BLACK STRING TEMPLE – INNER SANCTUM – NIGHTFALL
The flames from the torches flickered violently, as if the temple itself was holding its breath. The wind even stronger inside the building than the outside world.
Allison cradled the trembling boy in her arms. For a long moment, there was no sound but the quiet thump of his heartbeat against her chest. His breathing was shaky, like someone who had never been held — not gently, not like this. Like he was experiencing something fresh and new.
"I don't know what's real anymore," he whispered.
"You don't need to know everything right now little one" Allison said, her voice low, calm, like her mother's had been in the visions she had had. "You just need to know this isn't your fault. It's not your destiny, you can't let them decide for you "
"But I hurt people."
"They made you hurt people."
The boy pulled back slightly, eyes red and glassy with tears. "What if… I can't stop?"
Allison held his face gently between her hands. "Then I'll stand in front of you until you do."
Something in him broke then. Not with violence, not with fire but with silence, and surrender. He felt a part of him redeemed.
And in that moment, Allison always knew he wasn't her enemy. He was the result of all the enemies who had come before. She felt a pang of sympathy for him, he never experienced childhood like every ordinary young child.
The walls trembled suddenly and they heard the sound of footsteps.
They were not alone.
---
BEATRICE CELL – AT THAT SAME TIME
Chains clinked as Beatrice stirred, her swollen eyes trying to adjust to the sudden shift in atmosphere. She tried to rise, but pain bloomed across her back shocking her like an electric current. A hiss escaped her lips.
Then a soft buzz. The cuffs? They had stopped glowing.
A flicker of a chance. She had to take it by all means.
She twisted her wrists, slowly, painfully. The metal beeped under strain, but something had changed. The energy suppressors were weakening either from Allison's awakening… or the boy's hesitation or maybe her willpower.
No matter the cause, she wasn't going to wait for them to lock her again.She yanked hard, ignoring the stabbing pain in her shoulder. One cuff snapped. Then the second. Beatrice collapsed onto the ground, breathless and free, but not safe.
---
MOMENTS LATER AT THE TEMPLE SANCTUM
The door burst open, Ren stepped inside, followed by elite Black String enforcers, eyes gleaming, men in tuxedos holding pistols. He saw his son in Allison's arms and froze.
"So," he said softly, voice smooth as silk and poison. "You've found each other. Tsk"He hissed.
Allison rose, positioning herself in front of the boy. Her face was streaked with sweat and blood, her stance steady. She didn't flinch.
"I'm taking him," she said.
Ren laughed.
"You're not taking anyone, you're not sure you can leave here in one piece yourself" he replied. "You don't even know what he is."
"He's a child," Allison said. "Not a god, not a soldier."
"He's my creation," Ren hissed. "He carries both fire and void. Experimented from the little blood of your mother "
" My mother ?" Anger surged through Allison.
" You don't know what bloodline I'm from Allison, he carries my blood. He carries evil if you like to put it that way."
"I don't need to understand you," Allison said, stepping forward. "I've seen what your understanding costs."
Ren's gaze flicked to the boy. "You disobeyed me."
The boy stood behind Allison, eyes cold and fists clenched.
"I chose," he said, voice steady and firm.
Ren tilted his head, something dangerous flashing in his eyes. "Then you are no longer my son."
"You never were my father," the boy said.
Ren raised his hand, power forming into a black spear of voidlight. Rather to consume all around him.
Allison's pendant flared, crimson light bursting in a circle around her feet.
"You want a fight?" she said. "Then try to take him from me."
---
FLASHBACK
Han Liuhua stood with Lucian at the edge of a burning city.
She had just saved a group of children and lost half her soldiers doing it. Everywhere was in chaos, they had thought it was the end.
"You could've killed the enemy leader," Lucian said, frustrated. Fury burning in him, ready to slaughter his opponent. She stopped him and he couldn't understand why.
"I chose to save the future instead," Liuhua replied.
"And if that future turns into another weapon?" His eyes flickered.
Liuhua looked at him.
"Then you raise them right. And pray they choose better."
---
PRESENT AT THE TEMPLE SANCTUM
Allison's memory surged with her mother's words. She stepped forward, crimson light trailing behind her like wings. Her red hair glowed with fierceness.
Ren attacked, black void bursting from his hand like a serpent.
The collision of forces cracked the very stone beneath their feet.
Allison pushed the boy back with one hand. "Run!"
"No!" he shouted.
The impact sent shockwaves through the temple. Statues shattered, flames danced on the ceiling and the edges of the building. But Allison didn't fall, her red eyes were glowing. Flames curled around her limbs, shaped
into a sword. Power surging through it.
Ren tried again, another spear coming her way but she caught it midair and it burned away in her hand.
"You were wrong," she said calmly.
"About what?" Ren growled.
"Love doesn't destroy us."
She raised her hand.
"It saves us."
A burst of energy exploded as she took hold of her sword.
It hit Ren square in the chest.
He flew back, slammed into the wall, coughing blood.
The temple trembled as the runes around them shattered like glass.
Ren collapsed, weakened and all.
