wake me up inside

"I know you do not remember me," sighed the angel as fingers traced the supple skin of the demon's namesake wings, "that is how we agreed it should be until the Age of Steam..."

A glint of recognition shined in the demon's eyes. "Velad?" His straightened his back as his bewilderment gave way to smiles. "VELAD!" He thumped the angel's back between the wings, ringing the breastplate. "The Valkyries must have taken you after all! Now how can help me cure this poor fool..."

"You only remember Velad! Our love began when the world was young...you must remember!" The angel leaned in and pressed his lips to the demon's.

Bloodwing body trembled as lost eons smashed into his reeling mind like boulders falling onto Pompeii.

"I am sorry to deceive you, Beloved..."

The Founder struggled as he realized he was ensnared by a shining cocoon of protein strands emmanating from the cracked shell of the black neuron, the white and gold gossamer threads were melting against his lips and prying their way into his eyes and ears.

"...but I am not truly here. I am only the sum of your forgotten memories of me. To save your son and our daughter..."

"Our WHAT?"

I held the glowing infant in my arms and raised her to the night sky, the shining orbs of light floating around her like a cradle of stars...

"This cannot be!" he screamed. "What deranged trap did I lay for us from ages forgotten! Darien has tied her to his machine!"

A school of diagrams swarmed about the demon in a riot of sirens and bells. Above even that din he heard the barrier high above shatter, soon eclipsed by the jade avalanche of poison reigning down from above.

"Awaken me, Beloved! Summon me!"

He bounced madly from memory to memory, trying to find a single name. "Forgive me Velad! I can't..."

"MY TRUE NAME, BLOODWING!"

no longer a boy but barely a man was I when I was pursued by

"I CAN'T FIND IT!"

as we kissed the devils cheered and poured shining coin and jewels upon us from the balconies

"WHICH MEMORY? WHICH?"

hold my hand, beloved! push!

His voices of his memories were drowned by the roaring inundation bearing down upon him. The thundering emerald tide ripped him free from the strands as he clawed desperately for something solid to moor himself.

"XAVAEL! XAVAEL! XAV..."

Bloodwing's shape was consumed by the flood, his fading shadow spiraled away in a whirlpool of reanimation serum.

Black tears streamed down the demon's cheeks. "Our child does not stir! We never had a chance to name her, Xavael!"

The angel cradled the silent infant to her breast as she lay. "I sense our daughter is hollow inside, but I shall summon light to grow her soul.

The infant groaned a delicate cry as one pure color after another collected from air around her.

"We shall call her the angels' word for hollow. Welcome to our family, sweet Qlippothic!"