From Long Ago

by armesanNMU

A prequel to an alternate universe based off of the canon episode "Future Tense". The Manhattan Clan gets a visitor from their past, the rookery eggs they never knew. There's just one problem. According to human law, Xanantos owns her. Set prior to Avalon

Previously on Gargoyles…

"We've done you a great wrong, Goliath," Princess Katherine said mournfully, as the lavender gargoyle finished setting his stone kin atop their chosen parapets. Folding his wings over his shoulders like a cape, he kept his back to the two humans behind him.

"I have a request," Goliath uttered darkly.

"You have but to name it," Princess Katherine said firmly, eager to help in any way she could. For her mistreatment of the gargoyles, this was the very least she could do.

"The eggs in the rookery will soon hatch," Goliath said, looking over his shoulder at the Princess and the Magus. "They will need guidance."

"Never fear. We will watch over them as if they were our own."

"A thousand years have gone by since the spell was cast," Xanatos told the bewildered creatures gathered in what used to be the throne room of their castle, but was now a main office.

"The eggs in the rookery?" Lexington wondered, hopefully.

Xanatos' head hung low. "Gone, I'm afraid. You are the last of your kind"

Awakening: Part Two

"Is it possible there are other gargoyles alive out there?" Brooklyn wondered aloud.

The Edge

British Museum of Natural History
London, England
1995 AD

"We'll start the bidding at five hundred…five hundred do I hear five hundred…Five hundred! Do I hear six hundred…six hundred…seven hundred…seven hundred…eight do I hear eight? We've got eight…nine? Nine! One million…anyone willing to bid one million five-hundred...One million and five! Two million…Two million to number eighty-four…do I hear three? No one else? Going…going…sold to number eighty-four, for two million dollars, the Scottish antiquity, the 'Blue-Eyes' Gargoyle."

The majority of the people looked around at each other's numbers, wondering who had won the gargoyle statue whose photograph stood up on the podium with the auctioneer. It was a fairly large statue of a demon, wings flared in a threatening display of power, coupled with a ferocious snarl on its hooked, yet not unattractive beak-like face. Talons were splayed out and a tail lashed out behind it, a flowing mane of hair mounted atop its head. There were slight grooves around the eyes in the shape of two Greek sigmas, and a Bavarian style crown was carved at the hairline, to match the similar style of dress it wore with the loincloth. What really made the statue such a valued prize were the eyes. Though narrowed into a dangerous glare, two deep blue diamonds were set inside the sockets, carved to fit the threatening posture of the face.

The rest of the bidding at the auction house went mostly uneventfully. A few major antiquities were sold, but for a majority of the people, once the "Blue-Eyes" was sold, there was nothing much left to match it. Once everything had been either sold or passed on, those that bought something came back to claim what was theirs.

"Number, please," the moving man said, monotonously, having already said the same thing numerous times. The blonde haired man, with a stoic expressionless face adorned with wire-frame glasses, handed the man his number. "Number eighty-four? Oh, so you're the guy who got the 'Blue-Eyes'."

"Not exactly. I am making a purchase on behalf of my employer," the blonde man said bluntly, breezing by the moving man, whose overalls labeled him as Gary.

"'Blue-Eyes' is right over there. Where do you want it?" Gary asked, following the man inside the garage where the merchandise was being kept. The blonde man didn't reply until he stopped walking, and even then, he didn't bother looking Gary directly in the face. His gaze was occupied by the stone statue of the blue diamonded demon, which was standing on a platform near a padded crate, already hooked up to a crane by four cables.

"The 'Blue-Eyes' gargoyle is to be shipped to the Manhattan Museum of Ancient History. We will pick it up there," the blonde man said. Gary shrugged and wrote the information of his clipboard.

"Who's going to pick it up?"

The blonde man's tone never changed, though his glare narrowed slightly when he turned and faced Gary. "Xanatos Enterprises. Be careful not to damage it." With that said, the blonde man walked away, leaving Gary to write down the name and attach the sheet of paper to the nearest crate.

"Strange chap," Gary muttered, shaking his head as he finished labeling the crate. "Okay boys! This one's going to Manhattan! Seal her in!" The 'thumbs-up' sign from Gary reached the man operating the crane, who returned the signal, and began moving the crane to lift the gargoyle up enough so that when he swung it over above the padded crate, it could be safely lowered inside without damage. The process was delicate, but once safely sealed inside the insulated box, the forklift made no hesitation to move the crate into the semi truck with the rest of the antiquities bound for New York Museums. Gary, once making sure the crate was securely fastened to the ground with the rest of the items, pulled down on the trailer's door, locking it and giving the driver the go-ahead to leave.

Manhattan
Three Months Later…

For being a mostly sunny day, the normally bright red-orange sunset was covered by a haze of clouds by the end of the daylight hours, leading for another dreary and cloudy night. Regardless of the weather conditions, when the sun had set and the darkness of night had fallen on the city of Manhattan, those that lived for the New York City nights began to emerge, and quite literally, those that lived during the night started waking up.

Perched atop the stone parapets of the 23rd Precinct's clock tower, the supposedly decorative gargoyles began moving as soon as they sun had set, the stone moaning and cracking as they began freeing themselves from the stone shell. The little lines in the stone grew deeper and wider, breaking away from the statues like they were shedding their outer layer. When the crumbled layer of stone fell off, it revealed colorful flesh underneath, ranging from purple to red, and everything in between. The wings moved from the frozen position, each tail lashed about wildly, throwing off any remaining shards that hadn't already been shed, accompanied by a chorus of primal roars to greet the night. Moments earlier, they had been stone statues. Now, they were living, breathing creatures, known in ancient times as gargoyles.

"Later guys," Brooklyn called out from his parapet, barely having stopped yawning before he took off from the tower, waving slightly to the others.

Goliath, not able to respond before realizing that Brooklyn was already gone, only raised an eye ridge curiously as the young demon-like gargoyle disappeared into the night. "Where is he off to in such a hurry?" the lavender gargoyle wondered turning Brooklyn's two rookery brothers.

"He's late for his movie," Lex said dismissively.

"I thought the lot of you were going out tonight," Hudson commented, hopping down off his parapet and onto the balcony that lead into the tower, followed closely by their residential pet gargoyle dog, Bronx.

"That was the idea," Lex said. "But we couldn't agree on which one to see."

"So instead, Brooklyn goes to his, we go to ours, and we meet up after," Broadway finished for his younger brother.

"So, we'll see you later," Lex said, taking off. "Say hi to Elisa for us."

Following after Lex, Broadway leapt off the parapet he usually slept on, easily catching up with the smaller, olive green gargoyle. Grinning as he watched the younger gargoyles of the clan leave, Goliath followed after Hudson and Bronx, disappearing into the sanctum of the clock tower situated above the police station where their human friend, Elisa Maza, worked.

Having been late for his movie, Brooklyn was surprised how little of it he missed, though he had no doubt that being able to sneak in through the roof was part of it and avoid the long lines at the ticket counter. By the time the movie had ended the clocks said it was almost midnight, though it felt much earlier. Silently hoping that Lex and Broadway wouldn't be too long before they met up at the rendezvous point, Brooklyn, vacated the theater from the same roof hatch he'd gotten in through.

They'd agreed to meet up on the roof of the Broadway Theater, a fair distance from where Brooklyn's movie had been, which hopefully would give Lex and Broadway the needed time to finish their movie and get there as well.

"I should've brought a book or something. With my luck I'll be stuck up there all night," Brooklyn muttered to himself. His mind drifting and reenacting scenes of a casino heist from the movie, Brooklyn almost missed the activity going on below him as he passed over the Museum of Ancient History. The only reason he took notice of it at all was because of the familiar blonde man with wire-frame glasses and an expressionless scowl.

"What in the-" he muttered, catching sight of Owen Burnette below him.

"Be careful with that," Owen snapped at the two men coming out of the moving truck. "Mr. Xanatos would be severely disappointed if the merchandise was damaged."

Hearing Owen, even from his altitude, Brooklyn decided to investigate, wheeling around and gliding back towards the museum, landing on the shallow ledge atop the pediment that adorned the front entrance. The truck was unlabeled, as most truck carrying museum antiquities were, but judging by the accents coming from the two men within the truck, they were from England.

"I'm not getting paid enough for this," one of them grumbled, his voice echoing off the spacious walls of the truck and up to Brooklyn's acute hearing. "Delivering this thing in the middle of the night."

"Quit your griping. It's the last one of the lot."

The two movers, while continuing to converse, slowly made their way out of the truck, each holding one handle on a large dolly, which was holding up a huge crate as it slid down the ramp. Even at Brooklyn's height, he could see the huge letters branded on the side of the crate, though to make out what they said was a harder task, since a clipboard was resting on top of the crate, obscuring part of the word.

"What's in this box that's so valuable, anyway?" one of the movers wondered harshly, picking up the clipboard on the top of the crate. "'Blue-Eyes Scottish gargoyle? What's so bloomin' special about a piece of chiseled rock?"

"It has sentimental value," Owen commented from off to the side.

"A gargoyle?" Brooklyn gasped. He realized that it was entirely possible that it was just as the movers described it, a piece of chiseled rock. After all, what kind of self-respecting gargoyles traveled around in a crate at night? Still, the chance that it might be a fellow gargoyle was too great to pass up.

Gliding down off the museum's ledge, he made a quick grab for the light pole, perching precariously on top of the light to keep hidden in the shadows, but finding it no easier to see the crate from there, made another quick leap, landing as softly as he could on the top of the delivery truck.

Being more than a little extra weight on the top of the vehicle, the van swayed slightly when Brooklyn landed, causing one of the movers to actually look back at the van, and almost see the red beaked gargoyle on top, had he not laid down flat on his stomach against the roof of the unmarked vehicle.

"Will you hurry up?" the more irate mover snapped at his partner.

"Yeah, yeah. Just thought I heard something."

Owen, hearing this, glanced up at the van, but did nothing more than narrow his eyes in at the roof, and turn back to the task at hand. Peeking up just high enough to see Owen turn back to the crate, Brooklyn shifted his weight forward, crawling up to the edge of the van as silently as he could, trying to get a closer glimpse at the writing on the side of the crate. What he got was far more than a glimpse.

