A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 300: Mother

Autumn’s eyes finally SNAPPED OPEN in the real world.

A violent, breath stealing gasp tore out of her chest...

And finally her senses were back and she realised that she was falling.

Her stomach lurched.

Air whipped past her in long, stretched ribbons as she remembered their escape. Every second dragged out like a lifetime before her.

Her hair streamed upward in slow motion, floating like strands of ink in water.

She looked around for Kieran and their daughter and realised Kieran’s arm was already locked around her waist.

He held onto her tight, his grip desperate, his other arm clutching Freya against his chest.

"Autumn, you alright?! You passed out there for a second...." Kieran called out though his voice came out in shreds, frantic, echoing through the endless drop.

She couldn’t even see properly past her near vicinity...it was that dark.She could only see his face twisting in fear as the free fall pulled them faster and faster and faster...

Freya’s tiny fingers dug into his shirt, her mouth open in a silent cry, tears suspended in the air like floating beads of glass.She had woken up and was probably scared to death. Poor baby shouldn’t have had to go through all the things she did.

The world below rushed up at them...

Maybe stones...or a floor...some cavernous hall.

Darkness bent around their falling bodies.

And WHAM...

They hit the ground.

But reality didn’t settle all at once...it rippled

slowly like water catching up to its own movement.

Kieran’s grip slipped at impact.

Autumn’s body skidded across smooth stone, rolling until her back hit a carved pillar.

Kieran was thrown the other way, tumbling across the floor with Freya still clutched protectively in his arms.

The air erupted with dust.

Autumn coughed, lungs burning, vision stuttering like a broken lantern flame.

"Kieran...!" she choked, scrambling to her hands.

Her body was shaking, knees buckling under her, but she forced herself forward...a lurch, a stumble, a desperate drag across the stone floor.

She reached out...

Her hand trembled, stretching toward him across the widening gap.

"Kieran... are you..."

Kieran pushed himself upright, dazed, panic flashing across his face as he checked Freya for injuries.

Then he looked up at Autumn.

Their eyes locked across the debris and broken dust. There was no light yet the space slowly gained visibility.

Kieran looked wrecked.

He was breathing hard.

As if shaken to his core.

Like he had almost lost everything.

Which Autumn could understand. What baffled her a little was the lack of relief on his face.

"Autumn..." his voice cracked, "I am here...just...stay close to me...come here..."

She crawled faster, reaching for him.

"Kieran?!What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Show me..."

Her fingertips brushed the floor between them...just inches from reaching his hand...

When a sound reverberated through the hall.

A deep, rolling BOOM that rattled the ground beneath them.

Autumn froze.

Kieran stiffened, slowly turning towards the source of the sound.

The air thickened.

Then they both heard a voice.

A deep, terrifyingly calm female voice.

Horribly familiar somehow.

And it said... "Welcome home, son."

The words crawled through the cavern, vibrating through Autumn’s ribs.

Kieran’s entire body went rigid too.

Autumn’s heart stopped.

Freya whimpered and clung tighter to his chest as his face drained of color.

Slowly...

Very slowly...

They turned.

A massive figure stepped out of the shadows...

Autumn knew exactly who she was. She could feel through her unhinged aura. She was the very reason Autumn was given her powers. The epitome of everything negative. The one who had disrupted the original balance.

But who was she called her son?

What relationship did Kieran have with this monster?

The temperature dropped.

The air thinned.

The light around them dimmed as if afraid to touch any surface.

Autumn’s breath hitched, her hand withdrawing instinctively.

Kieran didn’t breathe at all.

The dust around them settled in trembling spirals.

The figure stopped at the edge of an unearthly glow.

Like a forgotten nightmare.

Her presence swallowed the entire space.

And she smiled...a slow, cold, smirk that looked oddly familiar as well...like Karl’s to be exact. Yes! Exactly like him.

She stared directly at Kieran.

"Welcome home."

Just then something moved behind them.

A body rolled, rather tumbled down through the darkness behind them.

Autumn’s head snapped back towards the sound just in time to see the figure burst through the thinning shadows...spinning once... twice...

And landing face first on the stone floor with a strong, echoing THUD.

Her breath caught. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Her eyes widened.

"Karl?" she whispered, barely recognizing him.

Slow motion swallowed everything.

Karl’s body twitched.

He tried...

failed...

tried again...

to push himself up.

His limbs shook violently.

His breath tore out of him in ragged, wet wheezes.

Thick, black ichor dripped from his clothes...his hair...his mouth.

And then Autumn saw it.

An axe like weapon with the Guardian’s sigils.

A massive one.

Its blade buried deep between his shoulder blades, the handle jutting upward.

Autumn slapped a hand over her mouth...an involuntary muffled cry escaped.

He staggered.

One knee hit the ground.

Then the other.

His body jerked as if electricity coursed through it... but there was no spark, only the horrifying sound of black ichor dripping...

drip...

drip...

drip...

onto the cold stone beneath him.

