Disclaimer: I do not own the His Dark Materials Series.

A/N: Hi, all! Here is a story I've been working on since the BBC/HBO series wrapped up. I'm excited for season 2, but to get through the long wait for it to air, I thought: what would have happened in the second book if Mrs. Coulter had accompanied Lyra across the bridge? How might their relationship have evolved if Mrs. Coulter had taken a, er, softer approach? Here's one possible take. I'd love to hear what you think!

Golden Auroras

Part One: Across and Away

Chapter 1

Mrs. Coulter was rounding the corner of the cliff when she saw her.

Lyra had pressed herself against the rock, her gloved hands cemented by her sides and her eyes shut tight. She didn't make a single sound. All Mrs. Coulter could hear was the howling of the wind and the strange, shimmering sounds of the bridge now cutting into the Aurora. Even the golden monkey couldn't hear anything, as heightened as his senses were.

Was it fate for them to meet again like this? Mrs. Coulter found herself simply staring down at her daughter. She could hardly believe it. How long had she been there? Had she heard what transpired between her and Asriel on the mountain? Mrs. Coulter hoped so, and hoped for Lyra to have heard that she wanted her and wanted to stay in this world for her. She hoped that she'd have another chance to talk, to explain, to listen this time like she hadn't listened before.

But she wasn't prepared for this. She didn't know what to say or how to say it. The Magisterium was in full pursuit. They'd be there in minutes. Father MacPhail would be furious with her for taking things into her own hands after he was knocked out by Thorold.

There just wasn't time.

"Lyra," Mrs. Coulter finally called out, gently, the golden monkey poised to leap if the girl fled. But Lyra opened her eyes and then looked up at her, a somber and defeated expression on her face. She blinked very slowly and then turned to gaze over at Roger. Tears started to pool in her eyes. Pan slinked out of her sleeve as a mouse, his whiskers moving rapidly.

Of course. Mrs. Coulter should have known. Asriel needed a child to sever for his burst of energy, and Lyra unknowingly brought Roger right to him. She'd been running to him since the moment she left Jordan College, after all. And knowing Asriel, he had to trick both children for this to happen; he had to betray Lyra's trust and all of her faith in him, when he was quite possibly the only person in whom she believed at this point.

Stop feeling that, the golden monkey begged her, letting out a stressed whimper. Don't go there.

But she ignored him and his objections, as she had for as long as she could remember.

"That's your friend Roger, isn't it?" Mrs. Coulter remembered him vaguely from London when he was in the warehouse. He was sweet. Trusting. Sincere. And full of determination to find Lyra again, the only family he had.

Yet here they all were, staring at his lifeless body.

Lyra glared up as she said that, defiant again. But then she softened. "Yes." The pain on her face was impossible to mask. She was trying very hard to hide it, but her face wrinkled up and her breathing began to hitch. She fidgeted with her hands and before Mrs. Coulter knew it, she was sitting beside the boy and holding him in her arms.

"I'm sorry, Roger," she whispered to him. Tears fell from her cheeks now as Pan huddled by her legs.

"We didn't mean for this to happen," Mrs. Coulter heard Pan say to her. He nuzzled at her ankle.

"But it did!" Lyra's voice broke. "And it's all my fault."

It was rare to witness someone interacting with their daemon in the way Lyra and Pan currently were. Such communication was private and intimate. Seeing these moments was common within families, to be sure, but Mrs. Coulter naturally didn't have the traditional type of family dynamic with Lyra for that. She'd seen Pan when Lyra lived with her and had shared a smile or two with him, but she'd never heard him comfort the child like this. She never saw how close they were and how much love they shared.

That was us once, the monkey thought to her, grimly. And Mrs. Coulter paused, sharing his sadness for a moment.

As Lyra continued to sob her apologies and rock the boy back and forth, Mrs. Coulter decided she had no choice but to intervene. "It's not your fault, Lyra." Mrs. Coulter approached her slowly, cautiously. "That would be your father's fault. And… Mine." Lyra's head jolted up. "It's my organization that brought him here to the North, after all."

