All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorised by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of Silverbolt.
Gargoyles:
The Wolf Adventures
Talks
Written By Silverbolt.
Email: silverbolt2012@hotmail.com.
Previously on Gargoyles:
Elisa: Oh, my gosh. He's a clone. They grew him from a piece of you, like a cutting from a plant.
Goliath: A piece of me? This thing is me! First Xanatos steals my home, and now he pieces out my soul!
Elisa: You've got every right to be angry, but no right to take it out on Thailog. What difference does it make how he came into being? Now he's as much gargoyle as you are. In a way, he's almost your son. How can you reject him?
~Double Jeopardy~
*****
How could it be true?
Thought Delilah as she glided over the city Elisa is the closest thing I have to…to a mother.*****
Elisa just gave her a sneer "Why? Isn't mommy allowed to say bad things to her daughter? She pointed at her clone "well forget forgery because you're not my daughter in fact I don't even know what I saw in you in the first place!" she began to get off the bed. "Angela is more my daughter than you'll ever be, in fact…" she continued " I hate you clone ever since I met you I've hated you!" she began laughing again wickedly.
*****
The clone looked up at her, tears running down her cheeks and into the cuts. "She hates me Mrs. Maza. She hates me."
"Who does?"
"Elisa. She hates me, she hates me, she…she…hates…meeee!" Delilah's' head fell limply to the side as she became unconscious.
~Full Moon Rising Part Two~
The Labyrinth, four nights after Thailog's Demise.
Elisa was walking in the tunnels of the Labyrinth on the way to visit her brother. Goliath had told her about how Thailog had broken Demona out of her prison but they had had a 'disagreement' of some sort. He had been a bit sketchy on the details, but all she knew was that Thailog was gone and there were some new residents in the Labyrinth. She wondered who they were…
She continued to walk down the tunnels when she heard someone running down the tunnel the opposite way to her, it was hard to see the figure in the dim light but obviously the other one hadn't seen her for a second later it crashed into Elisa.
"Ow," Elisa cried as she fell on the floor. The other figure fell on the floor opposite her with a similar cry of surprise. Elisa rubbed her head and picked herself and walked over to the person who ran into her who too was rubbing their head. "Gee, I'm sorry, I guess I should have got out of the way huh?" she said as she offered a hand to the woman that appeared to be a gargoyle. The female accepted with a shivering talon.
"I…I Sorry." Apologised the female, with fear in her voice as she realised that she was looking at a human. Something she wasn't supposed to make contact with.
Strangely both their voices sounded awfully familiar but neither Elisa nor the women could put their finger on where they had heard them before.
"You must be one of the new residences here," Elisa said.
The gargoyle managed a mumbled "yes"
Elisa couldn't make out the face in the darkness but there was something about the way she stood and held up her chin that made her feel a bit of like she had seen this person somewhere else. "Have we met before?" she asked, "you look awfully familiar."
The gargoyle shook her head. "No, I do not think so."
Of course we've never met
she thought there's only two females in Manhattan. And she doubted it was someone from one of the other clans. But then who…"Delilah?" Shouted a voice coming down the tunnel "Delilah, where the blazes are you?" A light shone in front of Elisa and the woman, it was a dim light but in eventually Elisa realised it was only her brother with his eyes glowing with electricity. The woman took a step back on realising who it was and stood behind Elisa.
"Talon, thank god it's only you." Elisa said happily.
Talon grabbed her arm and began to shout "Delilah, this is the second time you've ran away from the Labyrinth where the hell did you…" he stopped when he realised who's arm he was actually holding onto.
"Derek. What are you doing?" Elisa asked as Talon let go of her arm. "Can't you even tell your own sisters voice now? And why are you calling me Delilah"
"Er…I-it's not that I just mistook you for…" he stopped when he realised at what he was about to say.
"Who?" Elisa enquired.
Talon spotted Delilah stepping out of the shadows, head hung and looking ashamed. He gave an annoyed growl "Delilah, there you are."
