25 And the sky will weep blood

by Hardwing

As Lucifia's efforts to open a gate to the evil which befell her reach the climax, the clan and its allies seem as divided as never before in the mission to defend the city and themselves from the evil their enemy unleashes. Learn how not just dimensions are ripped apart in midst of the chaos.

the sky will weep blood

I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES 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.

The clan awakens from a series of nightmares Lucifia managed to trap them in.

"Goliath?"

The leader of his clan looked up, seeing Puck floating over the battlements, looking north.

"You might want to see this!"

Alarmed by the unusually serious tone in the Elf's voice, Goliath climbed up the stairs and took a look over the city, gasping at the sight.

The sky over the Bronx had turned slightly red, and where the Gargoyle guessed the Yankee Stadium was, Goliath noticed a blood red dome, shielding any view.

*** and Dreamscapes***

20.09.98; 23:31; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

"Chavez just confirmed it," Elisa stated, looking around at the gathered clan. "The dome over the Yankee Stadium appeared nearly at the same time the castle went to sleep. Without explanation or anything sustaining it from the outside."

"Magic." Goliath commented.

"Official story is that it's some sort of energy shield, probably used by terrorists," she continued. "All police forces are ordered into service."

"Then let's help them!" Brooklyn threw in, clenching his fist.

"No way," Elisa replied. "Chavez's made clear that she won't tolerate any Gargoyles there."

Brooklyn and Goliath exchanged silent glances, while Ajax was more vocal.

"How mad is that? We might face the end of the world tonight."

"Agreed, but would you know a way to go in if you were there?"

This question left the crested Gargoyle silent.

"I do."

Everyone turned to the source of the reluctant voice, and Delilah felt like shrinking under the summoned gazes, despite the support Roland offered her.

"What do you know, lass?" Hudson asked.

"I and my brothers..." the hybrid swallowed. "We found an underground passage to the stadium once, when we were going to watch a game."

"They checked the normal culverts," Elisa said. "They were all blocked."

Delilah shook her head. "It is deep, old...long." She remembered "Brentwood...always found connections."

"Sounds like a chance," Brooklyn commented, mustering Delilah.

"A chance?!" Ajax asked, unbelieving. "A chance to kill us again! She will lead us into a trap!"

Delilah looked away, hurt, while Roland stepped in front of her, snarling at his brother and the clan in general.

"Just remain silent, can't you?" Darlene asked, looking at Ajax.

"If you're gonna do something, do it fast before the police get the idea." Elisa added after a second. "Word is, the mayor might call in the army."

"We can't have the humans find out that Lucifia caused it," an elder noted.

"We will give it a try," Goliath decided, taking a look at Delilah before turning to Elisa. "Do you think Chavez minds if we take watch over the rest of the city?"

"Not if you stay out of sight."

"Then we will split up. One team shall go underground, the other patrols the city, while the rest of us shall protect the castle from further attacks."

"Sounds like a plan," she said. "Look, I must join the rest of the cops at the stadium, but I will try to keep you informed."

With this, Elisa and Goliath shared a deep embrace, causing some members of the clan to smile despite the situation, while the faces of others stayed stoic. From the shadows, the giggling of some hatchlings was heard.

"Be careful, Big Guy," Elisa whispered.

"You, too, my Elisa," her mate replied, and left.

With his mate departing, Goliath looked over to his clan. "I will take a group to the underground." He decided. "Brooklyn, you will take as many as the clan necessary to protect the rest of the city, in case something else should happen. Brother, you will be protecting the castle with the rest of the warriors."

The whole clan agreed, even Ajax, who was tasked with protecting the castle, nodded after a second.

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20.09.98; 23:33;

Trinity Church Cemetery:

Silence prevailed over the graveyard, as three owls landed on a single tombstone, hooting as if to decide if this was a good place to hunt.

Suddenly, something more of a claw than a hand emerged from a grave, and the owls flew away, protesting loudly.

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20.09.98; 23:49; Castle Wyvern, Armoury:

Brooklyn went through the massive amount of weaponry gathered in the room, thinking about which would be the most valuable.

"There you are."

The Clan Second felt his tail go stiff, as a shudder went all the way down his spine upon hearing this voice. He turned around, facing Lana who looked at him quite unsure, trying to tell himself to be reasonable, and to remember that the nightmare had been just that.

"Lana, I'm kinda busy," he said, his words coming out colder than he had intended, and he felt a pain as he saw her looking away, wincing.

"I'm sorry," he added quickly. "What is it?"

"I want to join your patrol over the city."

"Why?"

Lana laughed without humour in her voice.

"Isn't that what Gargoyles do? Protecting the city?"

"Sure," Brooklyn said, scratching his beak. "It's just that you never showed much interest in it."

Lana looked away for a moment.

"I provided her that bowl. I mean..." She hesitated. "If I caused the end of the world, I want to do something to stop it...or at least prevent some damage."

Brooklyn looked at her for a moment, fighting the unease he felt at imagining her with a weapon, and noticing that she had gained some attitude since beginning her training.

"Okay," he said. "You can come with me."

Lana smiled, and went to pick up a weapon. "Shall I use a laser gun?" she asked.

"Have you trained with it?"

Lana shook her head.

"Okay, then no." He decided. "It is also better if the humans don't see us with guns, as they'll get a bad feeling about it. Here."

He handed her a long-sword.

"I heard you are good at it," he noted, picking another long-sword for himself.

For a long moment, they smiled at each other.

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A Short While Later:

"No!"

"Mom, this is not up for discussion," Lana said, rolling her eyes.

"Too right it isn't!" Darlene replied, facing her daughter in the courtyard where the other clan-members were preparing for their patrols, with Thersities trying to meld into the background. "You haven't even finished training."

"I've learned enough, and I won't wait until Lucifia comes here to get me."

"Darlene, it is okay. She will be coming with me." Brooklyn intervened.

"Did you have anything to do with this?"

"No!" the second explained cautiously. "It was her idea, and honestly I can't say it will be safer here than out there."

Darlene gave her daughter an earnest look, and then she sighed, turning back to him.

"You will watch her."

"Yes, ma'am."

Still, Darlene looked worried, causing Thersities to bite his lip and say, "I will watch her, too."

The group turned to him.

"You know, protecting is just what I do all the time," he said, and adding with some reluctance, "and hero stuff, too!"

Some of his siblings rolled their eyes.

"He is afraid of the spiders in the tunnels!" Fuchsia whispered to her mate, gaining a short smile.

"Thank you," Brooklyn said dryly to the older Gargoyle, before turning to the gathered group.

"You all have your orders," he said, gaining instant attention, even from the hatchlings who watched from the floor entrances and battlements. "Stay in your sector, mind your communicators, and only engage if it is totally necessary. Remember to call the rest before you do. Let's go!"

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21.09.98; 00:01; Near the Yankee Stadium:

"Please no," the woman begged, though only weakly.

"Shut up!" The man replied by hitting her with the end of his gun.

"Look what you did," a second man, wearing a leather jacket, said as the woman passed out. "If she dies too soon, it will be your head."

"Her belief is weak, and such is her blood," the first man defended himself.

Carefully he placed the limp body back on the chair, and put the left arm, where the wrist had been sliced wide open, back over the bowl, which was half-filled with blood, a strange stone in its middle.

A third man, his heavily tattooed hands resting on an AK-47, was silent, as he watched the stone with intense interest.

"I can feel its strength growing even now," he whispered, though more to himself than the others. "It comes closer!"

A sound of something clicking made the three men tense at once, and they stared at the outside of the apartment's living room to the roof terrace.

The man with the AK-47 opened the door, carefully stepping out into the dark, as his comrades aimed their guns at the various shadows.

Suddenly, something heavy landed on him, making him fall as it snarled.

Losing no time, Demona turned around to the surprised partners of the man, using her laser canon to kill them within three seconds.

As she was about to lower the canon, the third man moved with surprising strength, making her fall and lose her weapon. Demona reached for it, but the man had already grabbed her arms, pulling them apart with unnatural strength.

"Nothing will stop The Coming!" he shouted.

Demona snarled, her eyes shining red, as she managed to bring a leg between herself and him, pushing him away and grabbing the mace fixed on her belt.

The man had already grabbed his gun with speed too quick for Demona not to believe it had something to do with the cursed blood running through his veins...her daughter's blood.

"Nothing will stop us!"

Just as he said this, he was hit by an electric shot, and fell down under heavy pain, quickly sinking into unconsciousness.

Demona's eyes focused on the direction the shot had come from, discovering Macbeth on a flying vehicle.

"Need a little help, old friend?"

"How did you find me?" she replied icily, less than thankful.

"I followed the magic here," he replied. "Or rather, a Will-O-The-Wisp I acquired found it. I assume you had a similar way?"

Demona snarled, and turned around without a word, while Macbeth landed the machine on the roof.

