This is a story is based on the Gargoyles universe created by Greg Wiseman and Michael Reaves. Gargoyles and related characters are registered trademarks of Buena Vista Pictures and Walt Disney Studios. The stories and characters not described above are original creations of T'Layna MacMathain, and Poison Thorns Productions. Copyright © 2000 All rights reserved.
Resurrection
By
T'Layna MacMathain
Chapter 1
Strolling through the park one day...
It was a typically chilly afternoon in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Golden Gate Park is the largest park in San Francisco, covering over five square kilometers of land. The park itself is a one-kilometer wide strip of land that begins at San Francisco's famous Haight-Ashbury district extending westward to the ocean. The park's open terrain often acts as a natural conduit for the chilly offshore breeze that precedes the fog as it blankets the city in a gray blanket at night. The park is large enough where a person can wander in and get lost enough to feel totally out of the city, yet still be within the city limits. There are many patches of wooded land that homeless people often gather and hang out, or in some cases, solitary people can be by themselves. Loneliness was not an unfamiliar feeling for the odd, thirty-something woman that was wandering in the woods on the park's eastern side late one June afternoon.
She was dressed in the typically dark style of the Goth. Her face was festooned with the ghostly pallor and heavy makeup that enhanced her features in a morbid way that many women and men found attractive. Her crimson-streaked purple hair peeked out from the black lace veil that she wore on her head. She wore a flowing, ankle-length black velvet dress accented in black lace. Slender, delicate arms were covered with long, delicate lace gloves woven into a cobweb pattern. She wore a silver chain about her waist, which ended with a small silver skull on the free end. A number of rings decorated her black-tipped fingers with an assortment of skulls, vipers, spiders and other morbid imagery. The only other piece of jewelry she wore was an unusual pendant she recently purchased from an odd curio shop in The Haight called Gargoyles just hours ago. The pendant itself was unique. It consisted of a winged dragon wrapped protectively around a blue stone that had an unusual shimmer that the girl found to be very appealing. The dragon's face bore an expression of defiance as if to challenge the viewer to try to remove the stone protected with its serpentine body.
Her friends, what few she had, knew her only as Viper. She was originally known as Dennis Morgan, born of a religious family in Kansas City. He had never felt right from the beginning about which he was inside and eventually moved to San Francisco three years ago. Throughout his life, he always wondered why he felt more like a girl than a boy did. His parents were always evasive about the subject, but instead subjected the youth to religious counseling and church-dominated psychiatry. Instead of "curing" the confused lad, it only made him worse. Suicidal depression and morbid writing became the kid's life. When he turned thirty, he departed for San Francisco.
When he arrived in San Francisco, he ran into an odd woman his age named Raven. Raven immediately sensed something different about Dennis, who was just beginning to experiment with the Goth look and was now known as Skull. Raven then introduced him her mother, an aging activist, writer and mystic known as Lady Spider. Unlike all other adults he met in his life, Lady Spider turned out to not only be very understanding, but also was a wealth of information. She then directed Dennis/Skull to a number of resources that she felt would benefit the tormented kid. Curious about his origins, and feeling like there was some cover-up about his origins, he learned that he was born intersexed, or with both sets of genitals. As is often the case, his parents arbitrarily opted to make the infant a male, as a result of both patriarchal privilege and of the father's misguided obsession to pass on his legacy to a son. Little did his parents or the doctors realize that they had made a terrible choice. For the baby, it meant a childhood and adolescence of misery, internal conflict and often mental or physical abuse at the hands of the so-called normal kids.
That was two years ago. Thanks to Raven and Lady Spider, she was now living a woman's life scrabbling for what few dollars she can from her writing and art to pay for the surgery that will correct the grievous blunder her parents made years earlier. Still, the life of a transgender was never easy, even in ultraliberal San Francisco. When her life became too stressful, she would often go to the park or a cemetery to just quietly meditate or write. Today was such a day.
