DC: 14Seeking

by Hardwing

Before their leader's interview with an important person in New York's political life, the clan digs out just another secret of Demona's past, while the immortal oldest daughter tries the same...

14.Seeking

I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES and Pendragon for creating such a great background and Storyseeker for correcting my fics and helping me with great ideas and for the characters of his ficverse.

Note: I hope you generously ignore the problems of the time-shift… I did so if just for the dramaturgy.

"It is all ok." Bluestone said, rushing between the man and Goliath. "The gargoyles task force is working on it."

The man seemed to want to attack Bluestone at once but then he captured himself.

"Ok?" he asked "One of this beasts attacked me in my own home and you let them run around here?"

"It is all ok," Bluestone said, taking the man on the shoulder and softly pressing him away from the scene "we will take care of this and…"

Chavez looked back to Goliath, whose face had darkened a bit.

"Bluestone will take care of him." the captain promised him, while she saw how Asrial rushed to her leader's side. "And you have to go away, I got informed that the press will arrive soon."

"You could have let me ordered the clan to follow them." Goliath continued his argument from when he and his brother had lost the cyborg's tracks.

Chavez face got hard.

"This is a human case." she explained "As hard as it is to believe the two are still human under the law and…"

10.Friendship

As Desdemona and Elisa entered, Darlene was already sitting on the bed and seemingly lost in thoughts.

"Thank you for coming," she said, looking up at them. "I don't know if this is right, but I just can't keep silent about it anymore."

"Sister, what is troubling you?" Desdemona asked.

Darlene stood up and bit her lip.

"I think mother was involved in Paul's death," she said and tears welled up in her eyes. "I think my mother killed my husband."

13.Unresistable

08.09.98; 22:07; Castle Wyvern, Courtyard:

The whole clan had gathered in the courtyard in a half circle, watching the leader standing a bit aside in front of them, with two males and two females in front of him in return, forming pairs.

"And so I ask you," Goliath said with an earnest face, as he turned to Tom "Do you affirm your choice."

Tom, never taking his look from the hairless, gray skinned female he held claws with.

"Before this clan, I swear my love," he said.

Goliath looked at first on this pair, and then on the blue-blue female with dark blond hair and the slight blue male standing right of them.

"I affirm your choice," Goliath said in a serious tone, matching his face, before his face lit up and his voice became softer. "So I declare you from now on, as one in front of the clan."

The gathered clan cheered, most of all the rookery siblings except for the second who, despite having cheered, but only just half-heartily, and even the hatchlings.

Meanwhile, Fox and David Xanatos, with Alex by their side, standing near the clan, applauded politely, though with smiles on their faces. More asides, and looking a bit lost; the clones watched this scene interested, though with a look of not fully understanding on their face.

In the midst of the mass in the clan who slowly walked up to the newly mated pairs to congratulate them, foremost their siblings, Angela embraced Broadway, following the example of some other longer mated pairs who were reminded of their special night.

A bit aside from the mass, Darlene, with Gem by her side, watched the happy matings with a look of longing on her face, sunken in thoughts. These thoughts were stopped when she noticed that her mother had left her side, walking back in the hall, and suddenly even more thoughtful, Darlene watched the immortal's back.

A few meters away, Xanatos approached the leader of the Manhattan clan who was just talking to a group of elders.

"A moment of your time, Goliath?" he asked.

Goliath looked on him for a moment before turning back to the elders.

"We can continue the discussion later," Goliath said, making the elders nod and go away.

"You did a good job there," the billionaire noticed. "Sure you don't want to change to the priesthood?"

Goliath looked at the human for a moment.

"Leading the mating ceremonies is one of the duties of clan leaders," the big gargoyle said, realizing that Xanatos held something the humans called small talk. "You want to speak about the talk with the mayor."

Xanatos nodded.

"The interview, yes," the billionaire said. "His office asked if you could come 30 minutes earlier to an unofficial meeting with him."

"And this is a good sign?" Goliath asked after taking a moment to try and figure out the meaning of this.

"Probably," New York's richest man said. "It shows that he might choose his politic concerning about knowing more about who you and the clan actually are, and not what the polls suggest him to do… That is a good sign."

Goliath nodded, agreeing grudgingly. The humans of this city were still unsure of how to react on his clan, even after all the things that had happened and the time passed since they were revealed to this world, or maybe because of it.

"Tell him this is no problem," Goliath said to the man who had served as liaison between the clan and the mayor. "And thank you."

"Thank me after the interview, Goliath," Xanatos said in a more reserved tone before walking back to his family.

Behind him, Elisa approached her mate and laid a supporting arm around his waist.

08.09.98; 22:14; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

After the newly mated couples had said goodbye to the clan, when they stepped into a helicopter to transport them to the Xanadu estate where they could spend the less formal part of their mating night, knowing the borders of the estate were guarded by both warriors of their clan and some of Xanatos' security, the clan took the meal.

Still some elders discussed the unusualness of two matings in the same night, but the clan's storyteller's remembrance of the story where two pairs of rookery siblings wanted to mate together to show the bond between the four, even in their rookery, soon settled their spirits.

The younger and more practical thinking ones simply appreciated the fact that this way the new mates probably were safer, and envied them of the fun they for sure would have soon.

"Young love is romantic," Thersities noticed.

Darlene nodded, a bit absently as she fed Gem, thus paying the green skinned gargoyle much less attention as he had hoped.

"Older love isn't less so," Fuchsia noted from the other side of the table by laying her left claw on her mate's broad shoulders, on which Diomedes laid one arm around her waist.

"I agree, lass," Hudson said, sitting on the left of Fuchsia's bank, and sharing a short look with Deborah who sat right of him.

"On Avalon they don't have chosen mates yet, do they?" Fuchsia asked.

Angela shook her head.

"Not yet," she said. "But I know four of my brothers and sisters who are very close to it."

"Good to hear," the older female replied. "Our generation had some problems in finding mates, partly due to the lack of other clans near us… or better yet, other friendly clans."

"Oh yes!" Thersities threw in, never taking his eyes from Darlene. "Luckily things have changed for better."

"Seemingly," Demona remarked, looking at the half piece of potato on her fork. "Even for the ones who spent their time hiding instead of searching for a mate back then."

Seemingly, that interested all the eyes of the table, including Gem's which were now focused on hers, as the immortal continued to eat her meal.

"Well…" Angela began, trying to go over her mother's not so diplomatic remark. "At least now it turned out good for the clan."

"Except for the ones died in the massacre, and now being out there and trying to make havoc," Fuchsia noted, ignoring the try to turn the talk to a more pleasant topic.

Demona looked up, meeting the eyes of her rookery sister and returning the icy glare with the fire inside, which made clear that nothing was forgotten or even forgiven.

"As far as I have heard, he is quite happy in his new body," the immortal replied in an icy tone. "And it isn't as if he ever did anything else other than making havoc."

The two rookery sisters held up the duel in glaring between them.

"Lets not forget he isn't the first one of our siblings we lost," Diomedes threw in, likewise to stop the confrontation from escalating. "There would be our rogue brother."

Fuchsia, almost reluctantly, turned her eyes from her sister to her mate.

"How could we forget him?" she asked a bit rough. "But we don't even know the date of his death… not that I care."

"Well, we know it was some time after Malcolm's wedding…" Hudson threw in. "It was when the rogue clan and Roland's bandits had their fight."

Demona took up a cup and drank, thereby trying to hide a small, and not so nice smile, knowing that the other gargoyles of the table looked to Hudson… except Deborah.

The eyes of the two females met over the table, not as hostile as it had been between the immortal and her sister, but cooler and somehow deeper.

Deborah sunk the fork she held in her left claw, and, much slower, Demona drank from her cup, still smiling, though thinner this time and somehow false.

"Not hungry?" she asked, and began to take another portion of the pasta with her fork and spoon.

"What's so funny, Demona?" Deborah asked with a slight irritation in her voice, without even trying to confuse her.

Demona's response consisted of eating a forkful of noodles.

"What are you hiding?" the immortal's former teacher asked, this time more pressing. "Do you know something about your brother's fate?"

Again, Demona's only response consisted out of drinking one more swallow of her cup, never taking her eyes off Deborah, yet meanwhile the whole table had noticed that something was going on.

"You are imagining things," the immortal finally responded.

"What did you do that night?" Fuchsia asked, more surprised than anything else.

"I did nothing," her rookery sister commented, dropping her cup and starring nearly defiantly at the others on the table.

"Which night?" Darlene asked, ignoring her mother's denial, even Gem on her lap now looked interested around, sensing that something was going on.

"Her mating night," Fuchsia explained, just shortly taking her eyes from her sister. "She left the preparations for a long time, we even began to wonder where she stayed… it was around the time Roland vanished."

"You killed your brother on your mating night?!" Angela asked her mother disbelieving.

"I did nothing to him," Demona said to her daughter, having given up the return to eat and laying the fork down before looking to Deborah. "Don't you have more important things to do right now than poking in my past? Go out and search for Lucifia, or help an old human over the street."

Her words were ignored.

"What did you do, lass?" Hudson asked calmly, calm enough for Demona to notice that the silence was now ruling this table, and slowly spreading to the others.

"Nothing," the immortal replied, but pressed to add, "I just cleaned up a bit behind the Archmage."

"HIM?!" Deborah asked, at the same time surprised and furious.

"Yes," Demona replied in a cooler tone, wishing to have something more powerful than water to drink.

"So you did another little job for your master," Fuchsia noticed with contempt in her voice.

Demona's response was a snarl, not very loud, but loud enough to make even the clan members at the more distant tables realize that something was going on.

"Better tell the whole story, lass," Hudson suggested calmly, calming the atmosphere down. "It will be much easier that way."

Demona, realizing that the whole room had become silent and was probably watching them, took a short look to Goliath who was watching her, too.

"It was the night of my mating ceremony," she began, looking to Hudson and ignoring the others on the table. "I was quite excited and…"

11.09.975; 23:23; Castle Wyvern, Somewhere Outside:

The young warrior was quite excited over the mating ceremony. And why not, considering it was the first and only one she would ever have in her life… at least this was what she thought this night.

But although she was excited, from the outside it seemed her sisters were double so…

"Okay," the beautiful caramel skinned sister who would later be known as Desdemona, said. "I talked with our tailor sister, and she said you will get an actual white tunic."

"Great!" Aerie said excitedly. "How about something green for her hair?"

"Sisters?" Demona asked, leaning into the parapets, having watched the discussion raving for some minutes somewhat non-involved.

"Well, it could look good, especially with her eyes," Fuchsia said thoughtfully, eyeing her red haired sister. "But don't you think that it looks too much with her tiara?"

"Let's remove it and we will see," Aerie suggested.

This was definitely too much for the red haired gargess, as she had had this piece of jewelry since… Well, nearly all her life, and she definitely wouldn't take it off on this special night!

"No," she said determinately, and as she saw that her sisters looked a bit perplexed, she added, "Look, sisters, I'm really thankful for your help, but right now I need something to drink… and eat."

Aerie and Fuchsia's looks changed at once to understanding.

"Sure, you better do, mating makes hungry," Aerie noticed with a wicked smile on her face, a smile quickly shared by Fuchsia.

Demona groaned inwardly, leaving the group with a jump from the next perch to glide to another part of the castle, not noticing that her caramel skinned sister hadn't shared the others smiles, and instead watched after her red haired sister thoughtfully.

The young soon-to-be-mated gargess landed in a backward part of the castle, close to the kitchen, but showed no intention to actually walk into it. Instead, she searched a shadowy corner and leaned back into it, though not before making sure that her cowardly brother wasn't already using it to hide from one of his tasks.

That was what she really needed right now, a silent place to think about… well, their night, and all it would lead to. It wasn't that she had doubts about it, he was a great male and most of all she loved him, but there were so many things she couldn't tell him.

'Believe me, I know exactly how you feel.' a voice said in her mind, older, more bitter, but so much her own since it was her own. 'But you cannot trust him. He's weak. He…'

The young warrior forced this voice down, trying to think on the present instead, on her future mate's face, the luck they shared and would share…

As she was still trying to fight her own thoughts, she heard steps approaching.

Fearing one of her sisters coming with another good idea about how her mating ceremony should be, Demona nestled herself deeper into the dark corner, closing her eyes so as not to reflect any light… maybe the only thing she would ever learn from her cowardly brother.

It was light, human steps, yet she stayed where she was, her eyes closed, and her breath hold. Some seconds later, nothing happened, and then a well-known voice said.

"Foris!"

The young sorceress could practically smell the magic of these words, so when she opened her eyes two seconds later, she wasn't surprised to find the Archmage standing some meters away from her, his right hand holding the Grimorum, his left one touching the outside wall, luckily without seeing her.

What surprised her, so much that she nearly gasped, was the fact that right now he walked through solid stone!

The young gargoyle waited five further seconds, just to be sure, and then she walked to the place where the Archmage had stood and touched the wall. It was indeed solid stone, but she just knew that it had to be specially treated, or something like that, to make such a spell of the Archmage work.

Taking a look around her back, and more out of curiosity than anything else, Demona said one word. "Foris!"