Suddenly, the crate shifted slightly, startling the movers into loosening their grip on the dolly, and accidentally releasing the handles, letting the it roll forward down the ramp, leaning forward to the point where the crate slid off and skidded to the ground at the base of the ramp.

"GAH!"

"What was that?!"

Owen, watching the whole thing unfold; only cut his breath short, not breathing until the crate finished skidding to a halt. The two movers, thoroughly spooked, looked at one another, and then approached the crate, and attempted to move it back onto the dolly, not noticing the muffled cracking and shattering noises coming from inside the crate.

"I'm starting to see things," one of the movers groaned.

"You and me both," the other agreed, shoving the crate up enough to get his fingers underneath it and begin lifting it to place it back on the dolly. His partner did the same on the other side, wedging his fingers and hands underneath the crate and lifting in sync with the other mover.

"AAARRRAAAAWWWRRRRR!"

"GAHHH!" the movers yelped, the horrendous roar frightening the two men to such a point that the surge in adrenaline allowed them to lift the crate a few feet before it rolled out of their grip, and dropped back onto the pavement. From within the crate, and hissing and snarling noise could be heard, accompanied by a series of frantic scratches, scaring the baffled movers even more, but not as much as when the crate impacted on the ground, shattering into splinters and shards of wood and padding and unleashing the contents of the crate.

Rolling out from the wreckage of the crate, a ball of what looked like shattered stone tumbled out, instantly leaping to its feet and flaring its wings to repel the leftover stone chips that still lingered over its body. Brooklyn, completely shocked, could only stare at this new development in awe.

She was a young female gargoyle, estimated between the ages of 34 and 38, with dusty gold skin and a swept back mane of white hair, tied at the back in a ponytail. She wore what looked like a gypsy's crown at her hairline, and wore a Bavarian style vest and shoulder shirt, accompanied by the traditional Scottish gargoyle loincloth. Her wings were of a darker golden hue than her skin, and her eyes were flared a burning blood-red, lined around the outer edges by two black Sigma marks. Her petite bird-like beak was curled back into a snarl, her sharp teeth bore angrily as she whirled around and faced the movers, who'd been knocked back to the ground and were backing away from the enraged gargoyle, fearing for their lives.

"ARRRRAAAWWWRRR!" she howled, her war-cry echoing into the night air.

"What is that thing?!"

"Who cares?! Let's get out of here!"

Scrabbling to their feet, the two movers bolted from the street, racing away from the demon. The gold, bewildered by the two movers, suddenly became more panicked than angry, the surroundings around her obviously overwhelming her. Her head whipped around frantically at the street lights and buildings, and she slunk down to the ground like a panicked animal. Brooklyn, having been fixated on the young female, didn't noticed Owen, who was surprisingly calm, off to the side, pull out a tranquilizer gun and quietly load a dart into the barrel.

"Where…what…" the gold stammered, running herself in circles, trying to make sense of everything around her.

"I don't think that's any of your concern," Owen said calmly, raising the tranquilizer gun and aiming at the gold.

Turning around to find the source of the voice, the gold only stared at Owen and the gun, unaware of what it was or who Owen was, making it extremely easy for Owen to fire the dart, and imbed it into her shoulder, the sedative pumping itself into her system.

"ARRRAAAWWWRRR!" she roared, clutching her arm in pain when the needle hit flesh.

"NO!" Brooklyn snarled, watching the dart fire and hit the gold. Leaping off the roof of the truck, Brooklyn swooped down between the gold and Owen, stopping the blonde man from approaching the gold any further. Eyes flared an empty white in anger, Brooklyn only growled at Xanatos' aide, teeth bared menacingly.

"Ah, I see," Owen muttered stoically. "Well, that certainly explains all this."

"Leave her alone," Brooklyn hissed, crouching into a predator-like stance of attack.

"Unfortunately, I can do no such thing," Owen said, loading the tranquilizer gun again. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Over my dead body."

The gold, standing behind Brooklyn, was shocked to see the red gargoyle appear out of virtually nowhere, but with the sedative taking quick effect, she couldn't understand much of what was being said between Brooklyn and Owen.

"As you wish," Owen said, raising the gun and firing almost immediately after. Reacting quicker than the gold, Brooklyn managed to dodge the dart, and used the altercation to escape, whirling around and racing towards the museum columns, grabbing the gold by the arm as he did, and dragging her along with him before Owen could reload.

The gold, confused and drugged, glared at Brooklyn angrily, the blood-red glow accented by her gold skin, and tried struggling out of his grip, but was unable to, before the full effects of the drugs kicked in, and she slumped into a sort of induced trance. Catching her before she fell to the ground, Brooklyn pulled the dart out of her arm, tossing it back out onto the street as he slung her over one shoulder and dug his talons into the stone column, scaling upwards until he was high enough to get a decent updraft to make it up to a rooftop nearby.

Owen, watching the escape, sighed, and put away the tranquilizer gun, calmly taking out a cell phone in its place. Glancing upwards as he dialed the number and listened for someone to answer, as he watched Brooklyn take off from the rooftop with the gold cradled in his arms.

"NYPD, how can I help you?" the person on the other end of the line said, answering Owen's call.

"Hello. I'd like to report a robbery at the Manhattan Museum of Ancient History."

Within an hour, the museum was swarmed with police, some of which were studying the delivery truck, some photographing the broken crate, others controlling the crowd that had gathered. One of the officers that had responded to the call was Elisa Maza, one of the only people in the city who knew that the gargoyles existed, and who also happened to be on night duty tonight.

When she arrived, the scene had already been thoroughly searched, but Elisa, knowing who employed Owen Burnette, and what kind of dealings he was involved in, felt the need to search for any evidence of foul play.

"What a week," Elisa moaned, looking around at the crime scene. The ground behind the delivery truck was littered with an overturned dolly, along with a trail of splintered wood, leading to the bottom half of a crate that lay in pieces in front of the museum. The crate was padded on the inside, leading to the conclusion that whatever had been inside was delicate, and the to-from address originated from the British History Museum in London. Lacking the file for the stolen merchandise, Elisa guessed that it was some sort of antiquity that had been sold at a private auction.

Noticing the small trail of wood splinters that lead a few feet away from the crate itself, Elisa followed the trail, noticing for the first time that mixed in with the wood splinters were small chips of stone.

"What do we have here?" she asked herself, reaching down to pick up a large piece of what looked like granite, and examining it closely. "Stone?"

"The thing inside was made of a rare make of it. Some kind of foreign rock," another officer with a camera said, seeing Elisa inspect the rock shard. "There's a whole slew of it mixed in with what's left of the crate. We figure the crooks got sloppy and chipped it."

"Marble?" Elisa wondered.

"Doesn't say," he replied, walking off towards his original destination to continue photographing the scene

Sighing disappointedly, Elisa glanced down at the shards of wood and stone around her feet, when she suddenly saw something that caught her attention. Lying mixed in with the granite-like stone and splintered wooden crate, a small silver dart was laying underneath some of the splinters, making it easy to see why it wasn't seen before now. Reaching down, Elisa brushed aside the wood and picked up the dart, recognizing it almost instantly as a tranquilizer dart, and upon closer inspection, saw that it was empty, devoid of any drug usually found in tranquilizer darts.

"Sloppy, and violent, if they need tranqs," Elisa muttered to herself, getting up from her kneeling position, clutching the dart in her fist. Marching directly over to Owen, Elisa made no hesitation approaching him with her suspicions. "Care to explain what happened here Mr. Burnette?"

"As I told the officers already, detective, I was making a purchase requested by Mr. Xanatos when my crew and I were attacked by thieves. The merchandise was stolen," Owen said monotonously.

"What kind of merchandise needs a sedative?" Elisa snarled, holding up the dart Brooklyn had thrown down.

"You can check the purchase papers, detective. I assure you, it's all perfectly in order."

"We'll see," Elisa growled darkly, glaring at Owen over her shoulder as she went over to talk to Morgan, a fellow officer, who was currently reading through the purchase papers Owen had mentioned. Looking over Morgan's shoulder to inspect the papers, Elisa hoped for something, anything that would shed some light on this mystery. "What've we got, Morgan?"

Much to Elisa's dismay, Morgan shook his head. "Nothing. Nada. Everything's in order, just like he said."

"It can't be!" Elisa insisted, shuffling through the papers. "First of all, why would anyone make a delivery to a museum without any protection, and in the middle of the night?"

"I know," Morgan said calmingly. "I don't like it either, but everything here's legal."

Elisa, seeing her defeat in the matter, sighed as she dropped the papers back onto the car hood where they'd been sitting. "What was stolen anyway?"

"Eh, some stone gargoyle from the British museum," Morgan said, organizing the papers back into a neat pile.

"What?!"

"Yeah. An expensive one, too. Had diamonds engraved in it an' everything. Probably worth a pretty penny on the black market."

"Diamonds?" Elisa wondered. That was one trademark she knew her gargoyle friends did not have.

"Yep, says right here," Morgan said, pointing at one of the papers. "Blue diamonds."

"This makes no sense," Elisa sighed. "Why would anyone want a diamond studded statue delivered during the night? That's like asking for trouble."

"You got me," Morgan shrugged, just as confused.

Looking back over her shoulder towards Owen, Elisa's glare narrowed in angrily, until she noticed, for the first time, the markings on the column behind him. Walking over to the column, Elisa recognized the markings as claw marks, made directly into the solid stone, and rising up the side of it, until the marks suddenly disappeared. Suddenly, the pieces fit together. The tranquilizer dart, the stone chips, the broken crate scattered around, the claw marks, the lack of a physical description of the thieves or their getaway car, and why Xanatos would insist on delivering such an item only at night.

"Stolen, my foot," Elisa snarled storming back to her car.

