A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 296: You came
Silence did not fall.
It shuddered.
The white blast faded...and what remained was worse than any explosion.
The cocoon containing Freya flickered like a dying star, its glow thinning, then surging, then thinning again in frantic pulses. Each tremor shook the air.
Autumn’s body moved...pure instinct, feral instinct.
"MANGO, STOP THEM!" she screamed as she staggered forward, hand outstretched. "DON’T...don’t you dare take another step! NOBODY MOVES...NOBODY!!!PLEASE! FREYA IS..."
But Mango didn’t respond to her...there were tears in her eyes.
Mango was crying.
Her tears rolled slowly, suspended in the warped air as if even gravity was grieving.
Behind her, the other Guardians waited. Each held their sigils ready...rings of colour...rings of gold, silver, and blackened light rotating like executioner’s blades...
Mango inhaled shakily...then nodded at them.
A signal.
"NOOOOO..." Autumn’s voice evaporated, she yelled so loud. Her voice cracked. Her flame flickered erratically, dimming with her strength. "No. No. NO...MANGO, PLEASE...NOOOOOOOO...NOBODY TOUCHES MY BABY..."
Nevertheless ,the Guardians stepped forward.
Movement hesitant, not harsh yet firm... a strange paradox...
Their movements were too slow, reverent...like approaching a sacred altar that they hated themselves for destroying.
Autumn lunged.
There was no place for thoughts.
No place for breathing...
She didn’t exist as anything but a mother.
Her entire being hurled itself towards them, towards Freya...ready to throw her body over the cocoon, ready to burn, to bleed, to be obliterated before she let anyone touch her child.
She barely made it a single step.
Mango caught her.
Caught her like she was catching a falling world.
"No!" Autumn screamed, clawing at her, pushing, thrashing. "LET ME GO...LET ME GO! FREYA! FREYA...BABY...MAMA’S HERE, PLEASE...NO...!"
Her blue light erupted violently, flaring up her spine, exploding through her arms in arcs of raw power that cracked the ground.
But Mango’s aura crashed over hers.
Flickering golden suppression wrapped around Autumn like molten chains...trying hard to bind her, holding her so tightly her bones trembled. The air around them wavered, crushing down with unbearable weight.
"Autumn..." Mango’s voice broke. "Please...stop...you will hurt yourself..."
"I DON’T FUCKING CARE! LET ME GO!" Autumn wailed, struggling like a cornered animal, her nails carving sparks in the air. "I DON’T CARE...I WANT MY BABY GIRL...HOW CAN YOU FUCKING DO THIS TO HER...LET ME GO...NOBODY TOUCHES HER...I AM WARNING YOU!I WILL KILL YOU ALL...I WILL FUCKING KILL THE LAST ONE OF YOU BASTARDS..."
"Autumn, I know it’s hard...I know you can’t do this at the moment.I am sorry dear...I really am...but this must be done."
Mango’s tears dripped onto Autumn’s shoulder,but she tightened her grip, her arms shaking.
"I can’t let you die with her."
Autumn froze only for a fraction of a second.
"DIE?" she whispered, breath shattering. "She’s not...what do you mean...she’s not...DON’T...DON’T...SAY..." Her head frantically moved left and right. Towards Freya’s cocoon, back at Mango’s face... a new wave of bewilderment in her eyes... New found madness after Mango worded what she too knew was going to happen.
The Guardians advanced again.
Autumn writhed violently. "STOP THEM..." She screeched. " MANGO STOP THEM...MANGO, PLEASE, I AM BEGGING YOU..."
Mango squeezed her eyes shut. "I wish I could change this. I wish we came sooner. I wish you didn’t have to make this choice..."
But Autumn wasn’t listening. " Freyaaaaa! Freya, baby! " She was screaming, crying, screeching... " KIERAN!!! KIEEEEERAN! "
The only other name she could remember because her strength was frailing... her mind was not... her soul was boiling... the anticipation of the coming grief... the desperation... it could hold no longer...
" KIEEEEERAN!!! WHERE ARE YOU..." Autumn huffed. She was running out of breath.
Her voice cracked so hard it tore something open in the air.
Her flames burst outward, exploding in a sweeping arc that hit the Guardians.
They staggered...just a little...but it was not enough.
Not enough to save Freya.
" Kieran! " Autumn’s voice almost faltered, just as did her strength. " Where are you? Come save our daughter! "
Across the fractured battlefield, Karl leaned back on his heels and laughed out loud.
Not his usual grin.
Not his theatrical smirk.
But a wild, full bodied, shaking laugh...like all the misery in the world had orchestrated a symphony just for him.
He dragged a bloodstained hand down his cheek, teeth flashing.
"There it is, my pretty little thing!" he shouted, voice echoing through the cracked atmosphere. "The paradox! On right and wrong! The poetry of life itself!Death! "
Mango didn’t look at him...she scooped Autumn back into her embrace...and held her tighter, pinning her arms to her chest as Autumn screamed and thrashed.
Karl’s laughter rose sharper.
Higher.
Madder.
"Told you so, darling!" he howled, pointing straight at Autumn with manic delight. "Good and bad...allies...enemies...evil and divine...it’s all a joke! A beautiful, merciless joke!"