Her left claw vanished into the wall, and the young gargoyle drew it back surprised. Inspecting it before touching the wall again, she earned the same result. Making her decision, she walked through it, hurrying out of fear in case of being trapped in a massive stone, but she wasn't, though she looked back to make sure her tail truly had left the stone, having seemed to become solid again.

Now being outside the castle, Demona looked to the forest, seeing the back of the Archmage as he entered it.

As curiosity and suspicion took the better of her, his former apprentice followed.

It wasn't hard to follow the wizard's trail, even though she wasn't as good in the tracking skills as that of her white haired, bluish brother, but she gave herself time just in case her former teacher was slow.

Her fears proofed wrong, as she soon found the trail leading to a cave, like there were uncounted in the landscape around Wyvern, being half hidden under trees with its backside leading into a rise, which couldn't even be called a hill.

By the loud sounds coming out of the opening, the young gargess could figure out that a loud discussion seemed to be going on, with the Archmage as one of its sides.

"… this is double the sum we agreed to!" he spit out.

"The trouble in the village, and the costs to acquire it, were higher than we thought," a voice said. "Besides, it should be worth it, this talisman… the eye of a god."

As she silently and watchfully neared the entrance of the cave, Demona recognized this voice… How could she not?! It was that of their rogue rookery brother, seemingly having done some sort of robbery for the Archmage, something which reminded her too strongly on her own last task done for him.

"You will get as much as agreed, and not a coin more," the voice of the Archmage said threateningly "Now give it to me, or I'll have to take it out of your dead claws!"

This provoked the sarcastic laughter of Demona's rogue brother, as she moved closer to the entrance of the cave to actually see them, by looking around the corner, seeing the human and the gargoyle in the background of the cave where it sunk down and enlarged rapidly.

"Do ye believe I would be foolish enough to bring it with me?" Roland asked.

"Then your life ends here," the Archmage explained, and touched the Grimorum with his formerly free right hand.

Being too well versed in sorcery to stay where she was, Demona rushed away from the entrance of the cave as fast as her reflexes allowed, an act proved vital judging by the bluish shining light emerging out of the cave opening.

She waited some seconds, leaning against the rock, feeling her heart hammering against her chest, as she counted… three, four, five…

Finally, she thought enough time had passed, and once again crept to the entrance, staring at the scene unfolding before her, and gasping.

It was a scene, which reminded her all too much of her little trip to the future, her brother frozen in stone with the Archmage standing before him, eyeing him with a dark smile.

The gasp actually made the Archmage look in her direction, discovering his former apprentice.

"You!" the Archmage exclaimed, holding the Grimorum tighter. "What are you doing here?!"

Since hiding no longer made sense, Demona stepped fully into the entrance, facing her former teacher.

"I followed you," she said.

Saying this, she got a very good view on the old human and noticed that he looked weaker than usual, realizing that this forced spell, of what ever nature, must have cost him some energy.

"Did you, beast," the Archmage said, walking straight toward her. "And what will you do now, run to your leader and tell him what you saw so that he can inform the prince?"

Demona didn't say anything, but looked alternatively from her rogue brother to the Archmage.

"Well, think again, for if you do, I will so too, and it wouldn't be good for you if he learns who stole the Phoenix Gate out of his wife's room," the wizard said, now standing straight in front of her. "No, I think it is the best that you just stay silent about this."

The young gargoyle looked at the old human until he walked away to the forest, but not before giving her another warning glance.

Demona stared after the Archmage until he had vanished into the forest, just to be sure, and then she turned to her brother, frozen in stone, and slowly walked to him. As usual, his face was partly hidden behind a mask and his body through a cape, both of which had been turned to stone with him, his body frozen in a movement close to a jump that he had had no chance to begin.

For sure it was some sort of easy spell, since hard spells even prepared would need much more time, maybe she could even lift it with her few magical knowledge, a counter spell…

The young sorceress stopped, looking around in the rather large cave with its many levels and sides, with shadows nearly everywhere, and making it hard to recognize something, even with eyes made for the nightly darkness.

'No,' the voice of the Archmage whispered in her head. '… just stay silent about this.'

Demona studied the stone form of her brother and sighed.

It is the best for everyone, she said to herself. After all, the Prince would just have him executed if they would capture him.

Suddenly very sure of what to do, Demona turned around, leaving the cave, just to stop at the entrance, realizing that this cave wasn't too far from the castle, and that the chance of someone finding him was not too high, but still likely.

Thoughtfully, the young warrior stared at the stone forming the entrance of the cave, suddenly thinking of the old, abandoned rookery in another part of the woods, and how it was in danger to collapse.

Summoning all of her strength, Demona ripped on the stone, causing the entrance to crumble and fall down just as she just retreated. As the dust settled down, she could see that the entrance was already covered to one third, so the gargess began laying more stones and rocks before the entrance…

Some Time Later; Courtyard of Castle Wyvern:

Goliath worked hard not to let his brother, sister and the elder know his nervousness.

He had come back from the hunt with his sibling roughly half a hour ago, this time having the luck of plenty game, half expecting his Angel to greet him by his arrival. But his beloved wasn't there, and by asking around he learned that no one knew where she was, a situation not too unknown to his siblings.

As he half listened to how the form of mating was discussed, he couldn't help but worry about his mate, even though he knew it was foolish, even more since he knew that she was a great warrior and knew how to defend herself, yet…

"My love," a voice, that was for him the loveliest sound in the world, called him, and looking up he discovered his Angel walking toward him from an open door.

She was so beautiful that he actually had to gasp, considering what she was wearing, which was her rather revealing two-parted loincloth exchanged through a white robe, and her skin shimmering as a sign that she had just washed herself. Her golden tiara was missing from her forehead, being replaced by hoarfrost of green plants, making a great contrast to her red hair.

But most attracting were her eyes, which were shimmering green like smaragds, and burning by desire.

Seconds later, they shared an embrace.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into his ear. "My sister brought me on some good ideas concerning the plants, and I needed too much time."

"No worry," Goliath said, encloaking her with his wings, and looking into her eyes. "You look wonderful, my Angel."

His soon to be mate smiled at him.

"Ähem," the elder beside them, who shared a bit of a resemblance to his rookery son, coughed. "Shouldn't you better wait to do that after the ceremony?"

On this, both young lovers smiled, but as Goliath took his wings back, his Angel thought…

Some secrets just might be all right?

08.09.98; 22:26; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

The hall had become rather silent, as Demona had concluded her story, and even the clones who didn't understand half the story had listened interested, and the happy feeling of the celebration of the two couple's unions that had been brought with them had vanished.

"So you just left him there, buried all these years…" Darlene asked unbelieving, Gem dozing in her lap.

"Yes," Demona responded uninterested, taking up what was left of the noodles with a fork and eating them while Angela and Darlene shared an unbelieving look behind the immortal's back.

Deborah's look meanwhile was all too believing.

"How could you?!" she demanded to know.

"Should I have freed him?" Demona countered

"You should have told your clan the truth about the Archmage's dealings," Deborah demanded. "And over your own with him, too."

"There was no need for it," the immortal claimed. "After all, his bandits and the rogue clan killed each other afterwards so it turned out rather good."

The last words were said with some arrogance, making Deborah realize that no matter how much time had passed her former pupil would always find a way to shock her even more, and not just her since from the other tables she could hear disapproving murmur.

"You can justify everything, can you?" a middle-aged female, once a member of the Moray clan, of a table next to them asked, making Demona turn to her.

But before a discussion, which would no doubt lead to an argument, could break loose, Goliath rose from his table.

"Where is this cave?" he asked his former mate with his voice showing the anger of learning about another of her former schemes.

"Why do you bother to know?" Demona asked, looking to her mate and already realizing why.

"This imprisonment has lasted long enough," the leader of the Manhattan clan said seriously. "We will free him."

Demona snorted, as she stared at her former mate, and everyone failed to notice how .

"Don't Thailog's toys bring you enough problems already?" Demona asked.

These words made Darlene, on whose knees Gem was once again looking around interested, and some other gargoyles turn their heads to 'Thailog's toys', but to their surprise they didn't seem to mind these words, or maybe they didn't even recognize the offence in it.

"They are guests here, like you are," Goliath replied to his former mate, with his eyes shortly flashing white. "And now, tell us where you buried him!"

Demona stared on him, while in return everyone else looked on her, including Darlene who thought.

You can ruin every celebration can't you, mother?

08.09.98; 22:49; Castle Wyvern, Training Room:

Lana and Ruth were already talking in the training room when the clones walked in and got silent when they arrived on the other side of the mats.

The silence lasted for some seconds, as both females watched the gargoyles of the labyrinth, and were watched in return.

"And how do you like it here?" Lana began, as she found the silence lasted too long.

"Nice," Delilah responded after some seconds.

"It always is such loud?" Brentwood asked in return.

"Lets hope not," Lana said with a short smile.

The clones just looked on them, not understanding, making Lana feel quite uncomfortable.

"You learn to fight, too?" Malibu asked.

Lana shared a short look with Ruth.

"Yes," Ruth said and nodded, not wanting to tell them that this was one way for her not to spend time in the rookery for something they were maybe the last people on earth who had no clue of. "I thought I needed some training."

"Ye do indeed," a rough voice noted. "And some of your siblings would need so, too."

The group that had gathered for training looked around, seeing the limping elder enter.

She turned to Lana and Ruth who almost simultaneously straightened their spine and stood attention.

The elder studied them, and then, in a gesture which could almost be seen as a grudgingly nod, turned to the gargoyles from the labyrinth who looked at her in a way, which showed no understanding.

"You see these two?" she asked and didn't wait for an answer. "I want you to stand this way."

"I thought we were going to learn how to fight?" Delilah asked.

The teacher looked at her pupil and glared.

"No," she began very slowly. "You'll learn how to be a warrior… if ye can manage it. Now do as I have said!"

The clones, knowing how to obey, did as they were told while their teacher watched them.

"Straighten your spine," she told Malibu, then looking to Burbank, eying Hudson's clone with visible discomfort. "Keep your eyes ahead, and concentrate on me."

She neared the clones, studying every one of them once again, just to suddenly, and faster than even Lana and Ruth had expected, push Delilah on her chest and thus making her fall backward.

The hybrid had a short expression of pain on her face, as she erected her upper body, her fellow clan members still looking surprised.

"Why did you do this?" Delilah asked, still surprised and a bit hurt.

"Ye stood unstable," the limping teacher noted, unmoved. "You have to stand stable every time and be careful, a warrior would have seen me before I attacked… Now stand up, and stand this way, all of ye."

Delilah did so while the teacher already led her attention to the other clones, following their teacher's example of having their feet claws a bit apart.

"A warrior has to be prepared every time, as one second of not being so could mean death to him or a fellow clan member. Do ye understand?" she told them, receiving nothing but their same dumbfound glance. "Now, we're going to take a round of training fights, do ye understand what this means?"

"Fighting without hurting," Brentwood said. "We programmed to train regularly."

The teacher glared at him, but nodded.

"Ye," she said, pointing on Brooklyn's clone. "Step on the mats, and ye, too, lass."

Lana stiffened shortly, having hoped to have a calmer training lesson at least one time, but did so, now standing before Malibu.

"Ye'll try to bring your opponent down," the teacher said. "If he lies on the ground you win, understood?"

Lana nodded, as did Malibu, now looking at each other, the half gargoyle taking a battle position as the clone took something similar.

Malibu made the first move, practically jumping on her with his beak showing his fangs and growling loudly. Before Lana could manage the shock, the clone had pinned her on the mat with two powerful claws holding her shoulders.

"Good," the teacher commented, something that Lana, who looked up into the two red shining eyes, couldn't agree to. "Let her up, and again."

The clone at once changed his face to normal, released her and turned back to his starting position while Lana still stood up.

"Now," the elder said, as both her pupils had taken the position.

This time Lana could see his movement while jumping, but still was too slow to evade, and when Malibu grabbed her shoulders she failed to have the strength to fight the pressure, and fell back once again two seconds later.

"Again," the teacher said unimpressed, waiting until they had once again taken their positions. "Now."

This time Lana believed to know what was coming, and was proven right, as Malibu lowered his upper body a bit for a jump. Instead of trying to block the attack, she let herself fall backward and grabbed the clone's claws, using his movement to let him fly over her, landing hard on the not softened floor.

"Again," the teacher repeated, eying him watchfully. "Now!"

This time Malibu still jumped, but lower, so as not to allow Lana to use the same trick. But Lana didn't try so, but instead stepped one side to the right, making his claws grab nothing but air. Instead the half gargoyle grabbed the clone's back, pressing him on the ground while she sat herself on him, pulling his left arm behind his back and pulling it so that he was completely defenseless.

The teacher looked at this progress of her pupil, but not so much when she studied the other labyrinth gargoyles watching the fight, seeing on all their faces, except Delilah's, something like not understanding.

"Up with ye both," she said to the couple, and waited until they stood upright once again, for sure waiting for her to begin another round.

Instead the elder limped between the opponents, and looked to Malibu.

"Why did she defeat ye?" she asked the clone.

"She was better," Malibu said.

"Why?" the teacher asked. "Ye are as fast as she is, and ye have more strength."

Malibu visibly thought about it, eying first the elder then Lana.