Clock Tower
23rd Precinct

It was well past the prime of the night before anything relatively interesting happened at the clock tower. For most of the night, Goliath and Hudson had been reading or watching T.V, with Bronx snoozing at the foot of Hudson's recliner. Goliath, halfway through one of his finds in the downstairs library, was sitting, engrossed in his reading in the corner, while Hudson lazily flipped through the channels. Bronx, having been asleep from boredom shortly after waking from his stone sleep, seemed uninterested in the television, or the book in Goliath's hands, but suddenly shot up, ears perked as though he'd heard something. A few moments more at attention, and the large blue dog was on his feet, sniffing the air intently.

The tower had been virtually silent, so the sudden barking of their watchdog was alarmingly loud.

"AROOF! ARF! ARRROOO!" Bronx howled, tongue lolling out of the corner of his mouth as he bounded away from the chair and up the staircase.

"Now what's gotten into him?" Hudson wondered, turning around to watch their dog leap up the stair case and out the window.

"It's probably the trio, coming back for the night," Goliath said, closing his book and watching Bronx. "And just in time, too. It's nearly dawn."

Setting down the book, Goliath calmly got up and climbed the staircase, following Bronx out to the tower, with Hudson coming up behind after shutting off the T.V. Upon exiting the tower, they weren't surprised to see the distant figures of Lex and Broadway coming quickly in for a landing, but there was a nagging sense of alarm when neither Goliath nor Hudson could see Brooklyn behind them.

"Goliath! You won't believe this!" Lex said as soon as they were in earshot of the two older gargoyles, not even landing before he started talking. Flaring their wings just as they were coming in for a landing, the two landed easily on the balcony, grins spread across their faces.

"It's unbelievable!" Broadway grinned, grabbing Goliath by the shoulders, indescribable happiness showing through every action. Both Lex and Broadway started chattering away, their mouths and words flying by a mile a minute, including many 'incredible's and several 'found's, but the rest was covered up by each other's words and the speed at which they were yelling them.

"Hold on, you two," Hudson said, trying to settle the two younger gargoyles enough so they could understand what they were saying. "Calm down."

"And where's Brooklyn?" Goliath wondered, instantly noticing that their rookery brother was missing. "It's nearly dawn. I thought the two of you were going to meet him."

"Yeah but-" Broadway started, but was interrupted by Bronx's barking again, this time far louder, and he raced up to the edge of the balcony, rearing up on his hind legs and placing his front paws on the railing, yelping at the sky.

"What is it boy?" Hudson asked, patting Bronx's head and following the dog's gaze.

Copying Hudson, Goliath, Lex, and Broadway turned out towards the cityscape, staring into the darkness, unsure of what Bronx was barking at, until the faint outline of red wings and white hair came into view. Surprisingly slow, Brooklyn was staggering in the air, as though weighted down by something, and by the time he was over the balcony, he was almost too low to clear the railing, and tilted on the side.

"GAH!" He snarled, clipping his foot on one of the outside parapets, and forced to flap his wings to get high enough so the rest of him wouldn't hit. Off balanced from the impact, Brooklyn stumbled in the air, then managed to clear the railing, but not before his wingtip hit it, causing him to tumbled head over tail, and roll ungracefully into the wall, tucked into a fetal position to protect whatever was in his arms. "OOF!"

Though it wasn't a bad crash, the ungraceful landing left Brooklyn with a few knocks on the head, but nothing that would actually amount to anything. Lex, grinning, sarcastically remarked as his older rookery brother picked himself up, "Nice landing."

Glaring over his shoulder, as his back was to the group, Brooklyn snarled at Lex. "I'd like to see you carry her and land, Graceful."

"Carry what?" Goliath wondered, interest renewed with Brooklyn's arrival.

"What have ya got there, lads?" Hudson added.

Bronx, previously perplexed by watching Brooklyn's landing, trotted up to the trio, moaning and nudging Brooklyn in the back, as if indicating to Hudson and Goliath to come over. Approaching the trio, the lavender leader of the clan attempted to look over Brooklyn's wings, that were fanned out enough so that they hid whatever was in his arms, though dragging on the ground were two sets of gold talons and a tail.

Turning around to face the other two members of the clan, Brooklyn could not have predicted their reactions more perfectly when they saw the unconscious golden gargoyle cradled in his arms. Lex and Broadway, who'd been watching her sleep with fascination, wordlessly looked up when Brooklyn turned around, watching their leader's reaction.

"By the Magus!" Hudson gasped, stepping back in shock, as though he'd never seen an unfamiliar gargoyle before.

"This…this is impossible! Another gargoyle? Here?" Goliath stammered, mind numbed with shock and surprise. He leaned down, taking her limp hand in his as though to make sure she was real. "What happened? Where did you find her? Were there any others?"

"We found her at the History Museum!" Broadway announced proudly.

Brooklyn raised a questionable eye ridge at this, glancing down at the gold and then at his brothers. "We?" he wondered to himself, mentally noting that he was the only one who found her.

"What's wrong with the lass?" Hudson asked, leering down at the sleeping female.

"Tranquilizer dart," Brooklyn said, knowing that Lex and Broadway didn't know about that part. "It should be wearing off soon." Then more to himself, he added, "I hope."

"Did you see any others with her? Any at all?" Goliath demanded of Brooklyn, excitement evident in his voice.

Sadly, Brooklyn swallowed heavily, knowing that this wouldn't lift their spirits much. "There were no others. She was the only one," he said, setting her down to lean against the railing of the tower's balcony.

"She's not of Wyvern's clan," Hudson said, looking at the gold's face. "There should be more survivors."

"And if there are, where are they?" Goliath added. "And how did they end up here?"

"I guess we'll have to wait and ask her when she wakes up," Brooklyn said, shrugging his shoulders.

"If she manages to beat the sun," Lex said, looking out at the horizon that was quickly beginning to lighten to a pale gray.

"Goliath!"

Recognizing the familiar female voice, Goliath turned towards the tower's entrance, just as Elisa emerged from the darkened tower interior. Running up to her friend, she hurried to tell him what she'd found, knowing how close it was to dawn.

"Goliath, I'm glad I caught you before dawn. There's something I've got to tell you," Elisa said, catching her breath in between words.

"Elisa, wonderful news," Goliath interrupted, grinning like a hatchling.

"Goliath! She's coming around!" Broadway's voice interrupted the conversation between Elisa and Goliath. Unfortunately, that was all that was heard, as just as Goliath turned around to look over his shoulder, the pale rays of the sun swept across the tower, encasing the gargoyles scattered on the balcony in their stone sleep for the day. Seeing that trying to talk to a rock was futile, Elisa sighed, running her fingers through her long black hair.

"Oh well," she sighed, turning to leave the stone clan on the roof for the day. "I guess it'll have to wait until nightfall."

The day went on like any normal day, which for Elisa meant going home, feeding Cagney, her roommate and cat, and going to sleep before the next night's shift. To your average, everyday working person, this routine was a bit on the odd side, but having been on night shift for months, this schedule didn't seem that odd anymore to Elisa.

When Elisa woke up, it was approximately five o' clock in the evening, and a few good hours before sunset, leaving her plenty of time to eat and get to the station to finish the preliminary paper pushing, so she could have some time to clear up the matter with the gargoyles when they woke up. Not surprisingly, when she arrived at the station, no suspects had been brought in for questioning concerning the robbery, which lightened Elisa's work load considerably. Matt was taking patrol tonight, leaving Elisa time to sneak into the janitor's closet and stow away to the interior of the clock tower when the sun started setting.

She was out on the balcony just before the last rays of daylight sank below the horizon, standing far enough back that when the gargoyles flared their wings to shed the stone skin, she was out of range of the small rock shards. Goliath, having been facing in Elisa's general direction before waking up, was the first to see her.

"Elisa," Goliath grinned. "What a pleasant surprise."

Elisa sighed inwardly, not really wanting to get down to business, but forced to none-the-less. "Goliath, I have to tell you something. Last night-" she began, but was suddenly interrupted by Goliath, which was a surprise. Goliath rarely interrupted anyone.

"-was the best night we've had in a long time," Goliath grinned, the same expression he'd had last night before sunrise. Approaching Elisa, he gently took her hand and led her over towards the others, who were crowded around the western corner of the balcony. "Come, you must meet her."

Suddenly, the warning bells in Elisa's head went off. "Her? Goliath, what's going…" Just as suddenly as she'd been alarmed, Elisa became shocked into silence when Goliath led her over to the others. Centered in the circle of the other five gargoyles, a seventh, golden colored female stood, one hand supporting her as she leaned backwards on the railing and the other clamped onto the side of her head, talons laced into a head of white hair. "Oh my god."

"Isn't this great?" Lex grinned, looking over at Elisa from his perch atop the railing inches from the beaked gold. "This means there are other gargoyles alive out there!"

"W-where did you guys find her?" Elisa stammered, unable to take her eyes off of the strange gargoyle, who seemed to be having some trouble fully waking up, as though she were suffering from some sort of hangover.

"She was trapped at the History Museum last night," Broadway said.

Suddenly, the dots connected, and Elisa realized the truth of the situation at hand. "Museum? Last night?"

Brooklyn, catching the hint of disbelief in Elisa's voice, looked up at their human friend skeptically. "Yeah. Why?"

While this was going on, the gold, shaking off the effects of the tranquilizer dart from the previous night and finally regaining her bearings enough to understand her surroundings, looked up and around her at the circle of gargoyles. "Uh…wha…" she groaned, peeking out from beneath her hand that held her head. Upon hearing her groan, everyone became silent, not sure what to expect from her. Scanning the unfamiliar faces in front of her, she seemed confused, her jaw hanging open slightly, until she saw Elisa. Then, she panicked.

"HUMAN! Get away from me!" she snarled, practically leaping back away from Elisa. Not knowing that behind her was the railing and Lex, she backed up right into the banister, whirling around as if expecting an attack, and then getting even more frantic when she saw Lex's face practically right in hers. "AH! W-who're you? Where am I?" She demanded, backing away from Lex, only to whirl around again to face the others.

"Whoa, easy kit," Brooklyn cooed softly, trying to calm her down, unfortunately to no avail. "Take it easy."

"Who…" she started, but stopped, and looking at Brooklyn, started shaking a talon at the crimson gargoyle in recognition. "You- I remember you. Last night…you…you were with the human!"

