Bo told the Beast how she and her mother had been captured by the aliens while on a scavenging mission. She briefly explained their time in the small wooden cage, which didn't seem to surprise the Beast much. He probably knew of many human prisoners kept that way. Finally, she told how she and her mother had been separated. And then she reached her mother's last days alive. It was the memory she avoided at all costs.

"I spent four days not knowing where they took my mother, and the aliens thought it was hilarious to make me fight their children. Whenever I cried, one of the adults would smack me with a wooden stick."

The Beast nodded. "That is how they train the young ones to be ruthless. Tears are never allowed, especially not in training."

Bo grit her teeth. "Well, they certainly beat me enough that I caught onto that pretty fast. In fact, they broke my hand and then left me in the cage on the last day. I was so hungry and tired, and I hurt all over. I just wanted my mother, but I was certain they had killed her. I never thought I'd see my dad or my sister ever again."

She took a shaky breath, trying not to remember the tidal wave of helplessness that had devoured her back then. "I had promised my mother I would be strong. I'd promised her that I would survive and make it out. But I broke that promise. I gave up. As a little kid, I just gave up on living."

"What happened then?" the Beast asked.

"I refused to eat, and I refused to fight their children. I didn't want to help them learn to fight, so I just stood there and let them hit me until they grew bored. And I guess they decided I wasn't worth the trouble anymore, because once it had turned dark they took me over to where they slaughtered their meat for meals. I remember one of them gripping my neck and forced me to my knees. I knew they'd slash my throat like they did for the wolves they'd been eating."

The Beast's jaw worked. "And this is where your mother comes back into the story?"

Bo nodded. "They were readying the gun to end my life, but just then one of the groups of working prisoners walked by. I guess they'd been using them to fix the machines or something, but when they walked past I saw my mother was among them. They were all heavily guarded, so she really couldn't do anything. She just stared at me as I screamed at her with tears in my eyes. Then the alien pressed a gun against the back of my head, and I thought my life was over."

"But it wasn't."

"No." Bo coughed against the lump forming in her throat. "Before he could shoot, my mother shoved the nearest guard down and ran for me. They shot her almost immediately, but she didn't fall. She ran to me, knocking down guards as they came after her. The other prisoners saw her example and tried to help her. She even made it to me. She grabbed my hand and pushed me forward, and we ran nearly to the edge of the camp. I made it into the cover of darkness, but when I turned to see where my mother was, I saw that she had fallen behind. They'd shot her in the side, and she was already bleeding too heavily to survive. I didn't know that then, however. I thought she just had to hurry and we'd be safe in the darkness."

"And then the guards caught up to her," the Beast said, already seeing where the story was going.

"They shot her in the back of her head." She coughed out the words. With them came the metal bite of blood as the crimson mist splattered across her skin. With that came also the gentle thump of pieces of bone hitting the dust. The way her mother's body flopped to the ground like a limp doll. The mangled mess of flesh and brain that now replaced the gentle face she'd thought she'd always see smiling at her each morning. How her mother's body had twitched, still barely alive for a few more seconds. It was that twitching, the knowledge that her mother must have suffered, must have seen Bo standing like the coward she was in the shadows, that was more burning than any acid.

"I can tell you think it is your fault," the Beast said. "You blame yourself for her rescue."

"She told me to fight, but instead I let them win without even a struggle. Because of that, she had to fight for me."

The sobs were already building in her chest. She couldn't control them much longer. Through heaving breaths, she struggled to explain why she could barely stand to be the coward called Bo. "She fought for me and died for me, and all I did was run away. I killed her just as much as any alien did."

She could say no more because she had nothing left in her. The tears burst from her eyes before she could stop them, and she bent over as she let them wrack through her. All the memories rushed back at her at once, clashing in her mind in a kaleidoscope of aliens and blood and her mother's dark hair matted and trampled on in the dust. She might not have had words, but she had this. This broken, messy weeping. The wordless keen of a child witnessing her mother ripped into pieces. This was her description, her release. The way she could tell the Beast of her shame and grief.

"Bo," the Beast said. He offered her his hand, and shook took it without even a second thought. Sheld on tight, wanting something to anchor her when her mind felt like it couldn't handle the loss of her mother again. "You once told me what love was. Your mother did not fight for you when you would not fight for yourself. She loved you. She saved your life because she knew that you had to grow up and save others. So you did not kill her. You were loved by her, and you grew up to love others. You grew up to save me."