"She was prepared," he finally said.

"She was, because ye always used the same attack," the teacher explained as if to a hatchling, which was what she slowly guessed the clones were. "Why didn't ye change it when it failed once?"

Malibu stared at her.

"Do ye know another attack in such a case?" the elder asked.

Malibu shook his head, and a look to the other clones proofed it to the teacher that they didn't seem to know either.

"Then I'll have to show you one," she said, giving Lana a hint to step off the matt while placing herself before the clone.

"You show me another program?" Malibu asked.

The teacher shortly closed her eyes, and dampened her lips before opening them again, and looking at the clone.

"Yes," she forced herself to say. "Now listen, if someone is in this distance to ye and is prepared, you need to find a way to use your strength if he is weaker than you, so…"

08.09.98; 22:57; Castle Wyvern, Outside:

The mates walked outside, engaged in talk.

"I mean, why are we even discussing it?" a brown haired, red skinned gargess asked.

"I hate to admit it, but Demona is right," the gargoyle beside her, a brown skinned, bald male said, though it seemed to nearly cause him pain. "Better leave him where he is, as we have enough problems."

"He hasn't even let the clan decide about…" the female continued.

As they walked by, they didn't see or didn't pay any interest to Connor, Eve, Jarred and Jane sitting on and by the perches, watching their elders continue on their way.

The training was set out for the teachers who were discussing the recent developments.

"Do you believe they'll free him?" Jane, former Amy asked, sitting with crossed legs on one perch.

"Mmm, the leader sounded so," Eve said, looking out on the city with her feet claws hanging over the edge, as the wind played with her hair.

"They have to!" Connor insisted, sitting between Eve and Jane's perches. "I mean, you can't just leave your brother this way."

"Mmm…" Jarred, sitting beside Eve, emitted, as he thought about when his sister had taken one of his CDs. "Maybe for a while."

The other hatchlings looked on him in wonder.

Same Time; Steps Leading To The Highest Tower:

"I mean, has she even mentioned him before?" Angela asked while walking upwards.

"Not to me," Darlene replied, walking a bit behind her due to the limited broad of the staircase. "But it seems our sisters are reluctant to speak about him, too."

"Yes, but why?" her biological younger sister asked, looking backwards as they reached the tower's top.

"Because he's our rookery's bad secret," an icy voice noted. "Every rookery has one."

The two gargess looked up to see their mother standing at Goliath's perch, looking over the city, with Shade sitting on the perch and doing the same.

"So you…" Angela began.

"We bullied him," the immortal explained. "He always caused trouble for himself and others, he stole, but mostly it was because of his bad looks… That is why he wore that mask."

"Was it so bad?" Angela asked, knowing the usual teasing between siblings.

This question made her mother turn around, looking at her two daughters.

"Bad enough to make him run away when he wasn't older than the hatchlings are now," Demona answered the question.

08.09.98; 23:09; Castle Wyvern, Guest room:

"Things of cotton, things of linen," Fox said, waving her hands that suddenly shone in green light, as did her eyes even when just for a short while. "Get up and dance to what I'm thinkin'!"

The former merchant looked at the clothing down on the ground, fearing it would stay there as it had before, but this time the clothes, one of her older dresses and David's suits, began a life of their own, rising and slowly beginning to dance in circles around each other to a dance that the half-Fey had imagined while casting the spell.

"Well done, my pupil," Puck noticed amused, floating with crossed legs in the air and circling around the dancing pair of clothes. "In time, I'll teach you how to even play musical instruments this way."

Fox looked at the Fey.

"Why?" she asked. "Does it help me defeat my opponent?"

"Oh, not everything in magic has to be about this," Puck said, now floating around her. "Besides, it makes a pretty good distraction."

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Fox said, noticing that the Fey seemed rather disappointed for having to stop with the training.

It was Goliath, looking for a moment surprised on the still dancing clothes.

"I have a request," the leader of the Manhattan clan began.

09.09.98; 01:31; Castle Wyvern, Helicopter Port:

The helicopter port, now used by one of Xanatos's black-red helicopters, seemed busy, the people on it being watched with interest by many clan members.

David Xanatos stood by his wife near the helicopter, which she had just checked so she could start.

"You know, I would feel better if you would take at least one of the squad with you?" David asked.

The former mercenary looked on him, clothed in a pilot outfit she was happy to still fit into, together with a cap that tamed her red hair tied to a tuft at her back.

"I know," Fox said in a matter of fact. "Wyvern isn't Hollywood, let Hugo sleep out."

"I just asked because if you plan to throw Demona out over the ocean, you might need help," the billionaire noted.

Fox looked at the immortal who was talking to her daughter some meters away, wearing a bag, her eyes thinned.

"Less than you expect," the former mercenary said, her tone making clear that she hadn't forgotten the episode between the gargess and her father.

Her husband nodded, knowing that it was pointless to discuss any further, and took a short look at his wife before embracing and kissing her.

From the distance, Demona looked at this scene with visible disgust.

"Thank you, mother," Darlene said.

The immortal looked surprised at her. "Why?" she asked.

"For deciding to go with them," Darlene replied, looking to Angela.

Her younger sister nodded.

"You must be excited to see Wyvern again after such a long time," Angela noticed.

"I saw it just half a year ago when I brought back the clan," Demona replied, getting annoyed by her daughter's attempt to sweeten her trip. "You should know this, daughter."

Angela was visibly disappointed by her mother's tone.

"There is something else," Darlene threw in, laying a claw on Angela's shoulder. "I would love to see this place you told me about."

"Then why don't you come with me?" the immortal asked her daughter in a suddenly genuine tone.

Darlene hesitated a second before swallowing.

"Well, there would be Sevarius who makes his test tomorrow night," she said. "Besides, I can hardly leave Gem alone for so long."

Demona studied her biologically oldest daughter for a moment longer, taking a short look at her stomach that had swollen a lot, given the short time the embryo in her had finally begun to grow and nodded, her eyes once again cool as they looked into Darlene's blue ones.

"I hope you'll have a pleasant flight," Angela said, trying to change the topic.

"I doubt this," Demona said, looking to the edge of the landing field where Deborah and Hudson neared, her former teacher watching her with fire in her eyes.

As the immortal did so, Shade trotted to her from the shadows, placing herself at her feet claws.

Some meters away, the clan leader and his second had a talk.

"And if I can't persuade him to join the clan?" Brooklyn asked.

Goliath thought about it, his arm crossed.

"Then let him go," the big gargoyle finally decided. "After all this time, and without his men, he might not be a danger anymore… but inform the other clans in the area of him."

Brooklyn nodded.

"I will, but, Goliath…" he began. "I would feel better if you hadn't this interview to do."

His leader's face darkened a bit.

"This might actually be a good thing," the big gargoyle replied. "I was amongst those in my rookery who wronged him, but Hudson and Deborah might get through to him."

Brooklyn tried to imagine Goliath bullying anyone, but didn't manage so. Yet he nodded, and to distract himself he looked around, seeing the other clan members watching them, and Demona standing by her two daughter's being watched with cold eyes by Deborah and Fox while standing there proud and icy as ever.

Guess this won't be a joyride, Brooklyn thought.

09.09.98; 01:46; Castle Wyvern, Helicopter Port:

Angela, standing beside Darlene, watched as the helicopter flew away and quickly vanished in the distance, and then turned her head to watch Darlene who was following it with a somewhat darkened face.

Her biological older sister, noticing this, looked surprised to her younger sister, and then she sighed.

"I'm a bit worried," she explained. "Scotland is awfully far away."

Angela nodded, taking this explanation.

"Broadway and I have patrol tonight," the young gargoyle said. "I thought maybe you'd want to come with us… we won't go very far from the castle."

Darlene looked rather surprised, but finally shook her head, having taken a short look over her sister's shoulder.

"I can't take the risk," she explained, touching her stomach.

Angela nodded.

Behind the young gargoyle, in the shadow of the castle, the figure of a gargoyle vanished after having exchanged a look with Darlene.

09.09.98; 02:11; Castle Wyvern, Rookery:

Ruth and Lana sat on the ground beside two boxes filled with baby toys, and stared on the wall. As they had done for the half hour before since even the sources for talking seemed to vanish.

Ruth seriously considered playing with some of the toys.

Lana meanwhile secretly cursed her grandmother for having to leave for Europe, leaving her once again to live with the clan, which actually meant to spend her time in a rookery instead of her own room.

The doors of the rookery opened, ending their boredom for once.

In came the rookery mothers, seemingly chattering happily amongst themselves with the clan's youngest members in their arms. Some of them at once got a more reluctant look, as their eyes fell on the two gargess sitting there.

"Having a good time?" Aerie asked, holding Jaheira who was cradled in her arms.

"Boring," Lana admitted.

The older gargess smiled, and Ruth remembered that her male had been very close to her in the air.

"Good," Aerie explained, holding the gray-skinned, red-haired hatchling in front of her, and handed her over to a surprised Lana. "She needs a change."

The half-gargoyle wrinkled her face, as she smelt that this was all too true, quickly rising in the direction of the changing table, as the hatchling laughed happily.

Ruth's look of sympathy quickly vanished, as the yellow-skinned, white-haired elder whose top was visibly less filled on the right side, handed her a sleepy male hatchling with pale green skin, his diaper visibly soaked.

Sighing, and once again counting the nights until her punishment was over, Ruth rose in the direction of Lana.

09.09.98; 02:13; Castle Wyvern, One Guest Room:

The mates were in the unused guest room, with Angela sitting on the bed, her left leg by her body and her right one on the ground, with Broadway sitting beside her.

"So she didn't want to come with us because of the hatchling?" Broadway asked. "Understandable, females never go into battle when they are with egg."

Angela nodded, watching her left leg.

"It is not just the that," she tried to explain. "Her tone and Desdemona's… even Elisa! It sounds like there is something suddenly between us, and I don't know what."

The young gargess remained silent, as did her mate, studying her carefully.

"Well, you both are of different generations," Broadway finally said.

The rather reluctant words earned him a surprised look from Angela.

"It hasn't hindered us before," she said.

"Maybe not, Angela, but how many of our leader's generation besides Goliath or above are you close to…" the big gargoyle asked. "I mean really."

Angela swallowed, wanting to count her mother for one, but stopped, knowing better. To name the truth there was no one she was truly close to on another generation, except Hudson maybe, but since the night when his mate and the rest of the clan came back, they had hardly done anything together except talking sometimes.

Desdemona seemed the closest person she had of her father's generation, a fact easily explained by when her ghost had shortly lived in the young gargoyle's body…

"Members of the clan from different rookeries hardly do anything together, especially with a clan as big as ours" Broadway explained, reading her thoughts while looking into her eyes. "We have different experience and different ages, that's why we normally hardly mate out of our own rookery."

Angela looked away from her mate, and back on the ground.

"On Avalon, four of my sisters where always close to me," she said. "When some of my other sisters started to go with our brothers, we didn't spend so much time together, but we could still tell us everything… I just wished that were the same here, too."

"It hasn't to mean that you aren't close," Broadway tried, moving closer to his mate and laying a claw on her. "Besides, you have siblings here, too."

Angela looked up.

"Look, if you want I could talk with some of my brothers and sisters," her mate explained. "Maybe even Lex and Bea might want to accompany us on the patrol… and Goliath said he wanted to see sooner 4 than 2 of us out there."

After a while, Angela nodded silently.

09.09.98; 02:54; Over The Atlantic:

Brooklyn found the silence was more like the silence before a hurricane than anything else. Sure, the engines of the airplane were loud, but their monotony quickly let them become background, making the silence become clear even more.

Finding it hard to concentrate on the biker magazine he was reading, the second of the Manhattan clan looked up, looking at Hudson and Deborah in the two seats in front of him, over the table, Hudson reading a newspaper, and Deborah looking rather uncomfortable.

Over to the left of him, sitting on one of the other banks, placed around a table on the left side of the plane was Demona, her bag laying on the table, reading one economy magazine while Shade dozed by her feet claws.

All this would be fine, if it weren't for both gargess occasionally looking at each other through the corner of their eyes, their muscles never truly relaxed, always ready for a surprising attack.

This, including the sometime nervous ticks caused by one of their feet-claws touching the ground, made it hard for Brooklyn to relax, and a look on Hudson told him that the old warrior had problems in this, too.

Sighing, Brooklyn looked out of the window to his right, though there wasn't much to be seen out there but dark skies and a dark ocean, its usual blackness just lightened up by the white of breaking waves.

How much longer till we come to Nevin? Brooklyn asked himself. 400 kilometers, or even less?

Not that it mattered, as a stopover in Wales wasn't planned, and he wouldn't suggest one, not when…

Suddenly the machine shook rather violently, bringing Brooklyn out of his thoughts.

The second took a fast look at his fellow passengers, noticing they were a bit alarmed too, Deborah even clutched the armrest of her seat violently, and her mate's claw with the other, something which didn't escape Demona's attention.

"Fear of flying?" Deborah's former pupil asked her, smugly.

Deborah's eyes, having looked ahead before, were at once focused on the immortal, turning red for a second, as the older gargoyle bared her fangs.

Before a so-called discussion could start, Brooklyn rose from his seat.