"Calm yourself, lass," Hudson said sternly. "We won't hurt you."

This didn't help much, as the gold was already pressed up against the banister, looking around her frantically, as though searching for an escape route.

"It's alright, young one," Goliath said calmly, offering a hand to the young female. "You're among friends."

"He's right, kiddo," Elisa said, trying to seem as harmless to her as possible. "I won't bite."

Elisa tried copying Goliath, and reached a hand towards her, but that only set her off further. "No! Stay away! Margeli, where's Margeli?!" She hissed, looking around frantically as she backed up further, leaning almost backwards off the railing. Suddenly, she lost her footing, and tripped over her own feet, losing what grip she had left on the ground, and toppled over backwards. "AHHH!" she yelled, too frightened to react in time or to prevent knocking her head against the edge of the stone parapet, stunning her long enough so that she fell down between the balcony and the parapet, and hit the slanting base that supported the ring of parapets around the tower.

"No!" Elisa cried out, reaching down after the gold, who quickly rolled down the slant, and quite suddenly, off the tower itself.

"NO!" Goliath roared, taking off after the gold as she fell from the tower and seemed on a collision course with the ground. The rest of the clan, at least those that possessed wings, took off after their leader, each diving down to catch the gold before she would crash.

Only mildly stunned, and far from unconscious, the gold regained her bearings, enough to realize that she was falling backwards, her back and wings to the ground. Almost on instinct, she opened her wings a little, just enough to steady her fall, then twirled around so she was flying right side up, performing the incredible aerial move with almost practiced ease.

Now right side up, she could see the vast cityscape in front of her, and the skyscraper roof just a few tens of feet below her. "AHHH!" she cried, shielding her face with her arms and instinctively flaring her wings to throw herself in a ninety degree angle, and into a parallel skim across the rooftop to avoid the grisly end she was about to be handed.

Not watching where she was going, she stumbled in midair for a few moments, slowing down slightly, enough so that she managed to clumsily land on another rooftop nearby, skidding to a halt on her side, scraping her knees and her left arm on the hard concrete. Shakily getting to her feet, she stumbled over to the edge of the building, looking around her as she went, only to peer down at the city below, and become even more bewildered. Awestruck, she only stared at her surroundings, unsure of what to make of it all.

"What kind of sorcery is this?" she whispered hoarsely, looking around at the buildings, the streets, the cars and lights, as well as the multitudes of people below and around her. "Where am I?"

"An island called, Manhattan."

Whirling around instinctively, the gold took up a defensive stance, her teeth bared and eyes flared blood-red as Goliath came to land behind her near the middle of the rooftop, and the rest of the clan behind him. Brooklyn, smiling in relief, came out from behind his leader.

"You gave us quite a scare, kit," he said, approaching her.

Instead of responding, the gold only growled, and shielded herself, slightly, with one wing, her eyes still glowing in the darkened shadow cast on her face. "Where's Margeli?" she snarled. "What have you done with her?"

"Who is this, Margeli?" Goliath asked her, getting slightly frustrated with her stubbornness. "And where is the rest of your clan?"

"Tell me where she is!!" the gold roared, nearly attacking Goliath, her wings flaring angrily and her talons hanging at her sides like weapons, tail lashing angrily behind her.

"Hold yer horses, lass," Hudson jumped in. "We just want to help ye, and yer fightin' us won't make it any easier."

The elder gargoyle's words breaking through the flare of rage, the gold settled down slightly, her eyes fading back from the bright red and she leaned back to a more upright standing position, as opposed to her hunched over, raptor-like stance of attack, though her wings and talons stayed tense.

"Okay, then, first things first," Goliath said gently. "I am Goliath. This is Hudson, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington." He pointed to each of the gargoyles respectively, and then glanced back up at the tower briefly. "The human you met was Elisa Maza, and our dog, Bronx."

The top ridge of one of the sigma marks around her eyes rose slightly. "You have names?" she wondered.

"It's kind of a long story," Brooklyn muttered.

"Tell us lass, where is the rest of your clan?" Hudson insisted, repeating Goliath's earlier question.

Suddenly, her fiery demeanor and angrily expression faded, and she looked down at her feet, as though a huge weight had been placed on her shoulders. "Clan?" she repeated sadly. "I have no clan."

Goliath shook his head as if he hadn't heard right, and tried again. "It's okay. We just want to help. If you could tell us what happened to them…"

"I HAVE NO CLAN!" she snarled, eyes suddenly flaring angrily, with what looked like slight streams of tears coming down one side of her face.

"Okay, okay," Brooklyn said soothingly, trying to keep her as calm as possible. "We get it." The gold only glared at him, but faded her eyes back to normal.

"I'm sorry," Goliath apologized. "Tell us, what do you remember before you came here? Where are you from?"

The gold only glared at the large lavender gargoyle and scoffed, turning her back to him and the clan, and placing one foot on the edge of the building as if preparing to take off. "The last of my kind sleep at Castle Wyvern," she said coldly, her back to the group of gargoyles. She flared her wings after that. "Take it up with them."

"Wait!" Lex called out, seeing that she was preparing to leave. "Where are you going?"

"To find Margeli," she said stoically.

Take a leap of faith, Goliath approached her sternly. "You seek your kind at Castle Wyvern?" he said, catching her attention. She turned around to glare at the purple gargoyle. Goliath, now that he had her attention, pointed to the distant Eerie building, where the faint outline of an ancient castle was cast against the black-blue sky and the pale rising moon. "That is Castle Wyvern."

Following Goliath's direction, the gold saw the castle's outline against the moon and sky, and her jaw dropped in shock. "No…" she muttered, shaking her head and stepping back down off the ledge. "It can't be. Margeli said…she said to sleep until reunited with my clan! They're dead! They all died before we were hatched!"

"Hatched?" Broadway wondered, catching what the gold had said. "You mean…the eggs in the rookery…they survived?"

Suddenly, Brooklyn figured out the mystery. "Kit, listen," he said, approaching the confused gold. "Whatever spell this Margeli put on you, it's been a thousand years since then. The spell was only broken because you were brought here, and we are all that is left of our clan."

The news came hard to the young gold, as illustrated by the constant shaking of her head, but as it began to sink in, she settled down slightly, her wings lowering down more to a resting position as she sat down on the ledge she'd once been standing on. "A…a thousand years?"

"What's say we start again, lass?" Hudson inquired softly.

"Indeed," Goliath added. "It seems we have much to discuss."

"I…I guess so," she replied quietly.

The clan didn't bother trying to force the gold to come back to the tower with them, so instead, they remained on the rooftop, situated around the gold as Goliath told her their story, and what exactly had happened to the rest of the Wyvern Clan. Listening intently, the gold was more often than not sullen and downcast, as though she were reliving the Castle Wyvern massacre. When Goliath had finished, the gold only shook her head in disbelief.

"It's been a thousand years…but how did I get here, if this Manhattan isn't part of Scotland or England?" she asked. No one bothered to wonder why she mentioned England, and let Brooklyn explain the events of the previous night.

"You were inside a crate being shipped to a museum here from London," Brooklyn explained.

"Museum?" she wondered, the idea of museum foreign to her.

"We'll explain later," Goliath assured her. "Can you tell us how many others were with you before? Were there anymore that might have been put under a similar spell?"

The gold looked at Goliath sadly, then back down at the ground. "I had six rookery brothers and one sister," she muttered.

"Only eight survived from the rookery?!" Broadway gasped, the number staggering. The others mimicked his shock, knowing how many eggs had been inside the rookery before the massacre. Eight was a slim number of survivors.

"But all the others…" Lex began, but the gold cut him off, shaking her head continuously.

"The other eggs disappeared the night we were taken in by the stable hands," she said. "We were all that was left."

"And this, Margeli…" Hudson trailed off, egging the gold to continue.

"She was a human. Part of a traveling circus troupe from Bavaria that took us in. She tried to protect us from the thieves that attacked, but she failed. My rookery brothers and sister were shattered."

There was a momentary silence as this new information sunk in. From a rookery full of gargoyle children, only eight survived, and from those eight, only one made it back to the clan alive.

"But, how did you survive all these years?" Lex asked inquisitively.

"The last thing I remember was Margeli. She told me that I could rest in peace, for I would only wake if my clan was reunited," she said, thinking back.

"Uhh, this Margeli must have been some sort of mystic to cast a spell like that with no magic book," Goliath muttered, mostly to himself.

"That still doesn't explain how the lass got here," Hudson pointed out.

"I saw Owen at the museum," Brooklyn piped up. "He was the one who sedated her."

"Which means Xanatos is no doubt involved in her abduction," Goliath snarled, clenching one hand into a fist.

"Wait Goliath," Lex piped up suddenly. "Who's to say she was even abducted? From what she told us, she was stone for a thousand years before last night."

"What are you getting at?" Brooklyn wondered crossly, eying his younger brother.

"What if she was stone and she already belonged to a museum? What if they were transferring her here when you found her? The spell was only supposed to last until someone from our clan got close enough to her," Lex said.

"Belonged?" the gold repeated, not believing what she was hearing.

"It doesn't matter. She is not some possession to be sold! She is one of us!" Goliath snarled slightly at Lex.

"Maybe, and then again, maybe not," Elisa's voice came from behind the clan.

Turning around as one, the clan saw Elisa coming through the doorway that lead from the stairwell to the roof, a stern expression on her face. The gold seeing Elisa again, suddenly flared up her eyes again, and bared her teeth crossly at her. "Human! Go away!" she spat angrily.

"Kit, wait!" Brooklyn jumped in. "It's okay. She's a friend."

Instead of reenacting the events of earlier at the tower, this time the gold listened, and settled down, but snarled slightly at Elisa, letting her eyes fade and glare at Elisa. "Maybe your friend. Not mine," she said darkly before leaping off the rooftop and glided down to the lower rooftop of the neighboring building. Watching her go, Goliath decided to let her alone for a moment, and turned back to Elisa.

"What are you talking about?" he asked her curiously.

Elisa, surprisingly stern, sighed heavily. "Last night, there was a robbery at the Museum of Ancient History. One of the auction trucks was delivering an antique stone gargoyle from London's British Museum, and it was stolen."