Kieran inhaled sharply beside her, breath torn in half.

Karl didn’t look at any of them.

His eyes were wide, unhinged, glossy...fixed on the towering woman ahead of them.

His fingers clawed at the floor as he dragged himself forward. His movements felt wrong...agonizing.

Autumn couldn’t look away.

It was like watching a nightmare crawl across the ground.

She breathed too loud, horror tightening her throat.

He kept crawling, his body twisting at wrong angles...leaving dark streaks behind him.

His breaths gurgled.

The one he was crawling towards, however, stood perfectly still.

Her smile widened.

A smile just like Karl’s... if his was drained of his twisted humor

and filled with cruelty... unfathomable one.

Karl reached her feet.

And collapsed.

Completely.

His body crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut... or a toy that had run out of batteries.

His shoulders trembled.

Head bowed.

Then...with a shuddering gasp,

he lifted a shaking hand towards her.

Black ichor smeared across his palm.

His fingers quivered as they reached for the hem of her cloak.

His voice cracked.

A tiny, broken whisper rolled out of his lips.

"Mother..."

Autumn froze.

Kieran didn’t look at her.

Freya ,in his arms, whimpered, burying her face in her father’s neck.

Karl’s voice trembled.

Terrified.

Very unlike what Autumn had ever heard... she didn’t know he was capable of having such a vulnerable side as well.

"Mother... please... save me..."

His hand fell against her foot... as if asking for a mercy he already knew he wouldn’t receive...and the space fell into a silence so deep it felt like the world itself was holding its breath in anticipation.

The cavern did not move.

But the illusion of stillness shattered the moment the woman took a single, deliberate step forward.

Her heel touched stone...

THUD.

A sound so soft...

yet it echoed like the heartbeat of something merciless.

Autumn’s breath snagged in her lungs as She came to stand directly in front of Karl’s trembling, collapsed form.

Karl’s fingers twitched, desperate, reaching, trembling in the dust like dying insects.

"Mo...Mother..." he rasped, voice cracking like wet stone. "Please... save me..."

Autumn’s whole body tensed.

Her hand flew to her mouth.

Kieran’s arm tightened around Freya automatically, his jaw locking, eyes glued to the scene unfolding in front of them.

The woman leaned down...

Her face dipped into Karl’s flickering shadow...

And then with a casual, dismissive motion...

KRRRK...THOOM... .

She kicked Karl in the chest.

Hard.

The impact echoed in through the vast area sending ripples through Autumn’s ribs.

Karl’s body jerked violently backwards.

The axe...the axe buried in his back...DROVE DEEPER with a wet squelch.

Karl SHRIEKED.

Like a wounded pup...

"AAAA...GAHHHH...!"

Autumn flinched, hands flying to her ears as her throat closed up in shock and horror.For the split of a second she did feel the urge to intervene and help for some unknown reason.

Karl’s eyes bulged, face contorting as he writhed under her boot.

Black ichor gushed from his mouth in thick rivulets, dribbling down his chin as he sobbed brokenly.

The woman bent forward.

Her hair fell like a curtain of shadows.

Her smile was a blade.

Her voice...a whisper dipped in poison.

"Well," she purred, lips almost brushing his ear, "what is it, Karl? Speak up."

Karl’s breath trembled violently.

He gasped, choked, then forced the words out in strangled pieces.

"Mother...

I am scared."

His shoulders shook uncontrollably.

"I don’t want to die... all over again... I am scared of what comes next..."

Autumn’s heart lurched violently.

Her stomach twisted painfully at the brokenness in his voice.

That raw, childlike terror.

But the woman...

She LAUGHED.

Loud.

Shrill.

Piercing.

With her head thrown back, the cavern trembling with each chilling peel.

"Oh Karl..." she crooned, still laughing breathlessly, wiping faux tears from under her eye.

"Don’t be silly."

She leaned closer again, her smile stretching unnaturally wide.

"You were already dead the moment you chose the darkness. Nobody forced you.And now you dared to bring this pollutant in here," She said pointing at the axe and the glowing sigils, "...along with your polluted body here? " Her tone hardened."Own your choices, boy."

She continued murmuring against his cheek, voice low and venomously sweet. "You need to learn to man up..."

Her eyes slid sideways...

Landing on Kieran.

"...like your brother."

The words struck the air like a whip.

Everything slowed.

Even the dust particles seemed to freeze mid air.

Autumn’s breath caught.

Her eyes darted from the woman...

to Karl...

to Kieran...

And her heart cracked at what she saw.

Karl’s eyes were wide, filled with pure sadness.

Not rage.

Neither defiance.

Just a deep, hollow grief.

And Kieran’s eyes?

They met Karl’s.

And there, beneath the facade, beneath the tension, beneath the instinctive protectiveness...

Autumn saw it.

An unfathomable sadness.

Their gazes held...

Brother to brother.

One dying at the feet of the mother who abandoned them both.