"Delilah? Is that your name?" Elisa asked. Delilah nodded.
"Delilah, where did you go?" Talon said really trying not to shout. "You've done this twice now."
Delilah didn't look up "Went to find master Thailog." She said quietly.
"Master?" Elisa exclaimed. "Did she just call Thailog her master?"
Her brother slapped his hand to his head. "Delilah, Thailog is dead, as in gone and he's never coming back."
"I know." She whispered. "Just…hoped."
"OK, what's going on?" Elisa demanded "why is she calling Thailog her master, why did you mistake me for her…" Delilah lifted her head and with the new light producing from Talon she could see the woman's face… it was Elisas face!
Elisa took a step back "Oh my God! She's got my face!" she gasped "She's got my voice, she's a clone of me!" but then she suddenly realised whose brow ridges that Delilah had. There was only one female who had those and…and she couldn't bear thinking about it.
"Yes she is a clone of you," said Talon "she's also part Demona as well"
Elisa continued to stare at Delilah who was staring back as well "Oh my God!" she said "OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod" Delilah took a step back looking worried.
"Elisa it's all right" Talon said trying to reassure her.
"All right?" Elisa questioned "she got my face!" she looked back at the clone, who had quickly hung her head in shame.
Talon looked at Delilah, and shook his head "I think I'd better explain all this," he said pulling Elisa's arm trying to get her to move.
On the way back Delilah walked a little behind the other two. Once in a while Elisa looked back and the clone hung her head quickly again and slowed down a bit more…
*****
Elisa froze when she came into the living quarters of the mutates and found herself staring at four negative versions of gargoyles she knew.
The nega-gargoyles looked at her curiously but did nothing. Delilah quickly moved to join them.
"Talon? Wh-what's going on here?" she said shocked.
"These are the clones that Thailog made." Said Talon.
"Thailog… made them?" she gasped.
Over the next hour Talon explained everything. Demonas breakout, the trap set at the amusement park, the attack of the clones, Thailog dumping Demona and bringing out Delilah, and finally the death of Thailog.
"So the clones had nowhere to go so we took them in…" he stopped when he saw the look on Elisa's face as she continued to stare at the white winged gargoyle. "Elisa?"
Elisa continued to stare with a look of horror at something her brother had said during the story. "She tried to…kill them?" she said slowly. Delilah began to shift uncomfortably.
"Hey don't blame her" Talon said "It wasn't her fault, it wasn't the other's fault either, they didn't know it was wrong. The only one you should blame is Thailog, he's the only monster here not them."
Elisa nodded slowly "yeah, y-you're probably right she said." She still wasn't comfortable with the fact that someone else was wearing her face. But something in the back of her mind was angry. It swore that it would make Sevarius pay for this insult, this mockery of her. She shook it off.
But the way that Delilah was acting touched her. This wasn't some mindless robot but a real, living and confused being. She moved over to the clone.
Delilah had listened to Elisas comment and looked down and began to question herself. Killing is… wrong? She thought But master told me to do it master isn't wrong…is he? She asked herself uncertainly. She snapped out of her thoughts as she found Elisa standing in front of her.
"Can we talk a minute?" Elisa asked. The clone looked shocked but nodded.
The conversation was only brief and it soon drifted to silence until Delilah asked a question. "Is killing bad?" she asked quickly before turning her head away quickly in case she had said the wrong thing.
The detective nodded "Yes," she said "Yes it is."
"Why?" the clone asked innocently.
Elisa was a little shocked by the question. She tried to think of a way of how to explain it simply to this person who had hardly even began life itself yet. "Because it's taking life, and…and it makes the people who knew the person sad."
"Would it have made you sad?" Delilah asked. "If I had killed others?"
Elisa once again nodded "it would have yes."
"But master told me to do it," said the gargoyle "is he bad too?"
"Yes he was." She said.
"Am I bad?" the clone asked.
A beeping sound came from Elisas jacket pocket.