Seeing where she may be taking this, Goliath leered dangerously at his friend. "And what does this have to do with the hatchling?"

"I pulled a description of the gargoyle from the auction records, which say the gargoyle was purchased by Xanatos Enterprises three months ago. The description of the gargoyle matches your little white-eyed friend there," Elisa said, indicating the direction the gold had gone off to. "We have no description of the thieves, no getaway car, the movers who were transporting the gargoyle said they saw a monster jump out of the crate…I'm sorry Goliath, but your friend was bought and paid for by Xanatos, and there's an entire division working this case, looking for her."

"This is ridiculous! Gargoyles are living beings! Not relics for someone's private amusement!" Goliath roared angrily, eyes flaring bright white.

"Goliath, listen…" Elisa started, but was interrupted angrily by Goliath.

"No! I will not lose another gargoyle!" he hissed. "Not to Xanatos!"

"Goliath, if they find her, you have to let her go! How am I going to explain how stolen property got on top of the station's clock tower? They'll find out about you!"

"But she's not a statue anymore!" Broadway jumped in, looking pleadingly at Elisa, as if to ask her to make it go away.

"It doesn't…" Elisa started again, but was drowned out by the louder voices of all the others, who jumped in to argue their points of view on the matter.

Brooklyn, thinking this through, suddenly realized something that Elisa has said earlier, and roared above the other to be quiet. "WAIT!" he roared, getting the attention of the others. "Wait, Elisa, did you just say 'white-eyed'?"

The other gargoyles suddenly had the same expression of surprise that Brooklyn had previously had, and Elisa just shrugged. "Yeah. Kind of sticks out if you think about it," she said. Then, noticing the expressions on her friends, she raised an eyebrow in question. "Why? What's wrong?"

"A white-eyed gargoyle?" Goliath muttered, looking towards where the gold was sitting on the edge of the lower rooftop, alone.

"I thought they were only stories," Broadway gapped.

Looking around, Elisa suddenly felt slightly out of the loop. "Okay, I missed something. What's so weird about white eyes on a gargoyle? What, you guys have never seen an albino before?"

"They're not albinos," Hudson said. "There was an old story we used to tell the hatchlings, about the white-eyed gargoyles, a rare anomaly among our kind."

"Long ago, a clan of gargoyles was attacked by a ruthless king," Goliath said, recalling the story he as well as the others had heard in their childhood. "The battle raged through many nights, and each night the clan was forced to fall back into hiding during the day. Finally, they were forced to stand their ground. The battle lasted throughout the night, until it was nearly dawn. To save his clan, the leader, a white-eyed gargoyle, struck a deal with the king. He offered to surrender himself to the king if he would spare his clan. The king agreed, and withdrew, letting the gargoyle clan live once the sun had risen."

"No one ever saw their leader again, but the king's son later crafted a jewel called the 'Clan's Eye', in honor of the leader's sacrifice, and gave shelter to the clan in his own castle once he took the throne," Hudson finished.

"Or so the legends say," Brooklyn added at the end.

Elisa thought about this for a moment, then realized something. "This Clan's Eye, what kind of jewel was it?"

"Legend has it that the Clan's Eye was one of the rarest gems of all. A dark blue diamond," Lex said.

"Blue diamond?"

"What relevance does this have?" Goliath asked. "The answer is simple. We protect her from Xanatos, end of story."

"I understand where you're coming from, Goliath, but it's not that simple."

"This is not up for discussion!" Goliath roared angrily.

"ARRRRAAAAWWWWWRRRRRR!"

Instinctively, the war-cry emanating from the lower rooftop below the clan drew their attention like moths to a flame. Bolting to the edge of the building, Goliath peered over the ledge, searching the rooftop below for the gold that was previously sitting calmly on the edge of the roof. By the time he'd gotten there, the gold was roaring angrily, wings and talons flailing in the air to try and break out of the steel ropes that were tangling her. Surrounding her were several well armed men, resembling the commandos that had worked for Xanatos when the clan lived at the castle.

"Wanna bet?" Brooklyn remarked snidely, raising an eye ridge at Goliath.

"We can't let Xanatos take her! Come!" Goliath commanded, leaping of the ledge of the building and diving in a straight charge towards the attackers.

The gold was thrashing wildly, keeping the commandos at bay, and finally, with one powerful swipe, her talons ripped through the steel cables that made up the restraints, freeing her legs and right arm, though her wings were still bound. Throwing off the cables, she crouched low and dangerously, flared red eyes glaring angrily at the commandos that encircled her.

click "Be careful," Owen's voice called out through one of the radio transmitters worn by the commandos. "Mr. Xanatos does not want any irreparable damage done to the gargoyle." click

"Oh don't worry," the lead commando grinned, speaking into the transmitter. "What I'm gonna to do it won't be permanent. Just painful."

Hearing this, the gold growled even louder, and glared directly at the lead commando. "Just try me, human," she snarled dangerously.

"My pleasure, monster."

The commando had figured this out in advance. Compared to the large purple one he'd faced before, this younger, smaller golden gargoyle was no threat, and judging by the way it moved, it wasn't much of a fighter, as it moved more like a skittish deer than a wild animal, and with its wings still bound at an awkward angle, flying was not an option. In one surge of motion, the commando leader charged, his brass knuckled fist curled and aimed to connect with the gold's face. He expected the impact to be hard, as he was aimed for the slender beak, but he faltered, when he struck not a face, but thin air, and the gold turned to face him, having slid gracefully out of the way at the last moment.

"Wha…!" he said, but was never able to finish his thought, as the gold grabbed his wrist roughly, and easily picked him up and hurled him across the roof. The commando landed in a heap on the ground, sluggishly picking himself up.

"Tranq the thing!" one of the other commandos ordered, seeing the gold easily dispose of their leader, despite her size and handicapped wings.

"Not tonight!"

The commando struggling to load the tranquilizer gun instinctively turned towards the sound of the voice, only to meet with the teal fist of Broadway. The commando, needless to say, went flying, as did the loaded tranquilizer gun, which skidded to the foot of another fellow commando.

"More of them?!"

"Get the nets!"

The clan landed in separate places along the roof, each taking out or scaring off one of the nearby commandos. Unfortunately, they did not take out those that were holding a snare gun, rigged with one of several nets.

"Net them!" the lead commando blurted out, taking out his own snare gun and aiming it at Goliath, who was attempting to reach the gold, that had been cornered by several commandos, and had a small silver dart in her side. Already, she was starting to slump down into the drugged trance.

Seeing the guns at the last moment, Goliath turned to the others and yelled out, "Scatter!" just before the snare guns fired, launching a series of specialized steel cable nets. Without enough warning to dodge, the nets enveloped Brooklyn and Lex in one, Hudson in another, and Broadway in a third, while Goliath took the fourth net head on.

"EERAAAAHHH!" he bellowed, attempting to tear through the net's cables.

Seeing Goliath and the others fight to escape their nets, the lead commando smiled with twisted glee. "Ah-ah-ah," he tsked. "Not this time, monster."

Pressing a button on the device at his side, the nets suddenly erupted in a burst of electricity, the current racing through the steel cables and into the gargoyles themselves, knocking them all out to the point where they passed out.

"RAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRR!" The chorus of angry and painful howls echoed through the night air, powerful and horrendous at first, but then fading to a low growl as the clan passed out into unconsciousness. Grinning, the lead commando turned over to the gold, who was still trying to fight back, regardless of the powerful sedative that she'd been drugged with. Obviously tranquilizer darts were still something new to her, so dodging one was more difficult that dodging a fist.

"Net that one too," he said, tossing another commando the device to activate the electric net, while almost immediately after being given the order, another fired a snare gun at the gold, encasing her in a similar net, and a similar fate at the push of a button. Ignoring the roar of pain from the gold, the leader fired a small flare gun into the air. "We've got what we came for."

"What about the others?"

The lead commando looked at the unconscious gargoyles and scoffed. "Leave them. By the time they wake up, we'll be miles away. Move out!"

Like a well organized army unit, the commandos regrouped, two of them picking up the netted gold while the others retrieved the ropes and cables they'd used to scale up the side of the building from the fire escape below to attack the gold with the element of surprise, as off in the distance the faint outline of what looked like a helicopter was coming into view.

"FREEZE!"

Turning around out of habit, the commandos saw the red jacketed Elisa Maza standing in the stairwell doorway, her gun aimed at the lead commando. "Sorry lady, party's over," the leader grinned, as he backed up towards the edge of the building.

"I said freeze!" Elisa snarled again, cocking her gun this time.

It was then that Elisa heard the faint roar of a rotor become a louder, more definite roar of a rotor, as from behind the commandos, an unmarked helicopter flew down, coming to a steady hover just above the building's ledge. Shielding her face from the tremendous amount of gravel and dirt the rotor was kicking up, Elisa was forced to cover her eyes when the helicopter's searchlight blinded her, rendering her weapon useless while the commandos loaded up on the helicopter, taking with them the golden female gargoyle.

"Let's go!" the lead commando yelled to the pilot over the roar of the chopper. Giving the thumbs up sign between the two, the pilot took off, turning the searchlight away from Elisa as he did.

"No!" Elisa screamed, running to the edge of the building and firing up at the chopper, though she already knew her bullets wouldn't do anything to help. The helicopter along with the gold female was gone by the time the gargoyles began waking up, too far away to follow and catch.

"This can't be happening!" Goliath roared angrily, once Elisa finished telling them what had happened. "We must find her!"

"Goliath, calm down," Elisa said, trying to calm down the angry gargoyle.

"Calm?" he practically hissed. "The only survivor of our clan's children has been abducted!"

"And running around the city all night won't help!" Elisa shot back.

"No! I won't give up!"

"I'm not asking you to give up," Elisa said soothingly. "Just give me some time, and I may have a way to get her back."

"Seriously?" Brooklyn wondered hopefully.

"What are you going to do?" Broadway asked, equally hopeful.

"I'm playing on a pretty good hunch."

