Chapter 25 Alive

Chapter 25 Alive
Serena

I couldn’t feel my legs.

I couldn’t feel anything but the fire, deep and ripping through me... like I was being torn in two.

“The moment I gave life,” I whispered, “death answered.”

My voice barely sounded like mine.

“Serena,” Xavier said beside me. His face was pale, lips tight, but his voice was calm. “You’ve got this. Just breathe.”

I tried to breathe. Dear goddess, I did. But the pain gripped me like claws. My fingers were white-knuckled on the rails of the medical bed.

Sweat poured down my face. My hair stuck to my skin. My gown was soaked.

I was drowning in pain. And it wasn’t just physical.

It was energy. Wild. Alive. Pulsing out of me and from me and into something. Or someone.

Another contraction slammed into me, and I screamed. The lights above blinked, then flared red.

“She’s fully dilated!” Mira called out, her Reaper-tech visor glowing. “Kansas, stabilize the field!”

“I’m trying!” Kansas snapped, hands flying over a panel etched with old-world runes and blinking keys. “Her energy keeps spiking! I’ve never seen anything like this!”

Alarms blared.

The room shook as if thunder rolled beneath the floor.

I heard a distant crack, then Lyric’s voice burst through the comm.

“They’re in! Blood-bound wolves just breached the second layer!” she yelled. “They're coming straight for the birthing chamber!”

Xavier didn’t flinch. He turned toward the glass wall, where shapes moved through the fog outside. His blade, dark as void, was already in his hand.

“You protect her,” he told Mira and Kansas and dr Yara. Then to me, softer, “I’ll be back.”

Before I could protest, he was gone, just a blur of shadows melting into the smoke beyond the glass.

....

“Push, Serena!” Mira ordered.

“I—I can’t—”

“You can! This baby is not just yours. She is herself, and she is trying to be born. Help her!” Dr Yara insisted.

My whole body arched.

It felt like my bones were grinding. Like my spine would snap. Like something inside me was clawing out of my soul.

My hands flailed, searching for something to hold onto.. but there was only pain.

“I’m here,” Dr Yara said, catching my hand in hers. “You’re not alone. We’re not going to let them take her.”

Then I saw them.

Not in the room... but in my mind.

Three men. The triplets. Standing in a circle of blood and smoke. Their eyes bled red. Their skin shimmered with silver scars that pulsed in sync with my heartbeat.

“Give her to us,” they said in one voice, though their mouths didn’t move.

“She doesn’t belong to you,” I whispered.

“She belongs to us all.”

“She’s mine.”

“Let go of the pain,” they said gently. “Let go, and she’ll be safe. You’ll both be safe. We’ll protect her. We'll stop the pain.”

My chest heaved. My vision blurred. My body wanted to give in.

But...

Then I felt her.

A spark.

Small.

Bright.

Not asking.

Demanding.

She wanted out. She wanted me.

I clenched my teeth. I gripped Dr.Yara hand until I felt bones grind. Kansas was standing guard by the door
Protecting us.

“No,” I growled.

I gathered every ounce of what was left in me, pain, love, terror and pushed.

The room exploded in white light.

The ceiling cracked.

The shadows in the corners screamed.

And then...

A cry.

Not mine.

Not Mira’s.

Not the wolves outside.

A baby’s cry.

Sharp. Fierce. Real.

And then… silence.

I collapsed backward, chest rising and falling in broken gasps.

“She’s out,” Mira breathed.

Dr.Yara had tears on her cheeks.

The baby… my baby… was in Mira’s arms.

But...

She wasn’t crying anymore.

She was looking.

Eyes wide open.

Storm-gray eyes like mine, but glowing with flickers of violet lightning.

Her skin shimmered like wet obsidian.

Shadow coiled off her tiny form... then vanished like smoke caught in wind.

“She’s…” Dr.Yara whispered. “She’s not… just a baby.”

The baby blinked once.

And then....

A whisper.

A sound. Barely audible.

But not a cry.

A word.

Robotic. Unhumanly. Clear.

“Alive.”

...

Outside, through the glass.

Xavier moved like death incarnate.

His claws met the wolves—twisting forms with red eyes and blood-bond sigils seared into their fur.

Each wolf held a piece of me. A piece of my past. My mistakes. My stolen blood.

The triplets had used them as a key—to reach into me.

To reach her.

But Xavier...

He moved through them like he was born for this.

For every wolf that fell, another tried to breach the chamber.

Lyric’s voice crackled: “We’ve tracked the triplets’ ritual circle! Marking location! Sending to your link...now!”

“Got it,” Kansas shouted, grabbing the interface wire and jamming it into Xavier’s link channel. “Go, go, go!”

Xavier vanished.

Then reappeared on top of the hill where the triplet's ghosts stood, their circle flickering as the soul exchange collapsed.

He didn’t speak.

He just moved.

Chains of flame... forged from Motherstone, the sacred ore of Reaper lands... wrapped around each brother. The fire screamed as it latched onto their wrists.

The triplets cried out, writhing. Blood poured from their eyes and ears as the bond shattered.

Then...

Xavier stepped in close.

His hand moved once, drawing a rune over each of their wrists.

An omega seal.

A curse.

Eternal submission.

“You will never touch her,” Xavier whispered. “Not her. Not Serena. Not anyone under my care.”

The triplets screamed again... then imploded into their own magic.

Gone.

Exiled.

Banished from every plane of existence Reapers guarded.


I didn’t feel the room anymore.

Just… warmth.

I turned my head.

Mira was placing her in my arms.

My baby.

Her body was tiny, swaddled in soft gray cloth. But her presence filled the room like thunder.

I stared into her strange, knowing eyes.

“What are you?” I whispered, stroking a curl of black hair on her forehead.

The baby blinked once.

Then smiled.

And whispered again....

“Alive.”

And this time…

She looked at me like she knew exactly what that meant.