Chapter 25 The Tri-Bond Awakens

Chapter 25 The Tri-Bond Awakens
Time was moving backward around us, and the older version of Aria was glowing with power stolen from dead children. I had maybe seconds before she finished whatever horrible spell she was casting.
"Luna! Marcus!" I shouted through our soul-bond. "We have to complete the tri-bond now!"
"But the sacrifices—" Marcus started.
"Forget the sacrifices!" I stopped desperately. "If we don't bond right now, everyone dies anyway!"
Through our connection, I felt Luna's fear warring with her determination. Around us, reality was reversing, but the older Aria's power was getting stronger every second.
"She's not trying to save us," Luna said, understanding rushing through our bond. "She's using the time reversal to position us exactly where she wants us!"
"Then we make our own choice," I said strongly.
I grabbed Luna's hand with my right and Marcus's with my left. The moment our skin touched, lightning shot through all three of us.
"The emergency bonding ritual," I said quickly. "No preparation, no blood sacrifice, just pure trust."
"Damon," Marcus said desperately, "my bond with Death—"
"We'll face it together," Luna cut him off. "All three of us."
The older Aria noticed what we were doing and her eyes went wide with fear.
"No!" she screamed, her stolen power flaring. "You don't understand! The tri-bond will make you too strong! It will ruin everything!"
But it was too late. The moment Luna, Marcus and I joined our intentions fully, power exploded from our connection like a nuclear bomb made of light.
The bonding happened quickly and violently. I felt Marcus's gentle healing nature flowing into me, felt Luna's fierce protective love becoming part of my soul. Through Marcus, I touched the cold presence of Death itself, and instead of being afraid, I found myself oddly soothed by the certainty it represented.
Luna gasped as my Alpha strength merged with her empathic abilities, making her power strong enough to heal not just people but entire communities. Marcus cried out as our combined will anchored his healing magic to reality itself, making him strong enough to bring people back from the edge of actual death.
But the most amazing thing was what happened to our particular fears.
My terror of not being strong enough to protect my family simply disappeared, replaced by absolute certainty that we were stronger together than any threat we might face.
Luna's fear of not being good enough disappeared as she felt our total faith in her flowing through the bond.
Marcus's fear of choosing wrong between life and death evaporated as he realized he didn't have to choose anymore - we would make every choice together.
The golden light from our finished bond blazed outward, and where it touched the broken dimensional barriers, they began healing themselves.
"Impossible!" the First Hunger roared as our power pushed it backward. "No tri-bond has ever been strong enough to repair reality itself!"
"This one is," Elder Moonwhisper said in wonder from across the battlefield. "They're not just connected to each other. They're bonded to the Alpha Spirit, to the land, to the very idea of protection itself."
The older Aria snarled and sent a blast of stolen power at us, but our united barrier absorbed it like it was nothing.
"You don't understand what you're doing!" she screamed. "I've seen the future! If you become too strong, something worse than the Void Court will come!"
"What could be worse than creatures that eat entire realities?" I asked.
"The Reality Council!" she yelled back. "The beings who decide which realities get to live and which ones get erased! They destroy any world that becomes too magically powerful!"
Through our bond, I felt Luna and Marcus's shock mixed with my own. There were things worse than reality-eating monsters?
"The Reality Council erased my timeline when they decided it had become too dangerous," the older Aria continued desperately. "I'm the only survivor because I learned to hide in the spaces between destroyed realities!"
"Then why are you trying to steal our power?" Luna demanded.
"Because power is the only thing the Reality Council respects!" older Aria cried. "If I can gather enough Reality Shifter energy, I can make them listen instead of just destroying everything!"
"By sacrificing children?" Marcus said coldly.
"By sacrificing a few to save everyone!" she shot back.
But our tri-bond was still getting stronger, and I could feel our power pushing back not just the Void Beings, but the older Aria's time manipulation as well.
"Your way didn't work," I told her strongly. "You said yourself your history was destroyed. So we're going to try a different way."
"There is no different way!" she screamed. "The Reality Council has destroyed thousands of worlds! They'll destroy this one too if you become too strong!"
That's when my three-year-old daughter did something that shocked everyone.
She walked quietly through our protective barrier and stood directly in front of her older self.
"You're lying," little Aria said sadly.
"I'm not—"
"You are," little Aria interrupted. "I can feel it. You're not from a destroyed reality. You're from a reality that never existed at all."
The older Aria went totally white.
"That's impossible," she whispered.
"You're a possibility," little Aria explained gently. "A potential future that got scared and ran away from being real."
"What does that mean?" Luna asked through our link.
Little Aria looked back at us with those old eyes.
"It means older me isn't trying to save anyone," she said sadly. "She's trying to make herself real by stealing enough power to force her way into actual existence."
The older Aria's form started flickering like a broken TV.
"No," she said desperately. "I am real. I have to be real. I've suffered too much to just be a chance."
"Suffering doesn't make you real," little Aria said with infinite kindness. "Love makes you real."
She held out her tiny hand to her bigger self.
"Come home," she said simply. "Stop being afraid and come home."
The older Aria stared at the offered hand, tears running down her face.
"I can't," she whispered. "If I stop existing, who will remember all the children who died in my timeline?"
"We will," Luna said firmly through our link. "We'll remember them by making sure they never die in this timeline."
For a moment, it looked like the older Aria might take little Aria's hand and let herself fade back into potential.
Then something else emerged from the biggest dimensional rift - something that made even the First Hunger cower in fear.
"Reality Signature detected," a cold, mechanical voice stated. "Excessive magical development verified. Initiating dimensional sterilization procedure."
Through the gap stepped beings in silver armor that hurt to look at directly.
"The Reality Council," older Aria whispered in absolute fear.
The lead Council member raised what looked like a weapon made of pure numbers.
"This reality has been classified as magically unstable," it declared without emotion. "Termination will commence in sixty seconds."
And I realized with fear that our tri-bond hadn't saved us.
It had just put a target on our entire world.