Eerie Building
Castle Wyvern

The main hall inside the remodeled Castle Wyvern was once Princess Katherine's throne room, but under the reconstruction of the castle atop the Eerie building, it had become the master office of the castle, second to Xanatos' private office in one of the interior rooms. Xanatos had been alerted to the arrival of Elisa, and as always, he played the polite host and welcomed her up for a talk. After all, he already knew why she was here, so it was no surprise when she came into the main room with an angry scowl on her face.

"Ah, Detective Maza," Xanatos beamed gleefully. "What a pleasant surprise. I've been meaning to thank you for helping me recover my stolen property."

"That's what I came to talk to you about," she said crossly, then smiled fakely. "But you already knew that, didn't you? Just like you knew about the statue."

"Yes, Owen tells me there have been some complications concerning your friends and the recent addition to my private collection."

"She's a living creature, Xanatos. You can't just keep her caged up like some trophy."

"According to public record, I can do anything I want with that gargoyle. I bought it, after all. The fact that it comes to life at night is just something I'll have to ignore."

Elisa's glare narrowed considerably at the billionaire industrialist. "You think I don't know why you want this gargoyle? What are you planning to do, make another Clan's Eye out of her?"

Xanatos only grinned. "I see you've done your homework, Detective. But sadly, no, I have no desire to do something as barbaric as destroy her to scrounge for two measly blue diamonds. Rest assured, she will be kept safe and secured."

Elisa didn't flinch. "Goliath won't like this. You know he'll hunt you to the ends of the Earth until he gets her back."

Xanatos nodded almost knowingly, sighing slightly in reply. "True, and we can't have that," he said. "I must admit, I never anticipated the spell to be broken without my authorization, but now that is has…"

"…you have six very ticked off gargoyles on your hands."

Xanatos nodded again in response to Elisa's comment, and then pondered the situation for a moment before looking back up at the detective with a smile on his face. "Do me a favor, Detective. Deliver a message for me. To Goliath."

Clock Tower
23rd Precinct

Goliath under normal circumstances was a gargoyle of considerable patience, but currently his fuse was running short. Having returned to the clock tower after the attack, they were situated inside the tower, waiting for Elisa to return and enlighten them to her plan to find the gold female. Goliath was particularly impatient, having been pacing around the tower for a great part of the time. Situated around other parts of the tower, the rest of the clan just sat and waited patiently, occasionally watching Goliath pace restlessly.

Finally, nearly an hour after they'd returned to the clock tower, the stairs leading down to the police stationed opened up, and Elisa came climbing up the stairs.

"Elisa!" Goliath practically yelped, turning instantly to Elisa. "What news?"

"I have some good news and some bad news guys," she sighed. "I talked to Xanatos about your friend."

"And?" Brooklyn wondered, hopping down from his perch on the crate in the corner.

"And, he wasn't willing to just up and let her go."

Goliath's teeth clenched angrily, trying to suppress the angry growl emanating from his throat. "Then we will go to the castle and make him!"

"Hold on, Goliath," Elisa jumped, before Goliath was able to continue. "Xanatos isn't just going to hand her over, but he offered you a deal."

"Deal?"

"Since she came from over seas, and since she originally belonged to an exhibit that's been declared a historic artifact, it'll take some time for all the paperwork to be processed to legalize the purchase he made on her," Elisa explained. The clan was paying attention now. "As of now, she's been taken to a secure location until sunrise, and then she's going into his private collection, which no one except Xanatos has access to. If you can find her and free her before sunrise, he'll suspend the investigation and let her go."

"You made a deal with Xanatos?" Goliath asked. "How can you trust that he'll keep his word?"

Elisa glared back at her friend. "Hey, I don't trust him as far as I can throw him, but our options are severely limited. This is the best shot you guys will have to get her back, and the longer we debate this, the less time you have to find her."

Goliath mentally snarled, but realized that Elisa was right. "Then we will search for her."

"But where are we supposed to start?" Lex wondered. "The city's huge, and if they were traveling by helicopter, they could be anywhere by now."

Elisa nodded slightly, reaching into her interior jacket pocket, and pulling out a small computer disk, similar to ones Lex used in his computer. "Xanatos gave me this," Elisa said, handing the small disk to Lex. "He said he'd give you a head start."

"This sounds fishy to me," Broadway snorted from the back.

"But it's the only lead we have," Goliath said, then looked to Lex and nodded.

Taking the disk from Elisa, Lex grabbed his laptop from his workbench and popped in the disk, waiting for the information to load onto the screen. Once finished, Lex typed in a few commands, talons racing along the keys, pausing momentarily when a series of words came onto the monitor, and then he moved aside and turned the laptop around so the others could read what had come up on the screen.

"'To find the golden trophy, follow the clues'?" Brooklyn read aloud, partially for Hudson and Broadway, who weren't all that adept at reading, and mostly because he couldn't believe what he was reading. "What is this? Some kind of joke?"

Peering over Broadway's shoulder, Elisa read the rest of the entry that was displayed on the screen. "'From the temple's tower where East meets West in the City that never sleeps, follow the paths to the Jungles of the Island, and to the Urban Gardens. From there, see beneath the Ancient Greenhouse in the Sky, and the cheese at the end of the maze. Happy hunting.'"

"He's playing games with us," Goliath snarled, reading the screen silently to himself.

"These are all places in Manhattan," Elisa muttered, studying the clues over again. "'Where east meets west'…" She spent a few moments in thought, then suddenly snapped her fingers. "Chinatown! He wants you guys at one of the temple towers there!"

"But which temple? And what does that have to do with jungles or gardens?" Lex wondered.

"We'll figure out more along the way," Goliath said sternly, turning from the computer and taking off towards the exit to the tower. "Come!"

Following their leader with renewed hope, the rest of the clan, took off, Brooklyn and Broadway carrying along Bronx, just in case, leaving Elisa alone, watching them fly off to find their missing comrade.

"Good luck guys," Elisa muttered, leaning back against the clock face behind her. "It's all up to you now."

Elsewhere, as the gargoyles took off from their tower keep to search for the gold, and Elisa was reduced to simply waiting out the night in the tower, hoping for good news, Owen Burnette was occupying his time simply by staring out a huge glass window at the cityscape below him, when his cell phone rang. Almost expectantly, Owen calmly reached down and answered it.

"Yes?" he asked, pausing at the person on the other line began talking. Throughout the mostly one sided conversation, Owen simply nodded. "Yes sir, I understand. Of course."

Hanging up with the same level of calmness, Owen turned around and glanced behind him at the steel barred cage hidden behind a group of rare trees and a manufactured waterfall.

"ARRRAAAWWWRRRR!"

Unphased by the angry roar coming from the cage, Owen simply peered around the corner at the gold female, who was not only caged, but shackled to the base of the cage by chains that were latched around her wrists, ankles, and neck. Judging by her seemingly unbridled rage, she was completely capable of breaking the chains, and possibly the bars of cage as well.

"Please restrain yourself from breaking out of those chains," Owen advised the gold, who only looked up at him with blood-red eyes. "It would save us all a lot of time."

Growling angrily, the gold suddenly sprang forward, aimed at Owen through the bars of the cage, but was caught shortly after she lunged, and restrained to the center of the cage.

"ARRRAAAWWWWRRRRR!"

Chinatown

Normally, it may have taken forty-five minutes to an hour for the gargoyles to reach Chinatown, but under the circumstances, they managed to get there in about a half an hour, even carrying Bronx. All the way, they kept debating over the other clues that Xanatos had left them.

"Well, we're here," Brooklyn muttered. "Now what?"

"What was the next clue?" Goliath asked feverishly.

"'Follow the paths to the Jungles of the Island and the Urban Gardens'," Lex repeated to Goliath.

"Search for the tallest building you can find. If we're to follow a path, we'll need higher ground to find it," Goliath said, leading the way up towards a huge tower atop one of the Chinese-designed buildings.

Once landed, Hudson happened to glance down at the base of the building, and noticed where exactly this tower was. "'The tower of the temple'," Hudson muttered. "The lass was right, it seemed."

Looking around, Brooklyn sighed, seeing nothing but endless buildings and lights. "'Jungles of the Island'? That's like looking for a needle in a haystack. This entire island is a jungle of buildings and streets," he grumbled.

Hearing what Brooklyn had said, Goliath thought it over for a minute, reciting the clue in his head, and realizing what the next clue was. "Yes, except for one place. Central park."

"But then what are the Urban Gardens?"

"From the clue, it sounds like we should be able to see it from here," Lex muttered mostly to himself, searching the horizon for anything remotely resembling an Urban Garden.

"It could be anything," Hudson groaned. "Houses, parks, greenhouses…"

"Unless he's not talking about a garden," Broadway piped up. He grinned as he pointed out in front of them, where in the far distance they could see a set of moving searchlights coming up from the ground, dancing in the air above a building hidden far below the skyscrapers in front of it.

"Madison Square Gardens?" Brooklyn wondered, looking up at his rookery brother. Apparently Broadway's many detective novels and movies seemed to be rubbing off on him. "Xanatos takes everything literally, doesn't he?"

"The last clue said to 'see beneath the Ancient Greenhouse in the sky'," Lex said. "So no matter where we end up, we should be able to see this place from either the park or the Gardens."

"This game is leading us around in circles," Goliath growled darkly. "We'll split up. Hudson, Broadway, Lexington, go to the park and see what you can find. Brooklyn, you and I will take Bronx to the Gardens."

Wasting no time arguing or challenging Goliath's decision, the clan split up, Hudson, Broadway and Lex taking off towards Central Park, while Goliath and Brooklyn each took one front leg of Bronx's and leapt off the building with the huge dog situated between them, gliding towards the distant searchlights.

Madison Square Gardens

The Gardens were closer to the tower in Chinatown than central park, so Brooklyn and Goliath, even though they were ladened by Bronx's weight, reached their destination first, landing on the roof of the immense stadium, which was apparently having some sort of concert of event going on, explaining the reason the searchlights were on.

"We don't have long before sunrise, Goliath," Brooklyn pointed out, letting Bronx down onto the roof once he and Goliath had landed. "Wherever this Ancient Greenhouse in the sky is, we'd better find it fast."

"I know," Goliath groaned. "This game was meant to keep us from finding her in time, and Xanatos knows this."

