BTE (61) — The Nightmare Never Ends VI (Patreon)

A/N: This one might undergo edits in the future.

Yuna swallowed as she gazed down at the scene playing before her, and her hands tightened around the medical instruments. She shouldn't be doing this; her heart shouldn't be skipping like that, but she was having a difficult time keeping her attention solely focused on treating Alfred.

"Ah, it looks like a love triangle..." Myeong whispered from the side. "You weren't wrong."

"It's more than a triangle." Yuna sighed. "It's a damn love pentagon."

"Why are you being so weird? Are you really the mother of those two?" Myeong chuckled, watching in amusement as her friend kept her head down while her hand kept stitching and wiping at Alfred's wound. She looked away and grabbed another bottle of disinfectant. It seemed like they'd be stuck there for a long time. "Hari and Nari are so different from you."

"You can't see it? Those eyes." Yuna mumbled under her breath. "This is more than a crush. They're in love with him."

"Aww, Yuna. I know it must be difficult seeing them all grown up and starting their own relationships."

"Difficult, sure, but... this... isn't a simple relationship, Myeong." Yuna said, conflicted.

Myeong smiled slightly, a tinge of reminiscence in her voice. "It's not like yours or mine were simple either. Let them figure it out on their own."

Yuna could only stare as Hari, her darling, beautiful daughter, continued to play with Leandro's hand. She was whispering, but it wasn't too difficult to hear her. Nari, not wanting to be outdone, was also monopolizing Leandro's other hand. The poor boy was stuck between the two of them, not sure which conversation he should have paid attention to.

She veered her gaze towards Yuhee and Bada, who were staring at Leandro while talking in whispers.

Yuna shook her head. "They're going to be hurt..."

"Well, yeah. Of course. Relationships hurt—that's part of life. But there is also great joy to be had. This is a natural part of growing up and growing in love." Myeong smiled at Yuna, who returned her expression with a troubled gaze. "They can figure it out themselves."

Yuna could only nod and resume treating Alfred. “Still… I didn’t expect it.” There was surprise in her voice, and if Myeong didn’t mishear her—awe as well. “I’ve been told he was a Challenger… but he…” She trailed off, throwing away the cotton pad she used to clean the skin around Alfred’s gash. 

The butler remained unconscious the whole time. It was a miracle in itself that he didn’t bleed to death yet.

"Yes, I've seen. It's quite remarkable..." Myeong whispered, incredulously. "My lovable, cute child became someone even monsters fear.”

“You didn’t know?” Yuna stared at her friend, frowning.

Myeong shook her head. “As I said… I had very little contact with him over the years. Our conversions were sparse, and he never went too deep about his personal life. As a mother, I’m ashamed… it’s just that we… we—”

“It’s okay.” Yuna’s words weren’t exactly the anchor Myeong was looking for, but perhaps being optimistic was the way to go. The situation was already depressing as is. “I’m sure he knows and doesn’t mind.”

Myeong chuckled softly. “I hope so.”

The two of them sat back, sighing. They had cleaned and patched the wound as best as they could with the medical supplies on hand.

They observed their children's playful bickering, mostly Hari and Nari—they were clearly enraptured with Leandro.

"He's become very popular, hasn't he?"

Yuna rolled her eyes. "Very much so. Even Hari, my Hari... has become enraptured by him. And Nari... that girl is clearly out to get him."

Myeong smiled faintly, nodding her head as she recalled their past.

She looked at Leandro again. Her son was still conversing with Hari and Nari. The three of them were having a one-sided animated conversation about something or the other, with Hari's cheeks turning red while Nari tried to keep a neutral, unimpressed face.

She wasn't fooling anyone. She was too busy playing with Leandro's hand, tracing over his veins and caressing his fingers. 

Leandro himself was trying to keep a straight face, but it was painfully obvious the girls were talking his ears off. Myeong laughed. 

He was clearly doing a great job keeping up. She looked at her best friend, smiling. "I don't see anything wrong with that, Yuna."

