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What do we do?

The beast was close to the surface, closer than he'd been since before the fight, just as agitated as I was. His usual confidence wavered and fear snaked through our veins. Quinn is pack. The other is pack. We must find him. Bring him here.

He made it seem so simple. What if there are others?

They come here, too.

There was no way it would be as easy as that and I doubted Quinn wanted his sanctuary overrun by more monsters, but I let myself cling to the lie. The alternative was unthinkable.

"I'm sorry, Typhon," Ori murmured into the tense silence. "I'm still searching for more information, but I didn't want to keep this from you in the meantime."

"Thank you for telling us." The words were guttural and raw, coming from both sides of me.

"No matter what else happens, you have my word that we will do everything in our power to liberate anyone being held at that compound. I've already begun reaching out to people I know and trust. We can't let them continue hurting people like this."

I nodded, or at least I think I did. An odd, numb haze was creeping over my mind, dragging down my limbs with the weight of the truth. Quinn spoke and Ori said something in return, but I didn't understand a word. I couldn't handle anything else, not right now.

Quinn never left my arms and his soft, whispered nonsense gave me something to focus on as I struggled to process everything I'd just learned.

I wasn't alone. Maybe I didn't have a family looking for me, but the old me had created a family, of sorts. Why couldn't I remember them? Ori said there had been several of us, but other than that brief flash of a smile, I had no memory of them.

"Why can't I remember anything?" I whispered into Quinn's shoulder. I didn't know how long he'd been sitting with me, holding me while I fell apart, but he hadn't moved the entire time. I didn't deserve this man.

I felt a gentle kiss on my forehead, then Quinn leaned his head against mine again.

"I wish this could be like in the movies. The good guys win, everyone is safe and happy, and all your memories come back just in time for you to get your happily ever after. It'd be so simple, right?"

We'd watched several movies together while I recovered, and while none of them had been as strange as the reality we were living in, they all had one thing in common: there was always a happy ending. I wondered now if Quinn had done that on purpose.

"Monsters don't usually get the happily ever after in the movies, though."

Quinn leaned back enough to look me square in the eyes, a steely determination peeking through as he stared me down.

"You are not a monster," he said firmly, placing a finger over my lips when I parted them to speak. "No. You're not. You've been through hell and gone through things no one should have to experience, but that doesn't make you a monster. And neither does being a chimera," he added, easily reading my next protest in my eyes. "You're different, but that's not a bad thing. Being different doesn't mean you're not worthy of love."

My words from before echoed in the sliver of space between us. He knew how I felt about him. How could I not love someone as caring and selfless as Quinn? I also knew he wasn't quite ready to say the words back and that was okay. We had time now.

"We've settled on calling the beast a chimera, then?" I asked instead of responding, earning me a small, exasperated smile that did more to settle my anxiety than any words had.

"It's as good a name as any," he said, shrugging a shoulder. "But he's part of you, so it's your decision."

"That works well enough." The beast didn't seem to mind it, anyway. Then again, he and I both agreed that Quinn could call us whatever he wanted and we would accept it.

"That reminds me, though…"

When he hesitated, fresh worry tried to grab hold of me again. "What is it?"

He must have heard it in my voice, because he immediately shook his head. "It's nothing bad. I just… we were talking about what to call your other form, but I'm not even entirely sure what to call you."

Of all the potential things to worry about, that one hadn't even crossed my mind. I frowned, tilting my head to the side in a silent question.

"Well, I've been calling you Typhon because we didn't know who you were, but now we know, right? Your name was Seth Ibarra. Should… I should call you by your real name, right? Do you prefer that? I should have asked already, but in all the chaos…"

"It's fine," I assured him quickly. I turned the words over in my head, silently repeating the name.

Seth Ibarra. That's me. My name is Seth.

No matter how many times I repeated it, though, there was no feeling of connection to the name. Nothing in my mind recognized it as my own.