Bronx, as though he understood Goliath's words, started growling in the direction of the Eerie building, baring his teeth at the shadowy outline of the castle and skyscraper. Sighing, Brooklyn felt defeated, and patted Bronx to settle him down, while he glared back up at Xanatos' headquarters, atop the Eerie building and within their ancestral home of Castle Wyvern. Suddenly, for the first time, Brooklyn noticed that beneath the castle on top of the building, a glass and iron frame was supporting the castle several stories above where the rest of the building had previously ended before the castle had been moved there.

"Uh, Goliath? What exactly is inside that space under the castle?" Brooklyn wondered, squinting as though it would help him see better.

"In the Eerie building?" Goliath wondered, turning in the direction of Brooklyn's gaze. "I assumed it was just his private garden. It's actually quite beautiful."

"Garden? Like greenhouse garden?"

Suddenly, the dots connected, and Goliath figured out the last piece of the puzzle. "'Beneath the Ancient Greenhouse in the sky'," Goliath gapped, realizing the truth. "She's there! At the castle! Hurry!"

Eerie Building
Lower Level Gardens

After receiving the call from Xanatos, informing him of the gargoyles and their hunt for the gold, Owen remained at his post, guarding the hidden cage, with the help of two steel clan robots that simply stood off to one side. The gold, on the other hand, was anything but calm.

"EERRAAHHH!" she snarled, pulling against the chains. "Release me!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Owen said emotionlessly, glancing at the gold out of the corner of one eye.

"What do you want with me? How did you humans find me?!" she snarled.

Owen, instead of answering, simply walked up to her, and reached on hand into the side bars of the cage, and pulled out from behind her wing a small radio transmitter. The gold, seeing Owen reaching towards her, attempted to slash at him with her talons, but the chains kept them far from his hand as he pulled off the transmitter.

"It was a security measure we had installed just in case," Owen said, showing her the transmitter. "It appears it came in handy after all."

This didn't help to calm her down, as in response she simply barked a warning in his direction, and resumed pulling against the chains, those fastening her right arm to the ground giving way first with a sudden snap, and a groan of metal as the links began twisting loose.

Owen only turned his head towards the gold when he heard the snapping chains. "I would advise you to restrain yourself from breaking the rest of those."

The gold only glared at him, and with one powerful yank from her arm, she snapped the chains from the floor, freeing her right arm. Instantly turning to work on her left arm, Owen sighed, and pulled out his all-too familiar tranquilizer gun. Having been shot twice with one already, she recognized the gun, and frantically worked to free herself before Owen loaded and cocked the gun. When he pointed it at her, she decided it best not to test how well she could dodge in a cramped cage, and settled down, standing upright and leaning back against the bars of the cage in a relaxed position.

"Very good," Owen said, putting the tranquilizer gun down. She only regarded him with an angry scowl, which only lasted until, with her acute sense of hearing, she heard what she could've sworn to be the faint war-cry of a gargoyle. Owen, previously relaxed, tensed up, indicating that he too, had heard the cry. "It appears your friends are better detectives than we gave them credit for," Owen said, glancing at the gold.

"Humans never change," the gold only replied, snarling as she did.

Ignoring the gold's snide remark about his species, Owen only regarded her with a bored look, and turned his back her, watching the hazy light of morning sunrise begin to appear on the horizon.

Several floors above the gardens where Owen was guarding the gold, Brooklyn, Bronx and Goliath, who had been heard below on their approach, were racing along the lower levels of the castle, trying to find a way into the gardens below.

"This is going to take forever!" Brooklyn pointed out bluntly. "There are too many doors to search them all!"

Realizing that Brooklyn was right, Goliath turned to Bronx, who was racing alongside the great purple gargoyle. "Bronx, find the hatchling!" he told the canine gargoyle.

Obediently, Bronx skidded to a halt, and sniffed the air intently, using his excellent sense of smell to track down the young gold's whereabouts. Pausing for a few moments, he suddenly took of barking and snarling, bounding in leaps further down the castle grounds, until he came to one specific door, and pounced on it, using his enormous bulk and muscle to break it in.

Following Bronx's lead, Goliath and Brooklyn found themselves in the interior hallway of the castle one minute, and then at the doors of an elevator, at which Bronx was barking furiously at.

"It must be right below us," Goliath said, testing the elevator door, which easily opened, given his immense strength. He glanced over his shoulder at Brooklyn and Bronx. "Stay with Bronx. I won't be long." And with that, he disappeared down the empty elevator shaft.

"I don't like this boy," Brooklyn muttered after Goliath had gone. Bronx moaned sadly in agreement. "It's too easy." Glancing around, Brooklyn noticed the wide-opened window on the far wall, leading directly outside, and then glared at it thoughtfully. "Hmmm."

Goliath made short work of the elevator shaft, as he simply pushed opened the doors on the floors below, and forced his way into the gardens area. As he had guessed, the gardens was several floors below where he'd left Brooklyn and Bronx, but what he expected was a lax security measure, as he expected Xanatos to believe that they were still trying to decipher the clues. He was instead, greeted by a pair of steel clan, their laser cannons armed and aimed at him. Eyes widening in surprise, Goliath barely had time to react before they fired.

"ARGH!" Goliath grunted, leaping out of the line of fire just as the laser bolts hit the back of the elevator shaft. Rolling off to the side, Goliath tumbled behind a tree, using it for cover as the steel clan adjusted their aim and went after Goliath.

The gold, situated on the lower levels of the gardens, in respect to the elevators Goliath had come out of, upon hearing the angry roar of another gargoyle, suddenly grinned at Owen.

"You were ill prepared," she grinned at the stoic man.

Owen merely repaid her with a slight grin. "On the contrary," he said, indicating the sunrise that was quickly approaching. "It seems we timed this just right."

Goliath, trapped under a relentless barrage of laser fire from the steel clan robots, was unable to get anywhere without risking death by gunshot, could only look from his position behind the tree and search for the gold from there, and it seemed that with the increasing amount of light coming from the skyline, dawn was not more than five to ten minutes away. All hope to save her in time seemed in vain, until from high above Goliath, the topmost glass window suddenly shattered, a shower of glass shards raining down on top of the red rocket that had charged and rammed the window.

"Brooklyn!" Goliath called out to the younger gargoyle.

Sensing the arrival of another enemy, one of the steel clan turned and looked up at Brooklyn, who seemed to be unconscious, and free-falling towards the ground below. Aiming its cannon and targeting the younger gargoyle, Brooklyn suddenly came to life, snapping open his wings, and releasing the huge blue dog he was carrying in his arms. Bronx, already in attack position from the moment Brooklyn let go, came plummeting down on top of the steel clan too fast for it to react, his steel trap jaws locking onto the robot's head as he came barreling down on him.

With one of the steel clan occupied with Bronx, Goliath took the opportunity to shout out to his airborne companion, "Find the hatchling! We'll handle the robots!"

Hearing Goliath, Brooklyn nodded and steered to the right, searching the ground for the gold.

When Brooklyn came crashing into the greenhouse, Owen's attention shifted from the gold to the broken window, attempting to figure out what had just happened, giving the gold the chance to try and escape again. As soon as Owen's back was turned to her, she began struggling again, and managed to break the chains that held her left arm to the floor.

Owen, hearing the shattering of chains behind him, quickly turned around and within seconds of seeing the gold half freed from her bonds, raised the tranquilizer gun again, and fired at her. The gold heard the gun cock and turned to look towards Owen just as he fired. Unable to fully dodge the dart, she reverted to instinctual reaction, and ducked, letting the dart pass over her, but tear through her right wing.

"ARRRAAAWWWW!" she roared, the pain of her torn wing searing through her nerves.

Hearing the high-pitched roar, Brooklyn wheeled around in mid-air, turning towards the almost invisible spot behind the waterfall. Seeing the cage, and Owen with the tranquilizer gun in front of the cage, Brooklyn did the simple math, and dove, aimed at the miniscule space between the front of the cage and Owen.

Approaching the cage to make sure he didn't miss this time, Owen was in the middle of reloading the dart gun when Brooklyn suddenly dove in, landing just in front of the man, startling him into stumbling backwards a few steps. Growling and snarling at Owen, Brooklyn lunged at him, only to miss Owen as he dodged to the right. Seeing the dart gun in his hand, Brooklyn snarled angrily, flaring his eyes.

"Not this time!" he hissed, lashing his tail like a bull-whip. The crack of Brooklyn's tail came down on Owen's wrist, knocking the gun out of his hands and off the side, far enough away for Brooklyn reach it before Owen could recover it. In the middle of reaching for the weapon, Brooklyn's foot came down in front of Owen's hand, crushing the gun underneath a heavy set of red talons. Staring up at the gargoyle, Owen's glare narrowed darkly, though it didn't match much with Brooklyn's glowing gaze, until the sound of snapping chains called his attention from Owen to the cage.

Behind the two, the gold was breaking the chains that kept her bound to the floor, though she seemed to be having trouble. Slumping slightly, she managed to snap off the collar chains just as Brooklyn came to the front of the cage, and broke off the lock with one swipe from his talons.

"Come on, kit," Brooklyn said, grabbing her by the arm.

"I'd hurry if I were you," Owen said absurdly calm, picking himself off the ground and dusting himself off. "By my estimate, sunrise is only minutes away."

Glancing out at the horizon, Brooklyn was suddenly hurried along, climbing up the steel frame on the walls, followed closely by the gold, aimed towards the broken window.

"Goliath!" Brooklyn called out, seeing that Goliath and Bronx were making quick work of the steel clan robot that was left. Looking up, Goliath saw the gold female behind Brooklyn, and nodded, taking off towards the elevator shaft with Bronx in tow, the two of them disappearing up the dark elevator just as Brooklyn reached the edge of where the broken window began. Looking behind him, Brooklyn tried hurrying up the gold, nervously glancing behind him at the approaching sunrise. "Come on kit, we're running out of time!"

Offering a hand to help the gold up the last few feet, the gold took Brooklyn's outstretched hand, allowing him to lift her up to the beam with him. Without even looking behind him, Brooklyn leapt off of the beam and into the air, stooping down towards the nearest rooftop below. He didn't notice the gold hesitating until she'd already jumped, and faltered in the air.