Through a blur of tears, she looked up at his face just a few feet from hers. He stared at her as if she was somehow an answer to something he had been asking for years. "I'm so sorry, Bo," he said. "They are cruel creatures, ones that I find shame in being part of. Not a day goes by where I haven't wished they'd taken me home with them, that I might have had the opportunity to avenge those that have suffered in these years they plagued the earth."

"I've thought such horrible things about you," she whispered. "When I was trapped here, I could only think of my mother and how I wanted to kill you for her. You were the enemy."

"I am the enemy," the Beast said, his voice cracking. "I killed, I maimed. I wallowed in that bloodlust and dived into the haze of anger because I could not see another way out. Whatever black soul is left in my chest, it is mangled and damaged. Hideous."

Something shifted inside of Bo, and she couldn't quite believe it but she thought maybe it was some sort of understanding. Her eyes widened in surprise and she sat up, the Beast shifting to accommodate her. She still held his hand, realizing just how similar they were.

"We both gave up," she whispered. "We both had no options and no way out. We both did things we shouldn't have. But now is different. We're different people from what we were before. We fight."

"I don't fight for what is right," the Beast said. "I kept you here against your will because I was still afraid of what I've always been afraid of. Being alone and forced to live with what I am."

"Don't you see, though? You fought for love. You fought to understand it, even if you never felt it before in your life. You can keep fighting for that knowledge, and learn how to choose a different path. The right path."

"The right path," he repeated, his blue skin glowing in the growing dark as the fire slowly died down in the hearth.

Bo nodded. "You don't have to be The Beast of Lyx. Just be Adam."

"Adam." He glanced down at his blue skin. "I can be Adam, even as I am?"

"Well, it might take some doing to convince people you're not an alien left behind to scout out for another attack, but you can show everyone that you're willing to become one of us. That enhanced strength could help a lot in defense and hunting." She grinned through the dried tears on her cheeks. "Besides, don't forget that you're half-human. You deserve a chance at that half of your life."

Adam squeezed her hand in his, his eyes searching her face. She saw something deep in his eyes, something she hadn't yet seen on his face. Hope. It gave her relief that he wasn't falling down the black hole she'd narrowly managed to avoid herself, but she also felt a slight twinge in her chest that she might have just started something that might not turn out the way she wanted.

As the dawn grew, Bo and Adam walked down the lawn to inspect the damage the wolves had done. The grass was torn up, and a few corpses were littered on the ground. Only one Service-Maton had been destroyed, and Chan was currently picking up the pieces as they approached.

"Do you have the border under control again?" Adam asked. He was still breathless from his injuries, but already his color was returning.

"Yes, sir. We've neutralized the threat and sent them on their way," Chan responded. "We should have the lawn back to proper order in a few minutes."

"Good. I'll leave you to it, then," the Beast said. Bo could see the way his arm rested protectively over his ribs, and knew he should be laying down.

"Let's go back in," she said, waving at the flies that were already starting to gather on the wolf carcasses. "I don't want to see any more of this." She jerked her chin toward the nearest wolf. Despite the revulsion she felt now, she knew back at home this would have been seen as insanely good luck. If the camp had come into a windfall of meat like this, it would have meant they didn't have to rely on the militia for food for at least a few months more...

"Adam!" she said, gripping his arm and looking up at him with eyes shining in excitement. "What if we have the Service-Matons pack the meat and we take it back to my camp? They could use the food, but we could also ask them to stay here. With us."

"They'd want to?"

"Well. I don't know. But, it's beautiful here and you'd be able to protect us far better than any stupid wall we could make out of scrap metal," she said. "Do you want to at least try and see what they say?"

"I don't know," Adam said, his eyes skittering away from her face. She reached up, stretching on her tiptoes to reach, and gently guided his cheek back forward.

"All your life you've been set apart. First as the Beast of Lyx, and then as the only alien left on earth. I'm offering you a chance to be part of something. Take it."

Adam stared into her eyes as she waited for his answer. She wondered how'd she'd ever thought they were alien eyes, when they were so clearly the most human part of him. He had the capacity to love and care behind them, and with a group of people to help him heal, he'd soon lose that hard edge that came with the wounds of an old past.

"What do you say?" Bo asked, hoping that he'd take this opportunity to discover he no longer needed to be the ruthless machine the aliens had made.

His lips parted, the breath of a word on his tongue, but before he could speak something else shattered the silence of the lawn.