"I'll ask the pilot what has happened," he said.

Rather quickly, he walked down the floor to the cockpit, and knocked before he entered.

"I'm surprised," Demona continued from behind him.

"This is none of your business," Deborah countered, as Brooklyn entered the cockpit and closed the door behind him

To Brooklyn's surprise and somewhat shock, Fox laid back in her seat, her legs on the console, the hood over her face and her arms crossed over her breast, seemingly sleeping.

Before the stunned gargoyle could say something, Fox removed the hood from her tattooed face and looked to Brooklyn.

"It's okay," she calmed him down. "It was just a gust of wind, nothing important."

The gargoyle nodded.

"You didn't sleep?" Brooklyn asked.

"A bit," Fox replied, and at the shocked look of her passenger she sighed, and set up straight to check the instruments. "Something I learned during my jobs as a merchant, you rest without actually cutting your senses off… it is quite relaxing, and the autopilot does the rest."

"Guess so," the gargoyle, whose definition of sleep was a total darkness, partly interrupted by dreams, replied.

Finding it better than anything else, he sat himself at the seat beside her, since he thought she wouldn't mind, and stared thoughtfully out into the darkness.

09.09.98; 03:24; Destine Mansion:

Wordlessly, Elisa held a packet and walked up the floor, following Desdemona who, a minute ago, had opened the gate to the courtyard for her to drive in with her car.

As both reached the final level, Elisa was once again amazed by the mass of relicts and furniture Demona had gathered here, especially compared to her own former apartment. Vases, masks, some statues and things from China, Europe and various cultural backgrounds seemed to fill it, giving not a hint why they could be important for the immortal other than being there.

In the middle of the large room, lit by the moon, they found Darlene kneeling on the floor, a place she had created by pushing aside the carpet and a large heavy chair, drawing in concentration with black coal the last line of a pentagram.

"I'm ready," Darlene said, looking up to her sisters while standing up.

"And you are sure about this?" Desdemona asked, watching the occult sign on the ground with visible discomfort, and even more at the old-looking opened book by its side.

"No," Darlene replied, looking seriously at them. "But I'm sure that I won't be able to stand it much longer without knowing what has happened."

Elisa handed the packet over to Darlene.

"What will you do if you learn that Demona is responsible?" the human asked, calmly and with compassion in her voice.

"I will tell the clan tonight," Darlene said, likewise calmly, but with an icy tone. "And then I will never again set a foot in her house, or even speak with her."

Elisa looked into Darlene's eyes in return, feeling a bit shocked by these words and at the same time relieved that she wouldn't have to keep it a secret before her mate… He had had enough secrets hidden by his former mate.

Saying nothing more, Darlene opened the box packed in brown thick paper by cutting it open with her sharp claws, revealing it to be a cage with three white mice in it.

"The shop didn't give me anymore," Elisa explained.

"It will be enough," Darlene stated explicitly, and returned the box to the cop. "Hand me one when I tell you, and no matter what happens, try to stay silent."

When Elisa and Desdemona had nodded, Darlene turned to the pentagram, picked up the book lying beside it, and began reading out of it, not seeing the look exchanged behind her back saying the same… sometimes Darlene looked too much like her mother.

Darlene began the spell with a long passage of Latin, just to then nearly suddenly switching to another languages that no one of the other two females knew.

"Bawar ve'kur newa," the pregnant gargoyle intoned. "Bolwak keruk Entscha…"

Elisa, standing left behind Darlene, felt her eyes tearing as these words didn't just reach her ears, but also her bones. In the cage, she felt the mice run around just to suddenly flee into one corner most far away from the pentagram.

Suddenly, Darlene held out her left claw, and as quick as she could, Elisa grabbed one of the mice out of the cage and handed the visibly scared animal over to the sorceress.

Darlene made sure she held her right claw out, and then with the top of one of her talons she slid open the carotid artery, letting the blood of the mouse split in the pentagram. Once the blood touched the ground, fog began to rise from where it lay, quickly forming a small whirlwind of fog while the mouse still squeaked silently.

A second later, the fog formed a face… or more accurately a skull.

It didn't look anything like that of a human or gargoyle, at least not any living one. Its skin was gray, where its nose should be there were two tentacles, his mouth was a hole with fangs, and his eyes were the worst… The left looked like an abscess, with yellow slime drooling from it, the right one was black with a small red shining slit.

"Why…" a voice said in something, which was more of a hiss. "… did you call…"

Darlene swallowed under its unearthly look.

"I am Darlene Anderson of the first race," she began with strong voice. "And I want knowledge in exchange for blood."

With this, the gargoyle threw the now nearly-completely unmoving body of the mouse in the pentagram where it at once began to burn, much to the surprise of Elisa and Desdemona standing behind her.

The being in the smoke emitted a noise best described as a laugh, though sounding more like a sick parody of it.

"You mortals always seek it… wisdom, information, treasures, and your so called power…" the being hissed, and the skull floated a bit in the pentagram. "How few you know…"

Once again, Darlene extended her left claw.

Elisa swallowed, not being sure if she should do this, but gave Darlene the next mouse, slowly smelling something in the air, like rotten eggs. A look to Desdemona assured her that she wasn't the only one who smelt it.

Darlene held the sharp edge of the left claw's talon on the artery of the mouse, holding it closer to the being.

"You know what I yearn to know," she said.

" … selfish…" the being said. "… there is much more …"

It continued to speak, looking its eyes to Desdemona.

" … who will die first …" it said, then turning to Elisa "… will you ever bear a child …" then it looked back to Darlene, and seemed to look to her stomach "… will it live …"

"What happened to my husband?" the gargoyle asked, showing no sign that she gave in. "How did Paul Anderson die?"

A moment of silence ruled, as the being just looked, and then Darlene pressed the talon against the mouse's neck…

" … murder …" the being said.

By this word the gargess pressed the mouse's neck to hard, she caused a swell of blood to erupt and land on the floor.

"My mother?" Darlene asked, her face having become white, her voice sounding near panic. "DID SHE MURDER HIM?!"

The being was silent, his face being emotionless as far as it could, but before Darlene could ask it further, she noticed that the mouse had bled to death in her claw.

Angrily, Darlene threw the dead but still warm body into the pentagram, causing it to turn to ash before it even touched the ground. As the ash glided to the ground, the lines the gargess had drawn on the ground began to burn.

Having noticed neither of this, Darlene once again extended her left claw, though this time the sacrifice didn't come at once.

"You said it could break through if you feed it too fast," Elisa reminded her from behind, never taking her eyes off the burning pentagram and its prisoner.

Darlene turned her head, and her sister noticed that her eyes had turned red.

"Give it to me!" she ordered.

After a second while she looked on her, Elisa gave Darlene the mouse and thus turned back to the pentagram, on it which the being looked at her with a dark longing.

"Who…" she demanded. "Who killed him?!"

While saying this, the sorceress opened the artery of the mouse, letting small drops of blood run along her bloody left claw and fall onto the floor.

"Who?" she repeated.

" … the traitor …" it hissed "… the slaughterer …"

"Do you mean my mother?" Darlene asked, tears running down her cheeks and took one step forward.

" … the dark one …" it said.

Before Darlene could say one word, a tentacle of smoke broke through the wall of fog, and the line of the pentagram, grabbing her left wrist and actually pulling her forward, by which she lost the book and the mouse, the latter falling into the pentagram and burning to ash.

Elisa and Desdemona reacted at once, grabbing the pregnant gargoyle by the shoulders and pulling her backwards, making all of them land on their backs.

As they lay there, they watched the being emit a roar of anger, as it's head dissolved and the fog with it, the flames slowly dying.

Darlene felt tears running down her cheeks, as she absently touched her left wrinkle where the tentacle had grabbed her with her right claw.

"She could have done it," she nearly whispered.

"Don't forget Lucifia," Desdemona replied, having calmed down a bit and standing up. "It fits her, too."

Darlene, still sitting on the floor, thought about it, remembering the story her mother had told them, and then she nodded.

"Or someone else," Elisa added, having stood up. "This is too vague to nail down anyone."

"So it brought us nothing?!" Desdemona asked, irritated, looking to the still slightly smoking pentagram.

"I know he was murdered," Darlene said, strangely calm, still sitting on the ground. "And whoever did this will pay."

Desdemona and Elisa shared a look before the latter reached Darlene with her hand, helping her up, something Darlene gratefully accepted.

"We must clean up," Demona's daughter finally said, having gathered herself and looking around, noticing the empty cage lying on one side of the room, the book of spells in the other, and the pentagram still in the middle of it. "The clan will wonder where we stayed, and mother shall not notice anything… Good thing we moved the carpet."

"Right." Desdemona said a bit startled.

09.09.98; 7:15 Airplane Over The Atlantic:

Demona had joined Shade by dozing off a bit, with her feet claws on the table over the gargbeast, as Fox's voice came out of the cockpit.

"Daylight comes in less than 5 minutes," her voice said.

Inwardly cursing Puck for the pain to come, Demona sat up, stretching herself a bit and throwing a look at the other gargoyles who had just stood up.

Gesturing Shade to follow her, the immortal followed them into the backward part of the airplane, watching them entering three of five boxes made out of steel, softened inside with an opening showing to the floor.

Sure, Fox had explained to her what these were for, but Demona still couldn't help but wonder why the three other gargoyles had accepted them so easy, while she still compared them to boxes wild animals were sold in… but then again, her old clan had always been so pathetically trustful, hadn't it?

All five boxes were also tightly fixed to the interior of the airplane, and shared two supporters on the ceiling for the hand-claws, and the ground for the feet-claws…. Making clear that someone in Xanatos's firm had thought a lot on how to make a gargoyle travel safe while in stone sleep.

To top it, the entrance could be sealed by a sixth wall, enabling it to be opened and closed from the inside, making it otherwise a good cage to capture a gargoyle… something it might even be originally be constructed for.

"You better lead your friend in here, lass," Hudson said calmly, as he closed his box.

Knowing he was right, Demona took a short look at Shade and then lead her scarred beast to enter the fourth box, fondling its head before closing the door, something which caused a protesting whining from inside.

The immortal looked for a moment on how Brooklyn and Deborah closed their own boxes, the last not without giving her a glare, before she turned back to the passenger part of the floor.

The transformation hit her in the middle of the floor. Bones ached while becoming smaller and more fragile, flesh protested against becoming pink and soft, and Demona's whole head ached while fangs turned into teeth, changing the jaw with it.

Though at the same time she used all her inner strength to seal her lip, to prevent a tone of pain emitting from it, not wanting to let the human hear it.

As her pulse calmed down enough, the immortal walked down to the cockpit, opening the door without knocking and getting a view of the sun, seemingly rising from the bottom of the sea, into the sky.

Fox shortly turned her head to what now looked like a fellow human, though in a dress that would gain in public more laughs than respect.

"We're on course and should land hours before sunset," she explained in a business tone, sparing herself a comment on the immortals fashion style, turning back to the controls.

"I'll check it myself," Demona replied irritated, and set herself in the co-pilot seat beside her and began to check the instruments.

Fox glanced at the woman who had once tried to steal her father's life work, and her eyes wandered to the button that opened the door of the plane, which would allow her to remove useless trash out in the middle of the Atlantic.

Too easy, the former mercenary thought.

09.09.98; 04:27; Castle Wyvern, Highest Tower:

Elisa watched over the castle courtyard, with some of the clan gliding around, but most of all she looked over the hatchlings playing while Lana and Ruth cleaned it with a broom and rake. She, Darlene and Desdemona had departed once they had arrived at the castle, all of them eager to mind their own business after the revelation of the night.

Though, truth to be told, it weren't the answers that the being had given them, which captured their thoughts, but more the questions it had left to all of them. Deep down she felt the conflict raging in her mind, about whether or not getting an answer from this being was actually a good thing.

Such Elisa was so deep in thoughts that she failed to notice someone coming up from behind her, before wings caped around her and strong arms laid around her, comforting her.

"How do you feel, my Elisa?" her mate asked her from behind.

"Better now," she thus whispered, finding peace in the strength and warmth of her love.

Though there was something, which would not let her truly find peace in it, and such she turned around to face Goliath.

"There is something I want to tell you, but I just can't," Elisa began, looking into her mate's deep eyes.

"Because it isn't your secret," Goliath deduced calmly.

Elisa nodded, realizing that her mate probably had made his own thoughts what she and her two sisters had been doing.

"Just tell me when you need to, or can," the leader of her clan replied, softly stroking her hair. "It will be okay."

Realizing that he meant what he said, Elisa embraced him, laying her head on his strong chest.

"I love you, big guy," she whispered.

09.09.98; 19:57; Wyvern, West Scotland:

Fox stood some metres away from the aiplane and revelled the last bit of warmth the sunken sun had left before it gave in to the fresh wind coming from the cliffs. She now could understand why some of the clan sometimes spoke of it with a longing, though the emptiness of the countryside was nothing for her.

Awaiting her passengers the former merchant looked back to the airplane which she had landed on the abandoned runway once created for cargo planes when Xanacorps had dismantled the castle and still being in a good enough shape to land as her husband had predicted.

Thinking of her husband and her son, Fox noticed her passengers stepping out of the airplane, Shade leading them.