"What that?" Delilah asked.
"A pager, and it's telling me…" she looked at the message, and turned pale. "It's nothing. I-I have to go." She said getting up quickly. She ran, not wanting to tell Delilah that she had been called to a murder.
Delilah watched Elisa running away and looked down at the floor. She thought it was her fault Elisa ran away.
She must not like me,
she thought if she runs away like that. She looked up, with a determined look on her face. I'll make her like me. She told herself. I'll prove to her that I'm good. Make her proud of me.She didn't know how…
But she would…
Medical Wing, Eyrie Building. Present Day
Diane was showing a photo album to Delilah who was looking at it with great interest at the stories that seemed to come with every photo. "…And that's Elisa when she was five years old, oh the mischief she got up to at that age, there was even one time when she wanted to play with the cat but it didn't want to so she pulled its tail." She let out a little laugh "you should have seen the look on her face when the cat scratched her, she was terrified of cats for years."
"Why is that funny?" Delilah asked. "Didn't you care that she was hurt?"
"Oh I did care," she said softly "but it was only a little scratch, and besides it was another one of those lessons she had to learn."
"Don't pull cats tails?" The clone asked innocently.
"Er…something like that." She flicked through the pages "Oh look there's Elisa holding Beth, she adored her little sister so much and…" she stopped mid sentence as she saw Delilah's face cringe at the word 'sister'. "Delilah? Are you all right?"
"I-I'm sorry, I…please continue." She said trying to bite back tears.
Diane shook her head "Delilah there's something you're not telling us and every time we ask, you refuse and I want to know what it is now." She said sternly.
The white haired gargoyle shook her head but began to shift uncomfortably with the look that Elisa's mother was giving her. "I-I've been having dreams Mrs. Maza," she started "bad ones, I don't like them." Tears ran down her cheeks.
"What are they about?"
"They all have a woman in it. She says she's my sister and sometimes says she cold or hungry, but it cannot be possible."
"Why not?"
"Because I remember when I first awoke, there was only me and Thailog, and nobody else."
"Does this have any thing to do with why you won't speak to Angela?" she asked as she gave the clone a tissue to wipe her eyes.
"No." she snapped at the name of her half-sister. "I don't want to speak to her because…" She bared her teeth at what Elisa had said to her. " …Because Elisa sees her as more of a daughter than I am."
"Does it mean that much to you?"
"Yes…it does," she said, "Or at least it used to." She muttered under her breath. Elisa's mother seemed uncertain what to say now. Delilah picked up the photo album and continued to look through it, but it didn't effect her, for there was an emotion starting to go through her and continued to grow with every photo… every page…
Every life.
She wasn't sure which one it was, jealousy or envy or maybe a mixture of both, but she did know that it was something she had felt every single day of her life, but this was the strongest she had ever felt this emotion.
Everyone she knew apart from the other clones had a past, memories of childhood's, experiences, everything she didn't have but would have given up so much just to have at least one minute of.
"It's not fair," she said out loud.
Diane looked at her "What's not fair?" she asked.
The tears began gushing out of the clones' eyes again "Everything!" she wailed. "Why can't I have things that everyone else has, like a family, and-and a childhood? Why was I denied the chance to be a real person instead of some abomination of science who's just a cheap copy of two people who already exist?" she sobbed.
Through the tears she continued to stare at a picture of Elisa and Goliath hugging each other. Or to her a graphical insult to something she didn't have, but the one thing she wanted most of all. Her lip began to tremble as she looked up a Diane. "Why can't I be loved?" she asked in a whisper, hoarsely.
"Delilah I…" she started, but a knock on the door stopped her from saying anything else. Owen came through the door.
"Mrs. Maza, would you come outside for a moment?" he said, "There's someone who would like to speak with you."
"Who?" she enquired.
Owen just gave her a knowing look. "I think you know who."