"I know better than to expect any gratitude from you, you old bat, but at least explain to me what is going on here?!"

"I had everything under control!" Demona said, as she entered the apartment.

"Sure you..." Macbeth was following her when he noticed a slight movement in the shadows by the entrance, a shade just recognizable by the eyes, and since he had known it before... Shade was watching over her friend.

"Sure," he repeated dryly, stepping in.

Meanwhile, Demona had stepped over the dead bodies of the cultists, and had shook out the bowl on the table, revealing the strangely asymmetric and orange shining stone, covered in dark blood.

"What is with her?" Macbeth asked, taking a worried look at the woman who lost her last drop of blood from her opened veins.

"She was another cultist," Demona explained absent-mindedly. "They needed the venom grown in her blood to provide the stone with power."

"Power for what?"

"The shield," his old enemy explained reluctantly. "She can't provide the power for it from inside the shield without having consequences, which would disturb the process."

"Process?" Macbeth asked sceptically.

Demona stared at him icily.

"She is opening a gateway to the thing that has infected her," she said icily, sounding at the same time almost disinterested.

With a sudden and violent move, the immortal used the end of her gun to crush the stone, causing a pale red column to rise from it.

"So the barrier is gone?" he asked.

"There are more out there," Demona explained, passing him. "One more should open a hole big enough for me to pass through."

"For us to pass through," Macbeth corrected her. "And if you want to fight about it, I could just call your clan to join the discussion."

Demona stared at him for a second, and then walked off, allowing him to follow.

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21.09.98; 00:24; Canals:

"Here."

Delilah pointed to a hatch in the ground, leading to an even deeper level of the underground.

Goliath knelt down, opening it to reveal an even darker room.

"It had better be no trap," one of the female warriors whispered to her mate.

Delilah winced, already feeling bad by the proximity of the ruined Labyrinth, only feeling slightly calm, thanks to the touch of Roland's claw on her shoulder, as he snarled at the female.

"Silence!" Goliath ordered, grabbing one of the torches and jumping into the darkness.

One by one, the others followed.

"It is large!" Desdemona noticed when all had arrived, and could see the cathedral-like wideness of the place. They were in the middle of the darkness, and the flashlights threw menacing shadows that met with the massive columns. Even their dark-adaptive eyes had trouble looking ahead.

"An old water reservoir most likely," Goliath commented before shaking his head. "Come, quickly!"

They were, it seemed, maybe a hundred metres in the cavern-like structure, when Goliath stopped to inspect the spider-webs covering the whole of the place in front of them.

"They weren't there before," Delilah commented.

"Who cares?" Javin commented. "They're just cobwebs."

Goliath thought about it for a moment, remembering the other time when he had met so much spider-webs, which was in Anansi's city, and then he nodded.

"Brother?" he said to Othello.

His brother nodded, using the sword he had taken with him to cut the cobwebs away.

Soon the group was in the middle of what seemed to be an ocean of spider-webs, quickly losing sight of the walls.

"Leader!"

Goliath looked at what had made Othello stop, discovering before them webs larger than any normal spider could make, and beyond that there was a soft blue lighting, too far away in the distance to be made out clearly between all the webs.

"Behind us!" Javin shouted, raising his mace at the moving shadows ahead of him.

Quickly, the group formed a circle, just in time to see when the shadows moved in direction of the light, revealing spiders, almost one and a half the size of an adult beast, each grey, the ends of their eight legs ending in white points.

"You led us into a trap!" Javin growled in the direction of Delilah, while at the same time never letting the spiders out of his sight.

"I didn't know!" Delilah begged.

"Don't matter, defend yourself!" Desdemona said, her mace rose.

"Good thing our brother isn't here," someone commented in the darkness about Thersities.

0000000000

Same Time Over Manhattan:

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

There wasn't anything the unhappy Gargoyle could do, as he hung pinned in the middle of a giant spider-web, looking up to discover a giant spider crawling towards him, its giant mouth-claws clicking in hunger at the sight of its prey.

Thersities tried to free himself, but the web seemed to hold him only tighter.

Suddenly, the spider fell all the way down to the ground far below, struck by Brooklyn's sword.

"Hold still!"

Thersities barely heard the words, as some of his clan-mates began cutting off the web holding him in the air, while others fended off the other spiders reluctant to release their prey. Finally, he fell unconscious into the arms of Diomedes.

"This hasn't been his night," Fuchsia commented.

"Try to wake him. If he doesn't, take him to the castle," the second ordered before turning to kill the rest of the spiders.

"Cut the web!" Angela cried out. "That worked with Anansi."

"Good idea! GO!"

"I'll never complain about spring-cleaning again," Lana commented, as she used her sword to cut a visibly resistant web, making it fall to the streets, as Deborah and Hudson worked beside her.

Brooklyn wasn't responding, as he watched how the three remaining spiders turned and fled.

~ They recognize they are in bad position and are fleeing, ~ he thought. ~ How intelligent are they? ~

As if to respond to this, one of the spiders, which had fled upwards, stopped and looked around, as if noticing the other Gargoyles were cutting the hold of the web.

"Watch out!"

The moment he saw the spider hesitating, Brooklyn recognized what was going to happen, but he wasn't quick enough to warn everyone, as the spider leaped some metres just as the web collapsed, dooming the other spiders to a deadly fall, and landed on Fuchsia's back.

Everyone was momentarily frozen in shock, as the spider embraced the Gargoyle with its legs, and then sunk its fangs into her, in the place where the right wing met the back.

"NOOO!"

Diomedes' scream echoed through the darkness, and he threw Thersities to some of his clan-mates as if he weighed nothing, to race down to catch his mate who was now falling, with her attacker still holding her in its tight embrace.

Managing to catch them both, the large Gargoyle began tearing the spider into tears, while cautious not to harm his mate whose blood still flowed. It wasn't until he had smashed the head of the monster that he was able to free his mate of it, but as its body fell to the ground, so did Fuchsia's right wing.

Brooklyn landed beside the shaking older Gargoyle who only seemed to see his mate at that moment, cradling her like mad. He also held his claws to her wound, yet a lot of blood still came flowing out of it.

"Someone get some cloth and press it on the wound!" Brooklyn ordered, at the same time grabbing a headset out of his waist-pouch. "Lex, get Doctor Moore. Fuchsia is wounded, and needs a blood transfusion and surgery. She lost her right wing."

"What?!"

"You heard me! We will be there as quick as possible, and try to warn Elisa about giant spiders in Manhattan. And try Goliath…maybe he isn't out of range yet."

Taking the cloths that Angela handed him, he looked at Fuchsia who seemed to have regained some consciousness.

"My wing feels like it's burning," she whispered, her lips awfully blue due to the blood loss. "Please make it stop."

Diomedes groaned at not being able to do anything more, other than press his claws on her wound.

"Listen," Brooklyn told him as calmly as he could. "You will let the wound loose in just a second, and then I will put the cloth on it, and you will put it back on. Ready? Go!"

They did it as quickly as they could, but the pool of blood on the ground still got larger.

"Now you will take her back to the castle," he added. "You three follow him, and take it with you!"

Queens, Edwards and Finn nodded, though the latter took the spread wing with some visible reluctance. A moment later, Diomedes was in the air with Fuchsia in his arms, as tight as he could, followed by the younger Gargoyles.

Them leaving left the remaining Gargoyles in an uneasy silence, as Brooklyn stared at the puddle of blood at his feet, and heard the sirens echoing through the streets under him.

"Okay, let's go on."

"Go on?!" his prank-loving sister asked, having been freed of her punishment for service to the clan. She actually looked rather pale, as stood by the side of her mate. "She just lost her wing!"

"Doctor Moore might be able to sew it back on again," Brooklyn explained. "Then again maybe not. What we do know is that this city needs protection."

He looked at his sister, waiting for a response but got none, and then looked around. Everyone was shocked, and two of them, including Angela, were near to shedding tears, but they held themselves together.

"You saw what these things can do, so be careful!"

The second of his clan shortly met the gaze of Hudson who nodded slightly, making Brooklyn feel a bit better.

Suddenly, Thersities groaned from where he had been put on the ground.

"Did I miss something?"

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21.09.98; 00:28; Castle Wyvern,

Battlement:

Asrial was there beside two of her older siblings, as she held guard. There wasn't much to do really except look over the city and count the lights, but the orange-skinned gargess tried hard to keep her mind from wandering, as she knew it wouldn't make the best impression.

Part of her wished to be out there, doing more than just looking, being with Goliath or the second's group, but the truly thinking part of her mind told her that since she knew the systems of the castle, like no one else except Lexington, she would serve her clan best to stay in case of an attack.

There was no big argument with this, especially given that the last time Lucifia had broken in she had actually managed to steal an egg, so every weakening part of the defence would be a terrible sin. Still...