"......"

Yuna didn't say anything. It wasn't the ideal circumstance to talk about her daugthers' relationship with another boy, or that he had attracted several women around him already.

She did have her reservations—but now she didn't know anymore. Leandro had proven that his words over the phone weren't mere bravado; he wasn't simply acting all high and mighty because he could, he actually had the power and skill to back it up.

In truth, she didn't know whether that was supposed to comfort or worry her.

But it was the truth that he did save them, and her as well.

He killed an unknown number of those monsters outside—the very monsters she thought would spell out their imminent doom.

"Now then…” Yuna shifted her attention to Alfred; maybe it was a good thing he was unconscious, lest he listened to their childish gossiping while on the verge of death. “We should rest as much as we can. Let's take turns guarding him while he rests."

Myeong hummed, worried. "We don't even know if those monsters outside would go away after we close our eyes."

“Your son is here, isn’t he?” Yuna closed her eyes. 

Myeong smiled. “He is.”

…

Alfred wouldn’t wake up anytime soon. Myeong excused herself; Yuna looked distracted and hardly in the mood for a conversation. 

She noticed that Leandro had miraculously wrenched himself free from Hari and Nari’s clutches. Yuhee had been lying in ambush for a while now, but Bada, the sensible girl, had seen Myeong approaching and wisely held her back.

Myeong sent a tiny smile in Bada’s direction, the latter of whom returned it with an encouraging one. 

‘Truly sensible.’

The pharmacy was big. She was thankful for that—not for a lack of trust, but it was something that was for Leandro’s ears only. 

Leandro had long sensed her walking up to him, and chose a corner where he could keep a vigilant eye on their surroundings. 

“Son…”

Myeong started, quirking both eyebrows. The height difference was visible even before she stood in front of him. She was like a cute potted bonsai before an imposing oak tree. 

“Mom.”

Ah. Not a distant, formal ‘mother’, but ‘mom’. Such a small difference made the world to her, or maybe he carefully chose that option given the circumstances.

Well, it didn’t matter. She smiled up at him. “I’m glad to see you doing so well, son. You've changed so much. You’ve become so... strong.” Inhumanly strong. If the Galvathians were a nightmare to humans, Leandro was one to them. 

The version before her had matured so much compared to before. He had always been mature, to be fair. Now, though, his expression was hardened beyond belief. She never truly got to see such hardship and grief over her son's visage, not that she had ever got to see him much in the first place.

It made sense, though. At least she tried making sense of it, because nothing made fucking sense anymore. 

"I've grown up." 

Those words hit her a bit too hard; it wasn’t his fault, really.

It was simply the reality of their situation. 

Myeong held the edges of her blotched coat; her tears were getting her mascara ruined.

She tried a smile, a small one. The type Leandro hadn't seen for quite a few years—the mother she once used to be, back when he was still a child. He still saw that face in his childhood memories.

"You have." She said, in a low wistful tone. "I'm sorry that I... couldn't be there for you. It must have been hard..."

"It is in the past now." He shook his head, his Aura stretching in a circle as far as it could go without taxing him too much. No threatening signal made its way back. Good. Leandro took a more inquisitive look at his mother. "I didn't think we'd have this discussion now, but given the circumstances, it might seem better to get it all out before it's too late. Mom, don't feel like I blame you or anything. I'm sure you had your reasons, right? Besides, you left me in good hands."

She did. Myeong nodded her head, wiping the last of her tears. "We were so close to putting an end to it all. We were ready to move, you know? Your father, you, and I." She laughed dryly. "It's my fault... I—ah... I'm sure your dad would have wanted to be here, to fight alongside you."

Leandro's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "What happened to him?" It was a rhetorical question. It was obvious what happened to his father. Myeong's tears spoke loud enough.

She held her breath, shoulders shaking.

"He... he's gone... I'm sorry, Leandro."

“......”

