Chapter 128 Worship Is Just Fear Standing Up

Chapter 128 Worship Is Just Fear Standing Up

Sierra's POV

The first shrine appeared three days after the courtyard incident.

A student had set it up in the corner of the common room. It had pictures of Aurora and Luna printed from academy files, candles, flowers and a small bowl of offerings.

I dismantled it immediately.

"This stops now!" I told the student, a human girl, who'd created it. "The twins are not gods. They're babies."

"But they made everyone kneel," Martinez said. "That's divine power. That's proof of something greater."

"That's proof of unusual biology, not divinity."

"With respect, Ms. Martinez, you weren't there. You didn't feel it." Maria's eyes were fervent. "It wasn't just physical. It was spiritual. Like my soul recognized something holy."

"Your survival instinct recognized something powerful. That's not the same thing."

But Maria wasn't listening. She rebuilt the shrine the next day and made it more elaborate this time.

And she wasn't alone.

Within a week, there were five shrines across campus. Students were gathering to pray to my daughters. They were asking for blessings, protection and guidance.

Eight-week-old babies were receiving worship.

I wanted to scream.

"We need to address this," I told Donovan.

"I've tried. Every time we remove one, two more appear." He pulled up reports. "It's not just the academy. Social media is exploding. There are online communities dedicated to the twins."

He showed me forums and discussion groups. Thousands of people were analyzing every detail.

"The Church of Integration" claimed the twins were proof that all species could merge into one divine being.

"The Awakening Movement" believed the twins heralded a new era of supernatural dominance.

"The Children of Tomorrow" preached that Aurora and Luna would lead humanity into transcendence.

All of them were wrong.

"They're treating our daughters like messiahs," I said.

"Or like threats. Look at this." Donovan pulled up another forum. "The Purist Alliance. They're calling the twins abominations, saying they need to be destroyed."

I felt sick. "How many followers?"

"They keep growing daily. The courtyard video convinced people on both sides. Worshippers see proof of divinity. Fearful people see proof of danger."

"And both groups are insane."

"Both groups are human. They're facing something they don't understand and creating narratives to make sense of it."

I looked at the twins sleeping in their nursery.

"They're just babies," I whispered. "They didn't ask for this."

The movements grew faster than we could track.

By week nine, there were organized gatherings outside the academy gates. People were holding signs. They were chanting. Some were worshipping while some were protesting.

"Blessed are the Bridge Children!"

"Abomination must be stopped!"

Security had to expand the perimeter three times.

Inside the academy, students split into factions.

The Believers: Students who thought the twins were sacred and deserving of reverence.

The Fearful: Students who wanted the twins removed from campus.

The Undecided: Students who were trying to remain neutral but were getting pressure from both sides.

Integration was collapsing.

Celeste spoke to me through Aurora during a late-night feeding.

"This is what I feared," she said, with Aurora's infant face forming adult expressions. "It wasn't the fear of Luna becoming dangerous, it was that both of them would become symbols."

"How do I stop it?"

"You can't. People create symbols from fear and hope. The twins are just vessels for what others project onto them."

"They're not vessels. They're my daughters."

"To you, yes. To the world? They're whatever the world needs them to be." Celeste's expression was sad. "This was inevitable from the moment they were born different."

Aurora's eyes flickered as Celeste receded and my daughter returned.

I held her close and cried.

The religious movements evolved rapidly.

The Church of Integration started performing baptisms. They were immersing believers in water while showing them images of the twins.

The Awakening Movement created rituals tdance ceremonies meant to channel the twins' power.

The Children of Tomorrow were the worst. They started targeting other children while looking for signs of hybrid nature, in an attempt to create more "bridge children" through forced supernatural-human pairings.

Law enforcement agents tried to intervene but the movements operated in legal gray areas where there was freedom of speech and religion.

And they were convincing people.

"My sister joined the Church of Integration," a student told me. "She watches videos of the twins for hours. She says she can feel their divine presence through the screen."

"Your sister needs psychological help."

"She says the same thing about me for not believing."

I contacted the leaders of the three main movements and tried to explain that the twins were just children.

The Church of Integration leader, Prophet Sandra, smiled beatifically.

"You say children. I say vessels of the divine. The twins exist between states. That is the definition of holy."

"They're not holy. They're biological anomalies."

"Miracles often appear as anomalies to the faithless."

The Awakening Movement leader, Kaine, was more direct.

"Your daughters triggered submission in fifty beings simultaneously. That's not biology. That's power. And power that demands recognition."

"It was an accident."

"Accidents don't make people kneel. Divinity does."

The Children of Tomorrow leader refused to meet with me rather they sent a written statement: "The mothers of prophets rarely recognize their children's purpose. You will understand when the awakening comes."

I wanted to hit something.

Donovan found me in my quarters, surrounded by religious literature about the twins.

"This is insane," I said, showing him a pamphlet titled "The Gospel of Aurora and Luna."

"This is predictable," he replied. "Humans need meaning. When something unexplainable happens, they create explanations. Religion is just structured meaning-making."

"They're worshipping babies."

"They're worshipping what the babies represent." He sat beside me. "We can't stop people from creating meaning. We can only control how we respond."

"How should we respond to people treating our daughters like gods?"

"By continuing to treat them like daughters and raising them as normally as possible."

"What about the threats? The Purist Alliance is growing."

"Security is monitoring them. We're prepared."

"Prepared for what? Religious war over our children?"