"Ajax!" a voice called out.

Turning around, Asrial realised how deep she had once again been sunken in her thoughts. The voice turned out to belong to Bea who came running up to their guard-post.

"I need to find Ajax," she explained. "We just got news that there are monsters loose in the city."

"Monsters?" one of the older females asked.

"Giant spiders are loose in the city," the younger female who resembled Asrial in a striking way said. "They already attacked Fuchsia, and according to what I heard they...they took one of her wings."

Asrial gasped while the older couple's lips grew thin.

"Ajax is on the leader's tower," said the older male. "Hurry, lass."

Bea nodded and jumped on one of the perches, making another jump in the air to glide upstairs.

"Can you believe this?!" the older gargess asked. "What is she conjuring down there?"

"Magic," her mate replied, his voice full with contempt. "The same magic she wants to teach to our young ones..."

Asrial wasn't following the conversation, as her mind suddenly flashed with an image so real it seemed like a vision…Thomas sitting at the computer, waiting for an answer from her, not realising that there was a shadow at the open window behind him, a shadow in the form of a giant spider, slowly coming nearer.

"I...I have to go," she stuttered.

Surprised, the mates turned to her.

"A test…" the horned gargess said, quickly weaving a lie. "I had forgotten about it, and I must end it."

"You are on guard," the older female noted, hard. "Can't this wait?"

"Not if you don't want to see the whole castle on fire," Asrial replied.

The mates exchanged a look, which made the clever sister clinch, showing that they were all too willing to believe such.

"Then go, lass," the male told her.

"I'll be back soon," she promised.

She then turned and left, trying to get the look of the older siblings out of her mind, their faces showing such disappointment, but not surprised ones.

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21.09.98; 00:29; Mobile Police Centre,

Near The Yankee Stadium:

"I've just had a conversation with the mayor," Chavez explained to some of her gathered officers. "The army is moving in, in fifty minutes. Except for me and others as advisors, we have to move out."

She quelled the unrest this caused by raising a hand, looking at the officers standing around her table.

"We can't do anything here anyway, and our forces are needed elsewhere. I have gotten a report from nearly everywhere in New York now. Citizens are reporting attacks by unidentified things all around this area."

"Things?" Bluestone asked.

"Giant spiders for one. It might be just panic, but I will tell every officer I can get to get out there on patrol."

"I will go with Matt," said Elisa.

"You will stay here as a further advisor to General Chesterfield."

"What?!" she asked, unbelieving. "I will not..."

"You will, end of discussion," Chavez stated, her tone making clear that she would allow no respite.

Elisa stared for a moment at her captain, and then she turned to the exit.

"I need some fresh air."

She left under the eyes of her fellow officers, most with unease, except for the leader of the SWAT-team who studied her appearance calmly.

Once she was outside, getting a deep breath of the cool air, her cell-phone rang, and she walked into a path between the HQ and a large van that the SWAT had used to get to their missions.

"Lex, any news from Goliath? Yes, I heard about the spiders. The army is coming in fifty minutes, meaning our forces will be back on the streets, so warn Brooklyn he has to be careful." She looked around, as she believed she had heard something, and then stopped when she heard the news. "No… Tell me when you get any news. Over."

She was putting the cell-phone back in her jacket when something landed behind her, blocking the light coming from the centre before the dome. She turned around, not being able to see much except a massive winged shape in the shadows.

"Who are you?"

The shape smelled strange, and looked as it were about to begin moving in her direction.

A growl made both the figure and her look in the direction behind Elisa, its source seemingly being a sort of small dog... no, a coyote of all things.

[Bang!]

Elisa stumbled backwards when the head of the shape exploded, and as it fell down there was enough light to make her recognize who was lying there.

"Detective Maza?" the leader of the SWAT-team said, leaving the tip of his gun directed on the shape on the ground. "Are you all right?"

Still shocked, Elisa looked behind her, but the coyote was gone.

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21.09.98; 00:31; Rain Water Reservoir,

Under the Yankee stadium:

The spiders moved, making circles around them, and for every one they saw, two seemed to linger behind the webs.

"If we stay put, the web will pull us in!" Othello shouted, slashing at a line of spider silk being thrown on him.

"Move!" Goliath ordered. "But stay in formation!"

With this he moved forward, using a sword that one of his siblings had lent him to cut down the cobwebs, together with Othello, to clear a path for the group, as they moved slowly forward. To his surprise, the spiders didn't try to stop him, but moved backwards.

For a moment, the clan leader allowed himself to hope that they would just allow them to pass through, but then there was shouting behind them, as one of his brothers got his leg entangled in a giant string, only to be pulled somewhere deep into the net, if not for Javin grabbing his shoulders and holding him back.

This made an even larger gap in the group's defence, barely being closed by two warriors who killed the attacking spiders. At the same time, more and more small attacks were made at other parts of the formation.

"They are testing our defence," Othello said in near disbelief at the spider's tactical cleverness.

"We must get through!" Goliath replied.

By sheer battle-proneness learned on the fields before Wyvern, the group moved forward, slashing though the strange twilight of blackness and blue light, always desperate to defend themselves from attack, which seemed to become stronger as them came closer to the source of the light.

Finally they reached it, and found themselves staring at a round circle of light, through which in this moment a spider escaped.

"A portal!" Desdemona exclaimed, robbing a spider of two of its eight legs with the blade of her long sword.

"She must have opened it when she tried the big one!" Roland shouted, flinching back from the web directed at him.

"It isn't much further till the end!" Goliath said, noticing how the room narrowed not far from ahead of them.

"We will stay here and cover your tail!" Othello shouted. "We might need this way to pull back."

Goliath exchanged a look with his brother, and then nodded.

"Delilah, Roland, Javin, come with me!" he ordered. "If there are too many, pull back in our direction."

Together they pulled through the last of the small cobwebs, cutting the strings, and only having to scare away three spiders that didn't seem willing to engage.

Quickly they moved forward, always watchful of their backs, and looking worried at the group they had left behind, who were still holding their ground with occasional shouts coming through the shady mist of webs, which the spiders seemed to have made behind them.

"There!" Delilah exclaimed, pointing to the portal, which seemed now only a few metres away.

She took a step, and froze.

In front of her was a shadowy shape, reminding Goliath of Broadway, but to her of someone else entirely.

"Brother!" she shouted, overjoyed as she rushed to embrace him.

In the middle of the way, she stopped in sudden shock.

Hollywood didn't have his usual healthy shade of peachy-orange; but in fact it had turned grey, and some of his skin had begun to peel off. There was a red spot where his heart was, but the most shocking were his eyes, which had become cold and lifeless.

"Siiister."

The others watched this with a bit of the same disbelief she had felt, and a spider used this moment to bite Roland's tail at the end, where the knob was attached to.

"AHH!" he screamed, pulling his tail back, only to notice in shock that the part with the knob had been bitten off.

His siblings at once rushed to fend off the spider, but it had already taken off with its bounty, only to be replaced by four siblings that began to move in on the Gargoyles.

"You let me die," Hollywood meanwhile croaked, staggering in the direction of his sister.

"No!" Delilah screamed, feeling herself being cast back into her nightmare.

"You should have come with us instead of hiding," the clone accused her, coming nearer as she stumbled backwards. "We would have lived if not for you."

"He isn't your brother!" Goliath screamed at her from behind. "Lucifia killed him and put something in his body!"

Delilah heard him, but it was like listening with cotton in her ears.

"Murderer!" Hollywood accused her, approaching. "Let me eat your fleeeshhhh."

She looked at him, unbelieving and at the same time stunned, a part of her wanting to die just to have her feelings of guilt end.

"You won't get anymore of me!" Roland shouted, lying on his back and trying to swipe away a spider following him, feeling weak himself as the end of what remained of his tail continued bleeding.

His brothers were too occupied with the four spiders attacking them to notice, but Delilah saw him, and she looked back to her own brother, who walked toward her with that terrible expression of hate and hunger, his claws extended to her as if he wanted to embrace her.

Making a decision, and feeling exceedingly cold by it, she took one step in his direction, as if to fall into his embrace, but instead of doing so she grabbed two of the four straps that met in the middle of his body, and used all the strength she could muster to whirl him around and onto the spider, which had nearly reached Roland.

The spider at once took him into a deadly embrace, while at the same time Hollywood sank his black fangs into it. This fight was joined by the other four spiders, which had released Goliath and Javin, to go for this easier prey.

Together, the beings pulled the howling clone into the darkness of the webs, while his sister watched, sobbing on her knees, with tears streaming down her face.

Roland, still bleeding, managed to stand up and walk to her, attempting to comfort her, but the hybrid ignored him, as she stood up, her face now unreadable.

"We hurry," she whispered.

Delilah didn't look at the others, but walked in the direction of the supposed way to the stadium.

