Shards
Disclaimer: Any familiar characters you see belong to Disney. I'm just playing with them.
Summary: War changes people.
A/N: A short missing scene from one of my unpublished Gargoyles stories which occurs sometime during the year 2020. The clan is stuck in the middle of an Unseelie war originating from Victoria's home universe which threatens to wipe out everything they hold dear.
Warnings: A fair amount of angst, some allusion to death of a main character.
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"Father, she refuses to come out."
Goliath sighed, his elder daughter's voice shaking him out of his grim musings.
"It's only been a few days. She is in mourning. Let her be."
Angela shook her head stubbornly, arms folded in a way that most humans would find intimidating and that usually made her hatchlings behave.
It wasn't enough to fool her father, who knew that the younger gargoyle was barely hanging on by a thread.
"This is a war, Father! Delilah's still a warrior, she can help us fight. Everyone's lost someone! We don't have to like it, but we do have to keep going forward!"
Feeling impossibly old, Goliath glanced away from Angela's glowing eyes toward the burning, crumbling buildings.
These attacks were slowly destroying everything they had sworn to protect.
The humans were dying so quickly and his clan was falling apart, all because of Maddoc and his evil schemes.
"If it were Brooklyn, you would want time to grieve."
Angela's eyes narrowed at the bluntness in his voice; at times like these, she looked more like her mother than herself.
Without another word, she turned and stalked off into the castle, the moonlight glinting off the deep purple armour she now wore.
The rustling of wings approaching from out of the shadows didn't even startle him enough to make him turn.
"She doesn't know how to deal with his death."
Demona's soft voice just made him sigh.
"None of us do. Brooklyn blames himself, and Angela refuses to make him feel worse, so instead, she's lashing out. Everyone is staying out of her way."
He turned and gave his former mate a grim smile. "She can be quite intimidating when she puts her mind to it. I suppose she got that from you."
"Says the seven foot tall giant," Demona flung back at him, although her heart wasn't in it. Her eyes showed too much worry over their only child.
If anyone had told him 20 years ago that he would have become nearly as cynical as Demona he would have laughed.
Of course, she had softened quite a bit with time, especially since the arrival of the hatchlings.
She had seen far more battle than this in her considerably long lifetime, but even she was growing weary, he could tell.
"How is Kristi?" he tried to distract her. Her fondness for the hybrid was something he'd never thought too much about, as it was part of the reason she'd started to change for the better. Talking about her always seemed to improve Demona's mood.
Unfortunately, it didn't look like that was going to be the case tonight. If possible, immortal gargoyle looked even more worried. Goliath immediately focused on her, concerned.
"She's devastated." Her voice was barely above a whisper; as if she felt that the few humans and Honour Guard members currently in the courtyard could hear her.
"She isn't responding to anyone, and she hasn't left the infirmary since she returned."
Goliath's fist clenched. "Puck?
"He's stable, for now, although he nearly died twice. I'm not sure how long he's going to stay that way, it was all Kyros and I could do to make sure he didn't die as well. I honestly don't know if he'll ever regain consciousness."
She caped her wings around herself and folded her arms in an unconscious imitation of her daughter. "It's no secret that I never liked Owen, and I like Puck even less. However…"
Here, her voice wavered for a moment before she steeled herself.
"Kristi needs them alive. She can't carry this war on her own without them. She's strong, but they give her strength. I tried to save them, I tried, Goliath. We spent hours just trying to get them stable but…without them, I don't know how she'll keep going."
They stood there in silence, letting the sounds from the courtyard wash over them.
"She'll keep going because she's a gargoyle and a protector and that's what we do."
Demona gave him a sad smile.
"It's going to get her killed."
Goliath sighed, not for the first time wishing that Elisa and Ciara were far away from this mess. Shaking thoughts of his wife and younger daughter away, he stood straighter.
"It will not come to that."
Demona's sudden uncaping of her wings made his eyes snap to her, but the blue female wasn't looking at him.
She was frowning down at the courtyard, where the subject of their conversation was striding determinedly towards the few Honour Guard members there. The humans who were there were scattering; not a surprise, as the Unseelie leader looked murderous.
"I don't like the look of this, Goliath."
Privately, he agreed with Demona. Despite everything, he had only seen the hybrid with that look of pure hate on her face once before, nearly two decades ago, when she had gone after the creature that had tortured and nearly killed Puck.
Trying his best to push aside the unsettling feeling, he responded.
"Then perhaps it is best that we go to her."
Without another word, the two of them made jumped off the battlements.
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I hope you enjoyed this…let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is always welcome.
