Creation began on 08-26-11
Creation ended on 05-08-16
Gargoyles
The Acceptance of Stone and Flesh
A/N: I was looking at Christine Morgan's works, Romances and Lyre, Lyre, when I got this idea. I'm not stealing like last time. This is a totally new piece that takes place some time after the end of the second season. Something my Brother Correction character can be placed in. I give Christine Morgan the credit for inspiring this piece of fiction revolving around some of the greatest cartoon characters ever put on television!
"To travel through time, to shift the balance and order of power, freedom, fate, to alter existence for the proper reasons, and to save one from an undeserving end," the god-like voice of the eternal embodiment of justice, salvation and redemption uttered in a near-sage-like tone, looking out from on his throne in his domain at the many things he'd collected over the endless times. "A box that unleashes the horrors of pain and pleasure… A dummy that nearly brought great danger to children in a twisted perversion of fun and games… A druid stone that was part of a set of six that could either unleash a grand demon or keep it in check…but only once its child was brought to the realm of mortals… And now these talismans of power."
In front of his throne, atop two podiums, were an ancient book that contained several incantations of powerful, human-based sorcery…and a gold and blue, medallion-like object with a bird-like creature engraved upon its surface. These, along with other objects of power, often ended up coming to his home whenever cast out of the realm they existed in…or were destroyed by other forces below his own. He had been to the realms of these two objects several times now, but it seemed like however many times he went, there was not going to be any peace between the Three Races until their inner demons were fought and defeated.
"And I thought my business with Titania was going to be a simple cakewalk before I punished her and forced her to see the error of her ways. Now the situation is that of humans once more. Or rather…the work of a man that hides his shame of hurting his brother with rage against an enemy that never was…and a member of the First Race that also hides her one-thousand-year shame of condemning the others of her clan to death with rage against those that never were her enemy." He told himself, having seen their faces, discovering they to be the cause of such new pain in the world. "Demona… Jon Canmore… The hunt must end."
-x-
It was just another active night in New York City, but the only important action was between the Manhattan Clan, several of the Quarrymen, their leader, John Castaway (who was really Jon Canmore), and Demona. With the destruction of the Praying Gargoyle statue, Demona, who was unable to remove all of the Second Race from the planet and allow the First Race to reign, was back to the older ways of trying to deal with her hatred against people: Removing them through murder and trying to get the other Gargoyles to see things her way. Unfortunately, the Quarrymen, comprised mostly of New Yorkers that were too terrified to see that it was only Demona that was dangerous, were out and about, looking for Gargoyles to smash to bits, and the disguised Jon Canmore was intending to start (or even finish) the job of removing the would-be enemy with Goliath.
Donning another powered exo-suit, Demona was armed to the fang and claw against both the Manhattan Clan and the Quarrymen. Her hatred was at an all-new high, but she made it a priority not to harm Angela, even though she was allied with Goliath.
"It ends here!" She growled, aiming her exo-suit's right arm's cannon toward some Quarrymen and fired a rocket at them.
The worst thing about fighting atop the World Trade Center Towers was that because of explosions, falling was especially easy to perform. And that's what seven of the Quarrymen did as a result of the rocket exploding.
"No!" Goliath yelled, and ordered the Trio to save them.
Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington dove off the tower and glided down to rescue the falling men.
Hudson brandished his sword and swung defensively at the Quarrymen around him and urged them to give up and go home.
Brooklyn had managed to grab three of the falling Quarrymen, Broadway had caught three others, and Lexington was able to catch the last Quarryman, setting them the roof of a nearby building before catching an updraft to get back to the battle on the World Trade Center roof.
-x-
"…To the next world with you, Demon!" Jon shouted as he swung his electrified hammer at Demona's exo-suit, managing to damage its left leg, crippling its mobility.
"Haaaurgh!" Demona hissed and snarled at him; even if he managed to kill her, it'd only be temporary, as she was bound to this world by the Weird Sisters' magic.
"Stop!" Goliath shouted at him; this was going to solve nothing.
"Aaaurgh!" Jon yelled as he brought his hammer down.
"ENOUGH!" Someone else shouted, and Jon was immediately pulled off of the exo-suit by an invisible force.
"Huh?!" He gasped, and saw a glowing hole on the ground.