"Where is Demona?" Brooklyn asked sceptically.

"Making a trip." Fox replied easily .

The three gargoyles shared a look while Shade smelled on the earth, trying to find the scent of her friend.

"Did the lass say when she wanted to come back?" Hudson asked.

Fox shook her head, looking rather icily for a moment.

"I will take a round of sleep." she finally explained "Tell me when you are ready here."

With their pilot leaving for rest, the gargoyles were left alone to watch at their former home.

"Strange." Hudson noticed.

"Fitting." Deborah, added.

"Whatever." Brooklyn commented, looking around. "Lets look where the castle is and if she is not there she…"

Suddenly Shade, having smelled on the ground between them, barked, driving their attention to the shape of a gargoyle gliding nearer from the forest.

"Where have you been?" Deborah asked suspiciously as the immortal had landed and still reassured Shade.

"Looking around." Demona replied in a cool voice, "I missed the time and couldn't return until nightfall."

Deborah was visibly not happy with this explanation.

"Ok then, lets go." Brooklyn suggested, taking a short look at the airplane where Fox was maybe already sleeping. "As fast as this is behind us as better."

"Agreed." Demona told the second of the Manhattan clan. "Follow me."

Without waiting for an answer, the immortal turned her back on them, walking in the direction of the forest, not seeing and not caring that her former teacher looked at her with lowered eyes.

09.09.98; 21:21; WVRN headquarter, New York:

It rained as Goliath, Othello and Desdemona landed on the tower of the big news company, yet they were greeted by two men in fine black clothes, visibly bodyguards and one woman in her late twenties, wearing a green dress, holding a clip board in the left and an umbrella in the right hand and watching the gargoyles land with a profession expression on her face.

"Mr. Goliath, Mr. Othello and Mrs. Desdemona?" the woman asked. "I'm Mrs. Bullit."

Goliath shortly bowed in front of the women, noticing her interested blue eyes as her long brunette hair.

"Goliath then." Mrs Bullit said "Please follow me the mayor is expecting you."

The leader of the Manhattan clan nodded and followed her, himself being followed by his siblings who in turn were followed by the bodyguards.

Such they walked in the large building, with few humans walking on the floor, everyone looking at their really unusual guests, something the three gargoyles tried not to notice. It didn't need long for them to reach a door by guarded by two another bodyguards, same in the stature to who had accompanied them, but different in colour.

The one standing left of the door knocked on it before looking in and asking if the gargoyle could enter, seemingly getting a positive reply since he held the door open to the large gargoyle. As Desdemona and Othello wanted to follow, the bodyguard standing right stepped between them and the door.

"Just him." the mayors second bodyguard said.

Both wanted to protest, but their leader stopped them.

"It is alright." Goliath said "I will talk with him alone."

Yet feeling bad by this, Othello and Desdemona nodded.

"I have a room prepared with some snacks for you." Mrs Bullit said.

"We would prefer waiting here." Desdemona suggested.

The brunette looked at them a moment, seemingly a bit nervous by this stop of routine and then looked to the mayor's bodyguards.

"It will be ok as long they stay calm." bodyguard number one noticed.

Othello looked on this angrily on the human but stayed silent, standing with his mate at the other side of the floor as his brother stepped in.

Inside Goliath found four armchairs around a table filled with glasses and a water bottle. The mayor was already sitting on one of the soft armchairs, just holding a glass of what seemed like water and giving the gargoyle a warm smile. Standing behind him was a black suited bodyguard on whose face the gargoyle could read uneasiness, noticing a slight movement of his arm to the interior of his jacket, for sure to a hidden weapon, but the mayor stopped him by rising his free left hand.

"It is ok Tim." he told the bodyguard, never leaving his eyes from the gargoyle or changing the expression of his face "Please sit down."

Goliath nodded and did as asked, thereby studying the mayor as he himself was mustered. He was a man in his fifties, his once brown hair mostly turned grey and lighter, though the dress, especially the red cravat seemed to let him look younger, an effect most likely wished bit it owner.

"I'm honoured by your invitation Mr Thompson." Goliath said politely.

"As I'm by your coming." The mayor replied "After all you are a kind of mayor, too, though you manage a clan."

Goliath nodded shortly, feeling hope rise in him.

"As such I hope we find a common ground to work for both of our people." the gargoyle explained. "And to speak truthfully before the camera turns on."

The mayor remained silent a moment, lying the glass on the table and changing the expression of his

"You're direct good." Thompson noticed, leaning forward. "I always like opportunities like such to speak with a person direct and open… Tell me what do you whish from this interview."

Goliath's face remained stoic.

"Recognition of my clan here and my race as whole." Goliath said. "Everytime humans listen to one of us speak more of you may realise that they have nothing to fear of us."

The mayor nodded, making Goliath believe to see a shimmer of respect in his eyes.

"Chavez informed me that you wish this partnership program being widened on the further precincts." Thompson noticed in a suddenly rather cool voice. "Tell me why I should support this, considering the people of New York are at best divided at this topic."

"People must learn to trust us." the leader of the Manhattan clan said. "To build this trust we have to do what is in our nature, helping to protect this society."

The mayor studied the gargoyle for a moment, then he looked on his watch.

"Tim you can go out." he ordered his bodyguard by turning around "Tell me when we have our appearance."

The bodyguard seemed uneasy with this, but knew how to obey orders and so left.

"Roughly one year before your people are filmed 58 of my citizens vanish, roughly when the rest of your clan arrives they appear again." the mayor began. "Explain me what I should think of this."

Goliath remained seemingly stoic, but who knew him could have noticed the signs of nervousness, showing in the slight movement of his wings.

"My clan took part in their reappearance." he said after two seconds had passed. "We have no guild in their disappearance."

The mayor looked a moment wordlessly on the gargoyle.

"Can you assure me that no gargoyle will endanger the people of this city." he asked finally.

"No I can't." Goliath replied "As you can't assure me that no one of your people harms my clan."

Thompson remained silent some seconds.

"This might be leading somewhere." he finally said.

09.09.98; 21:27; Wyvern, Forest:

"This is leading nowhere." Deborah commented, walking behind Demona. "You told us you needed less than an hour to the cave."

The immortal, wearing the bag on the left shoulder, didn't look back, but concentrated instead on Shade leading the group.

"This was a millenium ago." the red haired gargess said, taking a look at the trees which wasn't helping much considering none of them existed when she had found the cave the last time.

"So you don't know where it is?" Deborah asked further.

Demona stopped, turning around and starring irritated at her former teacher who walked besides Hudson, with Brooklyn making the end of the group.

"I recognize the earth and the rocks." she said, pointing to some rocks seemingly having bursten out of the earth. "We are in the area so you could stop asking me and begin looking for yourself."

"After the entrance of a cave being sealed and probably overgrown?" Deborah replied sarcastically.

"Exactly." Demona remarked as if she hadn't noticed the tone and turned around again.

As they began walking again, Brooklyn took up what was bugging him since they had entered the forest.

"Shouldn't we look after humans, too?" he asked. "There could be campers in this area."

"Hardly." Demona replied in a cool voice, smiling to herself as she looked ahead. "After I bought this area I made it into a private forest… no one human is allowed to enter."

Behind her back, Brooklyn, Deborah and Hudson had stopped and exchanged looks.

"You own it?" Hudson asked finally.

"Yes," his rookery daughter replied, following Shade on a light rising and kneeling down as she noticed that it stopped in a small slope, going down maybe three metres. "everything around the cliffs."

as it should have ever been Demona added in mind, knowing that speaking it out loud would just provoke another exchange with her teacher she had no interest in and so instead concentrated back on finding clues where this cave was instead of her the older gargoyle who just glared on her. this rock, doesn't it…

Suddenly the immortal grinned, rose and took up Shade, gliding with her down the slope.

"We are here." the red haired gargess explained, releasing the gargbeast and looking up, starring at the three gargoyles standing on the border of the slope which was actually the sealed entrance to the cave having become overgrown.

09.09.98; 21:43; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

Roughly two thirds of the clan, were gathered in front of a TV being acquired from the television room. The hatchlings sat cross legged on the floor, most of the elders had found a banc and most of the adults just stood around, watching how Lexington and Bea worked on the TV.

A second later Asrial entered the room, looking relieved of having arrived in time placed herself to a group of rookery mothers, Ruth and Lana amongst them each holding a vivid hatchling.

"Try now." Lexington said to Agamemnon, sitting in front of it with the remote control in his hand.

"Welcome to the special episode of Night watch…" the person in the television spoke as the camera zoomed closer "I'm Travis Marshall and welcome mayor Thompson as Goliath, the leader of the of the local clan of gargoyles."

The hatchling sheered enthusiastic while the rest of the clan stayed more reserved, maybe except Angela and Broadway who exchanged a smile .

The studio had been changed for this rather unusual interview partner. Instead of the long table inclusive pc with the moderator and his usual two guests to his left, there was a round table with Travis sitting in the middle the mayor to his right and Goliath sitting on a special stable chair to his left.

"Lets begin with maybe the most important question." Travis Marshall began. "Given resents poll more people in New York and in the country know the name of the leader of the Manhattan clan than yours, do you have to fear a new political competitor Thompson?"

The mayor gave a short laugh on this comment, though a maybe calculated one since his eyes didn't really looked amused, while Goliath remained calm, seemingly not finding too much humorous in it.

"You know I never give too much on polls." Thompson replied.

"I and our viewers know." Travis noticed, looking on one page lying on his table "Given your last challenger was ahead in the poll before his visit to the world of crime."

"I wouldn't call kidnapping of a child just a visit to this world." the mayor noticed, looking seriously "This man is a criminal and deserves his term."

Some applause was heart in the audience while the mayor took a sip.

"Well spoken." Travis commented, turning to Goliath. "Someone could call it fate that you probably sit besides the only ma… person who is luckier than you that Doyle is in prison rather than in your position."

"I and my clan don't get involved in politic." the large gargoyle noticed and in the great hall Lexington laughed up, earning him an earnest look by a blond haired, brown skinned hatchling. "We hope that the decisions will serve everyone in this city."

"Good words for sure." Travis admitted. "But tell our viewers how are your wishes for the future politic of the city regarding your clan."

Goliath answered at once.

"Recognition as persons by humans and their law." he said.

"Noble goals." Travis commented with a slight smile. "I assume you want to achieve this partly through the famous and already broadly discussed partnership program."

"I hope this program will help to bring our races together." Goliath replied eyeing the moderator. "This is why I hope for its extension."

"And what has the mayor to say on it?" Travis Marshall asked.

Thompson remained silent a second while looking from the moderator to the gargoyle and in the great hall of the castle the clan looked even more interested.

"This is a question of great importance, even more since I am not in the position to determine which rights are granted to the gargoyles, this is a question of national, maybe even international importance and has to be decided on this level." he explained. "As for the partnership program it is something I principally agree to… though it is not for me alone to decide. I know the provisos in the public and understand them so it will be for them and committees to decide if and in which form this program will expand. It might be the most important decision the humans in this city have to decide regarding our coexistence with another race and for the sake of both we will have to work to make the right decision."

09.09.98; 21:57; Wyvern, Cave:

The four gargoyles and one beast stood in the middle of the cave, looking on the figure of Roland trapped in stone and ready to jump as he had been for more than 1000 years.

Deborah and Hudson were close to their rookery son studying him with an unreadable face, while Shade sniffed around in the more backward part of the cave. Meanwhile the immortal stood near the cave's entrance with Brooklyn where still laid some stones having served 1000 years to seal the cave and looked on the scene.

"This is the wrong decision." Demona stated looking on her long lost brother.

"You agreed to it." Brooklyn said as matter of fact, putting away a root having digged itself through the stone, taking a short look on the stoned gargoyle. "Just make it and you won't have to bother with him again."

Demona gave her former clan's second a hard look, before grabbing her bag lying on the earth and pulling out her spell book.

"Come behind me." Demona ordered.

Deborah, Hudson and Shade did so, while the immortal searched through her book and finally found the passage, rising her claw.

"Magic of arcane plane." She intoned, her risen claw shining in what seemed a small blue cloud "Rise away and be undone."

With this the cloud left her claw, becoming mist and lying itself about the cave in front of her. It needed one second, then Roland became flesh again, not the way a gargoyle awakened by tearing of its old skin, but by actually turning to flesh one to one, finishing the jump he had begun more than 1000 years ago with a roar, just to find his opponent having vanished.

Surprised, guessing sorcery and still with white flashing eyes, the young gargoyle looked around, discovering the four other gargoyles and one beast standing at the entrance and effectively blocking them.

Brooklyn had seen Roland in stone, but now, seeing him in flesh for the first time he realised that there probably was a reason for him wearing a mask, his skin looking unhealthy yellow and his arms as the parts of his body his black cape revealed were bony.

Though all in all it was the white mask, with its white eyes shining in them which let him look unlike a gargoyle, near a machine and for some reasons the second of the Manhattan clan had to think on Coldsteel.

"You!" Roland snarled and flinched backwards deeper in the cave once the initial shock wore off just to add in a darker tone. "I should have known it is a trap!"