Her eyes brighten, and got off the bed, and went for the door quickly, but stopped and looked at Delilah, who stared back at her, eyes stilled filled with tears and a look that said 'please don't leave me' on it. "Don't worry" Diane said, "I'll be back in a minute."
But Delilah continued to stare "Promise?"
She smiled kindly "I promise." She moved back to the clone and gave her a quick hug, before leaving the room to see the person she prayed it was.
As soon as she and Owen were gone, Delilah continued to look at the picture of Elisa and Goliath for a few more moments before slamming the book shut and throwing it on the floor trying hard not to cry again.
*****
Diane stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her. Her husband was waiting there with Goliath, Angela and…Elisa. "Elisa?" she asked, a smile beginning to grow on her face.
"Mom." Elisa said, smiling back. Diane ran over to her daughter and gave her a huge hug, and Elisa did likewise.
Pain rushed over her mothers face "E-Elisa could you let go I can't breath!"
Elisa did so, embarrassed. "Sorry mom, I-I didn't mean to hug that hard." She said. But I didn't do it that hard she thought I guess there's still some wolf still in me. She only hoped that wasn't going to last!
A tear of joy escapes her mother's eye "Are-are you all right now? I mean are you human or are you going to…?"
Elisa shook her head "don't worry mom I won't be wolfing out any time soon." At least I better not be! She thought. The detective looked up at Goliath "Mom there's something else you should know about" she said as she held the hand of her husband-to-be.
Diane shook her head "It can wait" she said. "There's someone in there who you should see."
Suddenly Elisa's thoughts returned to the matter at hand. "Delilah?" she asked her mother "Is she…is she all right? I mean did I hurt her? Is she…?"
Diane shook her head "she's fine…sort of," she locked eyes with her daughter "Elisa you need to talk with her, she thinks no one wants her."
"What makes her think that?"
"I think you'll to find out for yourself," she said as she coaxed Elisa to the door.
"But I don't think she wants…" she started.
"Elisa, she does needs you." Diane said softly.
She knew there was no way of arguing with her mother if her mind was made up about something. "All right" she said as she began to turn the doorknob but her mother placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Elisa there's one thing I want you to do for me."
"What's that?" She asked.
"Make sure she doesn't go back in the corner." She said. "It took two days to get her out of it!"
Elisa gave her a silent nod, opened the door and closed it behind her.
"Do you think is this a good idea?" asked Angela.
Diane nodded "Yes." She said. "Yes I do…"
*****
Delilah heard the door open and believed it to be Diane. "Hello again Mrs. Ma…"she stopped cold, when she saw who was really standing in the doorway.
Elisa smiled sadly "hi." She said
The clone's eyes opened wide in terror and she let out an ear-piercing scream, she backed off the bed and fell onto the floor, knocking some get well soon cards off a table with her tail, still screaming and moved quickly into the corner of the room. She curled up into a ball and covered herself in her wings trying to protect herself against Elisa.
Ho Boy
thought Elisa as she stepped closer to her clone.Delilah risked a peek and saw Elisa coming nearer to her. "No, no stay away from me" she screamed "stay away!"
"Delilah I'm not going to hurt you." She said to reassure her clone. It didn't!
"No, no you're lying!" She wailed, tears rolling down her cheeks, exposing her face to Elisa. A face much like her own but with one major difference, the three claw marks running across her face much like that of a hunter. "You're lying!"
"Oh my god! Delilah what did I do to you?" she gasped as she tried to touch the marks.
She narrowly escaped the claws of her clone as she backed away onto the bed.
"Don't touch me!" Delilah screamed "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Elisa looked at her clone and continued to stare at the marks, unable to believe what she had done to her. "Delilah, I did do this to you, didn't I?" she whispered.
Delilah, still in the corner stared back at Elisa with a mixture of fear and anger plastered on her face and tears trickling down her cheeks, but said nothing.
Elisa shifted uncomfortably from the look that the gargoyle was giving her. She had to say something to her, but unsure of what.
"Delilah, I'm…sorry." she said weakly.