A man rose from out of the hole and everyone saw him.
"This…has gone on for far enough," he told them, looking down at Demona, who seemed disgusted with his presence. "Oh, don't give me lip, Demona. It's partially your fault we're in this predicament that has escalated to such levels of violence."
"What sorcery is this?" Hudson questioned, and Jon was set down on the ground. "Who are you?"
"Hold on a moment, sir," the stranger expressed, and raised his hands up, causing the Quarrymen hammers and Demona's exo-suit to atomize into dust. "That helps a little."
As Angela and the Trio regrouped, they were surprised to see a new human that seemed to have an aura of unearthly power around him.
"I am Brother Correction," he introduced himself, and they were all levitated off the World Trade Center, "and this is a madness that needs to end now."
Somehow, this Brother Correction guy was able to lift this all up into the air by just his will alone.
"This madness will only end when all humans are no more!" Demona snarled, pointing to Jon and the Quarrymen. "They're a plague that needs to be eliminated!"
"The gargoyles must be destroyed before they destroy us!" Jon declared, pointing at Demona.
"Shut it! Both of you!" Brother Correction shouted at them, which surprised Goliath and Hudson. "Your deranged perceptions on who and what is a greater threat is as awful and as childish as your ill behavior towards each other as a species is! Humans did this to gargoyles, gargoyles do that to humans, and it becomes nothing more than an endless feud about something that happened more than ten centuries ago when superstition and the sword ruled!"
Suddenly, the night sky around them changed into one of the sun setting, and the world below them changed into a scenery of what had to be something the gargoyles (minus Angela) recognized. It was a battle on the cliff side where Castle Wyvern originally stood, and the Vikings were attacking.
"What is this?" Jon asked him.
"This…is a memory of how a choice made over ten centuries ago shaped the fates of many lives," Brother Correction stated. "This…is the day where it all begins."
The Quarrymen watched as the Vikings were trying to break into Castle Wyvern…and were soon at the mercy of the gargoyles that awoke to find their home being assaulted. What made them question the actuality of the scenes being played out in front of them were the ones in which the gargoyles were actually protecting the people that lived in the castle from the Vikings. There wasn't a scene where any of these winged beasts caused some sort of mayhem against the innocent.
"Take what's left of your men and leave," they heard the memory of Goliath say to the lead Viking as he let him go, but Hakon, the Viking that was spared death by the tallest of the gargoyles, swore he would return.
"Those gargoyles," one of the Quarrymen uttered. "None of them ever attacked the people living in the castle when those Vikings attacked."
"Because most gargoyles follow a simple instinct most of their lives," Brother Correction expressed, lowering them all into the center of the castle grounds, unnoticed by the people and gargoyles around them. "What do you call a gargoyle that doesn't protect their territory and community as they breathe the air each night? Sometimes, the worst monsters around you aren't the ones you see as monsters…but the ones that look just like you because they're stubborn or unwavering towards the growth of acceptance and understanding. Back then, there was a pact of sorts between the people that once resided in the castle and the gargoyles that once lived in the caverns beneath it. So long as the people agreed to protect the gargoyles from attack during the daylight hours when they were at their most vulnerable, the gargoyles would protect the people throughout the night from their attackers."
Broadway saw his past self stacking food in response to a small panic that had happened in the courtyard, but couldn't grab at any of the food present himself. It was like he was trying to grasp at smoke or air.
"It's merely a memory of what had already transpired, Broadway," he told the over-weighted gargoyle. "Nothing is tangible here."
One scene that was shown transpiring earlier, however, that was rather disrespectful, was the memory of a younger Princess Katherine and Magus insulting the gargoyles that kept them safe, a clear sign of their rigid and stale understanding of the intelligent creatures back when they didn't understand them with a clearer mind. And there was Demona's own rigid and stale dislike of them because she felt they were superior to them.
"They should bow down to us!" Her past self admitted.
"And they still should," she expressed.
"Demon!" Jon called her.
As much as they wanted to go at each other right then and there, they found themselves unable to do so. It was as though they were forced to watch these past events play themselves out.
Time sped to the very next morning (when the Quarrymen saw the gargoyles sleep as stone against), where a lone individual on a horse rode away from the castle.