"It wasn't." Hudson said as he and her mate moved forward a bit, letting Demona behind who put back her book in the bag and trying to look as uninvolved as possible. "The Archmage put you under a spell."

Roland didn't respond, his eyes turning to normal, but moved further backward as closer his rookery parents came, never leaving his eyes of them especially of Deborah. Meanhwile back in the entrance of the cave Shad began growling, her eyes shining, causing Demona previously standing besides Brooklyn to kneel down and stroking her, trying unsuccessfully to calm her down.

"Things changed." Deborah tried to explain, moving just a bit closer to the renegade gargoyle. "Let us explain."

Roland's eyes as far as they were visible behind his mask lowered and he opened his mouth for a question which should never come… a second later for what it seemed out of the wall to their right, two large shadows jumped on them, pressing them to earth while three other large shadows stepped between them and the entrance.

In this Shade brook loose of a surprised Demona, attacking the foremost and largest shadow, just to be hit by its tail precisely swung to hit the beast by its left side, causing a long maybe thirty centimetre long wound just over the left foreleg. As the beast whined in pain the shadow grabbed its forelegs and used the still used the still big power of its flight to catapult it back to the entrance, where Shade landed bleeding and somewhat perplexed.

Moonlight falling in made Brooklyn see the shadows the first time for real, endorsing they were gargoyles he had never seen before, but then there was the large one in front of her… She was a female, tall short of Goliath, though with fewer muscles, tawny yellow skin and hair of a bit darker tone than her skin with two horns like saw edged blades pushing through them.. She had a beautiful whose eyes where now lighting red as she turned her attention to them.

Atlanta Brooklyn thought, remembering once having heard the elders talking about her thus the humans back in Wyvern called her

Any further thoughts even when they happened I less than half a second, were stopped when Demona jumped on the impressive gargess.

The impact let Atlanta and Demona with her stagger backwards, might even have let fall them on the ground if not for the two other gargoyles, one slight green, the other dark red skinned Atlanta stumbled against with her back, preventing them from using their weapons.

Atlanta meanwhile had been prevented from drawing a short sword from her left side by Demona holding her by arm by the bronze bracers with her right claw, at the same time trying to slash open her opponents stomach with the left just to be stopped by a bronze breastplate, preventing the immortal from causing any damage but a small bloody line where the plate ended and the stomach began.

Snarling in pain, Atlanta used her right claw she had risen to protect her face from a possible attack to grab her opponent's neck and smashing her against the wall, making Demona loose her breath and her eyes becoming dark for a moment… preventing her from fighting back anyhow.

This wasn't needed since Brooklyn used the opportunity to rush for Demona's help… which he disliked deeply. He tackled the large gargess by the stomach, the only vulnerable point he could find with his left elbow ahead.

If he had a spike lengthening the ellbow Atlanta probably would have found her stomach slit open as Demona had tried it before, but so she was simply was thrown backwards, stumbling and falling to her but, holding her stomach in heavy pain, but though in heavy pain she managed to kick after Brooklyn's legs, not heavy enough to break anything but enough to let him fall on his back.

Before the second of the Manhattan clan could rose again two blades were directed to his neck, and the faces of their owner, the two male gargoyles who had just stood behind Atlanta looked down on him with their lips curled back to a growl, strongly suggested him to not make a false move.

Quickly and without moving his head the warrior looked around, counting his chances which could hardly be worse, Hudson and Deborah were down, the blades of two hostile gargoyles on their throat and Roland looking down on them, Demona had sunken to her knees, the cave's wall behind her turning red where her head had touched it, making clear that she at last bled heavily.

Some metres away and still near the entrance Shade rose, shaking her head to get rid of the fog in it.

"SHADE RUN!" Brooklyn screamed as much as he was capable of with the blades on his throat. "CATCH HELP."

The gargoyle standing left above him snarled on him, pressing the blade of his small sword even closer to Brooklyn's throat and causing him to bleed, but Shade just looked at the scene.

"RUN." Demona fell in, having got back her breath and eyesight but unable to do much more than that since Atlantia held her captive with her blade.

"Kill it!" Atlantia ordered her warriors standing over Brooklyn, never leaving her eyes of the red haired gargoyle.

The dark red skined gargoyle standing nearest to the cave's entrance moved quickly, rising his sword and turning to Shade, though he wasn't fast enough to catch her since the beast already slipped through the entrance racing in the night.

"Follow her and make sure she can't alarm any other." Atlanta ordered the gargoyle following the beast "But make sure no one sees you."

The gargoyle nodded and followed the beast, something probably not difficult given the blood already lying on the earth of the cave.

Demona snarled for a moment wanting to jump before realising that she couldn't help her friend thus way anymore and seeing her vanish in the night. Even more, her head still felt dizzy and while breathing she felt if two or three of her rips had been broken which they probably where.

Seeing in the eyes of Atlanta she realized that this was not the shape to face her.

"I said it was the wrong decision." she snarled in the direction of Brooklyn.

09.09.98; 22:07; Castle Wyvern, Xanatos's Office:

Father and son looked at the T.V. together after they had talked with Fox on the other side of the atlantic through the mobile radio.

Alex liked this since it made him forget that his mother was away for three or four days, even more since his father let him sit in his chair while they watched the movie screen, with he himself leaning on the table.

While he was still able to pull his legs up and sit cross-legged in the chair, he always felt more important and secure in it, almost like his father.

Will I ever become so important? Alex asked himself, but quickly dismissed this thought and concentrated back on the screen.

"Now," Travis Marshall continued. "Despite the time since your race has become known to the public, and especially after the heroic act that you and your clan made to save the train two years back, doesn't it frustrate you that anti-Gargoyle-resentments still prevail? And even parts of the Quarrymen, though forbidden, have probably regrouped in the dark, given the latest information from the police."

Goliath held a straight face.

"This is something that concerns me and my clan," he explained. "But even so, we see that organizations like P.I.T. haven't stopped to support us, and even get more members day by day. As long as there are humans out there who are ready to accept us as part of their world, I don't see any reason for frustration."

This speech was something Xanatos gave him mild tribute for, though his image advisers had coached the Gargoyle, given that it was one of the hottest topics currently discussed not just in the city, but also in the clan, with the exception of Lucifia. The billionaire thought that the leader of the Manhattan clan would probably make a good politician.

"Then your clan seemingly has a great tolerance to such things," Travis commented, by turning to the mayor. "But what has the mayor to tell on this? How shall the government react on the faction who currently heavily fight its politic concerning the Gargoyles?"

"For once, there is nothing like a faction," Thompson began. "There are many people worried about how the appearance of Gargoyles will change this city, or even the world, and we have to listen to this. But even so there are a lot of extremists out there, terrorists who use just the Gargoyle's presence as an excuse to terrorize us all, and to spread their hate propaganda. These are people we never can accept in our midst."

Once again applause was heard in the background, though not as much as Goliath probably had hoped for, and less than Xanatos himself had guessed it would be, but then again people tended to forget, even when the Quarrymen had nearly brought a train full of humans to derail.

"Now no one doubts that," Travis remarked, and although he smiled Xanatos could say that he wasn't pleased that the mayor had once again used one of his questions to gather points in the polls. "But lets stay concrete how…"

The scene chanced suddenly, and a line written in white on black ground appeared…

-- This is a Lucifia production. --

Feeling a chill running down his spine, Xanatos lost no time and pressed his hand over his son's eyes, turning his back to the monitor himself.

"Daddy?" Alexander asked, trying to pull away his father's hand.

"Be calm," his father ordered. "It could be a spell, and we are only effected if we see and hear it."

But just as he said it, he heard a voice coming from the monitor, and it wasn't Lucifias.

"Ooooh…" he heard the voice of his wife screaming. "Ooooh, David…"

Feeling an even larger shiver running down his spine, Xanatos looked on the monitor.

He saw himself having sex with Fox in a position they had both needed their athletic training for.

"Daddy?!" Alexander asked again, resuming to pull on his father's hand.

David Xanatos switched off the T.V. while millions probably left it on, and somehow the billionaire had no doubt that this… interference wasn't limited to his own T.V.

"Alex," Xanatos began as he removed his hand off his son's eyes. "You have to go to bed now."

"But, Daddy…" his son protested, jumping out of the chair.

"Alexander," Xanatos said, knowing that his full name would make it clear to his son that he meant it seriously. "I will explain it to you tomorrow."

As if he knew that he was needed, which he probably did, Owen stepped into his employer's office.

"Owen will take you to bed," the billionaire told his son, showing his servant to step nearer, while laying a hand on his son's shoulder. "We will speak tomorrow."

Realizing that his father was earnest in this, Alexander sighed and let Owen lead him out, but not without throwing a last look on his father.

David, who had taken great care of not using the term when you are older while speaking with his son, watched the door close behind his son, and then turned on the T.V. where he and Fox were still busy.

Given the position, it wouldn't be hard to determine when this had been filmed, and given the angle of its camera it was clear that it had been one of the missing mosquito robots doing an inside job in his own bedroom.

The video stopped and the monitor once again showed the Nightwatch studio with its three rather surprised stars making clear that they had seen the one minute long scene… To be precise, two of the people featured by the camera were surprised, while Goliath showed the grim expression that showed Xanatos that he understood too well.

"Seemingly this show has become the victim of a foolish prank," Travis told his viewers. "We hope you forgive us for this rather awful interruption and stay with us while we continue."

Xanatos, who had risen an eyebrow by the word awful, had already taken up the phone, dialing the number of his lawyer for such cases, and felt rather lucky that his wife was in the probably rather peaceful countryside of Wyvern, for he couldn't imagine what she would probably say on this.

09.09.98; 22:14; Wyvern, Cave:

Brooklyn once again checked the rope that was binding his arms behind his back, though it was more routine since he had already realized, when they had bound him up, that they wouldn't make the mistake of sloppy work.

At least it gave him time to think of a way out of this mess. Would Shade make it through? Would Fox be able to help, and would she want to? He knew the best way was to take no risk, and maybe try to talk their way out of this, but the fact that he didn't know either Roland or Atalanta wasn't going to make it any easier, especially if he told them that both their clan and bandits were long since dead.

The clan's second looked to the others, Demona, Hudson and Deborah, who were sitting grimly beside him, likewise bound, and being guarded by three of Atalanta's warriors. He then turned to Atalanta and Roland who spoke amongst themselves some meters away from the group, while again looking on them distrustfully, and Brooklyn knew all too well what they were talking about.

Finally, they seemed to have made a decision, and Roland came forth, standing in front of Hudson.

"You said the Archmage put me under a spell," he began. "Is this why you all look older?"

"Aye, lad," Hudson explained with a calm voice, looking back from him and then to Atalanta.

"And what about her?" Hudson's rookery son asked, looking to Deborah. "My spies said she was dead."

"Your spies?!" Deborah asked with a mix of unbelieving and anger. "Who?"

"As if this matters now!" Demona, sitting left of her former teacher, remarked. "Didn't I say they weren't to be trusted?!"

Deborah glared on her former pupil, which Roland viewed in mild surprise, while Atalanta looked at the scene from the distance.

"What did the spell do?" Roland asked.

Hudson remained silent for a moment, which Brooklyn took as an opportunity to switch the talk.

"He turned you to stone," the warrior commented, looking at the masked Gargoyle. "A very long time."

This caused Roland to look surprised, or as much as his masked allowed it, and even Atalanta's warriors shared a look.

"Who are you?" the bandit asked. "I have a rookery brother resembling you."

Sure, everyone notices that, Brooklyn thought sarcastically. Give me a beard and we could go as twins.

"I'm Brooklyn," he explained. "I'm of the rookery, which followed yours."

"Ridiculous!" Atalanta snarled, stepping in and looking alternatively to Roland, and then to his former leader. "This is all a trap set by them. The whole mission of the Archmage was."

"If ye don't believe us, go look for the castle," Hudson remarked, eyeing the female warrior cautiously. "There ye will find yer proof."

Atalanta laughed.

"All we could find a group of your warriors waiting to greet us," she noted before turning to Roland. "It was probably some spell to confuse our senses, and they are trying to fool us."

The bandit chief looked first to the gargess and then back to Brooklyn and his former clan leader, and nodded slightly.

Before anything more could be said, the sound of wings approaching was heard, and the dark red-skinned Gargoyle approached, landing in front of his leader.

"I have lost the beast," the warrior explained, visibly frustrated. "But there is more."

"What?" Atalanta asked, visibly displeased.

"The forest seems to have… changed," the warrior explained uncomfortably. "I can't explain it, but the trees don't seem the same anymore. I nearly didn't find my way back."

Atalanta looked first on him, and then on her prisoners.

"We return to our camp," she ordered her warriors. "They will bring help."

The leader of her clan drew her short sword, and moved to Demona.

"What are you doing?" Roland asked.

"We are too few to guard them properly," Atalanta explained, standing in front of what she didn't know was an immortal. "If we kill one or two of them, we can transport them better, and it will give the ones of their clan a warning not to follow… And it is the leader and his second who are important to us."

Demona glared on the other gargess now holding her sword in front of her throat.

Meanwhile, Hudson looked as if he was going to say something, but Brooklyn ordered him with a shook of his head to stay still. At least Demona would stand up again, no matter what happened… and could possibly attack their captors at the back.