As they were coming to a place where the hall turned to a corridor, Javin laid a claw on Goliath's shoulder.

"I will guard your back," he said. "You need all your energy for Lucifia."

Goliath looked at him for a moment, and then he nodded, giving him a warrior's handshake.

"If there are too many, let yourself fall back."

With this, he turned to follow Delilah and Roland.

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21.09.98; 00:33; Castle Wyvern, battlements:

Darlene stood at the battlement, absent-mindedly rubbing her swollen belly. She was nearly able to feel the tension of the other gargoyles standing guard at the battlements, their worry for their clan-mates, the city and a possible attack.

The widow felt the same worry, mostly for her daughter out there, probably having no idea what she was going in, for her newly found sisters and siblings and the world in general. She didn't need to have the magical knowledge her mother had taught her to know what was going on inside the bloody couple she could see from her position.

The urge to do something rose, but she swept it aside, knowing her pregnancy didn't allow her to act and suddenly she felt the wish to have her family around her to share which could be very well the last hours of their lives together.

She swept this urge away even harder, knowing it was stupid to give up so easily, that Goliath and his team could very well succeed... for a moment she even believed the red field growing weaker at the top, but this was probably her mind playing a trick on her.

Darlene suddenly felt a slight ache in her stomach.

"Sister?" a voice spoke to her from behind. "You shouldn't be out."

Darlene turned around to see into the concerned face of Ajax, wanting to tell him it was all right, when his eyes widened in shock and he starred at her... or rather her lower body. Looking down herself, Darlene discovered her loincloth having a growing stain of blood just between her legs.

Seeing it she felt her legs giving in, but Ajax was already there to grab her, cradling her close to his massive chest and taking her inside as quickly as possible.

"Please." Darlene heard herself begging as she leaned her head against his shoulder, feeling increasingly dizzy. "My child."

"It will be all right." Ajax replied, not knowing what else to say as he raced through the floor. "Moore will help you."

"Don't..." Darlene began by mustering all her strength. "Don't tell my children... please don't..."

Then she passed out.

0000000000

21.09.98; 00:34; Abandoned Building

By The Yankee Stadium:

"My blood will only make us stro..." the man's last words were.

"No," Demona replied, though the mace meeting the man's head was answer enough.

"You enjoy this too much," Macbeth commented, as his old foe turned and destroyed the orange shining stone she had freed from the dark blood.

"Pah!"

The Gargoyle stared at the dome, upon which the top had begun to flicker, with Shade standing beside her.

"Your dislike for my kind will always stand between you and yours," he added, suddenly sounding very tired and sober. "Aren't you ready to just let go? If just for your sake alone?"

Demona turned around to tell him to mind his own business, but then stopped, her eyes growing big.

Before she could make a sound, Macbeth felt a slight pain in his chest, no more, and so he found it very surprising to see a blade sticking out of him, slicing his armour as if it were nothing.

"I've waited a thousand years for this," the voice behind him whispered. "The father falls like the son... Weak."

"Gillecomg..." Macbeth said, blood pouring out of his mouth.

"The one and only," the man behind the mask with the three marks said, withdrawing the sword and pushing him onto the ground. "Now, to my real prey!"

With this he faced Demona, who was frozen by the fact that for the first time since the pact had been sealed she didn't feel the old king's pain, and shot the laser-canon she held in her claws at his gun, forcing her to jump behind the entrance, hiding there with Shade.

"I don't know which hell my daughter pulled you out of, but I will send you back to it!"

"I will show you," replied Gillecomgain. "And there I will hunt you for eternity!"

With this, he jumped back on his flying hovercraft and began circling around the entrance, looking for a secure distance, holding his gun in position as he did so.

"No matter how the world looks like after tonight," he contemplated, "you won't be in it, demon!"

This was when he saw a movement, and took aim with his gun, only to discover that it was only the gargbeast. The second he needed to realise this, was all Demona needed to jump at the entrance, and from there onto him. His gun went off in vain, and he was unable to move his sword for a reasonable defence.

Entangled, they fell off the hovercraft and onto the roof, where the Hunter managed to kick Demona away, rose and slashed at her with his sword, which she blocked with her mace. But where the sword hit, the mace began to glow, and it seemed like it would go right through it.

"Yes. Yes!" the hunter said, his eyes nearly glowing.

Suddenly, Gillecomgain did glow, as his body was shaken by an electric blast, making him lose the sword and fall from the roof.

Demona looked surprised at Macbeth, who had grabbed his electrical gun and shot the man from behind, who had the same surprised look he had had when Macbeth was stabbed. The surprise cost her only a second, as she threw away the mace, which had lost its head, and grabbed the Angel-sword.

As she rushed to the edge of the roof, she saw the Hunter lying on top of a car, still moving but seriously hurt. Shade used this moment to rush to her side and growl at the human far below. Intending to finish it, Demona was preparing to jump down, when a voice stopped her.

"Demona..." Macbeth said in great pain, blood coming out of his mouth.

Reluctantly, she walked to the dying man, who was now lying in a pool of his own blood

"What?"

"Forg...ahha," he coughed, more blood flowing out of his mouth. "Forget him! Stop her!"

With these words, he pointed on the dome where the top had now opened.

"I'll do it in a minute," Demona replied icily, wondering why she was talking to the man.

"NO!" Macbeth exclaimed "Just for once...just for one time, do the right thing...for your clan."

The last words were only a whisper, and she didn't need Shade whining beside her to realize that he was dead, while she lived, something she had hoped a millennium for.

Demona felt numb, as adrenaline rushed through her, and even when she realized that this dead human probably meant the end of her immortality, she could feel nothing but hatred for the man lying on the car.

"His death is once again well deserved," a female voice said behind her, and in shock Demona turned around.

Three old Gargesses were standing over Macbeth's body. The one who had spoken had hair the colour of ravens, her sisters had golden and white hair. It was the same ones who had brought them together so many years before, but Demona wasn't fooled by their appearance.

"I will not let myself be manipulated by you again!" she vowed, unsure to which one she were talking to, raising the Angel-sword.

"Yet you let yourself be manipulated by your hatred," the golden haired one proclaimed. "Your daughter, whose soul has been eaten, has to be stopped."

"Face your daughter, or you will see the death of all your children," the white haired one finished.

Demona snarled, as Shade rushed to her side, and seemingly as a response the Weird Sisters summoned a short flash of light, in which they turned into owls and flew away.

Down below the Hunter groaned, and his former prey watched him longingly.

Still...

"Protect him," she ordered Shade, pointing on Macbeth's corpse.

Without looking back or below, Demona jumped into the air, gliding straight to the dome to meet her daughter.

0000000000

21.09.98; 00:35; Castle Wyvern,

Weapon Chamber:

"We could be scouts," Eve commented, oiling a long-sword. "You know, maybe not do any fighting, but tell them if the city is okay."

"Elisa has to contact the police," Connor replied, concentrating on polishing a mace. "Besides, it is still too dangerous."

"What about working in the communication central with Lex?" Jane asked, emitting the top of her tongue in concentration, while trying to fix a bit of a feather on a bolt. "That's harmless."

"They would worry if we did something wrong," her brother replied, grabbing a sheet and rubbing the oil. "Besides, Lexington can manage everything. He needs no one else."

"Mhhh," Eve commented, a bit annoyed, unhappy that the suggestions were talked down so easily. "We must be able to do something!"

"We are doing something," Connor noted, inspecting his cleaned weapon. "These things rust."

"Oh, you are so..."

"Magic?" Jarred commented, making a parade against an invisible foe. "I bet grandma would let us help her in doing some counter-spell."

There was a moment of silence.

"The adults don't want to work together with her," Connor replied.

"Yes, but..." Eve hesitated, and then she sighed, letting her shoulders drop, and looking away, slightly depressed. "She should have given Roland over to the police. I mean, they would have not harmed him!"

Before the others could reply something, the hatchlings heard shouts and hastily given commands coming from the floor, and quickly rushed to open the door.

"We need the operation room now, no matter what!" Doctor Moor's voice said. "We must divide it!"

"She is very cold," the clan's healer added.

"Just keep the pressure on, and hold the blood in," the doctor replied. "We are losing her..."

In shock, the hatchlings saw how the human and several Gargoyles pushed one of the hospital beds down the floor. On it was an unconscious female Gargoyle, with banked Gargoyle blood being fed into one arm's vein while her mate, who had tears running down his face, held the other.

Fuchsia's skin tone was so much paler now, nearly white, and despite the speed in which she was transported, the hatchlings clearly noticed the missing wing, which the wound was still being closed by Diomedes. The missing limp was now transported by one of their older brothers, following the wounded Gargess closely.

The group passed as quickly as it had come, followed by a group of worried siblings and elders. No one took notice of the hatchlings standing in the doorframe, except for the elder resembling Connor.