"A man you once trusted, Goliath," he told the leader of the gargoyles.
"The Captain of the Guard?" Goliath questioned.
"That day, he left to meet with Hakon of the Vikings, seeking to strike a bargain with him…a bargain that had also included Demona. He didn't like the people that hated you out of fear and tried to make it so that while they were removed from the castle the next day, your clan would have the castle all to yourselves in the aftermath."
"Just as Demona once said."
"Unfortunately, nothing went according to what was planned. Demona, who had her own reasons for not trusting the captain, stayed away from the castle the day of the attack, never letting anyone know what was going to happen, even though she could've saved several of them if she had. Hakon reneged on his end of the bargain and…aided in the breaking of an old-but-strained relationship."
"I wanted revenge for what was done to my clan," Goliath told him, and the Quarrymen saw how Hakon refused to listen to reason or the captain that tried to persuade him not to do the unforgivable.
While it might've been seen by Jon as a great service, to the gargoyles, it was viewed it as a horrid act of murder and unnecessary cruelty. Even Brother Correction saw this as brutal and savage.
When the night returned and the Goliath and Hudson of the past returned to find the castle pillaged and the clan decimated by the Vikings, the survivors swore vengeance while at the same time rescuing the people that had been taken captive.
"That doesn't make sense," another Quarryman uttered. "They were slaughtered by a man, and they still choose to save the people that hate and fear them?"
"Gargoyles…for all intents and purposes…are a simple race," Brother Correction told him. "Far more simple than human beings will ever be today. Simple beings, simple needs, simple impulses, such as their natural instinct to protect their territory and community. It didn't matter to most of them if the people they were protecting hated them out of fear; so long as they were still viewed as being a part of the community, they were to be protected, regardless. Some can choose to believe in people worth protecting or something else entirely. It isn't all that different from the police that protect and serve."
"How can you defend them like this?" Another man asked him. "And how do you know all this stuff about them?"
"I've been around for a long time, so I know enough about the world and all its inhabitants. Like how the primary races are gargoyles, humans and Oberon's Children, and how the gargoyles were the First Race. Humans are the Second Race."
"That's insane," another man expressed.
"It's fact. Whether you choose to believe it or disbelieve it is up to you."
As the past Goliath went after the captain and Hakon, who had Katherine with them, the Magus, blinded by his fear and hatred against the gargoyles and believing the princess to be dead, laid the spell on the survivors that rescued the people from the Vikings as a fitting form of retribution, as he couldn't wield a sword to save his own life.
"That's terrible," one of the Quarrymen in the back, removing his mask and throwing it to the ground.
"It's justice," went Jon in response.
"It was cruel," Brother Correction stated. "And unjustifiable."
When Goliath returned with Katherine and discovered what the Magus had done (and was unable to reverse because of counterspell having been burnt earlier by Hakon), the gargoyle leader, emotionally put down by the severity of his losses, as the Magus to cast the spell used on the survivors on himself.
"And for one-thousand years, six of the seven survivors of the Wyvern Clan slept as stone, day and night, unchanged by the passage of time," Brother Correction expressed.
"But what of her?" Jon demanded, pointing at Demona, who wasn't turned to stone by the Magus.
"This…is where time shortens to show how she, as a consequence of her attitudes towards humans, became the very dark soul that she is, in a worse way that isn't easy to absolve of past crimes. We shall go to the night she created her first enemy that would become the creator of a mantle and vendetta."
The world around them shifted from the memory of Castle Wyvern at night with the survivors of the Wyvern Clan perched atop the parapets in their stone state…to the night on a small patch of farmland…and a young boy that was investigating a noise in a barn.
"I remember this night," went Demona; she had nearly forgotten the time she had harmed the human boy that was there that night.
And everyone saw what Demona had done to Gillecomgain.
"How could you do that to him?!" Lexington asked her. "He was just a kid!"
"He had it coming!" She defended her actions of stealing food from the barn that night.
"You hated him only because he was human," Brother Correction stated the truth; none of their reasons, none of their secrets were secret from him. "But the harsh thing of it was, Demona, that if you hadn't maimed the boy's face, if you had knocked him to the ground or frighten him away instead, he wouldn't have sworn a vendetta upon you and, by extension, the rest of the gargoyles. He would've just gone on to live out his days until he died of natural causes instead of falling to his death because of you. It was the brutality of causality that you committed that night. You made, created, the young man that would become the first Hunter and the vendetta that has gone on for nearly one-thousand years."