Autumn didn’t hear him.
Couldn’t.
Her whole world was the cocoon.
The innocent glow inside it.
The faint, desperate pulse that might have been Freya’s heartbeat...or might have been the Rift devouring her.
"MANGO!" she shrieked, voice ripping out of her throat again. "DON’T LET THEM...DON’T...DON’T...NO...NO...NO..."
But Mango held her like a mother holding another mother.
Her tears fell freely now.
"Forgive me," she whispered, barely audible.
"Autumn...please forgive me..."
The Guardians raised their sigils...inched closer... ready and poised for the deadly strike.
Autumn screamed louder, almost shaking the sky, shrieking until her entire...
Karl’s laughter echoed like a curse across the dying sky...
And then?
The world braced for ruin.
The Guardians raised their sigils.
Autumn’s scream shredded the air—
"MANGOOO...PLEASE...DON’T LET THEM...THIS CAN NOT BE THE WILL OF THE BALANCE...DON’T LET THEM...YOU ARE MAKING A MISTAKE....DON’T...NO...NO...NO...!"
And then...
Something went wrong with the Rift.
Not an explosion.
Not an implosion.
More like a disturbance.
A glitch.
Like reality had been pulled too tight and suddenly twanged out of tune.
The white of the cocoon flickered...
Then blinked...
Then dragged sideways as if the light itself was being yanked from the horizon.
"...What is that...?" one Guardian whispered.
"Hold the sigils steady!" another barked.
But they couldn’t.
They couldn’t look away.
The Rift didn’t pulse.
IT TWITCHED.
A jagged tremor rippled through it, warping the air.
Like a heartbeat misfiring.
Like something...not from inside... ...but something from outside was trying to force its way in.
Mango’s grip on Autumn faltered for half a second.
"Everyone...focus!" she shouted, fear thick in her voice.
Even Karl’s laughter cut off mid echo.
He blinked.
Eyes narrowing.
Head tilting like a shark scenting blood.
"...ohhh," he whispered, a grin spreading.
"That...is not the Rift."
Autumn didn’t care what it was.
She only cared about Freya.
"STOP THEM!" she screamed. "STOP...STOP IT...DON’T TOUCH HER...DON’T...PLEASE...MANGOO...I WILL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"
Her body convulsed, flames bursting wild again...
But Mango’s golden aura slammed her down harder, tightening... binding hard.
"Autumn, stop...PLEASE stop...!" Mango cried, voice breaking.
"You will break your spine this way...Autumn...AUTUMN..."
But Autumn did not stop.
She COULDN’T even if she tried to.
"MAMA’S HERE, BABY...MAMA’S HERE...FREYAAAAA..."
The Rift twitched again.
Then...CRACK.
A fracture of sound.
Sharp. Out of place.
Every head snapped towards it.
Dark sparks scattered across the air like shattered stars.
The cocoon jumped too...literally jumped... as if something inside had been struck... or as if it resonated.
"What was..." a Guardian began.
He never finished.
Because the Rift cracked again...
CRRAA...K...K...KKKK...
And then the world slowed down.
Literally.
Slow motion swallowed everything.
The Guardians’ movements
The spinning sigils
The floating dust
Autumn’s own tears
Mango’s terrified face
Karl’s widening grin
All of it dragged into syrupy, distorted motion.
All of it except...one single blur.
Something moved.
No...Someone.
Too fast for eyes.
Too fast for sound.
Too fast for even the Guardian’s MAGIC.
Autumn gasped, breath hitting her lungs like a punch.
"...Kieran...?"
Karl’s grin split wider.
"Oh, finally.Big Bro’s here! Things just got more interesting."
And then...
Right at the heart of the Rift’s flickering glow.
On one knee.
Head bowed.
Arms already around the cocoon.
Sat Kieran.
Like a man born of storms.
Lightning wrapped around his shoulders like a cloak.
His chest heaved, breath ragged... as if he had run through hell itself
and broken time to get here.
His hands trembled as they closed around Freya’s small, faintly glowing form.
"Freya...you alright?"
His voice cracked.
Broken. Raw.
"Daddy’s here... Daddy’s got you... I am here now, baby...I am here..."
The Guardians froze...sigils sparking uselessly in their grip.
Mango’s eyes widened with horror.
"...Kieran...?"
Karl burst into hysterical laughter.
"OH THAT’S BEAUTIFUL! YES! YESSS...THIS IS PERFECTION!IT’S ALL HEADED EXACTLY WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO..." He started clapping like a maniac. " JUST LIKE IT WAS PLANNED! " He looked nothing less than a child enjoying his first magic show.
Autumn didn’t hear him.
She only saw him.
Her world narrowed to a single, impossible point...
Kieran
holding
their daughter.
Which meant Freya was safe...
He huffed. She smiled.
Her breath stopped.
Her fire dimmed.
Her body sagged in Mango’s arms as consciousness slipped.
But her eyes...They never left him.
Not even for a second.
"Kieran..."
Her voice was a whisper now.
A whimper.
A prayer she had been dying to say.
"You...came...You came when I called...Our little one is finally safe..." She smiled... a weak smile...
Her lips curled into a trembling, thankful smile... and then her body went limp.
Autumn collapsed.