"Go back to your chores," he told them, his voice and eyes calm, yet near breaking. "We will talk later with you."

Connor nodded, and closed the door.

"Still eager to fight with them?" he asked Eve, nearly angry.

Eve hesitated a bit, and looked deep into her brother's eyes.

"Yes," she said, though with a voice lacking the eagerness of before.

0000000000

21.09.98; 00:41; Over Manhattan:

"You know, it wasn't your fault."

This made the Second look at his brother, so he could thus see his haunted look.

"Let's clear this question before we get back home, okay?"

Broadway knew when talking was senseless, so he nodded and glided closer to his mate.

"Maybe they really have gone back where they came from," Lana commented, gliding closer.

A scream seemed to deliver the answer, and Brooklyn's eager eyes quickly found the source, it being Margot Yale of all people, stumbling out of an alley.

He hurried to land between the terrified woman and the alley, which seemed unnaturally dark, lightened only by his own white, shining eyes.

"Take care of her!" Brooklyn ordered, rising his sword. "I'll take care of this spider."

"It wasn't a spider!" Yale shouted.

Surprised, the Second shortly looked back to the woman before, out of the shadows of the alley, came a creature that was definitely no spider. Its body was grey and partly rotten through to the bones. It let out a snarl, revealing a long and extent-able tongue, touching the ground with its claws, where hands and feet would have been with a human. But it was partly human, though its skull was hairless, and its eyes were the colour of grey, but it had at least some human features, most of which were the bits of clothing covering parts of its body.

Snarling, the thing made a leap out of the alley into the light, and directly on Brooklyn. He thus made a defensive swing with his sword, causing the thing to lose one of its front-claws.

"We have to stop meeting like this..." Broadway told Mrs Yale, as he led her away.

Losing a claw didn't hinder the monster. Indeed, it didn't even slow down, as it jumped on the Second who rammed the sword into its guts. Brooklyn had to move backwards, while his clan-mates attacked the snarling thing by its sides.

Finally, it collapsed after Hudson severed the head from its shoulders.

"Lucifia summoned Hell itself tonight it seems," he remarked, as the head came to rest by his feet claws.

"Still is being summoned," Broadway added. "And with the police centred at the stadium, they won't have enough resources to defend the rest of the city."

"We must..." Brooklyn began, but stopped when he saw a movement. "Hudson, watch out!"

The elder did so, and discovered in disgust that the head was starting to move. A second later, a worm, carried by hairs, wriggled out of the body, only to be crushed by Hudson's right leg...the one that could be replaced the easiest.

"I know this thing," the second noted, after the rest of the group had calmed down. "Elisa said Balnetti had discovered such a thing."

"Aye, and lots of corpses," Hudson added.

"Okay, we go in pairs," Brooklyn replied, looking around. "If you discover any of them, inform the others."

He grabbed his headphone, putting it on his head as he climbed up the wall of a store, with Lana by his side.

"Lex? Inform the others, we have met one of these zombies that Balnetti encountered earlier, and will look for more."

"Okay, I wish I could be with you," his brother's voice came through the headset.

"No, you don't. Any news from Fuchsia?"

"Not yet," Lexington answered with a depressed tone. "Shall I ask?"

The Second hesitated, as he arrived on the roof.

"No. Let them do their job, and we will do ours. Over."

With this he put the headphone back in his pouch, and looked around at the group that was ready to take wing.

"It is an apocalypse out there. So be careful! And I mean of everything!"

"Oh my, what enthusiasm," Thersities commented, as he leapt in the air beside Aerie.

"Be silent, brother," his sister replied icily. "After what our sister had to suffer...just be silent."

The beaked Gargoyle looked at the Gargess with the blue hair, with a white streak in the middle, as if she had hit him.

"You don't mean..."

"She was so near at the web because of you!"

Thersities swallowed hard. "I didn't hear any of you warning me of the web before," he replied in a dry tone before gliding some metres away.

Meanwhile, some distance away, Hudson and Deborah were taking a different direction, carefully scanning the ground.

"I wish we had some earth here," said Deborah. "This beast would be easier to track then."

"The trash-can there has been thrown over," her mate replied. "I guess..."

The former leader stopped, as he noticed the movement below, and quickly drew his sword. To his surprise, it seemed to be a dog coming out of the alley, but it was like none he had ever seen before.

The strange dog howled, but it was unlike that of a dog, or of a wolf, like back in Wyvern, and began running in a direction deeper into the alley, and then over the street.

"A bet to follow if I ever saw one," he commented dryly. "But is it a trap?"

"There is only one way to find out," his mate noticed.

So they followed the strange dog along the streets and alleys until they had reached the Trinity Church Cemetery, where they discovered what the dog had wanted to show them. The place was full of those things, wandering around and crawling out of the earth.

"By the dragon!" Hudson exclaimed, his eyes flaring up in a glow of white light. "She is using the dead!"

"We have to inform the others," said Deborah. "They might come from other cemeteries, too."

Hudson nodded, and grabbed the headset out of his pouch, while Deborah noticed without great surprise that the strange dog had vanished.

0000000000

21.09.98; 00:43; Yankee Stadium:

As the three Gargoyles overlooked the situation, in the shadows, they found the dimension of horror in the stadium far exceeding their darkest imaginations.

Lucifia stood there, holding the Angel-sword, and overlooking the magic bowl that was swimming in a pool of blood, over which the one half of the Phoenix Gate levitated. Around this, there seemed to be half a slit opened in the air above it, and as the Phoenix Gate burned in black fire, the slit grew.

The pool was filled with blood 'donated' by followers at the end of a small slide, where they had had their wrists slit open by three guards, armed with AK-47 and working with all too bloody machetes. The ones who had been bled were then thrown over the railing, onto the field where a hundred already seemed to be lying, dead or dying.

The worst part of all, was that there was no force bringing the followers to sacrifice their lives, as they came willingly, with an expression of solemnity. Some of them were even smiling.

Goliath's eyes flashed white with anger, and even Roland looked disgusted. It was only Delilah who seemed calm, even unmoved.

"I'll take the guards and try to lure Lucifia away," Goliath whispered, noticing that the two guards currently not occupied with reaping were looking in the sky, where an opening had appeared in the dome. "You try to take the half of the Phoenix Gate when she is gone. Don't go after her, as she is much too dangerous!"

With this, he handed his sword over to his brother, and despite everything Roland found himself nodding. He looked to Delilah, but she only starred at Lucifia. Before he could say anything, his brother had climbed upwards as fast and silent as he could.

Then the two Gargoyles waited, until Goliath had made it and launched his surprise attack, managing to disarm and throw over the railing two of the three guards. The third, occupied with slitting open the left wrist of a punkish-looking blonde woman, needed time to react and aim his gun, which the large Gargoyle then whipped out of his hands with his tail.

"LUCIFIA!" his voice boomed. "Your monstrosity ends tonight!"

Lucifia, with her tar-black eyes, looked up at him unmoved, and gave him only a slight smile, before turning back to the pool and the gate flowing above it.

"She is not getting it," Roland whispered reluctantly, feeling a little weak because of the loss of blood, and maybe even more "We could just..."

Before he could finish, Delilah took the sword from his claws, made a run and, to Roland's horror, jumped at Lucifia from behind.

Demona's daughter turned around in what seemed to be the speed of light, and blocked the swing of the hybrid's sword intended to cut her in half.

"Predictable."

In one swift movement, she rammed the spikes from the end of her wings into Delilah's right upper leg, forcing her into a kneeing position.

"How did you like the reunion with your brother?" she taunted.

Her opponent replied with a furious series of attack, which Lucifia managed to block. As the Gargesses exchanged blows, Roland sneaked up from behind the black-eyed being and tried to attack her, but he was slow, and a kick sent him flying away, knocking him out.

"Too easy." Lucifia commented.

Just then, over the opening gate, between the dimensions, a flash of blue and red appeared, aiming straight for her. The dark Gargess only barely managed to rise her Angel-sword in time to block the swing of her mother's Angel-sword, which would have sliced her head, just between the horns, but instead sent her some metres backwards, until her feet-claws found hold again.

"Take the half of the Phoenix Gate!" Demona told the still kneeling and totally surprised hybrid. "NOW!"

Lucifia snarled, as she realised what was going on, and her eyes actually seemed to shine a brief dark red, redder than any Gargess, as she tried to break her mothers defence and get to the back...to no avail.

Painfully standing up and hobbling, Delilah neared the half of the Phoenix Gate, forming the connection between the pool of blood, with the bowl and the rift in the dimensions above. The hybrid got hold of it and pulled, finding it fixed in thin air, as if it were held in solid stone. But she had endured far too much this night to give up, so she pulled with both her claws and all the strength she could muster, despite the blood pouring from her leg and the pain in her heart.