Allison lowered her hand, her pendant dimmed.
---
OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE – DAWN
Beatrice emerged from the ruins, staggering and bleeding . She saw them standing together, her son and Allison.
The boy looked up and ran into her arms.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"You don't have to be," she sobbed. "You came back."
---
DAYS LATER
Lucian stood on the balcony, arms crossed, staring into the horizon. He hadn't spoken to Allison since in the rooftop. He hadn't gone with her to temple sanctum. Something came up that needed urgent attention, he had sent his most trusted aide to watch over her in case the plan fails. He didn't realise how much he would miss her presence until now.
He heard soft footsteps behind him. When he turned, she was there, hair down, eyes tired but steady.
"I didn't come back for you," she said.
"I know," he replied. He felt like chuckling, she really was one stubborn woman.
"I came back for me."
"I know."
They stood in silence for a while.
Then she said, "But I'd still like to know why you never told me you met my mother."
Lucian sighed.
"It's a long story" he said. "Told me protect her daughter if I ever met her.
Then, softly, she stepped forward.
This time, when Lucian reached for her hand she didn't pull away.
UNKNOWN LOCATION
A figure watched the ruined temple through a shattered scrying mirror.
"They've united," the cloaked figure whispered.
Another voice answered from the dark.
"Then send in the person ."
The cloaked one turned, revealing glowing silver eyes.
"They would'nt see this coming."
---
The boy trembled in Beatrice arms.
His breathing was shallow, confused.
"I shouldn't feel this," he whispered. "They said emotion is failure."
Beatrice gently pulled back to look at him.
"No," she said. "Emotion is memory. And they took you away from me to bury my emotion."
She held his face.
"But they couldn't. Because love doesn't die just because someone buries it."
The boy's hands slowly tightened around the chain in his grasp, his mother's necklace.
"Did your dad give you a name?" She asked.
He shook his head.
"I… I was always called 'Blood Child.' Or 'Weapon 2.'"
Beatrice heart broke when she heard this.
"Then let me give you one."
He blinked.
"I'll name you what I should've had the chance to call you." She said as she smiled sweetly.
She hesitated, then whispered, "Tianlei."
The boy's breath hitched.
"Tianlei," he repeated.
The name lit something inside him. Something he wouldn't forget easily, it was part of him now. at that same time, Allison caught up with them after meeting Lucian briefly.
---
BLACK STRING COMMAND CENTER
A violent crash shattered the crystal pool Ren had been watching.
"She reached him," the blue-eyed woman said.
Ren's jaw tensed. His knuckles whitened around the shattered glass.
"No,she also named him."
His eyes burned like coals.
"Beatrice was never supposed to survive. Neither was that girl."
---
The doors burst open, two guards collapsed, flames licking their bodies.
Allison strode in like a storm. At the far end, Beatrice was chained and barely breathing. She had managed to escape but that blue eyed lady caught her.
Who was she ?
Ren's mistress?
"Beatrice," Yueying shouted. Beatrice head turned up weakly. Her eyes shifting to her son who was at the end of the room.
"Tian.."
OUTSIDE THE PRISON — FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING
But time had run out.
Ren stood just beyond the entrance, dressed in black.
"So the family reunion happened," he said, voice cold. He chuckled.
Allison stepped out into the hall, standing between Ren and the door. She wondered how he recovered so fast.
"You won't touch them."
"I already did," Ren replied. "Years ago."
She clenched her fists. "You used them. You used your own blood."
He smiled. "You speak like you're better. Like your own hands aren't stained."
Allison's pendant pulsed. "At least, better than you."
Then the flame exploded from her body, engulfing the corridor in a wave of heat.
Ren raised a hand shielding himself and pushed back with a gust of black energy that cracked the walls.
The hallway trembled.
Tianlei ran out.
"Stop!" he yelled. "Don't hurt her!"
Ren froze.
"I am your father," he said firmly.
"You're nothing," Tianlei replied. "You taught me pain while they thought me love."
His eyes flashed red and gold at once.
And something snapped in Ren.
His power surged, black tendrils spiraling around him like serpents.
Allison moved first and so did Tianlei. Together, they launched toward him flame and light, grief and power, colliding with Ren in a fiery burst that sent the floor collapsing.
---
UNDERGROUND — UNKNOWN MINUTES LATER
Yueying coughed as she pulled herself from rubble. Tianlei lay beside her, stunned but alive. Ren was gone. Only a cracked mark remained in the stone, smoking and glowing.
"He escaped," Tianlei murmured.
"No," Allison said, voice trembling. "He ran. That's different."
Tianlei turned toward her. "Will he come back?"
She didn't answer.
She looked up through the jagged hole above.
And whispered, "We need to leave."
---
THE NEXT DAY
Allison stood on the steps, Tianlei beside her. Guards whispered in confusion. Beatrice was undergoing treatment.
"You found him." Lucian said.
"I brought him back. But Ren's still out there."
Lucian looked at the boy at the resemblance he had with Ren, the red eyes, the weight behind them.
Tianlei stared back. He didn't bow, he didn't speak but he cound feel the intensity of Lucian's aura.