Leandro moved to hug his mother, who instantly reciprocated, latching tightly onto him. He rested his chin on her head. The pain was… distant. It was there, but he had to look for it. He had to dig deep and hold onto it. Even as Myeong broke down in tears once again, quietly. He couldn’t bring himself to feel the same intensity of grief as her. 

It was like hearing about the passing of a distant relative, someone he was supposed to feel sad about but couldn't muster the depth of sorrow he saw in others.

If it was Hari, Nari, Yuhee or Bada who died—

Leandro’s arms tightened around Myeong. 

Slowly, she pulled away, wiping off the tears from her red and swollen eyes; they were a bit more lively now, at least. “I’m so proud of you, Leandro.” She whispered. “You’ve become someone incredible, despite everything.”

"Mom..." It was then that he thought. His eyes steeled. "How did he die?"

Myeong hesitated, fidgeting. Leandro's eyes were resolute, and she saw no reason to keep anything from him. "I promised I'd talk to Yuna about it as well, but you deserve to know first. Leandro... the reason we've been away so long was because we were researching the apocalypse..."

His eyes widened. Of all things, he didn't expect to hear that. "You knew?"

"Not really. We had an inkling something bad would happen. An incomprehensible amount of photons were on direct collision with Earth, threatening to change everything as we knew it.” Myeong paused, recalling the urgency of those days. "Diego and I were desperate to understand their origin, to decipher if it was a supernova or something else entirely. We worked tirelessly, monitoring the celestial data, grasping at every possible explanation. We were in a hurry, you see."

Leandro listened quietly. 

"And then…" Myeong continued, apprehensive. "As we struggled to comprehend the implications, we stumbled upon the Galvathian Empire. They weren't what we expected—a hostile race, mysterious and formidable. They were unexpectedly cooperative. We were too naive." Her gaze drifted, lost in the memories. "Desperate times called for desperate measures. We sent out a radio wave SOS, hoping against hope for a response."

Leandro's expression didn’t change. "But they responded."

"Yes." Myeong affirmed, momentarily closing her eyes. "Somehow, against all odds, they heard us. Communication began, strained and cautious at first, but over time, it grew into a fragile alliance. We exchanged knowledge, learned about their technology, their culture. The Galvathians, surprisingly, offered a way to connect. A portal. It was beyond anything we could have ever conceived. We knew it was dangerous; it was stupid and senseless. But if Earth was to be destroyed, it was worth a shot."

She laughed, weakly. “We didn’t expect that the outcome for all of our concerns was a tower growing out of the ground and potential for seemingly endless growth. But by then all preparations had been completed. Diego... he became the bridge between our worlds. A diplomat—Earth’s representative, in a way. We had the government’s funding and support. Everything was supposed to go alright." Her breath shuddered. "Until it didn’t.”

Her voice died out, her eyes weary and tired.

"They killed him, didn’t they?" Leandro stated. 

"Yeah." Myeong nodded. "It had been a trap all along. Their intent was to invade, not to make peace. And we opened the doors to our home like fools."

Leandro looked at his mother, whose smile was sad and strained, her eyes glistening.

She seemed more exhausted than anything else, her hair slightly disheveled.

His father. Dead. Killed. His death would have been neither quick nor merciful. The Galvathians wouldn’t have hesitated to use him for food, to harvest his skin.

“We’ll get revenge.” Perhaps the pain was beginning to register now that his mother had shed tears before him, had mourned and told him all of it. Or maybe it was the right thing to do, for his father, and to alleviate the burden from his mother's shoulders.

But even without that as an incentive, Leandro was still going to make them pay for it, for the home they were trying to destroy.

Myeong sniffed, her eyes growing increasingly tired. It was an exhausting conversation. "Leandro... that vortex in the sky is the portal. If we destroy the core that connects both sides, they will no longer be able to invade." It is imperative we destroy it. She placed her hand on her son's shoulders and gave him an imploring gaze. "It's the only way to put an end to this."