"No," Roland said, stepping beside Atalanta.

"You're sentimental," his partner noticed, irritated. "I thought you wanted to see them dead, too."

Roland glared at the attractive gargess.

"I do. Have no doubt about that," he explained, letting his eyes wander over the members of his former clan. "But if anything they said is true, we could need every one of them."

Atalanta looked for a moment on the masked Gargoyle, and then she nodded.

"Fine," she said angrily. "But if they slow us down…"

"Then I will do it myself," Roland replied.

The masked Gargoyle didn't even look down on their prisoners, as he said this.

09.09.98; 22:19; Labyrinth, Main Hall:

Many inhabitants of the labyrinth, including every Mutate besides Fang, and the clones, were looking at the T.V., which had seen many new years shows coming and going, which was visible in the occasional flickering, though Talon guessed it was caused mainly due to the problems with the connections… of which he had no idea how Scott had even established.

With some relieve, Talon noticed that the children were once again allowed to come near the T.V. though it was more an aware ignorance of them by the grown-ups who had sent them away once the interrupted T.V. signal had broken in.

The sex scene featuring David Xanatos and his wife had lasted just more than a minute, but this had been enough, and although he had deep down liked the embarrassment it had caused his former boss, he would have preferred to not view it himself.

"I hope it stays clean now," Maggie asked beside him. "Who knows how long it had lasted if they hadn't taken the band off."

Talon was going to agree, when a voice rose from near them.

"It would have lasted five or seven minutes, given their arousal," Delilah noticed calmly, eyeing both Mutates. "At least that is what Thailog needed, but according to what I know about position number 23 it can last…"

"OKAY!" Talon stopped the hybrid, raising his right claw. "I understand."

Looking around, he found Claw chuckling slightly though no one else seemed to have heard it.

"It is a bad thing?" Delilah asked, the clones sitting besides her paying this talk no interest, but continued looking on the T.V.

Maggie sighed. Trying to teach the clones the difference between good and bad wasn't easy, and this was even more complicated.

"It is a good thing if you want it," she explained. "It is not a good thing if people can watch you while you're doing it…"

"At least not if you don't get money for it," a man standing relatively near the group said.

Delilah looked at the man, who was maybe in his fifties, with interest, while Maggie looked at him with a mix of anger and surprise.

A woman, hiding her brown hair below a hood, elbowed the man.

"Oh be quiet, Larry," she carped, and turned back to the TV.

"I will explain it to you later," Maggie told Delilah, and gave Talon a short look.

The leader of the Labyrinth clan shrugged his shoulders and looked back on the T.V.

"Well, let us take a step back from the daily political business and ask some more private questions," Travis suggested, turning to Goliath. "Since you were revealed to the world and long before, and what I mean by this are the stories and fairy tales that mankind has heard again and again of winged beings everywhere in the world, like the Tengu of Japan, the winged snakes of the Mayas, and let us not forget the rumors of Gargoyles still existing in Scotland. In former statements your clan made clear that it doesn't want to talk about that… Has this changed?"

Goliath waited a second, and before the T.V., Derek grew tensed.

"There is still nothing I can add to this," he explained in a neutral voice.

"Not one of your clan was left behind in Scotland when you left?" Travis asked further.

"No," the Gargoyle said, his tone making clear that the moderator could very well try to bite stone.

"Well then, what says the mayor on the risk for this city to loose its status of the only place in the world where some of its inhabitants have wings?" Travis asked.

"That the tourist industry probably yearns that it stays this way for a long time," Thompson replied with a slight smile, and took the glass in front of him for a drink.

Travis laughed politely, while Goliath stayed earnest.

09.09.98; 22:46; Forest of Wyvern:

The group and its warriors moved through the forest, the captors shoving their hostages with the swords, showing them where they wanted them to go. Atalanta lead the group with Roland, Demona walking two meters behind, followed by Deborah with two guards by their sides. Behind them walked Hudson, followed by Brooklyn, all of them having their arms tied to their backs, two guards walking slightly shiftily besides them.

Hudson watched them carefully for a sign of inattentiveness, but found none. The old warrior could have told his captors that he knew the way, that he hadn't forgotten it in all the years since then, but he didn't, knowing that this would probably give away the only advantage they had.

Somehow it surprised him that they hadn't yet met a sign of civilization, which would ruin their chance. The planes, if their paths crossed this area, probably flew too high for them to notice, especially in a forest, and the population in this area hadn't grown much, as Hudson believed, and had maybe even deceased since their own time…

So or so… Hudson thought. It should soon be time…

Atalanta let out a light snarl, making Hudson to look surprised on her.

"What is it?" the bandit lord asked.

"The guards are not at their post," Atalanta noticed irritated. "That will have consequences."

Hudson used all of his experience to stay calm, but was prepared, and from the way the muscles worked on the back of his rookery daughters in front of him, he knew she was too. And although he didn't look over his back, so as not to alarm his captors, he hoped his mate and rookery son were, too.

They still moved, and suddenly Hudson could see the large hill, or rather a rock, coming to view in front of them, marking the entrance to a cave where the bandits and the rogue clan had once camped, now even more better hidden than back then since the vegetation had become even thicker over time.

Suddenly, Atalanta and then Roland stopped, noticing the changes. There was no fire near the entrance, no defense walls, and especially no people, neither man nor Gargoyle walking around where plenty should be.

Demona counted to one second, allowing the guards beside and behind her to become surprised themselves, until she attacked with red shining eyes.

Her immortality having greatly cured the wounds of the former fight, allowed her to quickly storm forward and ram Atalanta from behind, making her fall forward with Demona on top of her, making her drop her sword some meters away in the process. Still in fall, the immortal grabbed her brother's left ankle and pulled it up, making the bandit fall on his back, leaving her to kneel on Atalanta, using all her weight to press her down.

The gargess below her, who was larger and even more muscular than Demona, snarled, as she tried to stand up, but couldn't with the weight on her. Instead she used her long thin tail to scourge her attacker on the back, the sharpened, bony knife edge causing bloody wounds… one, two, three times on the immortal's back.

By the fifth or maybe sixth time, Demona managed to grab the tail with her bound claws maybe through sheer luck, using its top to saw on the rope holding her claws.

Realizing what her opponent was doing with her own tail, Atalanta mobilized all her strength, throwing the red-haired Gargoyle backwards.

Meanwhile, the fight had begun even behind them. Hudson had knelt down the moment Demona had attacked, using his tail to grab the left ankle of the guarding Gargoyle right of him, and brought him down the same way Demona had Roland, just before he rammed the red-skinned Gargoyle who had walked left of him, and had taken his sword from in his belt, hitting him in the stomach and letting him fall on his back, with the old warrior kneeling on his arms, using his superior weight to hold him down.

With the much more heavier Gargoyle on his chest, and not being able to do more, the red-skinned Gargoyle of Atalanta's clan tried to bite the older Gargoyle, preferable in the soft parts next to him.

"I wouldn't try that, lad," Hudson said angrily, and grabbed the sword his captor had lost with this tail, using it to saw on the ropes that held his claws.

Being busy with holding the red one down, the old warrior didn't notice the other Gargoyle of Atalanta's clan that he had brought down coming nearer from behind him, raising his sword.

But before he could attack, Demona was thrown before his feet claws, surprising the Gargoyle, before he grinned and raised his sword over the gargess who still had her claws at her back. Just as he brought the short sword down on her, the immortal let her now free claws come forth from behind her back, grabbing the hostile Gargoyle's sword arm and throwing him over her, right on Atalanta who had just managed to rise, making her collapse once more.

Demona rose, first on her knees and then on her feet claws, taking a short look over the situation. Atalanta was down again, while Roland seemed ready to attack. Behind and right of her, Hudson still fought with one of the guards, while Deborah and Brooklyn held their own against the other two guards, all now had their arms free.

The immortal, readied, saw a movement from the corner of her eyes, where Roland stood and prepared herself for his attack, but as she focused her attention, Demona noticed that her nearing attacker was coming from the trees, and he was bigger, having much more muscles, white hair and red shining eyes… Thailog!

The moment of surprise allowed her former mate to punch her with both claws on her chest, making her sail maybe two meters backwards and land hard on her back. Feeling pain all over her chest, the immortal rose as quickly as she could, her eyes focused on the clone.

"Hello, ex love," Thailog said, standing in front of her with his claws on his hips. "Are you already regretting freeing me?"

Demona snarled, trying to stand up.

"Ohhhh…" a sweet voice, coming from behind Thailog, said, and suddenly Demona was robbed of her strength. "But you surely missed me, didn't you, mother?"

Lucifia entered the battleground from the shadows of the trees, her eyes shining black.

09.09.98; 22:57; London, The Marter Estate:

Like in Manhattan, and probably in some other places in the world, most members of the local clan were found together in the living room, in front of the TV. It was a middle-sized screen, and as the hatchlings found, a hopelessly old device, something they missed no opportunity to remind the adults of, who in return reminded them that the financial situation of the clan wasn't the best.

"I can't see why what is so special about him?" Dorcas noticed, sitting in front of the TV beside her siblings, and staring critically on Goliath who was still talking on the TV. "He is just talking."

"Hmm," Lucy noticed, lying on her stomach to the left of her, staring thoughtfully on the TV, "but he looks great."

Dorcas stared surprised at her rookery sister, as did Musgrave and Dodger who sat right of her, but before any of them could remark to that, they were stopped by a voice coming from behind.

"Psst, little ones," a soft, though remarkably strong voice told them. "The others want to hear the rest."

The hatchlings looked behind, seeing the owner of the voice, an elderly brown-feathered eagle-like gargess who was sitting with the other elders in some of the chairs, which had been gathered from all over the Estate, to be placed in the living room for the older members of the clan.

The remark stopped their talk, but what really made the hatchlings loose their initial energy was the fact that this elder was one of the members having joined them, though the other elders insisted that they had indeed been always part of their clan.

"Yes, eldest," Musgrave replied politely, and turned back to the TV, as he sat before with crossed legs.

Besides him, Lucy and Dodger exchanged looks before turning back to the TV.

"Now we have arrived at the end of the show," Travis told his guests and viewers. "But since the appearance of another sentient race has created many questions, we will now give the viewers the opportunity to ask some, or to just tell us their thoughts on it… Our viewers from other states should know that we prefer to take callers from New York though."

A click was heard.

"Hello there, and welcome to Nightwatch," Travis said to the camera. "With whom are we speaking to, and what do you want to talk about?"

"Hello…" a female voice, sounding rather young, said. "Do you hear me?"

"Yes, we do," Travis replied. "What do you have to say on this topic?"

"Well, I just wanted to say that nearly two years ago, I was attacked by some gangsters on the street, and two Gargoyles saved me…" the voice said. "I ran away since I was scarred of them, but now I want to say thank you."

"Now that is a fan," Travis commented. "Goliath, what do you have to say on this?"

Goliath looked rather relaxed on this.

"I'm grateful for your call, but you don't have to be grateful," the leader of the Manhattan clan said. "For us Gargoyles, it is our duty to protect the community we live in."

On the other side of the TV, Musgrave, Lucy and Dorcas looked over their back as they heard a grunt, watching some of their elders watching each other, seemingly sharing disagreement.

"And the mayor, I have to say that I didn't vote for him, and I won't in the next election," the voice added, seemingly irritated. "If the police had done its job, I wouldn't have to be rescued."

The mayor took this rather stoically.

"I know that there are still problems," Thompson noted politely. "But despite these crimes, which are to condemn. every statistic will tell you that the number of crimes has sunken under this administration and under the work of the city's police."

"And what have you to say on this?" Travis asked in direction of Goliath.

"I and my clan work together with the police," the Gargoyle said. "So we know how hard each of them work, and we hope to extend our cooperation, but we also know that perfect security can never be achieved."

"Nice words," Travis commented. "Let's hear what the next call has to say on this… With whom are we speaking to?"

"Hello, I'm Maria Mazkos, and I can't agree with where this is heading," the woman said. "Making all these Gargoyles into police officers will just help to make this nation into becoming the police state it is already heading to. If we even have to cover our windows so that the state can't watch us, then it is too much."

"I think this question is for you, Mr. Thompson." Travis noticed, working hard not to grin.

"Miss Mazkos, I know many people out there have the fear of us becoming some sort of police state, but it simply isn't," the mayor explained. "Our police is working to grant us all the rights our forefathers fought for, and this won't change no matter who will be part of it."

"How can you say this?" the woman asked. "Our ancestors fought for everyone to come to this land to be free, but we aren't true to this… Will your newly formed Gargoyles-Taskforce hunt for so-called illegal immigrants, too, and force them and their children to leave their homes?"

"I think this might be a question for you," Travis said, addressing it to Goliath. "Would you or the Gargoyles working for the partnership program be willing to help carry out such hotly discussed laws? Especially since you yourself come from another country on a legally still unclear way?"

Goliath seemed to be silent for half a second.

"I and my clan trust and respect the laws of the city, as we trust the community to make the right decision on such topics," the big Gargoyle said.

"Now that's a word," Travis said, and gave a small sign with the small finger of his left hand. "Whom are we talking to now?"

