I opened my mouth and then closed it. The cloud quivered harder, drifting slightly back and forth as if afraid. I stared harder, noticing the green flecks inside weren’t caused by the glow-sticks. They were brighter. And the silver was actual silver, like mercury. They were familiar.

I gasped in disbelief, my eyes welling up as I slowly shook my head. My jaws ached in that way when you’re watching a sad movie and you’re struggling not to cry in front of your girlfriend. Or so I’ve heard – softer men describe it that way, at least…

I didn’t quite know how to answer, but I managed to smile. A painful smile.

Like seeing a lost child reunited with his frantic mother after being missing for an hour.

“Your mother must be very worried…” I whispered gently, slowly lowering my hands before me. “This place is very dangerous. You should go. Your father would want you to go…” I whispered to…

The Baby Beast.

Falco’s son.

Kai’s son.

My… family.

It shifted back and forth uncertainly. Then it dipped down to the ground, lifting it up somehow. I unfolded my fingers to reveal the brand in my palm. The Temple Crest. A lone drop of silver and gold liquid splashed down onto the brand, and my body rocked with sympathy at the celestial teardrop. My crest suddenly grew warm and I felt something deep in my bones. Something alien and…

Protective as all hell.

“This is my mother…” the cloud whispered in a quivering voice, on the verge of more tears.

Ohmygod.

This was too much. My heart was ripping in half. Something about a child in danger just shredded me. But a Baby Beast? My Baby Beast? I suddenly recalled my palm flashing with heat and pain while walking through Hell. Had that been… Falco giving birth? My brand had flared with heat at this cloud’s teardrop. Falco had felt it. But the sensation had been weak. Full of rage and anxiety and relief, but far, far away. Whether it was the distance that held her back, or whether she was too tired from giving birth, I didn’t know. Too far away to protect her baby.

Tears poured down my face as I nodded, sucking in ragged breaths. “Yes, my boy. That is your mother, and she is very… special to me. She keeps me safe. Has always kept me safe…”

“I love her,” the Baby Beast whispered longingly. “I miss her, but she was so scared for you.”

My spine froze rigid, but the Baby Beast continued.

“I searched everywhere for you,” it said. “I didn’t know who you were, but my mommy misses you. She’s so sad. I followed the signs,” he said, another green and silver teardrop striking my palm for emphasis. “I followed them all. Then I followed your friends. Anyone who spent time inside my mother. I thought you must be my father. I wanted to protect you. To keep you safe for mom. To meet you… Aren’t you proud of me?” he asked nervously, as if terrified to hear the answer.

I broke down, dropping my face into my palms and wept. I didn’t know where to begin. To thank him, to scold him for being so reckless, to hold him tightly…

To tell him how incredible his father was. How he had sacrificed his life to keep me safe?

How his mother had kept my family safe for generations. Centuries.

How his father had done the impossible… That this beautiful Baby Beast – who wanted nothing more in his so far short life than to go find and protect his unknown dad – was the first Beast born into freedom, perhaps in millennia. Or ever.

“You have no idea how proud I am…” I rasped. “Or how proud your father would be to see you now. Or your mother… You are extraordinary, my boy.”

Suddenly, the silver and green cloud pressed against me, wrapping misty arms around me in a hug that only a child can give.

Those hugs that wrap around you like a Bandaid, conforming to every fold, crevice and bulge in your body without fear, judgment, or concern.

Pure.

Unconditional.

Love.

And it was the only thing that held me together as I gasped to suck in a breath over my tears. I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing as tightly as possible, the same as I had hugged my mom.

No.

Harder.

I hugged this Baby Beast as hard as my inner child had always wanted to hug my father. And mother. Surprisingly, the misty Baby Beast had enough substance for me to actually feel the body within. Either that, or the cloud conformed himself into the shape of a small, helpless child.

I finally detached, keeping my hands on the outside of his cloud, much like my father had kept hold of my shoulders after our hug.

“Would you like me to tell you about your father? His name was Kai,” I whispered, smiling.

The Baby Beast seemed to bob up and down wonderingly, lowering down to the ground of my cell as if it was a throne in our secret hideout.

In the depths of Hell, one of the lowest points that existed in all of creation, a broken man told a boy about his hero of a father.

And the celestial boy listened in rapt attention.

A boy and a broken man found love in that land of despair, where Hope had no name, long since abandoned in the city of woe…