looking at Autumn. " Told you darling. It doesn’t always boil down to your personal interest. Now see if your friends are willing to help! "

"Mango..." Autumn tried again, her voice breaking. "You are scaring me! What’s going on, Mango? I just want to take Freya and leave. Why are you asking me not to move? " She tried to move a little at which Mango literally yelled, hands raised, stepping forward... as if Autumn was standing on a field mine and it would explode the moment she made any movement.

"Autumn,stay...please...."

Autumn’s eyes snapped up and she was sseriously terrified because this time she caught the panic in Mango’s voice too. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Blue light rippled across the ground where Autumn stood, sealing the cracks she had made moments ago. The Guardians had encircled her without stepping closer, their presence alone forming an invisible wall.

Autumn’s breathing turned shallow. "What are you doing? What’s...what’s happening?"

"Autumn,please be patient. We can see contamination all around you...deadly contaminations," said Mango quietly. Her gaze, for a fleeting instant, softened...like she wished she could unsee what she saw. "That’s why you can’t move."

Karl tilted his head, the smirk creeping back in through the blood. "Oh, they do see it too. Absolute theatre! Bravo! Bravo!" He folded his arms in front of his chest and said with a big smile. "I am going to enjoy this show! "

He stepped forward a single pace, his shadow stretching unnaturally long. The ground trembled beneath it. "Tell her, dear...Mango. Tell her why you came here." He mocked, making faces.

Mango didn’t look at him. Her eyes stayed on Autumn. "You opened the Rift."

Her breath hitched. "No...he did...he...I don’t know...I felt Freya. I made a run for it...I don’t remember...I just ran after my baby..."

"You bound it," Mango said, her tone slicing through Autumn’s confused words, "And you tethered it with her soul...with his corruption....you were gifted with a great power Autumn....how could you be so reckless? "

Autumn’s knees gave out.

She fell, catching herself with trembling hands, eyes wild. "No... no, no that’s not true...what’s...that’s...nooo...impossible...my baby...NO...NO..." She violently shook her head.

Karl’s laughter rang through. "Oh,rest assured,Autumn...it’s true...very true. And now they have come to clean it up."

He gestured lazily towards the cocoon.

Autumn visibly trembled. All the hair on her body stood up with dread.

"Your precious little daughter... your little Freya... a power house now corrupted...holding that pretty tear in the sky together. And guess what happens when they seal it?" He grinned wider, teeth gleaming through the soot. "Everything tethered to it burns away...or is lost forever..."

Mango’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes glimmered with something like guilt. "Autumn. Step back."

Autumn shook her head violently, blue flames roaring to life again around her. "You can’t! She is innocent! She...she has nothing to do with anything...you said it...I am the one...I opened the rift...Use me..."

Karl clapped his hands once. The mock applause echoed through the volatile air. "What a tragedy! What poetry! The saviors slay the saved....right before the void consumes the rest!"

"Silence!" Mango’s voice thundered...

She turned to face him finally. Eyes glaring into his eyes. "The end of your kind is near too... there is nothing for you to celebrate... "

A blast of aura exploded from Mango’s body.

Every flicker of energy froze in midair, even Karl’s shadow flickered uncertainly.

Autumn sat there as her tears still moved...slowly, gliding down her dirt streaked face in shimmering arcs of molten light.

"You can’t take her. You can’t...she is just a baby...my baby girl...I left her...I didn’t yet hold her properly in my arms..." She kept mumbling.

From within the cocoon... Freya stirred.

Her tiny hand, glowing faintly with the same light that had once burned from Autumn’s heart, pressed weakly against the shell.

The air bent around that touch.

It rippled outward, slow and soft at first.

Autumn gasped, crawling forward despite Mango’s warning.

"Freya!" Her voice was half scream, half prayer. "Freya, baby...it’s me, it’s Mama...don’t...don’t move, stay still, baby...you are safe...I got you..."

"Autumn, stop!" Mango barked. But her voice trembled too.

The glow within the cocoon pulsed faster, responding to Autumn’s panic.

Each pulse made the air fracture with crystalline shrieks, faint cracks spiderwebbing across the Rift’s blooming surface.

The Guardians moved...immediately...but every step looked like it took centuries.

Their hands raised in unison, light spreading between their palms, forming sigils that spun like halos of command.

Karl tilted his head, watching them all with an expression of rapture. Blood streamed freely down his jaw now, his smile manic.

"Oh... oh, look at this," he whispered. "The child answers. She is listening. The Rift... listens to her. Isn’t that beautiful?"

Mango ignored him, her eyes locked on the cocoon. "We don’t have much time. She’s binding herself deeper..."

Autumn shook her head violently, tears flinging from her lashes. "Then unbind her! You can! You are Guardians...you can do these things...please, Mango, I will do anything...take my life...just let her...let her live!Please...I beg you..."

The light around Mango’s body dimmed for a heartbeat.

For the first time, her composure cracked.

"Autumn," she said softly, voice breaking, "she is not dying. She is merging with corruption.That’s worse.They will use her...use her powers against us if we don’t stop it at this point..."

The words dropped like stones into silence.

Autumn stared at her, uncomprehending. "Merging?" she echoed.

Karl’s laughter broke the stillness again echoing in the edges of the Rift.

"Yes. Merging," he said. "Becoming one with us. Becoming what I wanted you to be,my pretty little thing."

"Shut up!" Mango snapped, but Karl didn’t even flinch.

He spread his arms wide, shadow writhing behind him. "Come, let me give you a hug baby. Seems like you need it!"

" Enough!!! " Mango roared just when...a high, pure cry...split the silence.

Autumn sat there... it was like a deja vu... like she had been in that exactly same situation before... like in a dream... yes... a dream... a long forgotten dream...

The Rift pulsed.

The Guardians raised their arms, bracing, shouting words that the air could barely contain.

Mango’s voice was drowned in the roar.

"Autumn...RUN!"

But Autumn didn’t.

Couldn’t...

Her feet were rooted in that moment, her heart exploding.

Autumn’s breath caught. She almost smiled. "Freya...?"

The smile flickered. The cocoon’s glow trembled...and then the light inverted, collapsing inward with the force of a collapsing star.

Karl’s laughter became a scream.

The Guardians’ chants rose louder than thunder...

Autumn’s world became nothing but that one image...her daughter’s hand pressing through the breaking cocoon...reaching for her, trembling, small, and burning with impossible power...

But then...everything turned white.