(A/N):
Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.
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Meanwhile
Rudra blinked.
"____"
The last thing he remembered was the deep Ooty forest where he had entered meditation,
The weight of the upcoming battle and Dev's threat lingering on his heart. But now…
He stood in a garden unlike any he had ever seen.
Tall emerald trees swayed gently though there was no wind.
Packs of deer leapt gracefully in unison,
Their hooves barely touching the ground, moving like dancers rehearsed a thousand times.
Birds of every color—
Crimson, sapphire, gold, even hues he couldn't name—
Spiraled overhead, their wings scattering shimmering motes of light that rained down like stardust.
Flowers bloomed in every direction,
Carpeting the ground in a mosaic of colors—
Violet, azure, crimson, white.
Some glowed faintly, exhaling soft fragrances that wrapped around him in warmth and calm.
The air itself seemed alive,
Resonating with an energy far beyond natural.
"This… isn't the same forest,"
Rudra whispered to himself, his voice hushed as though afraid to disturb the place.
His instincts urged caution,
But his heart felt oddly at peace.
Almost… welcomed.
He called out the one constant in his life,
The anchor that had guided him since his awakening.
"System…?"
Silence.
"____"
A chill ran through him.
No familiar mechanical voice.
No panels. No responses.
It was as though that part of his existence had been stripped away.
Frowning, Rudra took a cautious step forward.
Frown~
"____"
Each step echoed faintly, not on dirt or grass,
But on something softer, like the heartbeat of the land itself.
Thud. Thud.
The world pulsed faintly beneath his feet, alive, watching him.
"Where… am I?"
He muttered, scanning the endless horizon of light and life.
Just then, one of the deer broke from its synchronized run.
It stopped a few feet before Rudra, lowering its head gently, golden eyes meeting his.
Unlike a beast, its gaze felt human—
No, divine.
Before he could react, the deer opened its mouth.
"You are at the right place young lord."
The voice wasn't from the deer—
It was everywhere.
The trees hummed it, the flowers whispered it, the air itself breathed it.
Rudra's breath caught when the deer bowed its head slightly.
"____"
Its voice—
Gentle yet commanding—
Echoed in his mind.
"Young Lord."
The title made him freeze.
'Young Lord? What did that mean? Did this creature… know something about him? About why he was here?'
Before he could ask, his foot landed in a shallow puddle.
He hadn't noticed it amidst the flowers and glowing moss.
The ground was uneven, slick with roots twisting beneath the soil.
His foot slipped on the bark of one such root, and before he could steady himself—
Thud!
He toppled forward, his hands flailing uselessly as his face splashed into the puddle.
Cold, crystalline water spread across his skin.
He blinked in shock—
It wasn't ordinary water.
It was so pure, so untainted,
It almost stung his senses, like a liquid form of raw divine energy itself.
Behind him, the pack of deer—
Majestic, ethereal beings only moments ago—
Suddenly erupted in laughter.
Hehe~
Their elegant forms shook with mirth, the sound strangely playful, almost childlike.
The golden-eyed deer that had spoken lowered its head, trying and failing to hide its amusement.
"Careful, Young Lord,"
Chuckle~
It said softly, its voice now carrying a chuckle.
And then—
Plop! Plop!
Plop!
—a smaller, younger deer bounded forward, no bigger than a calf.
Its tiny hooves splashed in the puddle Rudra had fallen into.
It circled him eagerly, jumping here and there, splattering droplets across his face.
"____"
Its bright eyes glowed with innocent curiosity,
And it leaned closer, sniffing his hair before hopping away again.
Sniff~
For the first time since arriving,
Rudra didn't feel awe or fear.
He felt… embarrassed.
"____"
"Great… even magical deer are laughing at me now,"
He muttered, pushing himself up, water dripping from his face.
The small deer bounded back again, nudging his shoulder gently before giving a playful shake, showering him with more water.
The rest of the pack's laughter echoed like bells through the glowing grove.
Yet beneath that laughter,
Rudra felt it—
Something deeper.