A look above her showed her something nearly surreal, amidst all the madness and death. It looked to be a peaceful forest of some kind, and in it's midst a pool of black liquid. Delilah tried to see details, but she failed when the half of the gate finally loosened, and she fell on her back, the black-shimmering magical object in her claw.

For one moment, she hoped that it was now over, but instead there was a black bolt of lightning that came from the bowl, directly into the portal, and a heartbeat later a beam of blue energy shot out of the portal, straight into the Angel-swords, which were locked between the opponents.

Mother and daughter were thrown in different directions, coming to lie unconscious by the energy being drawn at them. Delilah realized this to be her chance, and limped in the direction where the swords still circled in the air.

Suddenly the rift between the dimensions became the source of a suction, growing in strength every second, and pulling the swords into it. Yet Delilah was faster, grabbing one of the swords and pulling it back, throwing a look at the still dazed Lucifia.

The pulling became even stronger, as if something conscious wanted the swords more than anything else, and by a reflex Delilah looked to her right, noticing Roland lying nearest to the portal, still unconscious, slowly being pulled in the direction of it.

Panicking, Delilah looked at everything, Lucifia, Roland and the sword that could bring her salvation from the pain she felt. Up on the seats of the audience, many followers of the cult, using unnatural strength, were attacking Goliath and Demona was still unconscious, so there was no help to be expected.

Lucifia moaned, and Delilah knew her one chance was there. But then, Roland was nearly pulled from the ground, and with one leap the hybrid was on him, pinning him safely to the ground with all her strength.

This was the moment that both swords were pulled into the portal, and at once the whole arena was floated in an ocean of white light, not so much making the scene more visible, but hiding it under it.

Then it ended, and once Delilah could see again she noticed the portal was gone, like the swords, and the bowl, though it had probably sunk into the pool of blood. A turn to her left showed her that Lucifia was gone, too.

Numb with shock, she tried to wake Roland, but it was to no avail. She even noticed that the end of his tail, where the knob had been bitten off, had begun to bleed again.

"What happened?" Demona asked, just rising.

"He won't wake up!"

Roland's sister looked at him shortly, and then she looked around.

"Where is Lucifia?"

Delilah looked at her, unable to answer, and then at the half of the Phoenix-Gate in her claw. Before the red-haired Gargess could ask again, they could hear a roar coming from the arena-seats where Lucifia's followers had somehow managed to jump on Goliath.

Yet their triumph was short-lived, as Othello and Desdemona jumped out of the shadows, and threw the attackers off their brother, evening the fight and quickly throwing them down in the arena.

Above them the red dome, having covered parts of the arena, began to diffuse.

"We have to go before the humans come," Demona said angrily, grabbing her gun. "Bring him. I will give you cover."

Delilah did as she was ordered, putting the half of the Phoenix-Gate in her belt, and taking Roland up in her arms. Together the three quickly met the rest of the other Gargoyles.

"We came when the portal seemed to close, and the spiders...just vanished." Othello explained, just as they arrived.

"Sister, how did you..." Desdemona began, but her sibling cut her short.

"The dome will collapse soon, and then nothing will stop the humans," Demona said. "We have to get out!"

Goliath nodded, and then he noticed something.

"Where is our brother?" he asked, referring to Javin.

Desdemona and Othello exchanged a look.

"We thought he was with you!" his sister replied.

Goliath gasped in shock, looking around, but finding nothing in the area. The moment the dome broke completely, a helicopter appeared over the stadium, its crew nearly spotting the Gargoyles before they could hide in the shadows.

"We have to go," Demona stated.

"I won't leave him," her former mate replied, and tried to go, but she held his arm tightly.

"In minutes the humans will flood this place, and find us together with the bodies!" the red-haired gargess snapped.

"She is right," Othello said reluctantly. "If he is still here, he has a larger chance escaping the humans than all of us together. And I don't want to explain the bodies to them."

Goliath took a look at the battle-worn Delilah who still held Roland, and growled, closing his eyes for a moment.

He said nothing, but walked back to the secret entrance they had come from, leaving the death behind.

0000000000

21.09.98; 00:44; Mobile Police Centre:

"What is this thing?" the leader of the SWAT-team asked.

"I told you, it is a Gargoyle," an officer replied.

The other man just shook his shortly shaved head, kneeling at the body and touching its fur.

"I've seen some, and there are none that look like this."

"Maybe it's another kind?"

As the talk went on in the small group, which had gathered around the body, Chavez pulled Elisa aside.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Claw," Elisa replied, still feeling shocked. "He's been missing since the attack on the labyrinth. We thought he was dead."

"Did he want to attack you?"

Elisa threw a look at the dead body, and then nodded.

"Lucifia must have brainwashed him," she guessed. "But there would have been other ways than a headshot!"

"You were in danger," her superior reminded her. "He had to react in this situation."

"He shot first and asked questions later," she replied, her voice silent but angry. "This could have been Derek."

Before Chavez could say something, they heard the sound of engines, and noticed an army-jeep approaching. Both police officers walked to the jeep, as it stopped, and an African-American man dressed in usual field-uniform jumped out of it.

"Captain Chavez?" he asked, directly looking at her as she nodded. "I'm General Chesterfield, and I hereby take command of the operation."

"I thought we had another thirty minutes." Chavez protested. "Most of our material is still here."

"You have five minutes to take what you can," the Army General replied. "The rest will be delivered to you later. My..."

He stopped, as he noticed the body lying behind them.

"This being was creeping around here, and was shot," Chavez explained. "It has similarities to a Gargoyle, but we are not so sure."

As she spoke, the General knelt by Claw's side, and looked thoughtful for a second, then he rose.

"You have five minutes, then go," he repeated. "All of you. I will clear this with the Mayor directly. And no word of this...thing, or I will see you all in jail!"

Chavez and Elisa exchanged glances, and the captain was about to say something else, when someone cried out.

"THEY ARE MONSTERS!"

All faces turned to the entrance of the HQ, where, unnoticed due to the trouble, a lone figure had approached, heavily limping and holding an arm close to its body.

"Balnetti?!" Chavez asked. "Where have you..."

She stopped asking where he had been the past few weeks, as she noticed the already healed claw-marks on his face, and his eyes that were shining intensely, as if they were on fire.

"I know who did this!" Balnetti said, ignoring the questions, and pointing to the dome, which had lost parts in its top. "It was one of the demons! The same one who made these marks. Her name is Demona, and she is a demon..."

With this he stopped for a moment, taking breath, and allowing Elisa to take a closer look at him, noticing something in the back of his jeans.

"Who is this man?" General Chesterfield demanded to know.

"Balnetti is one of my detectives." Chavez explained. "He hasn't been seen in weeks."

"Because of her!" Balnetti remarked. "All because of her! You have to listen. I...NO!"

This was aimed at Elisa, who had grabbed something back from his pocket, unfolded it, and presented to all a black mask with three red scars.

"It is the sign of the Quarrymen..." she said. "He is one of them, and probably has made the scars himself."

Balnetti's eyes grew wide, and he seemed to shake with rage.

"NO!" he replied, and madness lingered in his voice. "I am Gillecomgain! I am the first Hunter! The demon's child brought me back from the dead, and I will not rest until I take her with me!"

The people surrounding him grew silent at this outburst, as whatever credibility he had had was now lost

"Grab this lunatic!" Chesterfield ordered. "I don't need him here."

"You will listen!" Balnetti said, drawing his gun with his one healthy arm and pointing at Elisa. "You will..."

He found his gun quickly kicked out of his hand by Chesterfield, and was thrown to the ground and held there, despite his screams, by several officers.

"Thank you." Elisa told the General.

"No problem," the man replied. "But now..."

"General!" one of the soldiers said, pointing at the dome around the arena.

Out of it came a beam of pure white light, which lasted for some seconds and then stopped.

"Get me the helicopter! I want to see what is going on in there, even if I have to leap in there myself!"

"Yes, sir!"

0000000000

21.09.98; 00:48; Castle Wyvern,

Battlement:

Asrial walked quickly, but did not run in the direction of her post. She had needed what felt like an eternity to get in contact with Thomas, and when she did she learned she had actually rang him out of bed, but she didn't care since she now knew he was alive.

The talk had been short, but lifted a tonne of weight from her shoulders. Thomas had been grumpy and looked still very much asleep, but promised to be careful and barricade the door. More couldn't be done, and Asrial knew it, as much as she wished to be close to him.

When she came nearer to her post, she was surprised to find Ajax standing by the mates, talking and throwing her a glance. Asrial knew she was in trouble, but walked on as self-conscious as she could until she reached them.

"Where have you been?" her brother demanded to know.

"I had to stop a test," she explained, giving the mates a look. "I explained this."

"You abandoned your post." Ajax replied. "There is no excuse for that."