The Manhattan Clan was disturbed by the memory of Demona's crime against Gillecomgain and how she herself, both directly and indirectly, caused the creation of the Hunters. Even Angela was appalled by her mother's actions.
"You don't know that!" Demona told the man.
"Actually, I do," he defended mildly.
"You stink of human!"
He glared at her in contempt and willed a metallic patch to appear around her mouth.
"Mmm?! MMM!" She reacted, trying to remove the patch, but was unable to.
"Unless your words are nothing short of admittance of your crimes, Demona, you should really just listen and watch your history show how you became the way you did," he told her.
The memory shifted to show a withered Demona entering into a pact with the Macbeth in order to save his kingdom by the Weird Sisters, magical representations of vengeance, grace and fate, and Jon was forced to see how the aged gargoyle had gone from withered to the youthful beast that laid waste to his family for generations. How Demona had obtained her name from Macbeth after protecting his kingdom from its enemies, both internal and external, and how Demona had almost felt she could trust humans after helping Macbeth. Though Brother Correction had made sure to show them all that the two were being manipulated by the indirect actions of the Weird Sisters who, under orders from another human enemy of the past, the Archmage, to keep watch over and guide the two in order to help the withered magician get revenge against his own enemies, which included the gargoyles, due to being banished by the previous prince of Castle Wyvern.
Demona had no knowledge of these happenings at all (and was infuriated to know that she had been manipulated by a human she once studied magic under). Unsettled by the manipulations of the Weird Sisters, who also had a grudge against the humans from her past, and disgusted at why she was bound by her link to Macbeth.
Brother Correction, however, kept many of the memories of the Avalon Clan away from the Quarrymen and Jon in order to protect the clan and reinforce the fact that this was mainly about Demona and her actions, not the actions of those around her that were affected by other actions, either involving her directly or indirectly.
"So no matter what anyone tries, this gargoyle can't be killed?" A Quarryman asked him, referring to Demona's immortal state.
"That's what the memories showed," he answered him, looking at Jon, who looked as though he were having difficulty accepting all of this. "And do you see why your vendetta against the gargoyles is futile and will bear no fruit?"
"It's been my family legacy ever since I was old enough to remember," Jon responded. "The Demon killed my father."
"And she will answer to that and her other crimes, but vengeance isn't the way. Vengeance is never the way. It only begets more vengeance. You confuse it with a need for justice, and all it does is draw in greater discord. An eye for an eye…and everyone's blind. Bloodshed for bloodshed…and there's nobody left able to bleed by other circumstances."
He then showed them a memory that was very recent, almost several weeks to three months ago, at the St. Damien's Cathedral. And Jon was forced to relive that night allover again.
"It wasn't supposed to be that way," he told Brother Correction.
"What wasn't supposed to be that way?" He questioned, seeing his past self accidentally inflict the crippling injury of his elder brother. "Whatever it was can be anything."
"I…I thought Goliath was going to hurt my brother."
"Admit that you panicked," Brother Correction informed him. "Admit that you were the one that hurt Jason, not the gargoyles. Take responsibility for your actions…or risk being alone."
Somehow, Demona felt that he meant what he said for her, as well. She had admitted her guilt for her actions once before, but she wouldn't again. In her mind, she knew she was justified in her decisions.
"And what if I can't?" Jon asked. "I'm already alone."
"You're only alone because you made yourself alone," he told him. "You and Demona. Refuse to admit your roles in your respective actions involving those you associated with, and you try to alleviate your guilt by denying your role in them, instead choosing to blame those you feel are responsible…because it's so easy for you to hate them and delude yourselves into thinking that if they hadn't been involved, things would've been different. But there's no change or acceptance without first admitting your responsibility in what happened. Once you accept what you've done, once you take responsibility for your actions, your crimes, your sins, only then are you on the path to absolution…but only once you let go of hate."
Demona looked at them, and then at the Quarrymen…and then at the other gargoyles. It was so hard to tolerate humans, to see the world from someone else's point of view, to believe in coexistence, tolerance or forgiveness. With her, over one-thousand years of hatred was all she had known. All that she had allowed for herself to believe.