The water, the laughter, even his clumsiness… it wasn't mocking.
It was welcoming.
Rudra wiped the last of the water from his face, still scowling at the laughter of the deer pack,
When suddenly—
Whummm!
A strange vibration passed through his skull.
His balance faltered.
His vision blurred at the edges, like the world was dissolving into liquid light.
"____"
"What… the…"
Rudra muttered, clutching his head.
The once-beautiful forest began to spin, the colors bleeding into one another—
Blue melting into gold, green streaking into crimson.
His knees buckled.
The deer pack instantly stopped laughing.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Their joyous, playful tones turned to alarm.
They stamped their hooves, ears twitching in panic.
The smallest deer nudged him frantically, bleating with a soft cry.
Rudra gasped, trying to force his legs to stand.
But another wave of dizziness slammed into him like a crashing tide.
His limbs felt heavy, his chest constricted.
Just before his consciousness slipped into darkness,
He heard the golden-eyed deer's voice echo sharply—Urgent, commanding.
"Quick! Call Mata!"
The sound reverberated in his fading mind, and then—
Blackness.
"____"
His body went limp,
Collapsing against the glowing roots of the divine forest as the pack of deer encircled him protectively.
Rudra's eyelids fluttered open, his breath shallow as the world swam into hazy shapes.
His vision was still a fog, colors bleeding into one another,
But he could sense it—
Several pairs of glowing eyes surrounding him, watching closely.
He blinked, straining to focus.
The soft silhouettes of antlers caught his blurred gaze.
The deer.
The same pack he had seen before.
They stood at the edge of his vision, unmoving, their watchful eyes reflecting a strange reverence.
But closer—
Far closer—
Was another presence.
A figure.
Through the blur,
Rudra could only make out the shape of a woman kneeling beside him, her form outlined by the faint glow of the forest.
He couldn't see her face, but the warmth of her presence pressed against him like sunlight.
"____"
His throat was dry, his voice weak.
"Wh… where am I…? Who… are you?"
For a heartbeat, silence answered him.
Then, a soft exhale—
Relief.
Sigh~
The woman leaned forward, her blurred features dipping close,
And Rudra felt something he hadn't expected.
A gentle hand resting on his head.
The touch was warm, steady, almost motherly.
He froze.
"____"
His eyes widened faintly.
No one had patted his head like that in years…
The deer stirred softly in the background,
As if reassured by her action.
Rudra, still too weak to move,
Could only stare up through his hazy vision, heart caught between confusion and a strange comfort he couldn't explain.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
The forest seemed to hold its breath—
Leaves stilled, the deer waiting silently in the shadows.
Only the faint rustle of flowers in the wind and Rudra's uneven breaths broke the quiet.
Her hand never left his head.
"____"
"____"
Gentle strokes, steady and rhythmic,
As if trying to soothe away the storm inside him.
Rudra didn't know why,
But that touch felt… familiar.
Comforting.
Like the warmth of something he had long lost but had been searching for unknowingly.
His chest tightened.
His lips parted, but no words came.
He simply lay there, caught between confusion and an ache he couldn't name.
Then—
At last—
Her voice.
Soft, ethereal, carrying the weight of ages yet trembling with a strange hesitation.
"You… may call me Mother."
The word lingered in the air like a sacred chant, seeping into his very bones.
Rudra's eyes widened, his breath catching.
'Mother?'
The woman's hand paused briefly, As though the word had cost her something to say.
Then it returned, stroking his hair again, more gently than before.
Rudra didn't know what to feel—
Relief, sorrow, or disbelief.
But in that fragile moment, as her voice echoed in his ears, he felt something he had never felt…
…as if a part of his soul had finally found its way home.
Rudra's throat tightened, his voice trembling as it finally slipped out.
"W-what… do you mean by… mother?"
The question cracked in the silence, fragile and uncertain.
"____"
"____"
"____"
The woman's hand froze for the first time, her soft strokes halting mid-motion.
For a heartbeat, the world seemed to wait—
Forest, wind, even the deer hidden in the glade.
