There are no words I can use to describe the sensation. The elation I felt as I watched the Captain General hand over our child to Raya, who took them in hand with a gentle care, and a soft smile on her face.

The child was smaller than I would expect the spawn of a Custodian to be, but even as an infant, I felt this primal need to protect this child…my child. My baby. My eyes never left the infant babe who was snuggled into the bosom of my wife, I didn't notice Christ healing my hands until I settled into the seat alongside Raya and she took my hand in a much gentler grip.

"Congratulations, it's a boy." Leonidas spoke softly, before he was ushered out the room by Christ, who was giving a serene smile to the two of us.

"I will be watching over him at all times, my son." He spoke simply, and left me with Raya and the baby alone.

"He's beautiful." I whispered, voice cracking a bit. Raya gave a smile, her face was strained, and for the first time since I've met her, she actually seemed tired.

"He's a Custodes. A natural born…it's to be expected." She spoke, pride in her voice as she held the infant to her chest where he was huddled close, eyes shut and sleeping softly, his tiny chest rising and falling.

"He's so small…"

"He's exactly the size he needs to be. Come here, David. Look at him, he has your hair." She pulls me onto the bed next to her, and I behold my son.

My Son.

"My boy…Our son…" I can't stop it, I can't think of anything else to say as I keep my eyes on the tiny soul just brought into the world. He's perfect. He has soft brown hair and a button nose, soft cheeks and a healthy amount of baby fat. He's huge for an average human baby, but for a custodian he's tiny.

"He weighs twelve pounds. It's like a pillow resting on my chest. I hardly feel him, yet I'm hyper-aware of his every movement…I hear the blood flowing through his veins. I know he's my offspring…I'd tear the world asunder for him. I feel it, in my heart." Raya declared, before gently shifting him and offering the slowly waking child to me. I cradle him gently as his eyes open, and those bright green eyes meet with my own browns.

"Hey there, buddy…I'm your Papa…I'm gonna take care of you, kiddo. I'm gonna keep you safe." I whisper, cradling him to my chest. He stares at me for a minute, before I can feel him wriggling, getting fussy. With haste borne of many baby cousins, I handed him back to his mother, who took him with a loving coo.

"Shhh…there, there, little soldier. There, there." Soon enough, the baby is snoozing again.

"What are we going to call him, Raya? He needs a name." I spoke softly.

"...I leave that honor to you, Husband. I've done my part." Raya leaned back in our bed, cradling our son. "He's here, he's breathing, and I'm certain in the morning he'll be eating heartily. I'm certain you'll choose a name that he will bear with honor and pride."

For a moment, I lay there, resting next to Raya and my son.

There's weight in names. Power. Expectations.

But he's my Son. Beyond all of my oaths, all other responsibilities, I have a responsibility to him.

I have it.

One life ended, another begins. My friend, I hope you're watching this from the throne of the Emperor.

I bring my hand over and brush my Son's hair out of his face.

"Hello Peter. Daddy loves you."

-Aurelia Subsector, Omnis Arcanum-

Gabriel Angelos, chapter master of the Blood Ravens, was looking upon something he had not nearly expected to see in his many years.

A Space Marine, armor stripped of its coloring by the shredding sands of the Calderian Desert, leaving only raw ceramite. His armor was old, Heresy Pattern, but on it was plastered with scriptures, hand-wrought loyalist sigils held on with psychic will. On the pauldron that would normally display chapter allegiance, a single page of scripture was held, protected and fastened with further psychic might. Behind him, the Chaplain Apollo Diomedes stood, arms crossed alongside the Chief Librarian, Jonah Orion.

"...Speak, Blackshield." Diomedes spoke firmly, and said blackshield raised it's helm to lock gazes with the chapter master.

"I seek redemption." His voice was tinged with more than just the vox, there was a raspy his, as if it was being projected through something other than flesh.

"The only redemption I would give you is the Emperor's Mercy, traitor." Orion spoke,

"I am no traitor. I spilled no Wolf blood on Prospero, I followed the orders of my Father, I accepted our judgment. When we were taken to the Eye, I fell prey to the threat that all of our kind must be wary of: The Flesh Change." There's true vitriol in the voice of the Blackshield, and the Chief Librarian is taken aback by it, if only just.

"That bastard, Ahriman, never trusted him. Always was the risk-taker, the one who would risk the lives of others to further his own ends. He may have meant well…but in curing me of the Flesh Change, he made me a Slave." The Blackshield feigns spitting on the ground, unable to do so, but the motion delivers his message.

"Centuries I was forced to serve. Centuries I was used as a tool, a gargoyle to a mad sorcerer."

"Why now then? How have you broken these chains?" The first words the Chapter Master speaks to the Blackshield, and the Rubricae simply taps the page on his pauldron.

"A daemon-killer has become known. The Carpenter has awakened. I've stared at this passage for two hundred years. I accepted Him as my savior, and my chains were broken. I come before you to seek redemption in service. If you can grant me the Emperor's Mercy, I would welcome it. Unfortunately…I would simply reform. I feel no pain, no hunger, no fatigue…simply fury."

"...What is your name, Blackshield." Gabriel asks, earning shocked looks from Diomedes and Orion.

"Gabriel I must-

"Sir, you can't be-

"You shed blood of our own, Diomedes. Jonah you yourself have been under scrutiny. None of us have a right to deny him this. Now. Blackshield. Your name." Gabriel continues, watching as the Blackshield rises to his feet, squaring his shoulders and standing straight.

"I am Thaddaeus. Son of Magnus. Servant of the Golden Throne."