"KIT!" he cried out, seeing her wobble and fall just as soon as she came to rely on wings over feet. Noticing the torn area of her wing, Brooklyn wheeled around racing down to catch her and racing against the sun, as it began to rise. The gold, with an eerie level of calmness, folded in her wings as soon as she began falling, pressing them against her back to level herself into a straight dive, which only increased her speed, to which Brooklyn could not match.

Breaking off his dive, Brooklyn only saw the gold flare the tips of her wings just enough to point her in a diagonal direction, before he was forced to land on the edge of a building's rooftop, because even as he tried to land, the last few feet of his landing were completed after he'd turned to stone. The gold disappeared behind a building just before.

The day passed like any other, the oddly placed stone gargoyles going unnoticed due to their positions on the higher rooftops. Come nightfall, however, uncertainty dominated the atmosphere. Brooklyn, after waking up, raced to the edge of the building and was scanning the area for the gold when Goliath and Bronx arrived, having been caught on another rooftop at sunrise that morning. Minutes later, Hudson, Broadway and Lex arrived from Central Park.

"What happened? We were on our way here when the sun rose!" Broadway said.

"Did you find her?" Lex asked eagerly.

"We freed her from Xanatos," Goliath said solemnly. There was a moment of happiness from the other three, until they noticed the solemn expressions on Goliath's and Brooklyn's faces.

"Where is the lass then?" Hudson asked, already fearing the answer.

"Her wing was injured, and she jumped from the castle," Brooklyn said. "She fell."

There was a moment of shock, and then a moment of silence, the apparent loss of the young gold hitting hard on the minds of the clan. So hard, in fact, that they almost didn't notice the noise approaching them from the side of the building. Only after a few minutes did the clan hear the suspicious noises, sounding like a chisel were being driven into the brick, coming from the side of the building, and expecting an attack, they all took a battle-ready stance, facing the edge where the noises were emanating from. As it got closer and closer, it started sounding awfully familiar.

Suddenly, the noises paused, and a hand reached up onto the ledge of the rooftop, a set of four gold colored talons digging into the stone as the arm attached to that hand pulled up the young gold female from the side of the building. The clan was shocked witless for a minute, before erupting into a chorus of joyous celebration.

"Kit!" Brooklyn grinned, eyes open in amazement almost as wide as his grin.

"You're alright!" Goliath added, going up to her as though to make sure she was real.

"What happened?" Lex chimed in, grinning as much as any of the others.

The gold looked around at the clan, almost like she was confused as to why they were so happy. "What?" she wondered, tearing off the remainders of the chains from the previous night.

"How did you survive?" Brooklyn gapped. "I saw you fall when the sun rose!"

The gold thought about this for a minute, and then grinned. "You haven't seen a circus, have you?"

"Circus?" Broadway wondered.

"It doesn't matter how, what matters is that you are safe, and back with your clan," Goliath said. He grinned at the gold, and then offered her his hand. "Let's go home."

Grinning, the gold accepted Goliath's hand, and the clan took off back towards the tower.

Clock Tower
23rd Precinct

Elisa had waited for the clan to return since the previous night after her talk with Xanatos. When the sun rose, she was forced to leave, and comforted herself with stories about how they were just caught away from the tower after rescuing the gold. Matt, having been wondering about Elisa's whereabouts the previous night was told that it was an emergency, and she needed him to cover for her.

Unable to do much else, she spent the day at home, like normal, until she received a strange letter in her mail, which gave specific instructions not to open it until later that night. Wary of foul play, she kept watch for the clan's return inside the tower, passing the time by channel surfing, during which she made an amazing discovery.

When the shadowed forms of winged creatures appeared against the night sky, Elisa's grin broadened as she came up to greet Goliath and the others as they landed.

"Goliath!" Elisa called out, running up to greet him. "You've got to see this!" Goliath turned towards Elisa's voice, already grinning. As he turned towards her, his wings receded inwards, allowing Elisa to see the gold female coming in to land behind him, her damaged wing repaired by the day's sleep. The rest followed suit, and turned to Elisa once they'd landed, eager to hear her news. "You found her," Elisa stated obviously, staring at the gold.

"Have you heard any news about Xanatos yet?" Goliath asked, ignoring Elisa's comment about the gold.

"You'll have to see it to believe it."

Leading the clan inside, Elisa went directly over to the television set, and pressed the play button on the V.C.R, allowing it to play back what she'd originally taped earlier. The clan simply followed, and centered around the T.V, with the exception of the gold, who felt content to just stay in the entrance to the tower, rather than go inside.

"It was announced early this afternoon that the investigation into the robbery of the Blue-Eyes stone gargoyle, recently purchased by Xanatos Enterprises from the British History Museum in London, has been suspended indefinitely," the taped reporter said. "At a press conference earlier today, spokesman for Xanatos Enterprises, Owen Burnette, had this to say."

The dialogue turned over to a picture of Owen, situated behind a podium, and obviously, during the early afternoon of that day. "We at Xanatos Enterprises regret the loss of this historical artifact, but we also realize that any further taxing on the authorities' resources would be a waste of everyone's time and money. We simply decided it best to let it go and cut our losses."

After that, Elisa shut off the tape, and turned to the clan, who were all staring at the blank screen in disbelief.

"I don't believe it," Lex gapped. "I heard it, but I don't believe it."

"Xanatos kept his promise?" Broadway said in astonishment.

Goliath glared at the T.V. "It was too easy."

"I can't believe it," Brooklyn said in shock, still staring at the screen.

"Believe it guys," Elisa grinned, pulling out a set of papers that had been inside the envelope she'd gotten in the mail. The papers were purchase papers from the Museum, claiming ownership of the gold female. Grinning, she tore them up. "Looks like you're going to have to make some room up here for one more after all."

Goliath, still skeptical, only growled slightly. "It's not like Xanatos to give up this easily. There must be some hidden agenda."

Knowing Goliath's stubbornness, and protective nature, Elisa only smiled gently and shook her head. "I don't think so, Goliath," she said gently. "Not this time. It's public, and it's legal. Your friend is a free gargoyle."

For the first time, the gold grinned at Elisa. "That is the first thing you've said that I can appreciate," she grinned at the policewoman.

"This is great! We can show you everything!" Lex grinned, racing up the stairs and escorting the gold back out to the balcony. His two rookery brothers followed closely behind him, while Goliath, Hudson, Elisa, and Bronx simply followed them outside, taking their time. "This city's a fascinating place! You'll love it! There's the subways, the bridges, the park, the buildings…"

"Yeah, but their food's the best!" Broadway intervened, swiping her attention from Lex to himself. "I know the best place to get some breakfast."

"You're always thinking of food!" Lex piped up, mildly insulted.

"Uh…that's great…really," the gold agreed, almost nervously, a bit overwhelmed by all the choices they were throwing at her.

Brooklyn, behind his two brothers sighed slightly, smirking at the gold's bewildered reaction and her 'please-help-me' look as Lex and Broadway tried to persuade her towards their ideas. Disappearing back inside the tower, he reemerged minutes later with a map, and rescued the gold from his excited brothers.

"Here guys," Brooklyn said, laying out the map on the banister. He looked at the gold, who was fascinated by the map in front of her. "This is the city, so we'll plan a route that'll take us by some place that you, Lex, want to show her, and also a place where we can eat. If that's what you want," he added, looking at the gold, who was perplexed by the size of the map's contents.

Reading the map, which included the main points of Manhattan, as well as smaller maps of New Jersey and upstate New York off to the side, the gold finally looked up at the others, who were situated around her, watching her expectantly. When she did, she was grinning.

"I want to choose a name. My own name," she said.

Surprised at her answer, Lex and Broadway only stared at her oddly, while Brooklyn and the others behind her grinned.

"Well, go ahead, lass," Hudson encouraged.

Looking down at the map again, she glanced at the corner map of New Jersey and smiled.

"Jersey. My name is Jersey."

"Heh, heh," Elisa chuckled. "Why am I not surprised?"

The gold raised an eye ridge at Elisa, but was interrupted by Goliath, who nodded approvingly. "It's a fine name," he grinned, as Bronx happily barked at her, and play-pounced on her, licking her face affectionately. "Welcome to our home, Jersey. Welcome to our clan."

"Hey, come on! Time's a wasting!" Lex called from over on the banister, where he was perched. "We'll need the entire night just to see half the city!"

Leaping off without waiting for a response from the others, Broadway and Brooklyn followed Lex's lead, Brooklyn pausing only until the gold came up to the edge of the banister and leapt up on the railing. Just before taking off, she looked back at the others, who just smiled as she grinned and took off after the Trio.

"I think she's going to fit in just fine," Elisa smirked, watching the gold, now named Jersey, catch up to the Trio. In silent agreement, Goliath nodded, and simply smiled as Jersey disappeared with the Trio into the night.

Eerie Building
Castle Wyvern

Entering the main hall, Owen found, as he'd expected, his employer, Xanatos at his desk, watching the late news, which contained the news report saying they were giving up on the "stolen" gargoyle. Upon hearing Owen open the doors, Xanatos clicked off the television set and turned to his associate.

"It's done?"

Owen nodded. "As you requested, Detective Maza received the purchase papers this morning."

"Excellent," Xanatos complimented.

"I still don't think it was wise to just hand over the Blue-Eyes to the gargoyles," Owen insisted. "It would have been easy enough to secure her and lead the others to believe she had been shattered during the escape."

Xanatos nodded, turning to Owen. "True," he admitted, but then added, "But I made a deal, and under the circumstances, I think they deserved to win."

"Sir?" Owen asked, not understanding what Xanatos meant when he said, 'circumstances'.

Xanatos only grinned. "This little altercation showed how far Goliath was willing to go for another gargoyle. He risked his entire clan out in the open to rescue the Blue-Eyes," he said, looking at the photograph of Jersey's stone form that had been seen at the auction where she was found. "Overall, I'd say I got the better end of the deal."

---

Gargoyles © Buena Vista
Original Characters © me