They remained in that quiet, profound embrace for a long time, two impossible souls finally anchored to a shared, absolute truth. The Soul Bond between them was a calm, steady, brilliant light, free from the last shadows of doubt and secrecy. The air in the room felt lighter, the universe smaller, contained entirely within the space between them.
Eventually, Xue Lian pulled back, though she kept her hands on Lan Yue's shoulders. A new, strange expression was on her face, a complex mixture of a decade's worth of residual trauma and a kind of wry, cosmic amusement. The corner of her lip twitched.
"So," she said, her tone ridiculously casual for the situation. "Now that that's all out in the open, I have to ask. Did you know you're destined to kill me?"
Lan Yue, who had been basking in the warm, healing glow of their reconciliation, blinked. The words were so dramatic, so utterly jarring, that for a moment she was certain she had misheard. "I… what are you talking about?"
"The plot!" Xue Lian said, throwing her hands up with the exasperated air of someone complaining about a terrible book. "The original, terribly written plot of Moon Descending the Sun. It was the whole climax of the story. Very dramatic. Very cliché."
Lan Yue could only stare, completely baffled, as Xue Lian began to pace the room, recounting the absurd alternate reality she had spent a decade fighting against.
"Oh, it was a whole thing," Xue Lian explained, rolling her eyes. "After about four hundred chapters of the ridiculously generic male lead, Luo Yang, flexing his 'Alpha instincts' and trying to woo you, I, the 'evil, defective Omega Empress,' was supposed to go completely mad with a pathetic, pheromone induced obsession and kidnap him." She shuddered with theatrical disgust. "Honestly, the character motivation was atrocious. The author clearly had no grasp of foundational Omegaverse tropes."
She waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway, that was supposed to be your big hero moment. You, the righteous and pure protagonist, would storm the Netherworld, rescue your man from my clutches, and then run me through with Nightfall Crescent in a very flashy, self righteous finishing move." She paused, tapping a finger to her chin. "There was probably a whole monologue about justice and the light conquering the darkness. I mostly skimmed the end. It was all very predictable."
Lan Yue was processing this. She, the serene and celibate Saint of the Azure Cloud Sect, was fated to be in a romance with a generic Alpha, and then murder the woman she now loved over him? The idea was so fundamentally alien to her very nature that it was almost comical.
"I… was in love with a man?" she asked, her voice full of a horrified, genuine confusion that was far funnier than any joke.
"See? Utterly unbelievable characterization!" Xue Lian agreed emphatically. "Frankly, the whole book was a mess. Straight washed Omegaverse, which is a crime against literature in itself. The male lead was a cardboard cutout with a possessive yet noble personality template. You," she said, stopping to look at Lan Yue, her expression softening, "were the only interesting character in the entire story. And they trapped you in that dreck."
Her face then became serious, the humor fading to reveal the life and death stakes she had lived with. "But as ridiculous as it was, Yue, that was my reality. It was the future that was written for me. Every single decision I made, from the moment I woke up in this body, was to tear that script to pieces." Her lips curved into a familiar, cunning, fox like smile. "Kidnapping you wasn't just about securing an heir. It was about taking the story's most powerful piece off the board and… well," she purred, "seducing the protagonist into joining the villain's side instead. A much, much better plot, don't you think?"
It was in that moment that Lan Yue finally, completely, understood. The sheer, terrifying scale of Xue Lian's decade long gambit. Every reform, every battle, every whispered word, every secret, had been an act of rebellion against a pre written fate. It wasn't just a struggle for a throne; it had been a war against the author of their universe.
A new, cold fury ignited in Lan Yue's eyes. It was not a rage directed at Xue Lian, but at the cosmic injustice of it all. At the unseen, careless 'author' who had written such a cruel, pathetic destiny for the brilliant, impossible woman she loved.
She stepped forward and took Xue Lian's hand, her grip firm, a silent, unbreakable vow. "That ending," she said, her voice a low, deadly promise, "will never be written. I do not care about a novel, a script, or a destiny. You are not a villain, and I am not a hero who would ever, ever harm you." She looked into Xue Lian's eyes, her own gaze fierce and protective. "Anyone who tries to make that story a reality will have to face me first."
The declaration, so absolute and so fiercely loyal, was the most profound thing Xue Lian had ever heard. The last vestiges of her old world's fear finally dissolved, replaced by the warm, solid certainty of the woman standing before her.
A slow, genuine, and utterly brilliant smile spread across her face. Okay, her 21st century brain supplied, the thought full of triumphant, goofy relief. So, I have successfully recruited the protagonist to help me fight the author. A definite improvement on the original script.
The past was finally just that a poorly written story. They were now, finally, free to write their own.