Her trip took her to a small, secluded area about half a kilometer from the park's eastern entrance. She had been to this spot many time and was surprised nobody else seemed to care about this place. For her, that was a good thing, for she didn't want any human company. Humanity can fuck itself for all I care. As she settled down, she pulled out a small container and rolled a joint and indulged. Suitably stoned, she began writing more dark passages in her notebook that she carried in her ever-present backpack. As the sun descended in the west, she started feeling sleepy and reached into her pack to pull out a small blanket she sometimes used if it got too chilly. She drifted off to sleep.
She soon felt a tap on her leg. Ignore it. It will go away. She felt the tap followed by a soft voice telling her to wake up. Great! The fucking cops are harassing me again! She groggily woke and saw the voice was not that of the police, but a strange woman dressed in flowing, blue-white robes and warm, understanding eyes. Damn, this weed's better than I thought, I am actually seeing faeries! She smiled. The woman was very slender and had long, pointed elfin ears that protruded from her flowing copper locks. Viper also noticed the unearthly glow emitted by the woman. At least it isn't a freakin' cop! I got enough problems.
"Pardon me for being stupid, but just who the fuck are you?"
"I am a servant of Oberon." The strange woman replied.
"Oberon? Now I am confused. Who is Oberon?" Viper replied warily.
"Oberon is ruler of the Third Race, whom your kind know as fae." The apparition's face began to show a more concerned expression. "You are in much turmoil."
"How observant." Viper replied, the sarcasm dripping like venom from a fang of her namesake, "Now what do you want with me?"
"Unknown to you, there is great danger afoot from the nether realms. You will be a key in the coming battle along with your closest friends. You wear the Dragon Stone. You will fulfill the Prophecy. It is your destiny."
"This cheap trinket?" Viper replied with laughter, "Whatever it is you are smoking, I want a kilo of it. Got to be better than what I am tokin'."
"The 'trinket' as you call it is gifted with magical powers." The fae replied unfazed by the barb; "Though you live in turmoil, your heart is pure and your spirit is one of the Second Race. As sometimes happens, you were not born as you were meant to be." That remark jolted Viper. How the hell does she know that? "Though it is unknown to you, your human ancestors once protected a clan of the Second Race from certain extinction by your kind more than a millennium ago. Though the ones your clan protected those ages ago now dwell in the mists of Avalon, you are the one that will revive them in your time."
"Uh, what is this Second Race? Is there a First Race?"
"You will find out soon. As for the First Race, that is humanity. Be forewarned that you should leave this place and be somewhere safe before daylight."
"Why me? I am nobody special. Why do I have to be 'someplace safe' by daylight?"
"Trust in Oberon's grand plan. You were chosen simply because you can understand things others choose not to. Your mind is open and you are a natural leader. You also understand suffering and you want justice and peace. The Dragon Stone will guide you to your comrades. When you find one as you, the stone will glow. Touch them with the stone. Magic will do the rest." With that said, the strange apparition vanished into the night.
Viper stood there in total amazement. She soon heard the sound of voices. One of them crackled from a radio. She instinctively knew it was the police. Well, they can't catch me before I get out of the park. She smiled and silently gathered up her property and quietly slipped out of the park undetected. When she got out into the streets, she saw the police more than two hundred meters away and not the least bit interested in her. She smiled as she walked over to Hayes Street and caught the first available bus back to her apartment in the Tenderloin.
While riding the bus back to her apartment, she noticed a young woman with shoulder-length brown hair that was the shade often referred to by her family as 'grunt' brown. Viper almost thought she was looking at a mirror. This girl looks a lot like I did two years ago when I got here. The girl looked very much out of her element. Viper rose and sat next to the troubled girl.
"Where are you from, kid?"
"Salt Lake City. You probably want nothing to do with me. I'm probably too dull and normal for you."
"Then why are you in San Francisco? This ain't exactly the Mormon Tabernacle you know?"
"The Mormons would just as soon watch me die. At least I have a bit more freedom here," she bitterly remarked.
"My name's Viper. I know it sounds morbid, but in reality I am a struggling artist who likes to look like the undead. My real name is Denise. Denise just doesn't fit this image the way Viper does," said Viper with a sweet smile on her face.
"My name is Ariel. I just got here a week ago. I am out on the streets tonight. I missed the stupid curfew at the shelter."
"Come with me, dear." Viper declared, "I can spare some floor space for a night. There is no point in you being out on the mean streets tonight. When was the last time you ate?"