"I'm Johnson Martin, sergeant in retirement, and I have to warn you of these… creatures," a voice said, sounding irritated but clear. "They should be locked up and shipped away from America."

On the other side of the TV, the hatchlings could hear disapproving whispers behind their backs, and some scowled.

"And what makes you suggest these rather drastic measures?" Travis asked, sounding interested.

"One of these devils, a green skinned one with a beak, attacked me in my own apartment!" Martin said. "It is a shame that someone of our government even speaks to them, and then its leader!"

"Then let me speak to their leader," Travis commented nonchalant. "Goliath, what can you say to us on this?"

"On that night two weeks ago, my rookery brother had spotted the Pack holding someone hostage," the leader of the Manhattan clan said, not showing any sign that the Human's words had hit him. "He wanted to call the police, but found no phone elsewhere. I'm sorry for the disturbance that he may have caused you."

"And what say the government?" the moderator asked, turning to the mayor.

"First, let me say that I know the worries of our citizens, for their safety especially in their own home," Thompson began. "But in this case, of which I have been informed by the police personally, I think this action was justified since the Pack has proven to be much more dangerous than any serious critic could ever describe the Gargoyles."

"So give the Gargoyles a cellphone instead of a ship ticket," Travis noticed sarcastically.

"On any case, Travis," the mayor replied generically. "We shouldn't let our judgment be clouded by such misunderstandings of possibly wrong decisions of one individual, whether they be Human or Gargoyle."

"Lets hear how the next caller judges this," Travis added. "Whom can we greet?"

"Hello, I'm Mark Petrie, and I want to greet my girlfriend Allen," the voice said. "I love you, baby!"

A click, and the sound of a disconnected call made clear that all had been said.

"Now, seemingly we all can say that…" Travis noticed amused. "Allen, I hope you could hear that, and our audience hopes that the next and last call has more to say on this case. Here, a call from Ishimura, Japan."

"Uh, hello there. This is Vinnie Grigori," the voice said. "Umm… I just wanted to say that I met some of them already back in the Apple, and though they cost me loosing my job and my bike, I guess they are really nice guys… most of them anyway."

"Now this is a nice statement to close the discussion," Travis replied with a smile, seemingly not taking the call seriously. "Have our guests some last words for the audience?"

"The questions on how to live together with this other race of people is and will for sure be one of the biggest problems this city has ever faced," Thompson began. "We should work hard to let not fear but reason influence the decision we make."

"I agree," Goliath replied.

"Then it seems we have an interesting future to come," Travis concluded, looking from the Gargoyle and then back to the camera. "Goodnight, New York. And be back when we have the union leader and the owner of the subway here to talk about the possibilities of strikes."

The show music turned on, and the voice of the moderator who began talking to his guests became unbearable, as some text consisting out the number of people responsible for the show came in…

In London… Boz, standing beside Michael far at the back, and holding the remote control, which he used to turn off the sound before turning to his friend and leader.

"This hasn't brought much," Michael noticed, softly holding a sleeping Victoria in his arms.

"As we did expect," Boz noticed.

The large brown-feathered eagle-like Gargoyle nodded, though not being able to hide a shimmer of disappointment in his eyes.

"At least they didn't mention any Gargoyle sighting in England," a totally white unicorn-like male, around Michael's age, noticed.

"Scotland is close enough," a lioness-like Gargess, around twenty in Gargoyle years, added. "People look more in the sky now."

Michael nodded, though this remark was not aimed at her. Thinking, he looked down at the white-feathered Griffin-like hatchling sleeping in his arm who was his daughter, then he looked to his left where at the border of the group a somewhat more than two year old hatchling… more horse than unicorn-like, since his horn hadn't yet grown, with black skin but a white point on his snout, sat on the knee of a brown-feathered, eagle-like Gargess sitting beside a black-skinned, unicorn-like Gargoyle.

Turning his back from his siblings, Michael looked on his clan, asking himself if Griff had made it to the shop with Una and Leo, as he had said he would.

"You are right, and we have to be prepared in case we are discovered," he addressed the Unicorn, speaking at the same time to the clan. "Even if just a clan in Scotland or Wales is discovered, there will be preparations and decisions to be made, but doing them we will need a better consultation with the other clans in the kingdom… maybe even the world."

He waited a second, seeing that even the hatchlings had turned their heads to him, and Victoria was waking up in his arms.

"It's time to act," the leader of the London clan concluded.

09.09.98; 22:58; The Forest of Wyvern:

Demona tried to stand up while not letting Thailog and Lucifia out of her sight. Behind her, Brooklyn, Hudson and Deborah moved closer together, making their enemies who now outnumbered them, two to one, step in front of them like a front.

As the immortal rose in pain, Roland and Atalanta who had even so managed to stand up found time to take a look at the strangers.

"Who are you?" Atalanta asked, believing to recognize the young warrior of her enemies in the male except for his coloring… Possibly they were rare twins like...

"Enemies of that clan who seek an alliance," Lucifia replied, taking a short look at the larger gargess and then back to her mother. "We bring help."

"You damned fool…" Demona hissed on Thailog, her eyes blazing red. "Who is the bigger one, you or Goliath?"

"Seemingly I'll have to teach you to respect my genes," Goliath's clone replied, and grabbed something from behind his back, his claws coming back with a large laser rifle. "Good thing that I brought the right toys."

The last word came out with an evil chuckle, on which Demona snarled while Lucifia watched the scene with mild interest, and the rogue Gargoyles with utter suspicion. Behind the immortal's back, Brooklyn realized that their chances were getting worse second by second, knowing that they would never make it into the woods and back to the plane before they would either be caught or shot down.

Just as Thailog was pulling the trigger, a shot of red light raced over Demona's left shoulder, hitting the clone's right and making him stumble backwards, moaning in pain, and pulling the trigger in the process.

The beam hit Demona's right arm, burning flesh and making her go to her knees in pain. While Lucifia hid behind the safety of a tree trunk, and Atalanta ordered her warriors to do the same, Brooklyn realized what was going on, and just as well seeing as this was maybe their only chance to come out living.

"Retreat," the second of his clan barked behind him to Hudson and Deborah, and pointed to where the ground rose to a small hill, where the laser beam had come from.

Both experienced warriors did as ordered without question, but Brooklyn realized that Demona seemed as if she wanted to stay, looking to Thailog and then back to the tree where Lucifia had vanished behind.

"Move your tail out of here!" Brooklyn yelled at her, raising the sword he had taken from one of his captors in defense.

The immortal showed no signs to move, and the beaked Gargoyle could smell burned flesh.

"You can kill them another night," he said more calmly, seeing their enemies regrouping behind the trees.

Demona snarled in frustration, but rose, moving as quickly as she could on all fours, or rather threes, behind the trees with Brooklyn guarding her back. Seeing the shadows in the distance, the second turned his back on them, following the immortal on all fours.

He had run maybe a minute while following Demona, who despite her wound moved very fast, when something as heavy as a piano hit him on his back. The energy made him fall, his body slithering a bit, and his beak digging in dirt, loosing his sword, but the weight still lasted on him.

"Your clan will pay!" Atalanta, who had followed him from jumping tree to tree, snarled, kneeling on Brooklyn like on a hunted down prey, and raising a short sword just over his neck, her eyes burning red. "Beginning with you!"

Just as she raised the sword, she heard a growl, and thought too late for being prepared on the impact of an angry gargbeast, filled with the fury to protect and to take revenge from the fight earlier that night.

Atalanta was thrown against a tree, with Shade biting her bracelets until the warrior managed to get her leg between her and the beast, making it sail backwards against another tree.

Brooklyn just managed to rise when the beast sailed above him, and landed on the earth, howling in pain. Groaning, he registered that Shade's long wound over her left foreleg had been patched with a set of boots, which now loosened, making the wound bleed again.

He growled in frustration, and tried to rise but was too slow, and knew it as he heard Atalanta rising behind him. The sword lay just one meter in front of him, and desperately fighting, Brooklyn tried to grab it, to jump on it if necessary, when a boot stepped in front of him.

Fox ignored the Gargoyle at her feet for a moment, and stared at the Gargess, a laser gun in her left hand and a mask over her face, resembling that of the Hunters. The former merchant had no idea who this Gargess was, but her intentions were clear.

"Don't move," she ordered, seeing on the border of her eyes how Brooklyn rose and grabbed his own sword.

Seeing her chance, Atalanta jumped away and back behind the trees, missed shortly by two laser beams.

"She's quick," Fox commented, watching the shadows.

"Yeah, and she has friends," Brooklyn replied sarcastically. "Lets get out of here."

Just as he said this, Demona came out of the shadows of the forest behind Fox, rushing to Shade who whined a bit while trying to rise, blood covering the already dried blood over her left foreleg.

While the immortal knelt down by her wounded friend, comforting her, and forgetting her own wounds, Deborah and Hudson moved out of the shadows.

"Okay," Brooklyn began, trying to catch his breath and eyeing the group. "You move to the plane, I'll watch your back and follow you."

"I'll stay," Fox replied, not taking her eyes from the forest. "I have the gun, and can fight them better than you. Besides, someone has to help the beast and her."

Brooklyn glared at the former merchant.

"We need…" he began.

"The engines are running already," Fox said, staring at the area from behind her mask. "I'll come, or do you want to stay here and discuss it?"

Brooklyn growled, but moved past her, taking a still dazzled Shade up from the earth and looking to Hudson, Deborah and Demona.

"We move," he ordered, and gave a good example by running first, followed by Demona.

Hudson and Deborah gave Fox a last look before following the others, something the former merchant rather felt than saw.

As she heard the sounds of steps behind her vanishing, Fox once again noticed a movement in the crowd of trees in front of her, made visible by the night-vision device, which was integrated in her mask, making her eyesight equal to that of the Gargoyles… a fact her opponents probably didn't know.

She gave off three shots into the crowd of trees, and a snarl showed her that she seemed to have hit something, or at least had been rather close to it. As if to confirm it, a thick branch fell down some meters in front of her, and something over her seemed to jump to another tree in greater distance.

Fox knew that this couldn't go on long, as she needed to buy the wounded time, and that additionally the shot probably had showed the other of the strange Gargess's group the way to her.

If I just had… the half-Fey thought, and then she got an idea.

Fox knelt down and laid the gun in front of her, beginning to wave her hand.

"Things of cotton…" she stopped, knowing she hadn't even begun it right.

Her thoughts wandered back to Alex, by whom this all seemed so easy… and then she bit her lip, remembering what Puck had said to her, that unlike Human magic she had to think on what she wanted before chanting the spell… she formed an image in her mind and began anew.

"Things of wood, leaves and stone…" she chanted, her waving hands glowing green. "Dance, jump and shine across this zone!"

Partly to her own surprise, the leaves, stones and even the breach in front of her rose, doing as she had commanded, while Fox herself rose to her feet, taking up the gun and fighting a dizziness while turning around to where the Gargoyles had ran to.

If this doesn't buy me time, nothing will, Fox thought, racing against her own exhaustion and ones who were possibly already tracking her.

She ran maybe twenty minutes at least, until the forest had cleared and she even could see the plane standing on the airfield with its jets howling…

A Gargoyle stepped out of the shadow of the last tree, and just as she raised her gun to shoot him, he grabbed it, showing one second later to be Brooklyn.

"Damn you," Fox cursed, breathing heavily. "I told you to wait in the plane."

Before the second of his clan could say something, the half-human was running again.

"You only needed so long," Brooklyn replied while catching up on Fox in the middle of the distance on all his fours.

The redhead didn't say anything to spare breath, inwardly cursing herself for having neglected her training in the last time.

As they entered the plane, Fox raced for the cockpit, ignoring Hudson, Deborah and Demona who was tending Shade's wound with the First Aid Kit she had left on the table, throwing away her mask and pushing buttons before even sitting down in the pilot's chair.

In the back part of the airplane, Brooklyn watched the doorway until it closed, and had to hold himself on one of the walls when the plane began to move violently, gaining speed every second.

As he stabilized himself, realizing that they had begun to fly, he used the time to observe the condition of the rest of his group. Deborah and Hudson stood beside a worried Demona who knelt by a dizzy Shade whose wound over her left foreleg that she once again had patched up, managing to stop the bleeding, though probably a scar would remain, adding itself to the remarkable collection the gargbeast had already assembled.

"I'm in the cockpit," he told them, walking past them until reaching the foremost part of the plane where Fox sat.

He took a short look behind him, noticing the armor suit that bore a striking resemblance to the ones the Hunters had worn, hanging besides the door, almost complete except for the mask.

"Nice dress," the beaked Gargoyle commented.

"David's idea," Fox replied, not taking her eyes from the displays and the sea in front of her. "Not that I had time to use it when saving you… Who were they by the way? I recognized Lucifia and Thailog, but who are the others?"

"Guys who were better off staying buried," Brooklyn replied, sitting down beside her. "Thanks by the way."

Fox just shook her head.

"Just tell me what you plan to do now?" the former merchant asked him, pointing to the mobile radio. "Calling home?"

"Yeah, but first set the course for…" Brooklyn started.

"Manhattan?" Fox asked.

"London," the Gargoyle corrected her with a sigh. "I have to warn the clans there, and they have the best contacts."

To Be Continued…