There was silence as Delilah stared at Elisa in disbelief. "S-sorry?" her clone asked quietly. "Sorry?" she repeated. Delilah's eyes brimmed with angry tears. "Is that all you can say…sorry?"
"Delilah I…I know you angry, you have every right to be but…" Elisa protested but Delilah refused to listen.
"Your Sorry? After what you did to me all you can say to me is sorry?" she shouted. "Do you really think that's going to do anything, say you're sorry and 'poof' everything is going to be all right again?"
"I didn't mean it like that I-I just…" Elisa started.
"If I was Angela you wouldn't have hurt me" she added with a sneer.
Elisa was taken aback by the comment from her clone. "Delilah, that's not true." She whispered. "I never wanted to hurt you, Angela has nothing to do with it." She rubbed her arm "I care about you Delilah and I-"
"Lies!" Delilah screamed "They're all lies!" She pointed a shivering talon at the detective. "You're a liar just like everyone else… You don't care about me." She turned her head away as she felt fresh tears form in her eyes. "Nobody cares about me." She sobbed. "Nobody"
"Th-that's not true Delilah, we do care about you."
"Only one person has ever cared about me, and he's dead." She cried.
Thailog! She's talking about Thailog!
Elisa thought. "No Delilah you're wrong, Thailog doesn't-" she corrected herself. She can't know that he's still alive. she thought. "-Didn't care about you, he was incapable of love."The young clone glared at Elisa. "Was he Elisa?" she said. "How can you be sure? Was it because he was a clone like me? Is that it?" she sneered.
"No, it's not like that. He was evil, through and through."
"Not to me he wasn't." The clone sighed.
"But didn't he…" Elisa realised that she had nearly said what she and the others had wondered about Thailog and the use of his cloned mate.
"You think he used me don't you?" Delilah suddenly realised. "You think he did things to me"
"Delilah I-we just thought because you were made for him and-and…" she felt dumb now for even thinking such things.
"I was made two days before he died Elisa." She sighed "But that doesn't matter anymore. He's dead, and I no longer have any purpose."
"That's not true you do have a purpose, people do care about you… I care about." She hesitated "I care enough about you to call you my daugh…" she didn't have time to get out of the way as her clone threw herself at her.
The clones' face was inches from her own as she began to shout. "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" she screamed "DON'T YOU EVER CALL ME THAT!" she sobbed. She backed away with angry tears in her eyes. "I'm not your," she spat the next word acidly "Daughter" she tried to wipe her eyes but the more she wiped, the more tears formed. "I never have and I never will."
"Delilah please…" Elisa pleaded.
"You never wanted me, you never loved me, all you ever cared about was Angela, you want her to be your daughter." She accused "Never me."
Elisa looked away This is all you fault Maza! She told herself. It's true what's she's saying… you never did spent time with her, never gave her any attention.
But I have been recently she protested
By then it was too late
she said in her mindShe remembered when she first saw Thailog, telling Goliath that the clone was his son… yet when she got a clone of her own she turned her back on it.
Talk about not practising what you preach!
She continued to look at Delilah and… and she began to cry. "I'm sorry Delilah" she wept "I am so, so sorry, I didn't want to hurt you I never wanted to. I-I just couldn't stop it from happening." Delilah didn't care Elisa could see that "Delilah please, I know I've done wrong, but I'm trying to make it up, I really am."
"It's too late for that Elisa" her clone whispered. She touched her face "how can I ever forgive you for what you've done to my face?" she asked slowly. "How? You've scarred me for life, you've made me into a hideous freak." She fell to her knees and cried into her hands. She wrapped her wings around her body trying to comfort herself. "Because of you I'm going to be alone… nobody will ever want me with a face like this." She cried.
Elisa moved slowly towards her clone and knelt down next to her. She placed a hand on her shoulder " you're wrong Delilah…you'll never be alone, if know nobody wanted you why did my mother spend time with you, why did the other clones send you get well cards… why am I here?" she asked gently.