"You, too, Demona," went Brooklyn to her. "Admit your crimes, confess your sins."
The immortal gargoyle's memories replayed around them all, as if to reinforce that her actions were crimes she had to own up to.
"Aaahh!" Gillecomgain's child self screamed as Demona maimed his face for life.
"If you are not my ally, then you are my enemy," Demona's past self told Goliath on the third night of the Wyvern Clan's surviving members awakening in the modern world, just before shooting at him in an attempt to eliminate him.
"Just own up to your crimes, Demona," Brother Correction told her, but she nodded her head in the negative, that she wouldn't.
"It's my fault Jason got hurt," Jon confessed. "The gargoyles never did anything wrong."
"Do you accept responsibility for your actions?" Brother Correction asked him.
"I do," he answered him.
Then, in an instant, his John Castaway guise faded away, leaving as he used to appear.
"Disband the Quarrymen."
"Yes, sir."
The memories of Demona's actions against others continued play and replay in loops, but the immortal gargoyle did not relent, even though the knowledge of everyone now knowing of her past, including Angela, had shown a degree of stress on her face, despite the patch covering her mouth.
"Mother, just admit that your role in your crimes," Angela pleaded to her.
But Demona continued to refuse.
"Own up to it, lass," Hudson uttered.
"Accept that you caused harm to those around you," added Lexington. "Accept that you created the first Hunter and caused it to become a vendetta!"
"Confess your crimes, Demona," went Broadway.
Even the memory of her wanting to smash the container holding the virus combination that would eliminate all the humans in the world, but couldn't because the Praying Gargoyle statue had been smashed by Goliath, unwilling to release the virus that could kill the gargoyles along with the humans, excluding herself.
SMASH! She saw Goliath smash the Praying Gargoyle.
"Alright! It's my fault!" She finally yelled out; the metal patch covering her mouth had disappeared. "I tried to protect the clan from the Vikings! I made the first Hunter! I betrayed Macbeth! I killed other Hunters over the years as I tried to get rid of all the humans! I did all of that! I confess my sins!"
Everyone was silent.
"Do you feel better, having admitted your crimes?" Brother Correction asked her.
"Barely," she answered back.
"But you do feel as though a heavy weight has been lifted from off you, right?"
Demona thought about it and sighed…that she did feel that way.
"You continue to accept that…you'll eventually obtain forgiveness."
-x-
They returned to the roof of one of the World Trade Center Towers. Mainly the gargoyles and Brother Correction; Jon and the disbanded Quarrymen had been relocated elsewhere by the mysterious man that appeared.
"I sent the people back to their homes," Brother Correction informed the gargoyles. "It can be hoped that, now that they know that most of you aren't a threat to anyone, they will learn to accept and tolerate your existence. And the Quarrymen will be no more, along with the Hunter vendetta."
"What about Demona?" Brooklyn asked him, as the immortal gargoyle was on her knees, looking lost and depressed. "I don't mean to seem doubtful, but every time we thought we could trust her to not have a trick up her sleeve, we get deceived."
"Maybe now that she has learned to accept her faults, she will give up her futile hatred," Brother Correction told them. "And then, there's this."
Before anyone could say anything else to him, surrounding the Manhattan Clan, over a dozen gargoyles and one gargoyle beast.
"But…they were shattered during the day," Hudson gasped.
"But here's an interesting question to ask, elder," said Brother Correction. "Were these the ones that were shattered…or is possible for willing to defy fate to such extremes that they can reach back though the abyss of time and pull the victims of unforgiving fates into the present?"
"Something of that sort was tried with the Phoenix Gate," Goliath expressed, "but all it proved was that time is immutable. It is impossible to change history."
"There is rarely such a thing as 'impossible'. Trying to change history through magical means, maybe, but through other means, the same limitations don't always exist. Say one goes back to the days leading up to the massacre, but only to observe the way gargoyles look when they sleep…and then make sculptures of them to deceive a man that refused to see reason? And then, say one goes to the day of the massacre…and is able to deceive the man into thinking he is doing what would lead him to his end…and preserve the sleeping clan-mates to return them to a later time? There are many ways to say how that day could've been prevented or cheated. But…to be blunt, I pulled your rookery siblings away from the day they were to be shattered…and brought them to the present…for I am not bound by such limitations or reliant upon magical talismans like the Phoenix Gate."