Then she drew in a slow breath.
Her voice came low, but unwavering.
"What you are thinking… is true."
Rudra's chest constricted.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"I… am your mother,"
She said, each word deliberate,
Carrying an echo that seemed to resonate with something deep inside him.
"In this life… and in the last. In every life you take, Rudra, I will remain your mother."
The words struck him harder than any weapon ever had.
His lips parted, but no sound came.
"____"
His throat was dry, too parched to push out the storm of questions screaming in his mind.
A thousand thoughts clawed at him—
'How? Why? What does she mean by both lives? What lives?'
—but the weight of her voice crushed them all into silence.
His breath hitched.
The world blurred again—
Not from dizziness this time,
But from the tears threatening to form.
He could only stare at her shadowed face, unable to speak, unable to think,
His entire being consumed by the single, impossible truth she had placed before him.
With every ounce of strength left in his trembling body,
Rudra forced a single word past his dry lips.
"…Why?"
Though short, the question carried a storm—
'Why are you here? Why are you my mother? Why now? Why me?'
All of it condensed into that one breath.
The woman froze, her hand still resting against his hair.
Her eyes, though blurred in his vision, softened as if she understood the weight hidden inside that word.
Her lips parted, the faint shape of an answer forming—
But then a piercing beep cracked through the serenity.
A jagged, blood-red panel seared across Rudra's vision.
[DING...]
[ALERT: Hibernation for Brahmastra-Merge interrupted.]
[ERROR: External interference detected.]
[Directive: Host must ELIMINATE source of interference.]
[Completion Required: Only upon victory will Brahmastra fully merge.]
Rudra's eyes widened.
"____"
His heart lurched.
The tranquil garden shook violently, like the sky itself had been torn apart.
Trees warped, colors bled into each other,
The very air hissed as though resisting some unseen force.
The woman's hand slipped from his head.
She leaned closer, her figure still shrouded in haze, desperation flickering in her voice.
"Rudra, listen to me—"
But the world began collapsing into shards of golden light.
The ground beneath him fractured like glass,
The deer's panicked cries echoing as if from another realm.
"No—wait!"
Rudra croaked, reaching out for her, his fingers stretching toward the blur of her form.
For a fleeting instant, her hand almost met his.
And then his vision ripped apart, pulled violently back into the storm of reality.
Few Hours Earlier...
Mt. Kailash...
The peaks of Kailash glowed under a veil of silver clouds as Mata Parvathi stepped down from her radiant chariot, her form shimmering with the blessings of Vaikuntham.
The fragrance of sandal and lotus clung to her as though Devi Lakshmi herself had adorned her before departure.
Her heart still carried the warmth of her meeting with her brother Lord Vishnu and sister Lakshmi—divine laughter echoing in her mind like music.
But her peaceful return was shattered.
A rustle of hooves and frantic splashes of water broke the sanctity of her garden.
A small herd of her celestial deer—
Creatures born from her own grace—
Came bounding toward her, their wide, liquid eyes reflecting fear.
One stumbled to her feet, antlers trembling as though it had run from death itself.
"Mata! Mata!"(Mother!)
The deer cried in a voice laced with urgency.
"Your child has fallen—he lies unconscious in the sacred grove!"
Parvathi stilled.
"____"
'My child?'
Her first thought leapt to Ganesha… or to Kartikeya.
Her maternal instincts flared, heart racing as she feared one of them had strayed into the grove and collapsed.
But even as the thought formed, she felt it—that faint, delicate thrum in the air.
An aura unfamiliar yet uncannily hers.
A presence tied not to her two sons of this life, but something deeper, older.
The deer pressed on, their voices overlapping in panic:
"He came suddenly, Mata!"
"We felt your essence within him!"
"He… he is not like the others—he carries you in his soul!"
Parvathi's eyes widened,
A thousand questions stirring behind her calm gaze.
A ripple of power stirred in her chest, recognition flickering like a half-remembered dream.
"…Another child? Could it be Rudra? But how is that possible?"