"This morning. At the shelter, and it was barely edible at that."
"I don't have much, but I do have some leftover chicken and veggie soup. Tombstone made it for me. He's my roomie and also a Goth like I am. We're not involved romantically since I am lesbian. He goes both ways. Still, he does pay his share of the rent."
"You are a lesbian? So am I!" Ariel declared proudly. "That's what's got my parents and the Mormons all pissed with me." Fifteen minutes later and a ride up a creaky old elevator in an equally run down apartment building, the two women entered Viper's apartment. Ariel's mouth dropped open when she saw the decor. It looked like medieval castle dungeons from the tenth or eleventh century. In an odd way, she found it appealing. One predominant theme was the number of small gargoyles hanging on the wall and as statuettes. There were also many dragons as well. Strangely, Ariel felt more at home in this morbid decor than she did at her clean, middle-class suburban home in Utah.
"I love what you did to this place!" Ariel said in wonder. "My parents would have called all this 'Satanic' and would call you a Devil worshiper."
"So would mine, dear." Viper replied knowingly, "My parents were totally religious to the point of fanaticism." Viper went into the refrigerator and removed a small container and tossed it into the microwave. Fifteen minutes later, the young girl was devouring the meal like a ravenous wolf. As the night wore on, the two women chatted and learned a lot about each other. Like Viper, Ariel's parents thought that religion was the ultimate cure-all for everything from the common cold to being gay or lesbian. Since Ariel didn't fit into the Mormon philosophy and gender roles, her parents tried to cure her much the same way as they Viper's tried to. Like Viper, the results were the same.
Two hours later, a key grated in the door lock and a tall, slender Goth male entered the apartment. Like Viper, he was dressed in black, but in pants and shirt with a long duster over the whole combination. Unlike Viper, his hair was naturally black and he wore only a large silver skull about his neck. In addition, his hands were covered with a claw-like gauntlets made of sterling silver. He took one look at Ariel and smile broadly.
"Fresh meat, Viper?" He wryly remarked.
"Forget it Tombstone! She's a dyke." Viper warned as she put a CD in the stereo.
"Ask me if I care? Just remember that the next time I bring over one of my boy toys." he replied with mirth. The eerie sound of one of the newer bands in the San Francisco Goth scene began filling the room from Viper's stereo.
"Yeah, right." Viper replied with comic sarcasm, "I was just fixing to roll a fatty. Want to join us?" He then sat on the futon and produced a bag of marijuana. Tombstone expertly rolled up two joints and flipped one of them over to Viper. She then lit the marijuana cigarette with a lighter that was embedded in a skull on the coffee table. Twenty minutes later, Tombstone and Viper were quite stoned. Ariel was not too thrilled about being in a strange apartment in a strange city with two equally strange potheads, but she had thus far been treated with respect. She also didn't want to spend another chilly night riding buses. Just the thought of it brought angry protests from her sore joints.
As the night wore on, Ariel listened to the many stories and experiences of both Viper and Tombstone. Viper glanced up at the clock and noticed it was approaching five AM. Viper reached into her closet and pulled out a cot and a sleeping bag.
"Tombstone jacked it from a shelter." Viper commented as she set up the temporary bed.
"Beats all hell out of Muni bus seats or cold pavement." Ariel replied appreciatively. She then noticed Viper removing some of the veils and lace. As the young girl's eyes moved to Viper's jewelry, she smiled. "I love that necklace!" the young girl commented as she studied the strange jewelry, "I love the way that stone glows."
"What did you say?"
"Your dragon pendant is glowing. That is so freakin' cool!" With that said, Viper looked down at the glowing stone in the protective dragon. Even the dragon's eyes seemed to be alive and aglow with an eerie blue light. A startled expression spread across Viper's face. She saw the beginnings of daylight outside her window. A strange, tingly sensation began flowing throughout her body as her ears began to fill with a crackling sound. Pleasant warmth began spreading through her body. She could see the alarmed expressions on Ariel and Tombstone's faces.
"Are you OK, Viper?" Tombstone inquired.
"Oh shit! Oh fucking shit!" Viper exclaimed. Five seconds later, Viper had turned into stone.