"Uh, a question, sir," went Angela to him, and he turned to face her. "You showed the people memories of previous events, but you seemed to keep out other events. Places, even. Why?"
"There are some things that people as a whole…are not ready to know just yet," he answered her. "There are those that can be trusted with such knowledge…but not everyone. And could you really imagine what would Avalon be like in the general public knew that it actually exists and tried to get to it? Regardless of Oberon's decisions, there would be those that would stake anything and everything to claim the island for themselves."
Then, out of curiosity, Angela felt that she needed to ask a personal question.
"You're…not as human as you seem to be…aren't you?" She asked him.
"Heh," he chuckled; he gave no indication that he was offended by such a question. "I used to be human. For all intents and purposes, I am still very human…but I haven't felt human in a long time. How can anyone that is or was human describe how they feel as human? One form of honesty is that we can't explain it…and another form is that we are defined by our very actions toward others. But…to remove the sense of identity, I am simply what I am…just as you are what you are."
Angela accepted this response from him.
"However, there is one gargoyle I must now go after, as he is a rogue and must be apprehended before he crosses an unforgiving line."
"Who would that be?" Broadway asked him.
"Coldsteel, your rogue brother with a cruelty lower than Demona's because he's just a renegade not out for anything simple, like wealth or a need for vengeance. Call me crazy, but nobody's perfect…and I'd feel more comfortable making sure that such individuals were watched after to make sure they're capable of redemption."
"And…what happens if they aren't capable?" Lexington asked him.
"Then they're watched after until they are…one way or another without having to resort to lethal methods. Always strive to keep from crossing that line."
Before they knew it, Brother Correction had disappeared in front of them, leaving only a note behind.
Goliath quickly picked it up before the wind caught it, and read what was written.
"What does it say, Father?" Angela asked.
"He suggests that we go see Sevarius…and that he paid him a visit once before, regarding the mutates and clones," Goliath explained the note's contents. "He also says that the mad scientist may not look the way he does if we ever see him, since Sevarius was forced to work on something else that is to help people instead of harm them."
-x-
Incarceration. She allowed herself to be incarcerated within one of Castle Wyvern's former prison cells, as she couldn't even risk trying to flee from the clan. Not that she thought of fleeing, as she was still processing the fact that she admitted her crimes, forced to accept her guilt. It wasn't something that Demona ever thought was likely to happen, but a human far more powerful…and had been around far longer than she had ever been had made her face that truth.
"Do you feel better, having admitted your crimes?" Brother Correction had asked her. "Do you feel as though a heavy weight has been lifted off from you? You continue to accept that…and you'll eventually obtain forgiveness…you'll eventually obtain forgiveness."
And for the first time in a long time, she actually wanted such absolution.
-x-
"…You're a hard person to get a hold of…Coldsteel," the ghost in the shell of an advanced android made to look like the gargoyle possessing it heard the human say to him, hovering high above the clouds. "You can't escape from me now."
Extending his wrist-mounted tentacles, Coldsteel prepared to make this human fear him.
"I thought you might try that, which is why I went to bring these two with me to face you," Brother Correction told him, and the robotic gargoyle was soon apprehended by two gargoyle-like individuals he was associated with.
The one grabbing his left arm and leg was gold and modeled after a female he once tried to make his, and the one on his right was like a patchwork of machine and gargoyle parts, but clearly a male. They were none other than Coldstone and Coldfire.
"Your days of threatening the safety of others are at an end, Coldsteel," Correction told him. "You're another mistake that needs to be corrected. The aspect of your mistake is your unwillingness to commit to the way you gargoyles follow. Instead of protecting, you seem committed to harming, and that simply will not do. I don't believe in murder or destruction unless absolutely necessary, so you only have these two options: Incarceration…or redemption."
A/N: What do you think of this story? Could Demona be on the path to redemption after being made to admit and accept her guilt at her past crimes? The Hunters and Quarrymen no more? The massacred gargoyles of the Wyvern Clan brought to the present? What do you think should happen next?