She whispered to herself, disbelief warring with instinct.
But her feet were already moving, golden anklets ringing softly against the marble of Kailash as she strode with divine urgency toward the grove.
The Sacred Grove...
The grove shimmered with eternal blossoms,
Their petals bending toward the unconscious figure that lay in the middle of a silver puddle.
The water rippled faintly with the glow of an astral body, casting light across the deer who stood guard in protective silence.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Mata Parvathi stepped into the grove, her presence washing over it like the fragrance of jasmine at dawn.
But when her eyes fell upon the boy before her—
Her heart clenched.
There he was.
Rudra.
His astral form glowed faintly, edges flickering as though his soul had traveled too far, too fast, and had grown fragile under the weight of distance.
His hair, his face—
So achingly familiar.
A face she had longed to see, to hold, through lifetimes.
Parvathi's breath trembled.
"____"
Her lips parted as if to call his name,
But no sound escaped.
Instead, she hurried forward, silk robes brushing across the wet earth as she knelt beside him.
Her slender hand reached out, shaking faintly, and at last rested against his head.
The moment her palm touched him,
A warmth bloomed in her chest—
An undeniable, eternal tether between mother and child.
"Rudra…"
She whispered, voice breaking though no tears fell.
The deer lowered their heads in reverence, stepping back as though giving mother and son the sanctity of this reunion.
Parvathi patted his head gently, lovingly, as if she had done it a thousand times before.
His unconscious form stirred faintly, but there was no danger—
She could sense it clearly.
Only exhaustion.
"____"
His astral body had endured more than it should have,
Traveling across realms to reach this sacred place.
"You stubborn child,"
She murmured, a soft, pained smile on her lips.
She bent low, her forehead brushing his, and closed her eyes.
For the first time in countless ages,
"____"
Parvathi allowed herself the solace of holding him, silently pouring the love she had guarded for lifetimes into that single touch.
After hours of stillness,
The silver puddle rippled once more.
Rudra's fingers twitched, his chest rose in a shallow breath, and his eyelids fluttered open.
The first thing he saw was not the garden, not the glowing deer,
But the gentle silhouette leaning over him—
Her hand still resting against his head.
His blurred vision still hasn't cleared.
"Where… am I?"
He asked faintly, voice hoarse.
Parvathi's lips curved in relief, though her hand never left his hair.
"You are safe, Rudra. You may call me…"
—her voice faltered for an instant, as if the word itself carried an eternity of yearning—
"…Mother."
Flashback Ends...
Present...
Ooty Forest...
The Battlefield...
Far away, under the canopy torn apart by fire and blood,
Dev writhed against the crimson root-prison Junoo had conjured.
His once-mighty form looked battered, veins bulging as the roots siphoned his energy, leaving his skin pale and lips quivering.
Junoo's fiery red eyes glared down at him, her hands raised to deliver the final motion.
One simple twist—
One snap of his neck—
And Dev's chaos would end here.
"You crawled into Rudra's fate with filth,"
She hissed, her voice sharp as a blade.
"Now you'll rot here—like the worm you are."
Dev's head lolled for a moment, but then—
A faint crimson shimmer pulsed at his chest.
The red pendant he wore glowed violently, sending a ripple across the battlefield.
Junoo's eyes narrowed.
Frown~
"Tch. A signal?"
Indeed—
Across the forest,
Dev's servants stiffened, eyes flashing as they felt their master's distress through their own pendants.
With animal-like roars, they abandoned their scattered skirmishes and rushed in his direction, blades and Astra flaring to life.
Junoo clicked her tongue in annoyance,
Her hand tightening around Dev's neck as the first wave of enemies began to break through the treeline.
Dev coughed, lips curling into a bloody smile despite the prison crushing him.
"You think… you've won, woman?"
He rasped, voice low but mocking.
"No one… snaps the neck of Dev that easily."
The forest around them began to tremble—
Not from Dev, but from the sheer number of his approaching servants, their war cries echoing in the night.
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(Author's POV)
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