Delilah looked up at Elisa who was smiling kindly, then at the hand made cards that her brothers had made for her, then at the discarded photo album that Elisas mother had shown to her (trying to show her that Elisa wasn't a bad person). She remembered that Sharon had brought her, her favourite food to eat and Maggie bringing her some romance novels to read (Okay she didn't read them in the end but it was the thought that counts)
Is it true?
She thought. Do they really… care about me? She looked at Elisa, still smiling and she realised something. It wasn't the look of hatred like when the detective had come back to life, or the face of the psychopathic she-wolf, but Elisa's face.Elisas' real face.
The same kind face that had told her that she was proud of her, the face that had promised to help her talk to Demona, the face that was trying to make up with her right now.
"Those scars don't look to bad to me you know" Elisa said after a moment or two.
Delilah looked back at Elisa "y-you think so?"
"Here," Elisa said offering a hand to her clone. "Let me show you something." She led Delilah to a mirror on the wall. "Tell me, what do you see?"
"A hideous monster." The gargoyle sighed.
The Detective shook her head "I don't." she said, "I see a beautiful young woman who could get anyone she wanted if she tried."
"That's because you're standing in the mirror as well." She said quietly.
She stepped out of view of the mirror "I'm not now and I still see that image."
Delilah couldn't help but smile.
She walked back over to the gargoyle and placed a hand on her shoulder her face becoming more serious. She moved a piece of stray hair off her face "Look… I truly am sorry what I did to you and-and I know that part of you will never forgive me, I can accept that," she started "And I know you couldn't want me as a mother ever, but can we at least still be friends?" she said hopefully. She put her hand out.
Delilah looked at the hand and then at Elisa. She thought for a moment before placing her hand into Elisas. "Friends." She agreed.
"You know…" Elisa started "I-if you want to after you leave, you could come over to my apartment and we could do something. You know a little make up can easily cover those scars, and we could watch a movie and have pizza and you know…spend some time together." She didn't know if she would accept or not but she could at least try.
"Pizza?" the clone asked excitedly. She loved pizza. "I would like that" she said smiling "very much."
Elisa brightened up "great!" she said happily.
Delilah could stop a yawn escaping her mouth. The raven-haired woman smiled "I'll go now," Elisa said, "So you can get some rest." She began to walk to the door.
"Elisa wait." Delilah said quickly and before the detective could stop her ran up and gave her a hug. "Thank you" she whispered into her ear.
Elisa placed her arms around the clone and suddenly felt some tears in the young clone's jacket. She moved back and looked at her clothes "remind me to help you get a new wardrobe as well will you?" she said.
Delilah looked down at herself "I don't know if I could find another jacket like this though." She said sadly.
Elisa thought for a second and removed her own jacket. "Here." She said as she offered it to Delilah.
Delilah looked startled "But I can't accept this." Delilah said, "This is yours."
She shook her head "No it's yours now Delilah…" she placed it into her clones hands "someone who loved me once gave me this. And now I'm giving to someone I love."
She looked from the jacket to Elisa and back again. Tears formed in Delilah's eyes "thank you." She said overcome with emotion.
Elisa smiled back. "I'll see you later then?" Elisa said as she turned for the door
"Elisa wait please." Delilah said again.
Elisa turned round "yes?" she asked.
The clone rushed to the photo album and showed it to the woman "Could you…could you show me this?" she asked hopefully.
"Where did you get this?" Exclaimed the detective.
The white haired gargoyle rubbed her arm "Mrs Maza was showing it to me but she didn't finish and I want to know more and…"
"You want me to finish?" Elisa asked understanding where she was getting at. Delilah nodded. "If you want me to sure."
They sat on the bed "hey I remember when that was taken!" Elisa exclaimed.
"Tell me about it."
She smiled at her clone "Well I was five years old and I wanted to get the cats attention…" she began with a laugh.
They continued until the sun rose in the distance…
THE END