Asrial bit her lip, trying to explain to her brother would be hard, especially as she recognized the single-minded determination in his eyes.

"The test..." she tried.

"It was your responsibility to end it before your watch-duty," Ajax noted, irritated. "We aren't hatchlings anymore. Someone could have died because you left."

Asrial felt herself cornered, knowing there was no way now but to reveal the truth, to help her out of it, yet she couldn't help but feel irritation on the way her brother spoke to her.

"You can go," the crested gargoyle told her angrily. "The clan has no need for those who abandon their duties."

This made her eyes flare up red.

"Lad, this is a bit harsh, maybe..." the older male began.

"You are not the leader, brother!" Asrial stopped him, staring at her brother.

"No," he admitted, "but a true leader wouldn't let it go, as he does, because he likes you."

The clever sister continued staring at him, but couldn't find anything in response, especially as she noticed the mates behind Ajax's back showing slight agreement with him.

"You are wrong, brother," she replied, though sounding defeated, and left.

0000000000

21.09.98; 01:06; Trinity Church Cemetery:

A being, which had once been human, slowly dug itself out of its grave, its wide mouth showing horrible teeth, and its long tongue searching for prey…until the blade of a sword embedded itself into the skull, ending its un-life.

"You do that often?" Lana asked, removing the blade.

"Only when there is an apocalypse," Brooklyn replied, beheading an attacking monstrosity and crushing its skull.

Shouts reached them from another part of the cemetery, and Brooklyn jumped over gravestones to the source. It was the gargoyle who looked very much like Connor, surrounded by emerging monstrosities, but already being helped out by his brother with the breastplate who had once been Demona's second.

Brooklyn watched for a moment, making sure the two gargoyles had no problem with three of the five remaining monsters. Then he let his gaze wander around the whole cemetery, where all over it his group, in groups of two, were dealing with the emerging monsters.

This was easy, as they were helpless when emerging from the graves, as in comparison with the fight they had when taking over the place with a group of these beings defending it.

Broadway had suffered a deep slash at his chest, and had already left for the castle with Angela, but else the attack had not caused them any losses, nor in the other cemeteries where the other groups had reported to take down a handful of these beasts.

"THIS IS THE POLICE!" a loud voice boomed over the cemetery. "CLEAR THE CEMETERY OR WE WILL MOVE IN, IN 2 MINUTES!"

He looked in the direction of the voice, and discovered several police cars at the gate of the cemetery.

"Okay, we move out!" he ordered. "All retreat and glide back to the castle!"

As he watched his orders being followed, Brooklyn grabbed his headset.

"Lex, the police have arrived, so we'll move out. Tell the others to do the same!"

"Roger," Lex's voice said. "I got news from the stadium, seems the dome is gone, but there's no news from Goliath yet."

Brooklyn looked at Lana who had arrived at his side.

"Understood," he said. "See ya."

He looked over his clan-mates, finding them complete.

"We move out!"

0000000000

21.09.98; 01:12; Over Manhattan:

The wary group of winged shadows glided over Manhattan, which seemed to have finally found some rest, as it was no longer in the light of the red-glowing dome.

"This way!" Demona ordered.

"Elisa just called," Goliath told the group, while studying Demona. "There was an attack by Claw and a detective who had three claw-marks on him, and claiming to be Gillecomgain, the first Hunter. What do you know about this?"

Demona didn't care to respond, but landed on a roof, near a limp body.

Desdemona gasped, as she recognized the supposedly immortal Scotsman who she had come to see as an ally, and who was now laying in a pool of his own blood.

"What happened here?" Goliath demanded to know, his eyes blazing over the sight.

"The Hunter," his former mate replied, and knelt down to greet Shade who had come out of the shadows where she had hidden herself so very well. "After all these years..."

"But how..." he asked, only to answer himself. "The Angel-Sword."

Demona just nodded, and continued petting Shade.

"Sister, does this mean you are..." Desdemona stopped, trying to grasp the gravity of this situation.

"Mortal," her sister completed the sentence, and rose. "I felt it instantly."

A moment of silence fell over the group until Delilah, who still carried Roland, spoke. "We must go to the castle," she begged. "He hasn't woken up yet, and he is hot."

Goliath nodded, and picked up Macbeth's already cooling body.

"Let us hurry," he ordered. "This night has seen enough death already.

With this the group jumped over the edge of the roof, into the night, Demona being the last. The former immortal looked on the damaged car where the Hunter had landed, and then she followed the others, with Shade in her arms.

0000000000

21.09.98; 01:33;

Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

"Tell us!" Victoria begged. "Tell us everything!"

Brooklyn, finding himself surrounded by half of the clan's hatchlings, gave them all a fake smile.

"Sorry, kids. I have to talk with our leader once he lands," he tried, but the group of hatchlings remained, though they looked less enthusiastic now.

"Please," Eve asked, more seriously than her sister. "You will talk with the leader, and then there will be a clan-meeting, which we won't be allowed to, so we will know nothing at all until tomorrow."

"Uhh," their second replied, knowing they were probably right, and exchanged a look with Lana, the only other grown-up next to him. "Well, maybe Lana can tell you!"

A lot of begging eyes turned to the surprised gargess, including that of the second.

"Uhhh, sure," Lana began. "We were in this cemetery and…and..."

She stopped, suddenly gulping.

"I'm sorry," she told them, startled, "I... I can't do that!"

With this she turned and ran outside, but not before the tears on her face were seen.

"Lana?" Jarred asked, and was going to follow her when Brooklyn laid a claw on his shoulder.

"It is better I talk with your sister," he said.

"I, meanwhile, will tell you what happened at the cemetery," the gargoyle who looked so very much like Connor offered, having noticed the scene and stepped in. "But don't complain if you suffer day-mares tomorrow!"

Brooklyn gave him a short, thankful look, and then followed Lana outside, where he found her standing on one of the castle walls.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I just remembered," Lana replied. "All these monsters were dead people...and one of them could have been my dad."

She looked at him with tearful eyes, and Brooklyn found himself embracing her, telling her it was all right.

This was when the second noticed Agamemnon approaching with an earnest look on his face, and quickly felt duty calling him.

"Elder." he greeted seriously. "Does Goliath need me, because I..."

The elder shook his head, and Brooklyn noticed how he looked not at him but at Lana, and seemed, very strangely for any who knew him, lacking for words.

"Lass," he began, in a tone unusually soft. "Something has happened with thy mother..."

0000000000

21.09.98; 01:37; Castle Wyvern, Infirmary:

Darlene could do nothing but stare up at the ceiling of the room she was in. She knew there were others in the room, one of the clan's healer and one of her adopted sisters for one, but all she felt was the terrible loneliness in and under her heart.

Dr. Moore had gone, saying she was stable and that there were other wounded he had to take care off, but it didn't matter. She didn't feel stable, but fluid and torn, as she had done when her husband had died...only worse, as she had actually felt her child die just under her heart, unable to do anything but let it happen.

In the distance the door of the room opened, and more people came in, whom she at first paid no attention to. Then, as they walked nearer, it turned out to be Desdemona and her mother, both looking pretty beat themselves. Her sister's face was filled with total compassion, being near to tears herself.

Her mother's face on the other hand looked totally unreadable, and while the caramel-skinned gargess was already by her side, holding her claw and exchanging a look with Aerie, she stayed in the distance, looking at her daughter with a look Darlene couldn't identify.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Demona walked to her daughter's side and softly pressed her knuckles against her brow-ridges.

~ Mother, please say something, ~ Darlene wanted to beg, but her mouth was so very dry, and her eyes continuously shed tears, and knowing that for her mother this was impossible.

Before she could muster the strength to ask her, she could hear sounds at the door, definitely coming from her older children. In shock and pain, she looked at the door, which Demona noticed.

"I will take care of them," she told her daughter, looking at Shade who was as always by her side. "Guard her."

With this the red-haired gargess turned and left, leaving her daughter with the gargbeast resting by her side. As she stepped outside, quickly closing the door behind her, she noticed Brooklyn, desperately trying to prevent Lana and Jarred from barging in.

"She is our mother for god's sake!" Lana snarled angrily.

"Look, Lana, I..." Brooklyn began.

"She miscarried," Demona cut him off, looking at her surprised grandchildren. "She is in no shape to see you."

Both felt quite hit by this, even more by her cold tone.

"You were there!" Lana replied, scratching her left arm.

"That was different," her grandmother noted, laying a claw on both her grandchildren's shoulders. "She will need you later, when she is ready. But not now."

The last words were emphased, letter to letter, and her eyes showed she wouldn't yield.

"But we want to help her!" Jarred said, tears in his eyes.

"You will," Demona replied, saying it in such a soft tone that Brooklyn raised an eyebrow to it, but wisely remained silent. "For now, I think there are other problems you can help in."

"We sure have," said Brooklyn. "Come with me, and I will assign you to something."