That wasn't easy for Mrs. Coulter to say, even though it was true. She was a very prideful woman. And she did take great pride in the work being done at Bolvangar, which stemmed from her advanced research on Dust and on experimental theology. It was cutting edge (no pun intended, the monkey snickered). As Mrs. Coulter had told Lyra, this work would change the world. It was key to original sin and key to so much of what plagued humanity. It would be good, once they sorted it out and worked out the kinks…which indeed led to certain casualties and misconfigurations.

"I should be glad to hear you admit it," Lyra said, voice still weak, "but I don't think I can ever be glad about anything ever again."

The golden monkey hissed under his breath as Mrs. Coulter leaned down at that, her eyes softening. Lyra's words stung. Mrs. Coulter didn't want her to be so upset and in such pain. It really wasn't her fault, after all. Mrs. Coulter spent the better part of three months chasing after Lyra to prevent any of that from happening. It wasn't right for Lyra to feel this way. In a strange sense, Mrs. Coulter wanted to make it all better for her. Wanted to resolve her of her guilt.

But why? the golden monkey begged to know, feeling as desperate as his human but for entirely different reasons.

A distant howl broke through the silence just then. Both humans and their daemons jumped, heads craned toward the source of the noise. Pan flew into the air as a hawk, scouting ahead, and the golden monkey jumped over to scramble up onto the cliff.

"That'll be Father MacPhail," Mrs. Coulter sighed, seeing through the monkey a herd of men approaching a ways away. She stood back up and put her hand against her forehead, which was starting to throb.

She didn't have it in her to deal with this. Not the emotional capacity and not the bloody damn time. How long would it take for them to get up there? Ten minutes? Less? And where were she and Lyra to go from the top of the mountain in plain sight?

Unless...

No. Mrs. Coulter closed her eyes, shaking her head. They couldn't.

It was a lie when Mrs. Coulter said she didn't want to go through the portal and into another world. She wanted it with every fiber of her being. She'd heard the rumors and the whispers about the multiplicity of other worlds. She wasn't naive enough not to listen to them. She'd never admit it publicly, but she'd even dabbled with them once before, during her youth in an age far away. She experienced the truth. The Church told her one thing about this phenomenon, but her research and the whispers told her another. The thought of going further this time and discovering what no one else could, surpassing even Asriel...

She wanted it, but not as much as she wanted Lyra. And yet there they were, together again. Mother and daughter. At the top of a mountain at the threshold of another world.

"What to do with you, what to do with you," Mrs. Coulter muttered, looking from Lyra to Roger to the empty cage and off to the distance. "They'll be here soon."

"What do you mean?" Lyra asked. She was oddly composed and unfazed at the looming threat. Mrs. Coulter vaguely wondered how that could be. "Aren't you going to turn me into them?"

"Of course not!" Mrs. Coulter spat. Lyra blinked up at her, not seeming to comprehend, and Mrs. Coulter sighed again. "I know a lot of things have happened, Lyra, but I meant what I said back at the station. No one is ever going to hurt you. I won't allow it. And I can't guarantee what those men will do if they find us up here next to this portal."

Comprehension entered Lyra's gaze now as she glanced from Mrs. Coulter to the monkey to the portal and then back again. Pan fluttered back down to the tip of her shoulder, leering over at Mrs. Coulter, too.

"I suppose there's no way to avoid it," Mrs. Coulter said after a few beats, aware of the Magisterial forces inching closer and closer. "We'll have to go through."

If Lyra was expecting something from their confrontation, it certainly wasn't that. Her mouth gaped and her grip on Roger loosened as she continued to gaze at her mother. "You… You mean…"

"Yes, Lyra," Mrs. Coulter said, moving to adjust her bag and then pull Lyra up. "Unless you'd like to explain to the Magisterium what it is you saw and how much you know. Are you ready?"

Truth be told, Mrs. Coulter didn't know if she was ready herself. She'd spent an entire research career praying for discoveries and opportunities like this, for something grand and exciting and important and meaningful. This was every researcher's dream, to be on the brink of something so utterly unimaginable. It was the chance of a lifetime. But now that it was here, and that she was left with no choice…

"Ready," Lyra said with a confidence Mrs. Coulter didn't even realize could exist in a twelve year-old child.

With that, Lyra and her dæmon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky, her mother and the golden monkey following directly behind her.