Reluctantly both gargoyles followed, and Demona watched them for a moment. Then she turned, and was about to go back in when she hesitated for a second.

"Sister?"

The former immortal turned around, discovering the younger gargess of the trio's generation, the one who very much resembled Asrial.

"I mean Demona," the younger gargess corrected herself, looking at her. "The healer needs you at the medical station."

"Why?" she asked, eyeing the smaller gargess suspiciously.

"No idea. But it was urgent, and we have many wounded."

Demona mustered her, and then she reluctantly walked to the medical station just a few rooms away.

Reaching it, she was surprised how many of her former clan were actually there, wounded by the various fights that had raged through the city. She noticed that the number of beds were too few to keep them all, so the ones with minor wounds rested on the ground, which was covered with sheets.

Few gave her more than a look, and it wasn't until she reached Diomedes, sitting with this back to her, that she stopped. Fuchsia was lying on the bed, on her front with her back upwards so that the bandaged wound where her right wing had once been wouldn't be laid upon.

Deborah was at her side, too, looking worried and softly stroking her hair. As she noticed her former pupil approaching, she raised her head and gave her a look, but said nothing. Despite all the horrors of this night, Demona found herself gasping, making her brother stiffen. He sniffed the air, but did not turn around as he spoke.

"Just go," he asked her before she could say a word.

The former immortal stayed and watched him for a heartbeat longer, and then she turned, her face unreadable as she looked around, finally finding the clan's healer standing by Delilah, who sat at the still unconscious Roland's side, who was lying on a bed.

As she approached, the clan's healer looked up.

"I was wondering if she had found you."

Demona just nodded, eyeing the other gargess carefully.

"I am busy," she noted.

"So am I!" the clan's healer snapped back, instantly adjusting her tone, and Demona noticed the dried blood under her right eyebrow. "I will make this short. The spiders bit several of the clan, and while Doctor Moore helped them as best as he could, the venom is still weakening them. Do you have an antidote that might help?"

The red-haired gargess thought for a second.

"Maybe," she admitted. "But it is just a general antitoxin, and I don't think it would help much, or if I have enough for all."

"A bit would be enough," the clan's healer pressed. "I don't think we will lose anyone before daybreak, but..." She gave Fuchsia a short look. "It may be better to have it."

"I will hurry," Demona promised.

The clan's healer nodded, and walked to Fuchsia's bed to see if help was needed. Demona, meanwhile, looked at Delilah who was looking at Roland and his now knob-less and bandaged tail.

"I'm sorry," said the hybrid.

Demona, who was ready to go, stopped.

"I told you to stop doing that," she said in a weary voice. "Why?"

"In the stadium," Delilah began, looking at the older gargess, "I had the opportunity to kill her, but...he drifted into the portal. I had to save him."

The hybrid looked at her with eyes so full of desperation, and a certain wetness, that they showed the whole weariness she felt.

For a moment Demona said nothing, but watched the younger gargess, and then she stepped nearer to her, and laid a claw on her shoulder.

"Don't be," she replied. "You did the right thing. We will...we will kill her another time. I...I'm proud of you."

The last words came silently, and with an unusual softness, which made some of the clan turn their heads, allowing them to see her rub her knuckles against the hybrid's brows.

Before more could be said, Demona turned and quickly left the medical station.

0000000000

21.09.98; 01:43; Castle Wyvern,

Medical Station:

Thersities passed Demona on his way to the medical station, but paid her no mind, as he finally entered the infirmary. The beaked gargoyle looked around at the depressing scene, finding the clan's healer some metres away.

While going to her, he found her sewing a warrior's left upper arm, where a deep wound had been left open. Not wanting to disturb her, and finding the sight of blood making him faint, he turned his view, only to discover Fuchsia lying right next to him

"Leave."

These words were more growled than spoken, and made Thersities realise that Diomedes was sitting beside his mate.

"Look, brother, I..."

"LEAVE!"

His rookery brother had sprung up, knocking his chair down and towering over his smaller sibling with glaring eyes and barely controlled anger. Thersities found himself unable to reply something in the following silence, or even move, and felt his brother's self-control dwindling moment by moment, just as he found his chances to leave without something important being broken.

Then, from one second to the next, Deborah stood between the brothers and, softly, very softly, laid a claw on Diomedes's armoured chest.

"Stay by your mate," she told him. "She needs you."

Diomedes gave his brother one last hateful look, and then he turned around, grabbing the chair and sitting beside his mate who groaned in her sleep. Deborah, meanwhile, turned to Thersities and grabbed his arm, leading him out of the medical station.

"What do you want here?"

"I wanted to help," the beaked gargoyle said, depressed. "My sisters won't let me go to Darlene, so I thought I could help here."

Deborah gave him a long look.

"Good they didn't," she explained carefully. "Losing an egg is something females best get over with other females at first."

"But I should be there for her!" Thersities replied, desperate. "I mean..."

He stopped, looking on the ground.

"You will be later," his former teacher told him. "But stay away from her tonight, and from the medical station."

Thersities looked up again.

"Do you think it was my fault, too?" he asked, the words coming out hard. "What happened with her wing?"

Deborah's eyes, which had so often searched him for the slightest mistake during training when he was young, now looked on him with deep warmth.

"No," she said. "I was there, and it was your sister who had to look out for her own. These are things that happen on the battlefield."

Slowly, Thersities nodded.

"Thank you," he said, and turned around, leaving the medical station behind him, while his former teacher looked at him worriedly.

0000000000

21.09.98; 01:53; Central Park:

The coyote ran in the darkness, carefully avoiding the lights of the few lamps. Finally, he arrived at the boathouse, which had been rebuilt after a fire years ago, and slipped into the open door.

There was no one inside, so it began scratching itself eagerly behind the left ear. Suddenly, a giant spider let itself drop down from the ceiling, making the coyote jump and yelp.

"Hey!" the coyote expressed indulgently.

"You are late," the spider noted, snapping with its pincers.

"As are you," the coyote replied, grinning. "I smell it."

"We are all here to our fated time," a female voice chastised them from above.

Looking up, the spider and the coyote discovered three owls, one black, one golden, and the one who had spoken being white, watching them.

"The Coming has been stopped. For now, we can report back to Oberon and Titania," the black-feathered owl replied.

"They will yearn to know if this being threatens us as well as the mortals," the golden one added.

"I would like to stay a bit longer," said the coyote. "To make sure."

"It is Oberon's right to make the decision if and how to interfere," the black-owl reminded him sharply. "And which mortals to protect."

"Yeah-yeah," the coyote replied, letting his tail hang low. "Then let's go. The sooner he learns of it, the sooner he will come to stop it."

From outside, a person watching would have seen a short light flashing out from inside the boathouse, and then it was dark again.

0000000000

21.09.98; 01:57; Castle Wyvern,

Niche Outside The Castle:

Unseen, as he had practised so many times before, Thersities crept over the battlement and climbed down to a place near the part of the castle, which had once been the cliff. It was a good hiding place, hard to spot from above, and as the gargoyle had been happy to find out, this hadn't changed in the millennium that had passed.

He wanted this hiding place now. More so he needed it, so he was quite down when he found it was already being used.

"Sister?" Thersities asked, recognizing the shape.

"Sorry, but I need a rest now," the clever sister replied, looking quite depressed as she sat there, her knees close to her chest while overlooking the city.

"I need it more," he said, settling beside her.

"So? I was assigned to protect the castle. When I heard of the spiders, I needed to know if Thomas was safe, and when I came back our wanna-be leader threw me out of the guard-post. I couldn't reveal the truth, so I claimed I had a test running that could have set the castle on fire. Half the clan probably thinks the worst of me!"

"I was trapped in a giant spider-web, and by freeing me our sister Fuchsia lost her wing! Our brother and most of the clan blame me!" said Thersities. "Besides that, they won't let me go to Darlene, to be there for her, since I'm neither female, nor close enough with her."

"Darlene?" Arial asked, alarmed.

"She lost her egg."

"Oh."

Asrial looked at her brother, shocked by the fact that she had missed hearing about Darlene, not to speak by the fact that her brother seemed to blame herself for what had happened with Fuchsia.

"I can go?" she offered.

Thersities looked at her for a moment, but then shook his head.

Such they stayed, sitting there in silence, and mostly forgotten.

0000000000

21.09.98; 02:12; Destine Mansion:

Demona landed heavily, worn out by the night, the blood and all its implications. She paid no heed to the pain of her wounded flesh, and walked in, not really looking and not turning on the light, as she knew the place so very well after having spent decades living in it, though mostly alone.

The former immortal stopped halfway to the staircase, when a familiar scent reached her nose. Looking around furiously, she soon discovered a dark figure standing in the shadows of the room.

"You!" Demona snarled.

"Me," the figure replied, and fired the gun.

To Be Continued...